Coop's Corner: South Shore 2016

Friday, September 23, 2016

South Shore 2016 - Addendum

A follow up to the last Post, this one containing images and videos, both from my Contour +2 helmet cam as well as shots taken on my phone.

Wednesday morning, starting out on the KLR.....

On Point Detour Road, Red Cliff Reservation. A Toyota parked off the road...

Toyota still parked along road....

Her reaction after telling me that she had locked her keys in her car and that my cell phone had No Service.....

With a smile, "Well I can walk out, I know how to do that. Come on dogs."

I stopped at the first house I could to let them know that there was a woman that could use some help.

These square yellow signs have strong magnetic force when I'm on one of the bikes ......

Typical use of the shale granite, especially so on roads more well traveled. If the sand gets too deep or the road gets steep enough for erosion to be an issue, this rock firms the roadbed up. Often I'd be watching for color changes to read the road conditions and this grey, even when deep was almost always a welcome sight.

Stopped for gas in Corny, this local resident, formerly of the Twin Cities had a lot of questions and had to listen to lots of my answers. A potential KLR owner, he was ready to make another trip back to the Superior Kawasaki dealer after my sales job.......I reminded him how much cleaner his was going to be.

The Delta Diner Wednesday afternoon, after closing time.

Late that afternoon, my campsite just ahead, riding complete for my first day out.

3 bear hunting trucks ahead, one bear 'resting' on the truck in front.

I managed to come upon this road grader twice during the week, both times from behind. On average, his road work improved conditions...but only on average.

The Road Closed sign where I stubbornly refused to see Big Bore Heavily Laden's track both Go and Come Back.....

There was no going around this one.....Deer Lick Road.

Hunting Hounds.....

2.995 gallons, 204 miles......

Headed up GG to Mellen, then to Copper Falls State Park. I'm not sure but I believe that this was the weekend for the big HD gathering in Tomahawk Wisconsin.

My KLR was outnumbered in the Copper Falls parking lot....

The detour on Hwy 13 between Mellen and High Bridge, due I'm sure to another washed out section still being repaired from summer storms.

One of the many dips/hollows where there was shiny new pavement and a mangled culvert in the road ditch.

Stopped at the beach in Cornucopia, picnic pavilion along the beach, the gazebo'd spring to the right where many continually come and have been for many years to get their spring water.

The Corny beach where my wife played as a kid and where we've since played with our kids. On a hot summer sunny day without a NW wind, this protected Siskiwit Bay can actually have swimmable water temps.....that is down to about 4' deep or so. :)

Back at Camp Herbster, wood is available for sale, but the chunks are big and not all that dry. I stopped here twice for kindling.

Friday morning started off lovely and with a bit of a scare. I'd only ridden about 5 miles when I stopped to enjoy this mostly clear cut forested area and pop the top on my thermos of coffee. Remember, "about 5 miles....." Climbed back on, pushed the starter button...Nothing. Pushed it again, no difference. Multiple button presses weren't really having a different outcome. Helmet off, jacket off. I noted that button pushes were slightly dimming the green Neutral light.

The starter is above the transmission, behind the cylinder. I wiggled the main wire and unplugged/plugged a couple of connectors there. Remaining starts, and there were many, the rest of the week successfully were accomplished.

It was obvious post-rain that the road grader was out and just ahead of me.....and again, there were places he was doing me a favor while there were many that he was not.

I stayed back quite a ways.....

This was a down hill section that had rutted quite badly. I could tell that he was going to take multiple passes at this mess.

His back-up lights and beeper going full force.....

Storm damage......

With the morning sun drifting through, it felt very cathedrally here.

Battleaxe Road, maintained, straight and nicely graveled. I don't know, need to find out but think that this parallels an old railroad right of way. The area had many rail lines back when there was old growth timber to be cut. Many companies and various rail lines penetrated the entire county, some hauled logs to ports on the lake, some hauled the cargo south.

More storm damage.....

More deep sand....

I ate at the Delta Diner twice during my long weekend. There was Pedro's Mex Benny that I had for Thursday's brunch. Friday I stopped again, this time for a late lunch. I couldn't help myself, everything on the sandwich board AND the things Mary ("I knew you'd be back") sat down and detailed for me sounded so very good but I had no choice....once again the PBLT was a no brainer. Perch, bacon, lettuce and tomato, a bit of chipotle...... I've done this before and can't wait to do it again.

Bread exclusively for the Diner in Delta...

I can't even tell you how good this Mocha Pecan pie was so I'm not going to try. If you can imagine rich and yummy, you're at least heading in the right direction.

Puddle....on the Success Side looking back from whence I'd come.

Videos, 20, 30 and 40 seconds long. A few show the tipped, bent and broken storm damage. There's some deep sand, bear hunters, lovely sun and some handlebar/helmet clipping branches.

11 comments:

EricSeptember 23, 2016 at 7:24 PM
Good stuff-well documented! Thanks for sharing.
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David MasseSeptember 24, 2016 at 7:21 AM
Doug I see that there are some people on those roads, but, what with spotty cell service, I would have a Spot on board. I mean if one of those puddles turned out to have a KLR-swallowing hole lurking in it...
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JasonSeptember 26, 2016 at 9:23 AM
Sand everywhere. Big sandy logging roads with wooped out hill climbs. Sand bowls. That's were I learned to ride up by the UP/WI border, I was a lucky kid. I don't think environmentally friendly was a thing back then, probably go at it a bit differently these days. Also, I was 14. No plates. No license. No problem. Your trip brings back many good memories, thanks!
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TrobairitzSeptember 26, 2016 at 2:11 PM
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm craving mocha pecan pie right about now.

Those roads looks like a lot of fun except for the ones the grader was on, some of those looked sketchy.

Would you have tried down the middle of that large puddle if you were with other riders? I can just picture Troubadour and PolarBear tearing off through the middle of it and sinking in to their axles laughing maniacally the whole time.
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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)