Bicycle Camping Paradise on America’s First Rail-to-Trail! Amish Country Road Cycling! Scary tunnel!

Tunnel Trail Campground has been hosting bicycle riders for over 50 years on America’s First rail-to-trail bike path. It happens to be owned by my sister-in-law and her husband Scott. Their rental fleet needed some service, so I packed up the BikeMobile and asked the family to join me for some weekend fun in the heart of Wisconsin’s Driftless Region, one of the most beautiful cycling destinations nobody knows about! Until now!

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what’s up YouTube today we’re going what’s up YouTube today we’re going on a gnarly bike ride to a super dangerous tunnel hey bike Farmers it’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I am here just off the Elroy Sparta Trail in driftless Wisconsin at tunnel Trail Campground and I’m going to show you around [Music] [Applause] [Music] coming in off the highway usually a drive in but you can see right up here at the top of the hill we have the Elroy Sparta bike trail so this heads West to Sparta and this way is east to Elroy and I think we’re about 10 it’s about 30 Mi total and we’re about 10 mies in and this is tunnel Trail Campground and this is my family hello hello oh you’re recording I am actually recording this is the bike farmer I am the bike farmer I have not seen your videos but my buddy is a big fan he’s following you for a while so he’s just so excited to meet you oh yeah I’m here and um he’ll be right he’ll He he’ll be here I’m leaving now but he’s here tonight and tomorrow morning he’ll be taking the ride with you and having breakfast with you guys tomorrow morning for the big group breakfast you know awesome big group breakfast I didn’t even know about that oh my goodness it’s a big event there’s probably 20 people here for breakfast oh really is that every Sunday morning or yeah um well Julie has been not great about doing the Sunday morning ride but when we’re here we make it an absolute necessity yeah yeah okay so we go out we do our 20 M ride and we come back and Scott’s got breakfast going for us awesome hopefully is it always a road ride yeah yeah it’s the same one it’s just a 20 mile Loop up into the hills you know uh West started this when I started coming in the early 80s Wayne started coming in the late 70s West was taking a Sunday morning Amish ride he left at 6:00 in the morning really so I don’t believe that he got a group and we used to got a pretty good group at 6:00 in the morning well Julie runs it we leave at 8 and we just real Loop up in the hills but it’s the same Loop that West started 40 plus years ago that’ll be fun I’ll I’ll definitely join tomorrow okay so here we got the sign so end of trail to elroy’s 102 miles and a trail the other way is 21 and 1/2 um there’s tunnels that so that’s why it’s called tunnel Trail Campground and um it’s real nice and short to get over to Tunnel number one and I don’t even think I’ve been through number two or three um and then there’s a couple of small towns that are nice little four or five mile rides you can go in and check out these little towns along the way you know the cool thing about the Elroy Sparta Trail is it is the very first rail to Trail ever made in the United States and it’s right here so it’s about 32 mies and a lot of people come stay here and on the first day you know they might go 21 and A2 one way and 21 and 1/2 the other and do their 43 mile ride on their first day and then spend the night and then do the shorter one on the second day and then they can say that they’ve ridden the whole thing not aware of any shuttle services but I’m sure that if you come with a group you’d be able to arrange such a thing so I’ve brought the bike mobile with me because in the shed over here is a bike shop and it’s full of bikes and they have a full rental Fleet and it is in need of Maintenance so um I have come up here and I’m going to spend a couple days here and Eli is coming from Gibbs to help out and we’re going to clean up their whole Fleet so uh you don’t even have to bring a bike if you want to come up here you can just rent them they have a couple of ebikes um and it’s a nice easy bike trail so really anybody can ride it see this is our high tech oh look at [Laughter] that some hills just some right so here’s the camp [Music] store always busy it’s my daughter Ruby say hi YouTube hi YouTube so this is Julie hi the owner of tunnel TR Campground it owns me she’s also my sister-in-law yes your parents built this place right yep it was just a a field a farmers pasture when did they build it 1972 land in December of 71 and then 72 was the first year and then when was the Elroy part a trail 65 was the first year that it was a trail basically but they it was I think 66 was the opening year but people were riding it in 1965 and so they just saw an opportunity with the bike trail and uh get a campground going here my mom’s aunt and uncle used to ride the trail and they took them camping when we were just teeny tiny and they stayed in the city park in Wilton and decided that that wasn’t an appropriate place for families to Camp so my dad started searching for land and so he found this and his original plan was to put all of the campsites up on the hill in the woods and somebody talked to M doing the valley instead which was a much better decision so that’s what he decided to do so this was his baby he gave birth to this place nice and it was mostly tent camping or did they start with cabins tents and pop-ups no cabins until Scot and I bought the campground from them so okay and when did you buy the campground so our first season was 1996 and you come up here every summer then and live up here yep spring and fall Scott starts in April and leaves in November and I start I come up weekends and then when school’s out then I move up here for the summer so and booked solid All Summer Long yeah well it’s booked not solid yet it’s a kind of tough summer a lot of rain yeah it’s been very rainy what 8 in in the last week week yeah so it’s we’ve had a lot of rain um but today is very nice so I’m going to take you around and show you a little bit more of the outside it’s perfect en so you guys can’t go over here but there’s my family and I can go over there I’m going to jump on the track bike and cruise around [Music] all right so there’s the pool Cruis you over [Music] there it’s heated but also very refreshing and we can go one way up the hill and I didn’t Shi left here I got these are cool sites up here tent sits nice and tucked away looks like electrical so you can pull the trailer [Music] in it’s one of the new cabins going in other El electrical sights oh and here’s enf [Music] okay and then up on the upper level here here’s another one of the seasonals this is the shower house so back here you have a couple of the cabins very nice Cabins this is where my uh mother and father-in-law stand and a shower house up here in a little ouse but the cabins are all heated and have air conditioners and the whole works and see you can load up bring whole family yeah these people are ready to party tonight look at that they are [Music] set there’s the shower housee some volleyball and some mini golf mini golf is going to cost you though it’s a buck a game hi hey what’s your name Simon yeah what are we going to do today Simon we’re going to bike through this giant tunnel oh yeah how many times have you done that zero this is your first time through the tunnel are you scared yes you are do you think you’re going to make it uh yeah all right let’s go let’s do this okay okay that’s Cleo that’s Ezra Simon’s the little guy we’re going to show them the way it’s probably going to take us about 4 hours to get down to that Tunnel 5 hours 5 [Music] hours here he comes [Applause] [Music] I’m guessing that the 8 Ines of rain in two weeks or in one week and the rough trail have something to do with each other but this doesn’t look like crazy amounts of water yeah it’s right up [Music] here you can feel it feel out it’s getting colder yeah it’s it’s like we’re going into the mountain yeah there’s a sign we can read it you’ll see it they just carved it right through the mountain rough road it’s okay if you want to get off and walk through [Music] here Daddy pass this the T man all the maintenance that goes into these trails it’s just constant see the tunnel [Music] wow look at that we got ourselves a waterfall [Music] [Music] that’s czy who are you guys talking to Echo oh yourselves yeah no Echo figures Echo is [Music] that head lamp head lamp thank you head lamp wow so hey this one has your name on it it’s set on mine if you want W this is cool all right Simon you ready oh my god let’s go look at that not even a not even cracking a sweat this is very interesting side it was lighter when me and mom went here earlier you’ve never been in here was really little here now was [Music] [Music] adult beep started B yeah what is it it’s like TK it’s like tky it feels like corn starch and water yeah that’s kind of feels oh it’s like water it like feels likew water yeah weird and that’s just the slimestone sandone just wet this what it is line right this is like Journey to the Center of the Earth right like said come out it’s going to be the same exact be very creepy you know what would be really creepy is if you get to the other side and you’re looking at the back of your own head that would be even [Music] worse yeah okay here we are back on the other side yeah is sp I see him Cleo’s been to mountain bike camp she was telling me Oh yeah C was great she learned to use her gears oh yeah which before that prob Bud of Gears most adults don’t know how to use the gears on their bikes right like they it’s amazing how much better he’s doing after making it through that tunnel in back look at the confidence he’s got now so it just dawned on me that uh is it on it’s a lot easier to ride back because it’s downhill but nonetheless he was doing much better look God I still got the headlamp on by what do you think of the ride through the tunnel or the walk through the tunnel good yeah what’ you think of your bike ride good but the tunnel was scary and your stories my stories were scary cernic F course your stories are scary so you guys still think that might have been water dripping from the ceiling maybe there’s a chance I saw salamander on the not the remains of cernus Finch I think it’s water I think it’s water too yeah hey good morning I’m a little early for the Sunday morning Amish ride so gig’s coming on a bike ride with us today oh yeah who’s my best friend G’s my best friend yeah I don’t have any treats does she like get excited to go on bike rides we this was probably her fifth time she this morning she ran over by the bike and then she laid down on her back and we to like rubber tummy but I think yeah maybe she’s probably getting excited about it it was funny driving on the trail yesterday when she sees squirrels or rabbits or deer she really perked up and she didn’t try to get out or anything like that but definitely uh caught her attention bit line showing you’re kind of done yep ready to go all right is this it this is not the first time a dog’s been on the ride really I don’t think so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is where they’re going to smoke me on their road bikes I mean I guess I could pick a higher gear and stomp on it but why would I do that I don’t know if it’s even possible to show how steep this is oh there we go it’s saying 12 % feels like more 13 that’s more like it [Music] grit and [Music] determination it’s always nice up here on the ridges in the morning before the wind picks up but that’s the rides out here is climbing out of the valley for a while and then dipping back down and then climb out of the valley for a while and then diping back down it’s really nice [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] e assist wasn’t enough so you had to get a dog to Pedal your bike for you too huh that’ be great I had a little oh good girl [Music] [Music] [Laughter] so I have counted zero cars so far but I’ve counted two buggies and zero cars this is about as quiet as we’ve ever seen yeah this is uh so we’re 8 m in yeah yep 42 minutes of carfree bukic Road cycling absolutely best in the [Applause] world pretty very pretty [Music] morning guys [Music] morning oh wow this is spectacular look at the flowers [Music] came [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] someday I’ll come back and bomb down Limestone Avenue [Music] [Applause] a [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] I’m going to take the trail Grand [Music] no [Music] hello yeah so this wet stuff it’s nice to have the knobi tires the Slick rat trap pass tires are really slippery on this stuff and this is just fine so three cheers for the hump tulips on the packed mud good morning [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] what a ride what a ride good morning children you just woke up we’re we’ve been up for hours are you stay up all night partying is that what it was [Music] no woohoo woohoo that’s right we did it some hills HS nice thank you thank you guys for was great for the Caboose great was great it was I need to pick your brain [Music] on oh having breakfast after a ride this is a Sunday tradition around here mhm and this is Wayne who’s been coming since 1975 1975 and they opened the campground in 1972 okay so he’s OG and you’ve been here every year well I’ll let you I’ve been here I missed one year um due to some circumstances with some friends and it started out once a year always around the 4th of July and then expanded around uh 2010 to um two to three times a year and then through the 2015 to 2020 four times a year and now we’re back to two two to three times a year and I come here with one or more friends we get a small group in September and near the end of September and um some ride the trail some ride the roads but it was the original Campground owner West Westra who got a few of us out on the roads uh and after riding the trail for a good uh oh 7 years or so we decided that the roads were so fantastic that uh we took to the roads and and have been doing that ever since so it’s just been wonderful coming up here and bringing so many different people to uh camp out and experience the these Trails um well to experience the trail and then some that want to venture out and see how how fantastic the roads are out here and ride the roads and uh and really learn about the driftless area here in Wisconsin and which carries over to Southeast Minnesota and uh North uh Northeast Iowa too so really just enjoyed it and um we Tred to get more more more Riders out here in September with this group and ride the roads and we get anywhere from 8 to 10 uh guys and uh some stay in the cabin some tent camp um but uh we we want to get people to out to experience this area as much as we can it’s been really fantastic yeah what I’m picking up on this trip is there’s something for everyone in in regards to cycling you know it’s a campground and you can bring an RV you can bring a tent there’s cabins so there’s something for everyone like that and then cycling wise like right here you have the tunnel Trail the Elroy Sparta Trail tons of history with rail to Trail and super easy very interesting with the tunnels just a great casual slow biking opportunity there than what I think is the greatest Road cycling in the world I just think it can’t be beat um which I our ride this morning I think just is a really nice example of that like it’s hilly yeah and there’s some challenging ones but it’s not like a total ball buster ride right but you can go out and like you said there’s a couple of 19% grades out here you can go find some good road Adventure if you want it or you know you can find some not so hilly routes and just stay up in the ridges and you know there’s sort of ways to do that right and then there’s Wildcat Mountain H is just down the street um I mean a few miles has mountain bike trails it’s a great state park yeah it is um so there’s lots to do I think that’s really cool it’s a it’s a really great spot yeah right here in the heart of all of it yeah yeah all in all I mean this is just a beautiful part of Wisconsin and a beautiful area for people to ride on all levels you know you can be really serious Road Rider and and enjoy it or you can be a a casual Rider and ride the trails people come out with their Ames and bring their kids and ride the trails and and enjoy it that way so hang out in the pool play some mini golf and there’s uh not far away from here in Ontario there’s canoeing and kayaking right and the kapoo river yep the kapo kapoo valley Reserve is a special place on earth oh yeah that’s right here too yes cool I’m going to go get seconds okay okay well Wayne and the rest of the family has left and I’m here with Eli and we’re helping tune up the rental Fleet and clean up the Bike Barn a little bit and it’s a beautiful afternoon you can see the campground is pretty empty um I think Eli is going to be rolling up here behind me in a second and uh we’re going to go ride the entire lroy Sparta Trail so as I mentioned earlier the Elroy Sparta is the first rail to Trail ever built and uh we’re going to get shuttled to the start and then get picked up at the end so that’s an easy way way to do it I guess that’s the the benefit of having a family connection and uh here’s Eli ready to ride apparently so we’re going to go try to find our ride to the ride start and we’ll see you there okay so this is where Scott dropped us off um which as you can see here we got the 400 Trail which is this one and that goes up to Reedsburg and then behind us is the Elroy Sparta Trail and it’s actually the trail head is down ways but he thought maybe we’d start here just to show this is the town of Elroy and uh we’re just like a block away from Elroy Commons and I’ll show you that as we get there I think I just figured something else out here so we got bab’s Country Club to the left which sounds interesting over here I see in the weeds there’s a sign that says babes 13 miles this way and you can see there’s a bridge down there I don’t know I’m guessing it’s a snowmobile trail and who knows what happens at babes what do you think is babes a house of ill repute it’s going to be a hot place regardless all right we’re rolling up on Elroy Commons here it is a Monday afternoon and here’s the Elroy Commons Trail shop says it’s open some people are stopping so you can chill here and get your trail pass and what have you the old train depot have yourself a picnic I think we’ll stop at the Museum in kendle it’s a few miles up the road about halfway back to the campground Camp the campground is 10.5 mi from here so we’ll be there shortly not a whole lot of signage here getting back to this Trail spur but we figured it out you kind of got to jog over here this say Elroy Sparta State trail and it’s not really even officially the Elroy Sparta State trail yet this is just kind of a Spur they made to connect the town to the trail head which is right up here there a walk-in Campground apparently 2 miles from this trail head is what that sign said yeah up this hill so immediately to the left here across the way up that hill there’s a little driveway I think there’s a campsite so here is the official trail head tons of parking nobody out here on a Monday there was a group from the campground that left this morning and we saw them on the trail on the drive out might run into them but here you go here’s the sign get you a shot of the sign you can pause it zoom in [Music] okay there’s a water pump if you need [Music] [Applause] it and here we go so we’re 1 mile from where we we started I’m kind of keep a running log here looks like uh it’s going to be kind of Swampy and weedy and Sun at our back and uh just a gravel bike path until we come to come up to Kendall here’s a nice New Bridge [Music] I think this is the museum building the Kendall Depot trail pass is sold here oh it’s closed it’s closed well I guess it’s closed onward another 5 miles we’ll be a tunnel Trail well actually four miles we got a tunnel and then we’ll be back to the campground [Applause] [Music] so we’re at Mile 30 and2 and I just realized that when I switched the batteries a while back I I had it I accidentally put it on photo so I’ve been taking pictures and I missed Tunnel 3 which was amazing and probably the funnest part of the whole ride and I missed it but I swear to God Tunnel 3 was a real treat and I messed up sometimes you don’t get them sometimes you don’t get the footage you set up to get but it’s nice and flat here and we’re 3 mil out and our ride is picking us up in 9 minutes we’ll get shuttled back so I’ll see you up there in a couple of minutes [Applause] [Applause] well this looks like a parking lot and this looks like a trail head [Music] so I guess I got a call we’re here though okay it’s the next morning I think it’s supposed to be my last day here and I’m out here outside the bike shed we pulled a bunch of bikes out we’re going to haul a bunch back with us a bunch will end up going to charity I think I’ll take a sum back to Gibbs see what I can do there but these are the rental bikes that we tuning up so it’s really early in the morning I’m an early bird Eli’s been in here hitting them we got all these done there’s a bunch outside that are done and this is all we have left to do so we’re just cranking through them helping Scott out a little bit get things done I’m here with the bike mobile you can see here’s my bench full of tools and got my fan rolling and one in the stand so I’m going try to crank these out get this job done and head home for the afternoon got to load the trailer up with the bikes were taken away they’re retiring a bunch of the fleet so take a look at the campground today pretty quiet yeah that’s another part of the fleet there but this is what it looks like before everybody wakes up on a Tuesday morning you can see a few more people have come in and uh but that’s about it for me oh it’s pretty nice outside too let’s go take you across the street and show you the fog and the mountains just crossing the bike path here out to Highway 71 [Applause] so pretty much every morning in the driftless The Fog settles like this in the Hills Alis Leupold called this fog settling in the Hills the ghosts of the [Applause] glaciers which is kind of weird cuz the glaciers did not come through here that’s what makes it the drift actually I think Aldis Leopold said that about the swamp lands um that are pretty much due east of here a ways but it’s wonderfully poetic and I think of it every time I see the fog in these Hills so there that’s more accurate I still look both ways when I cross the bike path [Music] getting close to wrapping this one up it’s my last ice cream cone septic guys [Music] here they’re cleaning up after me and I’ll flip you around [Music] here bike mobile is all loaded up I’m going to swing by and drop a bunch of bikes off to the bike charity in Madison swing by free bikes and uh this was jam-packed full of bikes and now it’s a little bit thinned out and they’ve got a good Fleet of tuned rental [Music] bikes I’m going to call it mission accomplished so thank you so much for watching you know the drill like subscribe send some super thanks ice cream money it’s not it’s no longer free once I get out of here and uh consider a monthly sustaining membership if you can and until then just uh click that notification Bell so you and your bike can stay tuned [Music] [Applause] [Music]