Bicycle Friendly Cities in Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Madison: appointed, real estate, school)

[sandkmom]

My husband and I currently live in a resort area in southeastern Wisconsin. It's not really conductive to our lifestyle. We would like an area where we can ride our bikes, canoe and kayak. I'm just curious if anyone knows of some nice smaller towns that are 'bicycle friendly'. Madison and Milwaukee are a bit too big for our tastes though. I know Stevens Point has many bike trails but does anyone know of any other that I can start to do some research on? I appreciate any help you can give me. Any area of Wisconsin will do. We'd like to remain in this state as we love it here.

[dreamhunter65]

PM'ed a link so look at bigger trails and may get a idea from looking at those maps to help decide.

[GreggB]

Actually, the Fox Cities has quite an extensive and nice trail system. The city of Appleton proper is an exception--not a bike friendly town. Excellent biking in the La Crosse/Onalaska area as well. (Sparta-Elroy trail comes to mind). Chippewa Falls area also woth considering!!

[Fuse_5a]

i live in wausau and its pretty good
wausau metro is consist of wausau, schofield, rothschild, rib mountain, town of texas !, and other town ....

but i suggest to move to the fox vally ... like appleton or even oshkosh .. they are the coolest and they are ot that big (appleton is about 60000)

[ekjohns]

La Crosse is a great bike friendly community. I am a bike commuter and there are many of us in the community. Not alot of bike lanes but very easy commuting. There are great trails in the marsh that adjoin the La Crosse River trail that eventually joins the Sparta-Elroy and beyond. There's even great mountain biking in a portion of Hixon forest. Also, the La Crosse river is a great place to canoe and kayak.

[sillygal]

sheboygan, it is flat, spread out and the traffic is not too bad u can bike in the streets. Also the boardwalk along the lake is quite extensive, and it keeps getting better.......Go into Rails-To-Trails website, WI is one of the best areas I have ever biked in. Plus u have farming communities and endless roads to discover....The real estate is still reasonable!

[nyminute]

Manitowoc has a great trail along the Lake too.

[Hntr]

Waupaca has quite a few nice bike trails and then there is the Chain of Lakes for canoeing or kayaking. Eighteen beautiful lakes that will keep in awe at every turn. Waupaca is a beautiful area, not too far from Point or Appleton.

This are a few pictures I took on the Chain.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Chain-...Wisconsin.html

or direct links to a couple of the pictures.

http://www.city-data.com/picfilesv/picv5415.php

http://www.city-data.com/picfilesv/picv5414.php

[sandkmom]

Wow, lots of great information here to consider. Thank you to everyone who posted. I appreciate the input. I'll be busy doing research on all these cities now!

[uwgbphoenix]

I noticed mentions of the fox valley, but many left out Green Bay. I'm a cyclist and go to school at UWGB, and live in Oshkosh in the Summer. Green Bay is a far more bike friendly city (at least the east side of the city) Green Bay also has the Niagra Trails around UWGB for mountain biking, the Fox River trail (goes all the way down to De Pere, and theres also a bike trail all the way to waupaca). As far as city riding goes, the east side has many bike lanes and you can pretty much get everywhere you need to by bike. The west side, i must admit i haven't really explored, but just based on how that side of the city is laid out it would be a little harder to get around by the stadium area (onieda street, lombardi, etc) however, other areas of the west side are more condusive to bike travel, such as dousman street, mason street, basically the whole area north of Lombardi.

If you're choosing between a fox valley city, oshkosh is horrible. The drivers in Oshkosh don't watch for bikes, and don't care about them, including the cops. Also the only reputable bike shop around the city (Oshkosh Cyclery) recently moved from a convienent downtown location to an area by highway 41. Meanwhile GB has bike shops all over the place, including one on the Fox River Trail (actually De Pere) and two near the trails by UWGB / east side (the Nicolet Trail and the Niagra escarpment trail).

In conclusion, forgo Oshkosh, you'll just be disappointed. Look into Green Bay first, and then maybe appleton (never tried to ride there)

Go Phoenix!