The "400" State Trail

In June of 1993, The "400" State Trail was officially opened using the abandoned Chicago-Northwestern Railroad bed. The trail's name derives from the Chicago - Northwestern passenger train that traveled the 400 miles between Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul in 400 minutes. As a pre-teen growing up on Chicago's north side, my pals and I often walked the one block to Ravenswood Avenue which abutted the raised railbed of the C&NW to see the streamliner whiz by, often attaining a speed of 100 mph. Since there were no grade crossings, the engineers never had to blow their train whistle, but when they saw us kids watching the train's approach, they sounded the whistle for us. Little did I know then that one day I'd be biking the route the train used to cover, albeit at a much slower pace!

The trail runs from Elroy to Reedsburg and passes through the communities of Union Center, Wonewoc, and La Valle, all of which have parking available right along the trail. Each town also offers restaurants, grocery stores, restrooms, water, motels, and bed-and-breakfasts. We met a family from West Virginia that was biking from Winona, Minnesota, to Madison, Wisconsin, via connecting bike trails except for only 44 miles on roads

The trail is often shrouded by trees lining the trail, and other than the first few miles out of Elroy, the trail is out of sight and sound of the highway. Though snowmobiles are allowed in the winter, ATVs are not allowed, and horses are prohibited except for a 7 mile stretch that parallels the trail between the towns of Wonewoc and La Valle where they have a grassy strip abutting the bike trail.




The Baraboo River runs the entire 22 miles of the trail and the trail crosses it 11 times from Elroy to Reedsburg. The water level was high and muddy this day from big storms that had passed through yesterday evening, and some trees had fallen onto the trail, two of which we were able to remove by breaking off branches. Despite the rainfall, the trails hard-packed gravel surface was still in good shape.



These packed limestone screenings and bridges with planked floors provide a smooth bike riding surface, and as seen in the photo below, the original roadbed and bridge superstructure contained a double-main line, though the trail only utilizes half the space. Some 12,000 years ago, this valley was the bottom of an 1825 square mile lake referred to now as Glacial Lake Wisconsin, whose flat lake bottom provided an ideal route for the railroad.



Wetlands, sandstone bluffs, rolling croplands, and pastures are just a few of the sights bikers will enjoy as the trail repeatedly crosses the meandering river through the entire length of this scenic river valley.


The trail passes through the Wonewoc-Center Education Area, a 97 acre tract owned since 1993 by the Wonewoc and Union Center School District. High school students in natural resources classes meet here for 2 hours daily during the Fall semester and have completed most of the facility's improvements, and students from all levels come here to learn about wildlife, forestry, fisheries, and natural history. High schoolers in turn lead outings here for elementary students.



If you like to camp, you'll find campgrounds at Lake Redstone County Park near La Valle, at Legion Park in Wonewoc, and at Schultz Park south of Elroy. At Union Center you can turn west on the Hillsboro State Trail for 4.3 miles of more easy riding, as well as continue your ride on the connecting Elroy-Sparta and Omaha rail-trails for a combined total of about 117 miles.

The "400" State Trail website

Wisconsin DNR web page for this trail (includes a map)

Rails-to-Trails page for this trail