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Galesville–Ettrick–Holmen Loop
Galesville–Ettrick–Holmen Loop is 50.9 miles of loop riding through Trempealeau and La Crosse Counties in Wisconsin — the Coulee Region, the coulees, ridge tops and river bluffs of south-west Wisconsin. Moving time is about 64 minutes; allow 95 with stops — a half day. It is scored CS-3, Spirited: 74 corners, 132° of turning per mile, 1,892 feet of climbing. The roads it uses, in the order you ride them, are in the app.
- Curviness
- CS-3Spirited · 1.45/mi
- Distance
- 50.9 mi64 min riding
- Corners
- 7446% sharp · Tight
- Climbing
- 1,892 ft37 ft/mi · Rolling
- Shape
- LoopHalf day
- Roads
- Backroads62% county & local
- Traffic
- 850vehicles a day, median
- Speed limit
- 55 mphtypically 55
How it rides
74 corners over 50.9 miles — 1.45 a mile, and 132° of turning for every mile ridden. That scores CS-3, Spirited on the five-point curviness scale. 46% of those corners are sharp ones, and the road reads as tight.
What it climbs
The road climbs 1,892 feet in total, 37 feet per mile, between 644 and 1,113 feet — 469 feet of relief. The longest single climb is 342 feet over 2.2 miles, and the steepest grade on it is 10.1%. By Driftless standards that is rolling.
Surface, speed and traffic
Paved end to end. 62% of it is back road rather than highway, the other 38% state or US route. Posted speeds run to 55 mph, typically 55, measured across 28% of the route. Where traffic counts exist — 34% of the miles — the median is 850 vehicles a day, busiest at mile 36.3 with 8,200.
- Backroads
- Loop
- Low traffic
Worth knowing
- Fuel sparse — top off before you go
Turn-by-turn directions and the spoken notes along the way are in the app. Every figure on this page is measured from the route itself — corner counts and gradients from the road geometry, elevation from the national elevation dataset, traffic from the state transport departments where counts exist.