Trails & Trees - Part 3 - Sparta-Elroy Rail Trail

2-3 August 2017

This post is dedicated to Elger G. Wells, Jr. (my father). My Dad always wanted to ride this route, but never had the opportunity to do so during his lifetime. I am sure he would have been delighted to have one of his children finally ride his dream.

The Sparta-Elroy Trail is one of the first “Rail Trails” in the US. It opened in 1967 on the railbed that had been owned by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. At the height of its existence the route had 6 passenger trains and up to 50 freight trains daily. Wow! The three tunnels are the centerpiece of this ride.

We rode from Elroy to Sparta on 2 August and camped at the Sparta Campground. (Way too many mosquitoes to tolerate -- thank goodness that they don’t carry malaria or dengue -- but encephalitis and West Nile fever are a possibility.) We returned to Elroy on 3 August -- dodging/tolerating rain the whole way.

A storm earlier in July had caused significant damage to the rail -- particularly around the tunnel entrances, but other than getting some wet feet, the trail was in great shape.

Coming from Elroy, this is the first tunnel. The structure in the foreground is there to tell the brakeman that there’s a tunnel coming up and he (always a “he”) should get off the roof of the train while going through the tunnel.

A flash photo in Tunnel #1 shows the wet sides and the roof blackened from decades of steam-driver trains.

The sides of Tunnel #1 (also found in Tunnel #3) are shiny-white from calcite deposits that occur from water dripping down the side -- like flowstone formations in caves.

The entrance to tunnel #2.

Tunnel #2 has a lot of brick niches in the walls for workers to take shelter when a train came through the tunnel.

The entrance to the longest tunnel,  tunnel #3 -- note that you cannot see the end of the tunnel. This made for a spooky walk through the tunnel. (Although it is possibly to ride through the tunnels -- the trail surface is fairly smooth and predictable -- the official position is that everyone should walk their bikes through the tunnels.)

As we got about 3/4 of the way through the tunnel, a glimmer of light shone ahead. It turns out that there was so much fog at this end of the tunnel that it blocked the light. When we came back through the next day, the end of the tunnel was visible when we entered.

The tunnel end taken at a shorter exposure.

The trail of last 100 feet of so this tunnel was covered with water, and there was a lot of trail damage just outside the tunnel. Walking through this ankle-deep water made for very wet feet!

Who knew that rain gear would be helpful in tunnels? Tunnel #3 was very wet. According to the signage, the tunnel construction crew encountered a spring. It still spills great quantities of water in the tunnel. The walls are very wet; the roof weeps with water; at times it sounds like a downpour.

In an effort to control erosion, this rock flume was constructed at the Elroy end of Tunnel #3 to divert water around the tunnel. (It looks a lot like an old Roman road!)

Lon’s bike is really loaded for our return trip. I just look really fat!