Madison WI area riders

Well looking for some info on where to live in the Madison area (Doesn't have to be in Madison, but driving distance of a reasonable time to the city) that has great schools, great neighborhoods and is close to riding if not on the water. Southwest of Madison would be great I may be taking a job up there and looking into property and cost of living up in the area. Anybody have any suggestions? How about areas to stay away from? We are looking for quiet,not to busy area to raise our two lilttle ones and still be able to hit the water. Trying to stay under 275K if that's an option

Any help would be great

one word. Middleton. Voted best place to live in america.

ya, middleton is sweet, my cousin lives there.

I grew up in Fitchburg, which is the immediate southwest suburb of Madison. It was a 10 minute drive to Lake Waubesa, 10-15 minutes to Lake Monona, and 15 minutes to Lake Kegonsa. I personally think Lake Mendota is terrible for wakeboarding. Mendota is where most Middleton residents would go. It's too big and busy to find much decent water. That being said all the Madison lakes are crowded as hell at the usual times, you'll have to learn to get out early, late, or during the week.

You can give up your desire to live on the water in Madison in your price range. No chance.

I'd say look in Fitchburg and Verona, possibly Oregon. Middleton is obviously a nice town as well, but not quite as quiet. East and North of Madison are not as nice.

Property taxes in Dane County are a bear, but not sure how they compare to Chicago. They are double that of the Twin Cities.

Middleton is very nice but very expensive I would say McFarland may be right up your alley

Verona, Stoughton, McFarland nice and a little cheaper than middleton.

If you would be interested in living southeast about 20-30 minutes from Madison, check out Stoughton or Edgerton. Living on the river in Edgerton has probably the best water conditions around the area. If you have any questions let me know as I live in Edgerton and work in Madison as a Mortgage Consultant.

janesville/newville Is a decent drive to madison and you can definately get a place on the river in your price range! it is more south/southwest of Madison though. You cant beat the river for a riding location though!

I make the drive from Loves Park, IL to Madison everyday for work.... 1hr in the AM & usually 1-1/2hr in the PM.

But pretty much all those towns everybody has mentioned would be good.

BTW...why the move??

(Message edited by wazzy on October 19, 2007)

what up Forrest? For the kids and family.
We have fam up over in Darlington that owns a huge dairy farm. Always wanted to get out of the city here, now I have an opportunity and love to wakeboard, snowboard, and snowmobile so figure Madison wouldn't be a bad spot.

Friends I grew up with have places on the Rock River in Janesville haven't been there in a bit but always like river riding. I know I know but I am river rat. There were some shallow spots if I recall. But hey I ride the river in Morris all the time.

Thanks for all the reply's. We wanted to stay close to Darlington. Have been told to check out Verona, Oregon and Mt Horab as they pretty much split the difference between Madison and Darlington. Middleton is a little out of the range to Darlington I wanted to be. Was looking to be about 30min or so to Darlington as that's where the family is that will helps us out quite a bit and that we want to stay close to.

Swat,

Good luck finding a spot! If you ever want someone from town to ride with, let me know. I live in Verona and it's pretty excellent. I'll likely be moving up to Middleton in a year or two (after my fiance finishes her PhD).

Hey Swat, join us over at www.midwestwakeboarder.com as lots of madison area riders are there.

I am suprised nobody mentioned Stoughton yet and Lake Kegonsa. 6 miles out of Madison and a nice little lake that attracts mostly fishing boats for your competition. Mornings or weekdays you have a near guarantee of good water and we live right off a major highway.

As a bonus for a little town you have a walmart walgreens etc, but only a short drive to the city.

Middleton is the absolute worst area to think of for riding in the area, but Mendota has "its days" (think mornings). Monona is good, but gets crowded, Waubesa is windy and only 3 miles closer than stoughton (kegonsa) and again, crowded.

Janesville is the best place to ride by far as it is a river, welcome!

Btw, Stoughton (kegonsa) and Janesville, are your candidates for being "south". Mt. Horeb is not near any riding, nor is Oregon.

Email myself or Gordon with any questions.

Btw, Janesville can be done for 275K on the water but barely for anything nice, ask Gordon for morer details.

In Madison you are looking at 600k MINIMUM to get on the water as the land alone is worth that, Lake Kegonsa in Stoughton is the cheapest near madison and you will expect to spend 350k minimum, but 450-500 buys a very nice home on the water.

Curious,

I have been wanting to check out Yellowstone Lake, have you or your family spend anytime there skiing or boarding? We used to go there growing up, but all we did was fish.

There are alot of smaller towns between darlington and madison. I think Mt Horeb would be one your best choices. Not real close to alot of wakeboarding. But very close to Tyrol Basin for the winter. And it is a midpoint between the two spots.

Mt. Horeb would make Yellowstone the closest riding spot at 30 miles away though?

Thanks for all the info guys. As far as riding we are used to traveling about 45-1hr to ride so anything less than that is a bonus so we are not to picky about that. So I guess my idea of close to riding is a little different. Seems like there is alot of places to go within that time frame to get some riding and be where we want to be. We really didn't know what waterfront would be up there so that is why I asked. You never know unless you do. Thanks again for all the info.

Never been to Yellowstone.

So we went for a trip up there this past weekend and talked with some of the people that I would be working with and their recommendations on where to live and why.

Here's what we've come up with as of now just giving a quick drive through and looking at maps. What are all of your thoughts on these 3 areas? Which would you pick and why. Again for us these are just a few of the prelim stages picks really with just driving through not getting too much info on schools and what not. We heard from many that Verona had the best schools out of these.

Verona
Mt Horeb
Dodgeville


Dodgeville is there due to the country feeling, but yet not to far from the city. State park was close Not sure how bad traffic can get into downtown at rush hours, but it semed like 30-40min from Dodgeville. Nobody could give us a lot of info on their schools,town, but for us you could get a ton of house and property there for decent price.

I worked at Lands End in Dodgeville for a summer internship years ago. It was a 45 minute drive from Fitchburg. Coming from Madison would be longer. Good thing is, there was absolutely no traffic between Dodgeville and Fitchburg. As you enter Madison on 151 it gets pretty thick.

Dodgeville and Mt. Horeb have a very small town feel, both with old style downtowns. In both towns, you are likely to see people wearing letter jackets with "medals." This was always funny to us Madison folk. Dodgeville is very much "out there." Mt. Horeb is pretty much halfway between Dodgeville and Madison.

Verona is getting populated fast and many businesses are going up there. The secret is definitely out. In all three towns, much of the housing will be new (within the last 10-15 years) and I'd be willing to bet the prices would be pretty telling of their proximity to Madison. The other guys are right, not much for water down that road.

We are starting to notice most of the water was east and south. Can also head north east as well, but most of the "good" water seems to be south east. The riding as you can tell isn't our main concern, but is a factor, but as long as riding is within 30-45min we are good. Would even do up to an hour as that is pretty much what we drive now. I would most likely be riding during the week either early am or eveings. Nice thing about work schedule. Thanks for all the info so far.

Swat... so are you going to work on the dairy farm??

HEHEEHEHE don't know if I could swing that full time. MPD has a nice package together that has sparked my interest alot. Haven't signed anything official, but leaning hard towards it for sure. So will be helping out at the farm but not full time gig.

(Message edited by xstarrider on October 22, 2007)

JUST DON'T SHOOT THE COWS!!!! LOL

Thought you really wanted to head to Vegas??