Marathon County’s Granite Belt

The red granite rock of north central Wisconsin formed during the Precambrian geologic era, over 3 billion years ago. That was long before the bicycle was invented. And even longer before outdoor enthusiasts Bill Bertram, Shane Hitz, and other biking boosters started planning a new gravel bike trail system using the area’s red granite country roads. Centered in Wausau, the “Granite Belt” system extends throughout Marathon, Lincoln, Shawano, and Langlade Counties. With 1,000 miles and 13 routes, some of which connect to existing rails-to-trails, Granite Belt is one of the first regional gravel biking systems in Wisconsin to be fully mapped, marked, and ready to ride.

“There are 22,000 miles of gravel and unpaved roads in the state,” points out Bertram, a retired business executive who has spearheaded outdoor projects in the area like IRONBULL, the Red Granite Grinder bike race, and the Great Pinery Heritage Waterway. He refers to the granite as “red gold” and raves about its ability to form a firm, well-drained roadway.

Red granite was designated as Wisconsin’s state rock in 1971 and is plentiful in Marathon County, where it is still quarried. It’s literally everywhere in central Wisconsin—used for foundations, entire buildings, countertops, and tombstones. It was used for the walls around Wausau’s historic baseball park; local service clubs use it to create mementos for visitors. “Wisconsin’s red granite isn’t just a rock. It’s a piece of history,” wrote Katee Houlihan on the website Tourist Secrets. “The unique stone has shaped the landscape, the economy, the architecture, and culture of the region, from striking quarries to intricate architecture found in cities.”

And now it’s finding more fame as a bedrock for gravel biking.

The Granite Belt project has made Bertram an amateur geologist. “Red granite stone is faceted, like a diamond,” he explains. “It interlocks so it’s firmer than other surfaces, such as limestone. It drains readily, making it easy to grade. Its compact ability is 95 percent that of an asphalt surface, but it doesn’t contain any of the bad things that asphalt does.”

Townships are responsible for maintaining the roadways in their jurisdiction, annually inviting bids, purchasing new materials, and grading and filling potholes.

Before retiring, Bertram spent time representing his company in the Netherlands and remembers the predominance of biking there. He anticipates Granite Belt will capitalize on the increasing popularity of gravel biking in the U.S. and the proliferation of granite roads in north-central Wisconsin. And it’s not just the biking surface. The new trail system has been designed to loop into existing rail-trails—the Mountain Bay State Trail, which connects Rib Mountain near Wausau to Green Bay, 90 miles to the southeast, and the Wiouwash State Trail, which starts in the eastern section of Marathon County and heads south toward the Fox River Valley. “It’s the first system within the state to connect in that way,” Bertram says, noting that the State of Wisconsin has awarded Granite Belt a grant to continue those connections. The links are important, he says, because they offer a change from the straight, flat railroad beds which some bikers find boring.

Via the Internet, the new system also connects with the riding public. The system is easily accessible through the website wisconsingravel.org. On the GPSRide app, bikers can view the trail and see their location. A spreadsheet rates trails from easy to difficult. A new geofencing app will show riders who are also on the trail with them and where they are.

“Granite Belt is perfect for both the beginner and the accomplished rider,” says Bertram.

The trail system has been designed by Shane Hitz, a lanky gravel and mountain biker who works as a team leader at Kolbe and Kolbe, a Wausau-based window and door manufacturer. He’s been riding since 2012 and logs over 12 hours a week on the trails.

Biking is his heritage. He grew up in eastern Marathon County, and his family’s house was actually adjacent to the Mountain-Bay Trail. “My dream then was to buy a bike and ride that trail,” he says. That experience fueled his passion for biking, and today he is an active participant in biking events as well as a trail planner. He logged over 1,600 hours in the saddle as he planned the routes for the popular Red Grinder race that takes place in Marathon County each fall, with its trailhead in Athens, a small-town northeast of Wausau. He was featured on the cover of the 2021 Wisconsin Bike Fed Ride Guide for his work designing the Tour de Nicolet, a 320-mile point-to-point route through the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin.

He says he enjoys using route-making tools and apps, then going out with “the only things he needs to survive” and riding them. That made Hitz the natural choice to develop the Granite Belt.

“Bill (Bertram) approached me to draw up some routes on our granite gravel roads.” Originally, there were five routes; today, there are thirteen, some originating in Wausau, others in small towns and rural areas around Marathon County.

“I looked for interesting routes,” he says. “We have many rural churches and historic barns in the county. One of my favorites originates in Athens and goes past an old red schoolhouse on the property of the famous Fromm Brothers Fur and Ginseng Farm in the Town of Hamburg.” Now on the National Register of Historic Places, the farm was once the country’s leading producer of silver fox pelts, bringing bidders to the farm from all over the world.

Another route he likes travels north out of Marathon County into the New Wood Forest area of Lincoln County. The path tunnels through pine and hardwood forests and twists through rock cuts.

The other routes of the Granite Belt have unique characteristics and attractions, too. The Maine Loop sends bikers up the steep climb of Billy Goat Hill, just west of the Wisconsin River in the Brokaw Hills. The Rib Mountain route circles the second-highest peak in the state and the site of Rib Mountain State Park. The Edgar-Fenwood spur follows an old railroad bed between the two communities. Starting at Sylvan Hill Park in Wausau, the Ackley route reaches out to the 27,000-acre Ackley Wildlife area northeast of the city, then loops back to town past the splendid Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum. Two routes starting near Wagner’s Dairy Treat in Athens take riders past the 45-90 marker, the exact center of the northwestern hemisphere, and the only one of the four geographical points like this in the world that is easily accessible. Of the AT-AT Walker ride through the Bitzke Bird Refuge northeast of Wausau, “you’ll be lucky to see a car,” Hitz writes in his route description.

While visitors to Wisconsin often think of the Dells or Door County, central Wisconsin offers outdoor adventurers a unique landscape. Some of it is Iowa-flat, with a T-square grid of roads laid out by surveyors in the 1800s. But the glaciers did this area a favor by forming numerous till ridges and hilly areas as the ice melted and area rivers “down cut” into the land. The rolling hills provide bikers with impressive views across fields and forests, especially at sunrise and sunset. Some 30 percent of Marathon County is forest land. Trees blush with pink and red buds in early spring, then turn into watercolor groves in autumn. Clear streams snake through pastures and pass beneath the roadway—perfect spots for bikers to break out the water bottle and a snack. You might see black and white Holsteins convening at a hay pile, or curious horses coming to the fence. In early spring, riders might pass a maple syrup grove, with bright blue containers hung from trees, like a Christo and Jeanne Claude outdoor sculpture.

The farms are not cookie-cutter here. Of the thirteen distinct styles of barns in the United States—from Dutch to English to gambrel roofed, bank barns with field stone bottoms to hip barns and even round barns—central Wisconsin has examples of all. Usually red in color, but sometimes yellow or white, many of the barns sport decorative cupolas on their roofs and art on their sides. You’ll see old-style windmills, some still operating, and mailboxes, often personalized with slogans or designs.

Bike routes often pass through maple and birch woodlots or through low wetlands full of pine and hemlock. The brilliant white spires of rural churches poke through the trees. Ninety-five percent of the country’s ginseng is grown in Marathon County, so you’ll often see fields of shade cloth mounted on posts to promote the crops. On many rides, the proud ridge of Rib Mountain is visible in the distance, rising from the tableland like a hump-backed whale. Occasionally, you’ll share the road with black Amish and Mennonite buggies, and you might get a tip of the hat from the driver as you pass by.

The Granite Belt isn’t just for the fun and fitness of cyclists. The communities along the route benefit, too. Tim White, director of the Wausau Area Convention and Visitors Council, sees the Granite Belt establishing Wausau as an outdoor adventure hub. “The trail system really sets the table for something much bigger,” he says, “Wisconsin has always had raw assets. What we’ve done is organize them into a system that merges a variety of riding trails with amenities like bars and restaurants, cultural attractions, places to camp, and stay. It gives people a reason to basecamp their adventure here, stay longer, and return.

“This is more than building trails. It’s about building a destination.”