Find the top rated hiking trails in Fitchburg, whether you're looking for an easy short hiking trail or a long hiking trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a hiking trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
The boardwalk along the lake extends for about a mile. After that is park space that has side trails for hikers, picnic spots,horseshoe pits and more.
For bikers this connects with bike paths that lead into Madison for extra mileage as the trail is fairly short for a bike ride.
Nice trail along the river with grades and curves to keep it interesting. Popular with dog walkers. Only downside is the ever present noise from the expressway.
This trail has so much potential. That's what really makes it disappointing. The eastern portion spent much of this summer being used by the electric utility, so it was technically closed. I rode it a few times in the evenings, but it definitely required a mountain bike. West of Welden Road it returned to the regular trail. Overall it's okay with a few soft spots. You definitely don't want to ride it if there's been rain recently. There are quite a few places that don't drain very well. I prefer my mountain bike over my commuter, even though my commuter has 38c tires. I enjoy riding it for a change of pace, but I'm sure I couldn't get my wife to ride it with me.
Beautiful summer day for a ride. Started in Freeport at the trailhead using city streets to get to heart of trail north of town. Easy ride and not to far. Good parking facilities in town. Freeport's a great town. Path is fairly well maintained with a few bumps along the way. Nothing to slow me down. Quiet countryside for the most part, farms fields and the occasional county road/highway crossing. Foliage was in full bloom with all the rainy/hot weather recently. Highly recommend.
In September 2018 a friend and I biked the trail from Orangeville to Freeport and back. Signage on the trail is good. It appears to be lightly used, as we stopped frequently to clear away fallen trees and tree limbs blocking the trail. A pair of sandhill cranes was in a field just south of Orangeville. Walnuts on the trail were a challenge as hard to see in the leaves. The trail is wide enough to ride two abreast. Black flies at Tutty's Landing were a problem, so we hurried into Freeport for great coffee at 9 East. Recommend the BP convenience store in Orangeville for lunch or a snack. Bathrooms at the Orangeville parking area and Tutty's Landing.
This trail was closed in September by the Wisconsin DNR, due to mudslides and other trail conditions caused by heavy rains
We rode this trail in August, after discovering the trail around the city was closed. Turned out to be one of the highlights in our week long vacation of riding in the area. Walk, run, bike, etc. do not miss this very scenic experience. You won't be disappointed, I promise. Pa. Tandem Team (72 & 69 yrs. old)
This could be a sweet trail if someone actually cut the weeds. The only thing in good repair on several trails in this area of WI. are the drop- box's for your $5.00 dollar a day, per person, fee. We spent over a thousand dollars in the area on motels, food , gas, fee's etc. The experience, while still fun, could have been so much more. Pa. Tandem Team, (72 and 69 yrs. of age)
Being a Chicago &Northwestern railfan I enjoyed walking from county V to the town of Lavalle and seeing the bridges and scenery and the next day walking from County V two miles south on the trail had a beautiful time.
About 1/2 of this trail is being repaved and some of it was puddled from the recent storms (see picture I loaded on this site for details). Wish there was someplace we would have known to look ahead of time we now know Dane county parks is the place to go for questions/updates. We bypassed “trail closed” signs where paving was was complete or not being worked on (ok’d by trail ranger) . Once paving is done it will be an even nicer trail to ride. Lake, forested, prairie, pretty easy ride with some minor uphill sections, lots of surrounding trails. Used google maps to get back home quicker.
The pros:
Tons of wild flowers and butterflies all along the way
The cons:
We have ridden dozens of rail-trails on our recumbent tandem. This one has a fair (at best) limestone surface. The center of the trail is overgrown, so you are restricted to about a one foot wide lane in either direction. There are some nasty holes at random locations. Soft spots in the surface here and there that are very difficult on hybrid size tires. Vegetation hanging out across the trail in spots. All this makes it difficult to enjoy the ride, because you need to concentrate on the trail so much.
I would not recommend this one for any less than mountain bike size tires.
Both Winnebago and Pecatonica are the typical lovely small Illinois farm towns with shops and restaurants in both. We chose to start in Winnebago (just off route 20) and use one of the many fast-food parking lots. There is a trail from there to downtown, where you pick up the main trail.
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