Coop's Corner: September 2020

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

I Knew

I knew there would be magic....

I'd seen the clouds....I looked at the radar....a ride was absolutely, positively necessary.

Just a short ride, the back way into Red Wing. Up the valley where the "home place" was.

I saw it coming.....and stopped at my favorite, locally owned hybrid Fast / Sitdown restaurant for my old favorite, 1/2 Deli Sandwich and a Cup of Soup.

Double rainbow...

The rain came, the wind followed.

I enjoyed my dinner and took advantage of a 2nd cup while waiting for the worst of it to blow through. Then it was a perfect time to once again visit Memorial Park.

Last winter I attended some Community Ed classes on Red Wing history, a very enjoyable series covering the distant and more current past. At one of those sessions, the Kiwanis presented an overview of plans to modernize the overlook and were looking for all ideas and suggestions. I was in the park just a couple of weeks ago and construction hadn't yet started.

A new look indeed!

Absolutely, positively worth getting a little wet!

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Brilliant

If there's a better word for the woodlands we rode through this weekend.....please share it.

I screwed up but as it turned out, that became a huge positive. The guys had requested GPS Routes since those of us that know them and use them, they are handy not only for knowing where we'll be going in a general sense but it's often nice to anticipate what happens after that next tight corner....and how tight it might be. It wasn't until after Labor Day that I finally sat down and made a couple of plans for both our Friday and Saturday rides. So, early September planning....late September execution. I knew I'd come back to them, thought about creating a couple of additional, timing/weather-adjustable Routes to allow us some flexibility without completely going without. Steve had requested and received, then shared with Greg. Eric received both planned Routes as well.

I never went back and created any more and the important omission, I never pulled the Routes I'd created out of Basecamp to load on my Zumo unit.

The positive part you're wondering??

Steve led, I got to follow and it was a very welcome treat since it doesn't happen very often.

Steve did a fantastic job, the affirmation was universal. I'm planning to forget to load them again in the future!

The Complete Pitcher..... 289 miles in all, just like those old Fords!

North detail...

.South detail....

Five of us in all, Greg, Steve and Kevin all arrived early Thursday and spent the day exploring. Eric and I both worked part of the day and were able to make each of our 200 mile trips in daylight. I was the last one to gather, we all met for dinner at Hyde's just outside of Iron River, Wisconsin.

Delta Lake, our home for the weekend...

Long Lake....

Up to the fire tower.....

Greg was airing down a bit more....deep moist sand was everywhere and any advantage was a good advantage.

Coffee stop in Washburn...

Schultz Fire Lane...I've tried it before from the other end and it was too wet there also. Steve went up ahead to make sure.

We see Road Construction Ahead often enough and don't always heed...

They were rebuilding a water crossing and just before we turned around, the guy on the tractor yelled down to us, "You guys can get through..."

We stopped for a short hike down to the Siskiwit River and falls near Cornucopia

Cornucopia gas stop.....

I shared my Undisclosed camp spot....

Kevin's new bike....seems to work just fine.

Saturday morning....

I'm a lucky guy! Labor Day weekend I was presented with a new sprocket and this past weekend, almost 51 weeks to the day with some waders for any future Deep Water crossings. I'm told that there's a video of my reaction at the discovery of these riding boots across my saddle.

Thanks guys, a gift that I'll forever cherish!

Another bear hunting party....I actually expected to see more groups on our tracks.

A close-up.....

Another water crossing but this time we turned around.

As close as we got to the Delta Diner.

I jumped in front to lead us up to the fire tower, Steve finally let me lead.

At the abandoned fire tower site...

Thinking we'd get some lunch in Herbster instead we found a big celebration at the diner for this guy's success.

Outside Little Nikki's (our lunch spot in Cornucopia) a couple arrived on this Adventure from California.

We stopped in front of Grandpa's boat, the Twin Sisters

An entire family, maybe even two, loading logs on a flatbed Saturday afternoon.

Sunday morning Eric left for home, Kevin not long after and then it was my turn. Greg and Steve decided to get another ride in before heading back to Minnesota. I decided I needed some Iron River breakfast and stopped at Rustic Roost, the same place that Rod, Jeff, Eric and I stopped at after we'd finished the Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail a few years ago.

I stopped at one of the canoe landings, needed some rushing river time before heading home. This along the Namekagon River.

I stopped in Cumberland at Louie's for some more meat sticks and onion cheese.

But a stop at A&W for a late lunch....

What a trip!! We had a great time, the riding, the weather, the colors in the woods and best of all, the time together. Stories flowed, the cabin Eric found for us a big part of the glue that tied it all together. Greg's chili with accoutrements a major treat and Eric's (Ursula too!) pie that we were way too full for but made go away regardless.

Thanks guys, this one won't be forgotten.

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)