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Shuttleguy Tours offers you:
- Visits, tours and samples of great craft brewers
- Artist gallery and cheese factory visits
- Beautiful small towns and scenery
- Five great days of moderate to challenging riding
- Personal attention
Experience challenging bicycling, craft beer, artisan cheeses, and local wines. A great blend of structured tours, select group meals, personal free time, amazing scenery, quirky attractions and personal attention by dedicated staff who know the area well make this a great bicycle vacation. This is a camping tour with hotel options. Register now. This tour will fill up quickly.
Registration Day - (Sunday, Aug. 8)
This five day loop tour begins and ends in New Glarus, Wis., home to the New Glarus Brewing Company. Take a tour and enjoy a tasting at the New Glarus Brewing Company and then enjoy the atmosphere of New Glarus, America’s “Little Switzerland.” Experience the small town friendliness and enthusiasm, visit the fine museums, view the chalet-style architecture, and sample the savory Swiss food in our host town.
Day One (Monday, Aug. 9)
From Monroe, head south through rolling hills dotted with small towns, farms and woodland pastures. Visit a cheese factory in Monticello, enjoy the beauty of the Sugar River, marvel the art and craftsmanship at a woodworking studio in Albany, immerse yourself in history at the Depot Museum in Brodhead, or relax in the old world charm of the revitalized downtown of Monroe. While in Monroe, take a tour of Minhas Craft Brewery, one of the oldest breweries in the country.
Day Two (Tuesday, Aug. 10)
Leaving Monroe, you head north and west through some challenging terrain in an area with many organic and community support agriculture farms. Take a break from the hills in Blanchardville with a stop for some bakery or organic food or take a tour of an organic farm or wool producer. Then head to Hollandale, home of Nick Englebert’s Grandview, a collection of concrete sculptures, something one must truly see to believe. Then it is on to Mineral Point, our host for two nights. Enjoy Brewery Creek Brewpub, many artists, and great restaurants in this historic town.
Day Three (Wednesday, Aug. 11)
Today is a layover day. Ride a loop leisurely loop through Wisconsin’s beautiful countryside. See Wisconsin’s first capitol in Belmont, barn quilts, Amish buggies, historic buildings in Darlington like the depot and the Lafayette County Courthouse, Shullsburg’s charming downtown and some of the best riding you will ever see over low-traffic rural paved roads. Or take a day off of the bike in Mineral Point and explore historic Shake Rag Alley or the Pendarvis State Historic Site. Shop in one of the antique shops in the historic downtown area, explore one of the many art galleries and working studios in the area, or take in a round of golf. It is your day. Relax and enjoy. In the evening, take an optional trip to Potosi, home of Potosi Brewing Company and the National Brewery Museum where you will enjoy a wonderful tour and a great meal.
Day Four (Thursday, Aug. 12)
From Mineral Point head north to Dodgeville, where you can find the oldest functioning courthouse in the state, a great bakery and an 1827 cabin. Then head to Governor Dodge State Park where you will be wowed by the beauty of the bluffs, valleys, lakes and waterfall. From there, it is off through more rolling terrain of the driftless on the way to Spring Green where you can tour Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesen. Sample Spring Green’s Furthermore Beer as you enjoy a picnic and take in a show at American Players Theatre, an outdoor Shakespearean professional theater.
Day Five (Friday, Aug. 13)
You begin with a journey through some more of the driftless area of Wisconsin with rolling hills on the way to Barneveld and Botham Vineyards and Winery. On the way relax next to the Hyde Mill, a beautifully restored grinding mill tucked next to a stream. Challenge yourself to ride to the top of the hill in Blue Mound State Park or admire the view of the valley below from Brigham Park as you make your way to Mount Horeb, Troll Capital of the World. Take time to see the many shops, restaurants, and carved trolls along the “Trollway.” From Mount Horeb, head back to New Glarus with five days of wonderful memories behind you.
Optional routes are available each day for those wishing for additional mileage. The route is entirely on paved roads. Several sections run close to non-paved trails if riders wish to use trails. |
