Biking the Stower Seven Lakes Trail in Wisconsin

Today I decided to check out this 13-mile crushed linestone state trail between Dresser and Amery, Wisconsin.  It was recently featured in Midwest Weekends.  Click here for trail information from the Wisconsin DNR.

The Stower Seven Lakes Trail and North Twin Lake in Amery  

I parked  at Lotus Lake County Park outside of Dresser and biked 13 miles east to Emery. I found the trail to be well-maintained with a nice tree canopy most of the way. The trail features numerous wetlands, wild flowers galore, and the standard Wisconsin views of farms and pastures mixed in.   The seven lakes are clustered at the east and west ends of the trail and there are at least 2 you never see from the trail, so the density of lakes over a trail of this length is really not that exceptionally high.  There are rest stops with bathrooms and water scattered along the entire length.   

The highlight of the day was when in Emery and  I was parking my bike outisde the grocery store near the trail head when two young gals wearing matching 'staff' T-shirts who were entering the store said 'hi', asked if I was hungry and  invited me to the block party that was taking place near the trail head - they pointed it out to me and said, "We're roasting a pig, there is corn-on-the-cob, root beer floats, it's free, everyone is invited, and they just started serving the food".  I said, "Thanks!" as I quickly hopped back onto my bike and headed for the party!  What luck! It was sponsored by a local church. I had all the food the girls listed plus chips and lemondade and someone even gave me  a pen with the church logo on it.   How great to be invited to and stumble in to such a event.  And it came at a great time. I was really hungry! 

Kids dig frantically for a quarter tossed into a pile of saw dust at a
block party near the trailhead in Emery. Must be a Wiscosnin thing.

My opinion of this trail is that is ridng it is a very pleasant experience but not in the top tier of state trails. I consider the Cannon Valley (Cannon Falls - Red Wing, MN) and the Red Cedar (Menomnie, WI) to be the premier trails that are within an hour or so of the Twin Cities.  This is an up-and coming trail as and its potential is great as it links to the Cattail Trail (Emery) and nearly links up with the Gandy Dancer Trail (St. Croix Falls).

One major shortcoming of this trail is that there is no trailhead in Dresser proper.  One must go about 1 mile east of Dresser to  Lotus Lake County Park.  There are no signs to this park and there are no signs in Dresser that reference the trail or direct one to this park. When coming from Emery, when the trail ends, there are no signs directing bikers to Dresser.  The community is really missing out on some tourist business due to this PR failure -- hopefully plans are in place for a better connection.