July 29, 2003

Bicycling in Brookfield

Beginning Mileage:   1032.0
Ending Mileage:      1040.2
Total Miles Traveled:   8.2

Tuesday provided a new adventure.  My friend Alice in Brookfield has been telling me for a few months now that we should go bike riding together, so today, we went for a nice ride out in Brookfield.

We started from the road she lives on (*) and turned north on Brookfield Road.  Brookfield Road has a nice down-hill going down to the railroad tracks, although I was on my brakes almost the entire hill.  We turned left on River Road, which parallels the tracks, but the only train we saw was a couple of M-O-W cars on a siding.  We turned north into Mitchell Park, which is a very nice park, and then we went to the shopping center on Brookfield Road and Capitol Drive by way of a couple side roads/driveways.

At the shopping center, we stopped to eat at Sarafina's Pastaria (1), which had excellent food, and was reasonably priced too!!  (Update:  Sarafina's is no longer open.)  From there, we went west on Capitol Drive (WIS-190) and then turned left onto Springdale Road.  We then turned east on North Avenue to head back towards her house.

North Avenue presents a tremendous challenge, because there is a HUGE hill (2) between Barker and Brookfield Roads!  Fortunately, there is a bike trail slightly off of North Avenue.  Alice didn't stand a chance riding up the hill, and she even had some problems just walking up the hill.  I was a little concerned, but then again, she doesn't do the kind of strenuous activities that I do on an almost daily basis.  But she'll be up to par with me in no time, I'm sure.  We actually saw a couple groups of bikers that WERE bicycling up the hill!  One group apparently got to the top of the hill and then had a fun ride back downhill. 

Once we got to the top of the hill, we started riding again, turned north on Brookfield Road, and back to her house.

So, what's next for me?  Probably a section of the Oak Leaf Trail, maybe one of the new parts in Oak Creek -- we'll see tomorrow!

-Mark