Living in Fitchburg gives you access to the Capitol City trail, near Seminole is an area of single track that is right off the bike path. You can also take various bike paths to get to Pleasant View golf course and Mtb trail head, that connects to Blackhawk trails[you need a membership but the cost is really low]. The Badger trail that heads South from Fitchburg turns to a gravel path about 7 miles South of PD and goes all the way to Freeport Il. You are actually in an area with a lot of close options, not really logging roads but still alot of options.
I didn't know Pleasant view golf course has a biking section. I may check that out. although, that looks like a lot of road riding to get there. Ideally I stay close to bike trails.
I ride on the capitol city trail sometimes. rode all the way to Broadhead a few weeks ago. that's a nice trail. My only issue is it is all straight and not a loop network. So one goes the same way all the time. It was once my goal to make it to IL on that path, but that may be too ambitious for one day (and to come back)
You might have it wrong with bike choice, but maybe I don't know what a Toughroad is. My wife and I plus sometimes friends go from Madison area to Blue Mound. My wife and I ride heavy duty drop bar bikes for that. Heavy duty gravel or tourer types. We'll ride them on singe track too.
Kind of on the theme of JPL65, you can ride the Pheasant Branch Conservancy and also west from there to the conservancy that was Quisling and now Peni Klein park. Some pavement will connect you to South Fork trail and get you to Pleasant View and Blackhawk. Blackhawk membership starts at $25. People who cut through to Blackhawk without being members are extreme jerks who risk wrecking the privilege the private land owner between gives to Blackhawk members.
The toughroad is a rigid MTB for lack of better explanation. I have 2.15" front tire and 2" rear tire. They are smooth touring tires, but capable of simple single track. It is my pavement and gravel bike with a Jones bar. works perfectly for the mission. The real downer is it doesn't have a dropper (it has a proprietary D-shaped seatpost) so I use my fatbike for single tracking. The downside with the fatbike is going long distances over pavement is exhausting (more mentally than physically). So I stay to closer MTB trails (Seminole, Quarry Ridge and Verona County Park)
I've been to Pheasant Branch a few times on my rides around Lake Mendota and Monona. I'm dreading the riding through Middleton without proper bike lanes....
I guess I'm looking for the impossible near a metropolis. I just came home from my home town in Germany and there I just ride off through some meadows and then I could ride hundreds of km on logging roads with minimal road passage. That made me a bit homesick and sad that we don't have forrest here.
