About the FDL Loop
The Fond du Lac Loop is a 16-mile bicycle and pedestrian pathway designed to facilitate a safe, healthy, enjoyable way for community members to explore our beautiful city and to provide for a cost effective alternative system of transportation.
The beauty of a Loop system is that it provides easy accessibility for Fond du Lac residents. The length is a perfect distance for an after-work bike ride/walk/run with lots of alternative ways to shorten or lengthen the journey. Additionally, The Loop allows people from different parts of town to rendezvous and continue to journey together.
The Loop provides an interesting variety of terrain and sights including:
- A six-mile leg along the Highway 151 bypass.
- A beautiful and tranquil 2.4 mile shaded Rails to Trails pathway.
- The two-mile Lakeside Park Trail offers scenic views of the lake on the new lakefront Promenade Path. The path also follows a meandering route through the park and Loopers get to enjoy the relaxing beauty of this amazing facility.
- A 3.5-mile urban route through downtown with all the excellent shops, restaurants, coffee shops, banks, and our wonderful library available for a visit.
- The Camelot Trail, a 2.1-mile path, passes through a beautifully landscaped corporate business park.
- A Loop connection to the town of Oakfield via a dedicated bike/pedestrian bridge crossing Hwy 41 is now complete. Finally, a connecting leg up WH to the village of St. Peter is also in place.
Updates and benefits
With the new Camelot and Lakeside park trail additions, The Fond du Lac Loop is now 90% on separate (from traffic) trails. This has given the Fond du Lac community one of the safest and most beautiful bike/ped infrastructure systems in the Midwest. We have heard from out-of-town visitors who love our Loop and wish they had such a facility in their communities. The new trail marking system includes an elaborate system of directional arrows and Loop signs. The new color scheme for the arrows is yellow. Additionally, the metal Loop signs are posted at all important intersections to help guide the Loop explorer.
Health benefits include a long list of positives headlined by an inexpensive and fun way to fight obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and a range of different types of cancer.
Economic benefits include higher real estate values and increased demand for housing on or near the FDL Loop. Businesses along the FDL Loop include two major supermarkets, a drug store, and many service providers including two bike shops. Studies have shown that Loopers spend money to purchase bicycle equipment, patronize food establishments, and run light shopping errands.