BSA Troop 72 on SWISBIRD

SWISBIRD = Self-contained Wisconsin Bike Ride
...342 miles while hauling camping gear!
June 7-15, 2023

As Scoutmaster, almost every year since 2001 I have taken the Scouts of Troop 72 on a 72-mile bike ride to Durand and back over two days. One year, 2017, we embarked on an epic trip, riding past Durand to Wabasha, down the Mississippi River to La Crosse, back east along the famous Sparta-Elroy Trail, and on to Wisconsin Dells, Madison, and to Milwaukee.

The newer Scouts always wanted to do that again, but it's tough to find a dad willing to drive the troop trailer to each new campsite and sit around all day. So they wanted to do a SELF-CONTAINED bike trip, where each person hauls all his camping gear on his bike.

I've done many trips like that myself, so I knew how difficult that is. But I relented and let them try a one-nighter in August of 2022, and they did very well. So I gulped and said that yes, we can try a self-contained multi-night trip.

Well, I have to tell you, this was one of my favorite trips of all time! We had ten of us -- two dads, two graduated Eagle Scouts, and six younger Scouts (aged 13-16), and the attitudes the entire time were fantastic.

We had many great adventures and made lots of memories, including camping on two islands in the Mississippi River, riding through "Butter Fest" parade in Sparta, going through long tunnels on the Sparta-Elroy Trail, meeting with our state senator and two state senators in the Capitol, and camping out in the backyard of a missionary family in Madison with six kids aged 9 and under.

We were shown amazing acts of kindness, such as the bike shop owner in Wabasha who gave us a brand new floor pump, and a lady staying in our campground near Sauk City who handed us two crisp $100 bills to go out for pizza and bowling after she heard the boys bragging that they had eaten at Kwik Trip three times the previous day and were headed there again for dinner.

The only mechanical issues were two flat tires and two broken spokes, and we bought one new wheel in Wabasha. Not bad, given the condition of some of the bikes. Special thanks to Spring Street Sports for helping us tune up our bikes before we left.

The Scouts were all so excited about future trips that I told them I'd do something like this, or even longer, every year if they could find a second dad. I hope to make a YouTube "documentary" of this trip, including footage from my drone and helmet-mounted GoPro, but in the meantime, you can see at the collection of photos and raw video clips that I posted each day en route for parents back home by clicking the links below.

Regards,
- Tom Arneberg (tom@arneberg.com)


We made cover of the Big City newspaper!

Schedule with links to photos and videos

Day Date Miles Cum Start Town End Town FB Link
Day 0 Tues, 6/6/2023 Chippewa Falls, WI Photos/Videos
Day 1 Wed, 6/7/2023 47.52 47.52 Chippewa Falls, WI Durand, WI Photos/Videos
Day 2 Thu, 6/8/2023 36.50 84.02 Durand, WI Wabasha, MN Photos/Videos
Day 3 Fri, 6/9/2023 47.72 126.75 Wabasha, MN Winona, MN Photos/Videos
Day 4 Sat, 6/10/2023 40.72 126.74 Winona, MN La Crosse, WI Photos/Videos
Day 5 Sun, 6/11/2023 54.25 221.71 La Crosse, WI Wilton, WI Photos/Videos
Day 6 Mon, 6/12/2023 61.09 282.80 Wilton, WI Devil's Lake SP, WI Photos/Videos
Day 7 Tue, 6/13/2023 21.26 304.06 Devil's Lake SP, WI Sauk City, WI Photos/Videos
Day 8 Wed, 6/14/2023 38.42 342.48 Sauk City, WI Madison, WI Photos/Videos
TOTAL 8 days 342.48

A few samples of the 481 photos/videos: