GRAVEL ROUTES

Sawmill Bikeraft loop [19 Miles]

A nine mile bike ride north to the Phillipi Landing in Cable with a lazy nine mile paddle back to the Sawmill Saloon. You may see deer, bald eagle, and black bears on your paddle. The river is very shallow and you may have to get out of your packraft to walk some very short sections in drier months. The Namekagon has naturally reproducing brown and brook trout. While time spent riding the 9 miles north to Phillipi Landing will  vary by ability and fitness, the paddle down the river will take about 3 hours in a packraft. The current speed doesn’t change a lot, but a south wind will slow progress. People can always pull out of the river early though at Leonard School Road (manadatory low-bridge portage anyway), Thompson Bridge Landing, or Peterson Bridge and ride back to the Sawmill. View Route.

The Wolf Scat [15 miles]

This short route is an amuse-bouche for all that the Seeley area has to offer and might have more climbing that Ride With GPS accounts for because the ATV trails are not on the basemap. It combines rolling gravel roads that pass near an abandoned CCC Camp on Smith Lake. Stop and go off route a bit to explore! And the short blue sections are rough ATV trails with some rocky, fairly steep climbs. You can get some speed up on Timber Trail and some of the downhills, so watch out for sandy washouts at the bottom! Lake Helene is beautiful and worth a swim. The route is named after the fresh wolf scat left by a lone grey wolf that crossed the path of Cowboy and Seeley Dave when they were creating this route. View Route.

Get Pumped Gravel [18 miles]

This mostly gravel ride starts and finishes at the Cable Bike Park where you can ride some of the fun features and concrete pump track before and/or after your ride. It also finishes with a ride down Parker Road where you head back into town via the Cable Town Trail that goes over a former railroad trestle with a great view of the Namekagon River. The Portage Bar makes great fancy cocktails and has a limited, but delicious bar menu. View Route.

Dynamite Pie [26 Miles]

This ride follows the Hungry Bear gravel race Climbing Cub route and includes a stop at an old Civilian Conservation Corp Dynamite Shack. Park in the Cable Municipal Parking lot, but be sure to start and/or finish your ride at the Rivers Eatery for stone-fired pizza and Tilly's Pies for dessert. Redberry Bookstore and The Portage are also great. The gravel is pretty straightforward, with one section of unnamed two-track. The route goes by Lake Helene, which is beautiful and a great place to stop to swim, fish or just enjoy the view. View Route.

Pine Stump Jump Off [52 miles]

This 52 mile route goes by a number of nice waterfalls and other historic spots to stop for a photo. Some of the waterfalls are difficult to find. Turn on the Global Heatmap to see Seeley Dave's tracks to help you find them. View Route.

Hungry Bear 100 [97 miles]

This is the updated route for the first gravel race in the Cable area. It features a wide variety of terrain, from traditional gravel, to rougher forest road and includes some ATV tracks as connectors to avoid pavement. It also goes past some waterfalls and other fun landmarks. It can be done as a bikepacking route or just go out and crush a gravel century. This is still run as a race the second Saturday in May each year. New Moon Ski & Bike in Hayward puts on the event. View Route.

Tour de Chequamegon Bikepacking Loop [106 miles]

This is the OG bikepacking route for the Wisconsin Northwoods. It was the first midwest bikepacking route published on bikepacking.com and is still a supported weekend ride offered by Wheel & Sprocket. You can do this route on your own but learn a lot about the route by visiting their website here: tourdechequamegon.com. The route can also be started in Cable where you can park in the Cable Municipal Parking Lot, but starting from Homebase is a great option since you will be surrounded by other silent sports enthusiasts and right next to the Trek Trails powered by OTM at Telemark Village. View Route.

Valhalla Beach Party Bikepacking Loop [82 miles]

The Valhalla Beach Party is a shorter route that overlaps a bit with the 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.

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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 great 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! View Route.

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Wisconsin Waterfall Bikepacking Loop [382 miles]

This 382-mile loop takes you past nearly 30 waterfalls, including some larger and well-known falls, some smaller ones, and others that are only known to locals and are hard to find without a POI. The majority of the route is on gravel or sandy forest roads and the remaining miles are on mountain bike trails or Davement. Davement is a term my friends coined for a connector I found that helps avoid paved roads but might be too overgrown to actually pedal. These old logging roads and rough ATV/snowmobile trails might require you to hike-a-bike, but that’s part of the fun of bikepacking. Bring a paper map such as the Wisconsin Bike Fed’s state bike map or use the RWGPS app to help orient yourself and find alternate routes if you want to skip any of the sections that might be overgrown.

All the waterfalls are on the northern part of the loop, but the southern segments of the route are still great riding on a variety of gravel roads, two-track, and MTB trails with very nice campgrounds. In the dozens of times I have ridden segments of this loop, I have always found an empty campsite without advance reservations. If a campsite was full, I would just go find a dispersed spot in the nearby county or national forest. Those who like to plan can make reservations ahead of time. View Route.