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:

  1. 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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    1. Sonja, it was a lovely day for a spring ride and we both appreciated how lucky we were to be out. I'd reluctantly agree that your Sportster maybe shouldn't have been on a couple of those roads but you're selling yourself short if you think You couldn't have piloted through them. I've scootered on all of them.

      I did not include the helmet cam photo of the 2 HD Electra Glides that we met on the watery Rustic Road, one of them with a sidecar.

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  2. 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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    1. Most of our wet is gone or soaked in. There were only a handful of those weepy spots on our ride and we did many miles of gravel. Today was even nicer, warmer and sunnier so more miles on some of the others.

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  3. 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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    1. Karen, we had mid-70's today and the predicted afternoon showers were NOwhere to be seen. An absolutely gorgeous riding day. 433 miles, 200 of which were yesterday the balance today. Took every advantage that we could.

      Honestly I'm convinced it's a matter of time spent and anticipating the cleanest tracks in the corners. Straight line going just sort of happens....always feels worse than it really is.

      The loosest gravel is settling down (in) so it really wasn't too bad and for Eric's benefit, no dust this session. I always feel guilty leading in the drier weather.

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  4. A chilly morning, but with that sunshine and those roads. What a great day!

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    1. Layering and a bit of luggage capacity at this time of year are important ride components. It's fairly typical to start out frosty and then spend the afternoon 40 F degrees warmer and if the day is a long one, lose 30 of them again.

      Saturday's ride was really #2 of my new season and it was dandy to be sure.

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  5. 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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    1. Thanks Deb, yes, from what you've mentioned, you'd be right at home on these roads. I've been led to believe that you do have roads like these, the SE quarter of OH especially?

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  6. 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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    1. Erik, it sounds we're due for a reunion. You know where so now we just need to figure out when. I sent you an email with my planned schedule for the next couple of months....you'd be very welcome at any of those 'nearby' events. :)

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