The Oak Leaf Trail is an over 100-mile-long series of loops connecting parks in Milwaukee and surrounding communities. On a typical summer day, the paved off-road East Side portions of the trail are filled with people running, walking dogs and rollerblading alone, in couples, with a friend or three or with their families.

Occasionally, off to the side of the trail, people — some participating in classes offered through the Urban Ecology Center — climb the stone walls separating the city from the recessed trail, which travels under Oakland and North Avenues, under Locust Street and over Capitol Drive.

However, this trail is used most extensively by people of all ages on bikes — recumbent bikes, tandem bikes, expensive bikes, old bikes, single-speed bikes, bikes pulling the added weight of “trailers” taxiing young children along for the ride.

While the tree-lined trail is a pleasure for anyone who is on it for any reason, the full experience of the varied delights of the Oak Leaf Trail can be most easily accessed on a bicycle.

With a few hours to devote to the pursuit of motion, a bicyclist can, starting at Veterans Park, witness an encompassing view of the city downtown and to the north and south, including the Calatrava and the Hoan Bridge, and of the McKinley Marina and lake, then proceed into the urban woods via the new Brady Street bridge and choose to travel either north or south.

Choosing the northbound route will take you through the trees and slightly below the rest of the city, as you ride under a number of bridges hoisting busy city streets.

This route offers a sense of pause from city life, which is, for most of this route, at least partially visible but distinctly separate from the stretch of nature enveloping the trail from the lakefront to Capitol Drive.

A great place to get off your bike and explore is Riverside Park, near Locust Street. Here, you can traverse dirt trails in the woods bordering the river.

The Oak Leaf Trail crosses the bridge over Capitol Drive several blocks west of Oakland Avenue, offering a view of Shorewood to the east and Milwaukee to the west.

Then one passes through Estabrook Park, which has soccer fields and baseball diamonds, playgrounds, views of the river and several bridges, as well as enough vegetation to make any nature-loving city dweller feel momentarily surrounded. The path travels to the end of the park at Hampton Avenue.

If you take Hampton west to Port Washington Road, the bridge a half block south over the river is a great place to stop and watch the water as vehicles transport behind you.

Choosing the southbound route takes you through downtown on the road — a portion of the official Oak Leaf Trail is on city streets to ensure continuity, according the Milwaukee Country Parks Web site. The paved off-road trail starts again in Bay View and runs along the lake.

Biking the entire Oak Leaf would take you through a number of Milwaukee neighborhoods, Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, Fox Point, River Hills, Brown Deer, Wauwatosa, West Allis, Hales Corners, South Milwaukee, Cudahy, St. Francis and West Milwaukee.

If you want a couple of minutes in the woods or a couple of hours exploring the intersection of nature and the city, the Oak Leaf Trail is for you.

For more information on the Oak Leaf trail, visit www.county.milwaukee.gov/display/router.asp?docid=8289.

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