Coop's Corner: June 2015

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Minnesota Moto Guzzi Rally - 2015 Grand Marais

I should have ridden the Breva up north but it needs a tire and with my recent schedule, getting a new tire purchased and mounted just wasn't working out. Truth be told, I really had wanted to give the Hyosung its rein and take a bigger trip with .....and a bigger trip we did.

I know, I know....Bob's BMW and Kevin's Ducati right here in front but those banners tell the real story. We gathered at the Municipal Campground in Grand Marais, MN which is right down on the waterfront. The park's pavilion was our meeting place; all brands parked in front, Moto Guzzi's too.

It had been 5 years since I was last up that far on the North Shore and that was for the 2010 rally held in the same place.

Friday morning on the way up I stopped at Palisade Head. Traditionally a great place to get an up-high view of the big lake, I've always stopped to pick blueberries there. This time it was too early in the season, berries were seen but they just weren't ready for picking.

Those larger rocks below in the very cold, clear water are the size of trucks.

I was only a few minutes away from some drone photography over the cliff but I didn't wait for it.

Rick and J.P. arrived shortly after I did, the tent village taking shape quickly.

Bob from Moto Guzzi Minneapolis was there, a very nice surprise, especially so since he was the one that had sold me the Hyosung a few years ago. Bob graciously supplied an extra large Baker's Dozen of T-shirts as door prizes.

After Louise, Lynn, John and Kevin served us our pulled pork meal, Mike joined Rick, J.P. and I for a walk downtown.

We circled around the east side of the bay and walked out on the pier/breakwater.....bedrock making a natural harbor with a bit of help from some very old and stout concrete.

We managed to find various ways to spend our Saturday riding.....I had my Passport along intending to visit our neighbor to the north. North of Grand Marais the border is only some 30 miles away and on the way I stopped at the Suzie Islands Rest Stop.

(Grabbed this photo on the way back into the US when the weather was a bit different than on the way up)

Thunder Bay and more specifically, Historic Fort William was my goal.

Certain medical procedures were discussed here in the doctor's office. We as visitors, mutually agreed that attention from the good doctor was very unnecessary.

Herbal, more natural healing concoctions. Some of these potentially did a great deal more than exfoliate.......

I like maps and once upon a time, this one was State Of The Art....

Reflector oven......

On the way back to Grand Marais, I stopped at the Grand Portage National Monument. On more than one late October weekend, I've been up the 9 mile portage that the Voyageurs used to bring their winter's worth of pelts down to the trading post on the lake. The Pigeon River (CA/USA border) tumbled over some very large waterfalls on its way to Lake Superior, making the Grand Portage necessary. Large canoes and their crews then paddled their way to Montreal, moving the goods all for the Hudson Bay Company.

In May of 1977, I left from this spot for the boat ride, spending a week hiking the length of Isle Royale.

Took the Mail Boat over.....(1977)

Saw moose.....(1977...might be the last wild ones that I ever see)

But that was back then.....no boat rides this weekend. Made another stop at Judge Magney State Park...

Rode up on the ridge above Grand Marais for the Grand View of the harbor....

Back downtown for a quick stop before heading back to the campground for our fresh fish dinner and award ceremony....

Fish that had been caught Saturday morning.....and they were good!

Campfires were very appreciated both Friday and Saturday evenings.....if you've camped within 1000 yards of Lake Superior you know what that means.

Sunday J.P. and I were some of the last to leave.....

Rain looked like a distinct possibility (few sprinkles overnight).....it never happened to me until I was almost home.

I made a few stops on the way back......Split Rock Lighthouse....Gooseberry Falls State Park.....early lunch in Two Harbors....

Passing through the two tunnels on Highway 61......If Minnesota has a "water highway", 61 has to be it. Between bordering the Mississippi River along the Wisconsin border in the SE and this 150 mile pass along Lake Superior, this road has endless views of water.

I followed this couple through most of Superior, Wisconsin.....

The brave 250 ran the 821.8 miles with pride, the last 15 in very hard rain.

What a fun weekend, the big lake, good food, time with some new friends and some very fine and scenic riding. A special thanks to Louise and John who put so much time and effort in to making the rally so enjoyable for the rest of us.

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)