Ride to the Rally: Wisconsin Hwy. 35 and the Mighty Mississippi Scenic Towns, River Views and Amish Country By David Henderson #44679

March 7, 2007 Page 1 of 4    1234

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Leaving the busyness of the Twin Cities and heading east toward Wisconsin, three alternative travel routes to West Bend and the rally site, present themselves; the direct, fast Interstate 94; Minnesota Highway 61 south to La Crosse, and Wisconsin Highway 35. While I-94 winds through some coulees and rock outcrops in the driftless area of western Wisconsin and the swell and swale of the glaciated middle and eastern Badger State, I-94 is, when all is said and done, an interstate. Fast, yes! ScenicÉin parts, yes!

For a more scenic route to eastern Wisconsin and West Bend, try Minnesota Highway. 61 from I-94 east of St. Paul and south down the western shore of the Mississippi. This route is filled with visual surprises, good food in the towns and cities enroute. There are stunning views of the bluffs and small towns that make up the eastern and Wisconsin bank of the great river. A personal bias is clearly present in my choice of roads. While the Minnesota shore offers beauty while allowing a respectable travel pace, the Wisconsin shore is something else: A narrow, 134 miles of time warp, with people and places seemingly in another time, somehow connected by a thin band of asphalt and water, with roots in the distant past.

Wisconsin Highway 35 seems to follow what was once an ancient trail, worn in the wilderness tens of centuries ago, long before Europeans chanced upon the Great Lakes or the Mississippi. What begins with a right turn onto Highwayy F, in Hudson, Wisconsin, less than a mile after crossing the St. Croix River, slowly begins to show its long past as Highway F connects to Highway 35 just north of Prescott, Wisconsin, where the St. Croix and the Mississippi become one, on their slow roll to the sea. In Prescott, it's worth taking time to park near the old railroad lift bridge and watch a small bit of history as a modern train clanks and rattles its way over a bridge that speaks of time long past.

After leaving Prescott, named for Philander Prescott, an 18th century real estate developer, and heading south, the hills become steeper and the turns more purposeful as the road again nears the river. Road signs reveal a personal obsession with numbers or grandiosity or both as you pass 999th Street on your way to 1012th Street. Now that's a rut! No, that really is a road that wants to be a street here in the middle of the woods.