I am setting up the Panorama Cycles Chic Chocs 3 for a fat-bikepacking trip I am planning to the Valhalla Recreation area in the Bayfield Peninsula. This will be the final test ride for the Canadian review bike before we ship it back to Sven for some beach riding. I named the 80-mile loop I will be riding The Valhalla Beach Party because of many of the forest roads and ATV trails on the route are soft sugar sand and because the route passes lots of lakes where you can stop to swim.
I try to ride all the routes that I have published at least once in the spring to make sure they are still good to go for other riders. That is part of being a route steward. Before I published the route on Bikepacking.com and The Nxrth.com, I rode it one last time with Eric Weniger from Embark Maple Energy and Josh Rizzo who started The Nxrth.com. Josh put together a fun little video of the route that you can watch below. Fat-Bike.com is considering organizing a summer Fat Camp in the same area. Stay tuned for more details.
The Valhalla Beach Party is a shorter route that overlaps a bit with my Wisconsin Waterfall Loop and includes a couple of waterfalls, but the highlights of this route are the great beaches and opportunities for swimming. While not exceptionally long, this hilly route includes some sections of soft sand that are best ridden with fatter tires and low pressure. The two beaches on the South Shore of Lake Superior combined with the many small lakes, sand, and gravel left behind by the receding glaciers, make the Bayfield Peninsula a great area to explore bikepacking.
If you go during the early summer, you will find plenty of raspberries, blueberries, and bilberries to pick along the route. Summer can be hot, even in the Northwoods, but it cools off next to Lake Superior. While the big lake can be cold, the beach in Cornucopia and Quarry Beach in Port Wing are shallow and stay warmer. It quickly gets warmer as you ride south from South Shore, and the small inland lakes along this route all have nice beaches where you can cool down, rinse off the trail dust, and get away from pesky black flies!
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