Coop's Corner: Plum City?

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Plum City?

Eric wrote this week, asking for some suggestions about roads to explore in the area around Plum City and of course I accepted the challenge.

This was the plan.....

This is what we did.......

Our planned breakfast meeting was 9AM so that meant I had to be on the road by 8:15. Frost overnight, it was just easing past 40 when I fired up the Honda.

South of Lake City, Lake Pepin on my left.

Shortcut into Wabasha.......the railroad ties actually smooth out if you get your speed just right.

Crossed the river into Wisconsin, here the main river is on my right, bluffs on the left.

Eric had twice as far to go as I did and arrived only a few short minutes after me. There were 2 Specials on the breakfast menu and we each went that way. Now full and will begin following the purple line on my GPS.

Down Center Creek Road, the curly, twisty part freshly paved!!

The greenest thing around, this winter wheat field. It won't be long and the woods will shame this faint hue.

We took a rougher access road to a secluded access point for the Tiffany Bottoms. A very informative and fun way to explore the area is to ride the train. I did it a few years ago, had a blast and strongly encourage you to give it a try.

Working our way west and north away from the Chippewa River, we turned left onto Goat Back Road.

This farmer's dogs left us alone this time. I've posted before and warn everyone that joins me on this stretch of road about there being up to 3 hounds that come a' chasin'. We saw only one today and it simply sat and watched us pass, the first time that I can remember going by without a single high speed pursuit. I waved here.....a friendly and considerate gesture regardless of what the pups may do up ahead.

Our stop at Plum City, Eric checking out the busy Trout Pond.

We sat on the benches, soaked up the sun and refreshed with the breeze.

After working our way back out to the coast at Maiden Rock, we stopped at this Scenic Wayside, the location directly across the river from the place we call home.

Leaving the Mississippi again at Stockholm, Wisconsin Rustic Road #20 was our goal. This is the one with 4 water crossings. This "Road Closed" sign is a Winter sign, our season is currently Spring.

Sometimes we stop and talk for awhile......

Even with lots of sand still present in some of the very worst of places on County "D", we had fun, worked our way over through downtown Arkansaw, crossed the Chippewa River to Durand where we witnessed busy fishermen and a mooring airboat.

This concludes today's Pepin County exploration. We'll most likely do it again sometime though not until after I go visit Eric's neighborhood first.

12 comments:

SonjaMApril 12, 2015 at 2:29 AM
Doug, this is an awesome ride out. And it shows that you don't necessarily need a full fletched adventure bike to manage these roads (I still doubt that I could have done some of these stretches on my Sportster, though). Finally it looks like spring is arriving in your neck of the woods.
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RichardMApril 12, 2015 at 8:17 PM
A great write-up! It looks like you didn't encounter too much mud or standing water. We are sort of getting into "mud" season.
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VStar LadyApril 12, 2015 at 8:43 PM
Coop - welcome to spring. Looks like some incredible scenery but I'd have to agree with Sonja, my little cruiser wouldn't like the gravel and the dirt on parts of it (she has told me that many times!) Lots of bikes out in my neck of the woods today with temperatures at +14C.
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TrobairitzApril 13, 2015 at 11:02 PM
A chilly morning, but with that sunshine and those roads. What a great day!
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DebApril 14, 2015 at 9:42 AM
Fantastic outing and I enjoyed going along! Yeah, I'd ride my scoot on those roads too. Out where I used to live the majority of roads were like that, if that good.

Thanks for the ride! :=)
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Erik RApril 15, 2015 at 9:04 AM
Plum City, that brings back memories.. I miss all the great alphabet roads down there. All my riding was paved roads, SS, N, D, CC, U, FF, even 37 and 88... and that was so close to home then. Up here there are a few good roads but nothing like down there. Maybe an all day trip is in order. 3 hours, 150 miles to get there... hum.....
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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)