Coop's Corner: Wildcat Mountain Rally 2021

Sunday, September 12, 2021

Wildcat Mountain Rally 2021 - Full Version

Westby, Wisconsin on Labor Day 2021, my 15th year of attendance at our motel rally that hints at but isn't quite officially a marker for summer's end. Since it had been quite some time since the '82 Honda 400 Automatic had made the rally scene, it was the vehicle of choice (it also had sufficient rubber in back). I started my rally weekend a bit early, right after work Thursday early, meandering down to Westby in no hurry, the pace that both I and the 400 prefer.

I stopped for dinner in Coon Valley, no need to rush to the motel, I've had reservations since March.

Bright and early Friday morning I met Eric in Cashton for breakfast, then back to Westby so that he could get registered.

Eric had a southerly gravel Route planned, we rode as far as Viroqua together where I stopped at the Vernon County Historical Museum while he continued on towards Prairie du Chien. When I discovered that the Museum didn't open until 11:00 I decided to wander a gravel loop south of town with the idea that I'd return early afternoon for some museum time. Besides, it looked more and more like rain.

A big storm had passed through the area in early August and their backroads suffered once more....they just don't seem to get a break.

I saw no bridges that had been taken out but almost every one of the them had approach damage, both sides of the spans suffered and were damaged, some quite badly.

The rain started again, I needed coffee and something to eat so it was back to Viroqua. After some soup and coffee it was time for the museum.

I'll focus on more of what I saw in the museum in another Post.

Friday evening more of the ralliers began to arrive....

Saturday morning....

After the Rider's Meeting, everyone split up into groups. I went out on my own.

Tobacco is still grown in the area though not in quantities that it once was.

Stopped for a break in LaFarge...

Saturday my only real goal was to meet up with KK on his Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail. We were doing the best that we could to text back and forth. As we were closing in on our rendezvous, I waited here for awhile where the Route crosses Hwy 33.

While I waited, these two bikes stopped while heading east on 33. I recognized the machines that had been on the wet trailer in downtown Westby next to our breakfast cafe (photo above). They shared that they had come up from the Chicago area and do so every year over the Labor Day weekend. After making sure that I was OK, they wondered if the road I'd just come down "was any good". We all smiled, fully aware that they are "All good".

We finally met in Ontario, he was off to a great start on his way using as much gravel and as many sandy, soft fireroads as possible to touch the shore of Wisconsin's most northerly point. He'd started out from the Marquette, Iowa area that morning. I've since learned that he made it, then headed west into Minnesota and ventured to the Canadian border on the Minnesota North Shore before heading back home to the south.

He reported that the trip was a very good one, a sign of that, ".....I learned a lot....". We all do, each and every time out and back.

Back at Rally HQ, the Old Towne Inn in Westby...I always try to get them all but some get missed.

Every Sunday morning he does the ribs......

German store in Norwegian Westby...

Ice Cream stop at the Goose Barn....Mike and Colleen just happened to be there at the same time!

Sunday dinner in Viroqua...

Labor Day morning bright and early....

After the auction, I stopped in Cashton for breakfast and then worked my way home.

Arcadia.....

I was proud (and expected) that the Honda did as well as it did on the trip and is now added to the "Need New Tire Before Next Season" list which has grown quite long....I'm down to only a couple of machines to eek out the rest of 2021's riding season.

A great Rally, thanks again to Adam and his assistants for their time and efforts that keep this unofficial gathering going.

5 comments:

motormikeSeptember 13, 2021 at 12:19 PM
The event is doing well what with the break due to " BUG " many old faces and several new ones.
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ScottySeptember 13, 2021 at 6:03 PM
Just wanted you to know. I sold my R1200RT last week. I'm picking up a 2017 Kawasaki Versys 300X this Saturday. Only has 2000 miles on it. Already planning how to make it more adventure ready. I'll send ya pics next weekend!
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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)