Coop's Corner: Slimey Crud Run May 2012

Monday, May 7, 2012

Slimey Crud Run May 2012

Well, I finally participated in a 'Crud Run worthy of the name. We've done some frosty ones but I've not ridden in any as wet and stormy as this one was. Our small group had a great time and though there weren't as many of us as had been planned or hoped for, we three made the most of the riding and time together.

I left early Saturday, the Hyosung GT250R had been loaded on the trailer the night before. My goal was to be unloading in the Reedsburg motel parking lot around 9AM and I made it happen. A bit of rain, more miles of misty rain with the last half of the trip dry though dark overcast.

A stop at '5 corners' southeast of Elroy......

Knowing that Jeff was coming down and planning a noon arrival, I had just enough time to go out for a 2 hour loop. Our timing was perfect; both of us in town very close to noon; Jeff reading his map as I pulled into the parking lot. After a long lunch at an outdoor sandwich stand, we headed south and east of town towards the Merrimac State Ferry. Using some back roads, we entered and rode through the public sections of Devils Lake State Park and then on through Merrimac to the ferry.

Only a short wait......

After we left the ferry on the south side of the river, the cars in the distance waiting for the northbound crossing.

From there it was back to Reedsburg via a preview of Leland so that we could help Mike get his Triton unloaded.

Mighty is Mike's co-pilot.....

The 750 Triumph-powered Norton started and ran flawlessly all weekend. There may or may not have been a spot of oil left behind; it wasn't my day to watch for any. We rode down to Rock Spring for dinner, getting back to Reedsburg just as the first drops of the afternoon were falling.

With some rain in the evening and then clearing skies as sunset, we were hopeful that the forecast for Sunday had been changed........... It wasn't and they were right. Sunday dawned dark and wet. After some Continental Coffee and a banana, some heavy re-evaluating was taking place. Our plan was to ride down to the Picadilly Lilly Diner at the Lone Rock airport for a Substantial Breakfast (it was) though we weren't all that sure it was the best use of our time and so-far clean bikes. It was decided ( I remember it as a group decision) to follow through, take the back way down to Lone Rock and then over hot coffee and pancakes the size of the airport itself, another re-evaluation session took place. It rained almost constantly over the roughly 40 mile ride on Named roads and of course, fell into a downpour as we started climbing up over the last ridge of hills before descending down into the Wisconsin River sand flats using the very steep and twisty Dane Hill Road.

Part of our re-evaluation session when even less was being decided....it was warm and dry in there.

After breakfast, gas in Lone Rock......I parked at the edge of the parking lake.

And on to Pine Bluff.......I'd challenge both Mike and Jeff to backtrack on our Route over :)

It was the smallest crowd that I've personally witnessed at a 'Crud Run, though the bikes kept coming. I believe we arrived around 10:30.

The crowd knew beauty when they saw it.....

See you in Leland John.....

Through Sauk City, west and north on County PF......police presence and protection was prolific on the way up and in Leland itself.

Mike and Jeff heading back up to Reedsburg, I stuck around for a bit longer, then did some more riding before doing the same.

Outside of Bunker Hill...

Cowboys around the Chuck Wagon at the Dave Hough Cattle Company.....

And finally, the Hyo after the weekend, home and still very dirty.....

2 comments:

AnonymousMay 8, 2012 at 8:50 AM
Thanks for the Slimey Crud report Doug! I noticed some other familiar bikes in the background of your pictures. Good to know that the Hard Corps won't be stopped by a bit of weather.

Kevin P
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)