When it doubt, go where the water is. Even infrastructure can be aesthetically pleasing.
Today I flew to Stevens Point and spent the day biking around town. I’d landed there at least once before, several years ago, while collecting Fly Wisconsin stamps, but I had only stopped long enough to put a stamp in my book. I never ventured off airport grounds to look around.
There was nothing in particular that I wanted to see in Stevens Point. No landmark, no event, no historical site. Absent a specific target, when my only objective is to go to a place and see what’s there, my routine is to open Google Maps and look for interesting features near the local airport. Rocks, bodies of water, attractions, derelict structures, and so forth.
In this case, the first thing that caught my eye was a crescent shaped body of water a couple miles northeast of the airport. I decided I’d check that out.
Destination chosen, I made the uneventful hop from Sauk Prairie to Stevens Point. I unpacked my bike and headed northeast on WI-66, which appeared to be an easy ride on paved shoulders. “Appeared.” It wasn’t, of course, as utility work had funneled it down to two lanes of traffic with no shoulder on either side. I had to divert a bit north and then east, so the ride was not as direct as it would have been on any other day.
I felt a sense of déjà vu as I approached Jordan County Park from the southwest. It feels a lot like approaching Pattison State Park from the north. Nearing both of these places you see:
- A road that climbs a hill and bends off to the right.
- A left-turn lane that takes vehicle traffic into the park.
- A small reservoir with a swimming area on the left side of the road.
- A bridge with a small dam immediately upstream of it.
- A short stream leading to a waterfall on the right side of the road.
- A pedestrian tunnel under the road between the park and the waterfall.
The waterfall here, of course, pales in comparison to Big Manitou Falls. But the similarity in layout of the two parks is striking.
I pedaled past the park entrance and across the bridge to the water feature that brought me here. It is a short diversion channel that bows slightly to the right to feed water into a small power station. While the power station isn’t what I’d call “beautiful,” it has a generally pleasing look to it. It has stone facades and an exposed steel penstock and is relatively well kept. It appears to have undergone significant maintenance in the past twenty years or so.
I wandered around here for several minutes. It’s so… I dunno… functional. It is vintage infrastructure, dating back over 120 years, and it’s still out here whirring up a few kilowatt hours of electricity every day. It’s like a quaint, scaled down version of the facility at Grandfather Falls. I love this kind of stuff.
My next objective for the day was to find my way to the Wisconsin River waterfront. I headed back toward town on rural Brilowski Road, then onto US-10 for its bike friendly crossing over I-39. This leads past Iverson Park, where I stopped to look around for a while.
The Plover River passes through Iverson Park in the laziest possible way. It curves and splits and meanders and rejoins itself without a ripple. People were laying alongside it, swimming in it, and wading across it at random spots. Several foot bridges cross it. There is a canoe and kayak rental place that I’ll have to check out in the future.
From Iverson Park I continued toward the Wisconsin River, eventually ending up at Pfiffner Pioneer Park. This place was teeming with ducks. They were waddling around everywhere.
I continued up the east bank of the Wisconsin River to Bukolt Park. From there I zig-zagged my way back toward town and stopped for a late lunch at Zest Bakery and Coffeehouse on the UW-Stevens Point campus. The pork sandwich was good. The cherry Italian soda was refreshing. The scenery suffered a little due to ongoing construction in the area. That’s temporary.
My return to the airport was via the Green Circle Trail and North Point Drive. Apart from a short sidewalkless stretch along Stanley Street, the return trip was mostly painless. I had to stop for a moment to let a baby deer cross the trail. She still had her spots. I didn’t mind the delay.
It was a nice day in Stevens Point. I can’t say that I learned any great life lessons or discovered anything notable. I saw a rose that somebody left in a waterfall for some unknown reason. Maybe that’s the great takeaway. The world is a big place with lots of people in it. They can do things that affect you, make you think, leave you guessing, even if you never actually see or hear them.
Leave a (pleasant) trace once in a while, somebody might appreciate it.
Notes
- Airport WiFi: captive portal, 5Mbps up, 5Mbps down.
- Loaner bikes are no longer available at the airport.
Appendices
- Jordan Dam and Power Station
- Photos
- Track logs
- Videos