Coop's Corner: Wildcat Mountain Motorcycle Rally (Weekend)- 2024/08/30

Sunday, September 8, 2024

Wildcat Mountain Motorcycle Rally (Weekend)- 2024/08/30

(Author's NOTE: This took far too long to get published, most of it was done weeks ago. I still owe you all the Iowa Guzzi Rally)

Carrying on the tradition, 2024 marking 38 years from what I've been told, this was my 18th Wildcat Rally. A unique twist on a couple of fronts for me, one of which it was my first time not staying in the motel on the north end of Westby. The 2nd standout .....I went without a motorcycle. A few weeks ago I had surgery, the doc said "no motorcycles, no lifting anything over 10 lbs." He was hoping for 6 weeks off the bike, he'll get 4. This weekend I will, finally, once again swing a leg...

At the Saturday morning Rider's Meeting..... Adam demonstrating proper "1 Leg Standing". Included in the shot, the crowd....largest of the last few years, (8 new attendees!!), Adam's bike and his new chicken helmet front and center.

But long before Saturday's start....my brother and I arrived at the campground mid-day on Thursday, always anxious to get a proper head start to the Labor Day weekend event.

Remember, I was "van only" mode all weekend...."Doc sez...."

By Friday, the rest of our crew arrived....

Eric and Jeff...

Steve and Greg...

Mid-afternoon on Thursday I started exploring, my intended plan for the weekend since all motorcycles were safe and sound at home. The first destination, NE of Westby on County X to the Jersey Valley County Park and Dam.

I've been there (in the past) and seen this....

But you'll never see that again, at least based on..... (photo from the VernonReporter)

Dam and breach over the picnic tables....

The way it was pre-2018.....

And today in summer of 2024....

The breached dam....

Standing in the breach....

Thought this was cool.....lying on one of the picnic tables.

Some rock formations I don't ever remember seeing....

County "X" back out to Hwy 27

Thursday afternoon back at camp....just off to the left, the North Fork of the Bad Axe River.

And behind my campsite, some lazy time watching the deep pool in said river....

I was up early Friday morning, anxious to have a cup....

Then Kev and I met at the Old Town Supper Club, temporarily the location of Borgen's Cafe in Westby. Temporary due to the fact that road construction on main street had our normal breakfast spot closed.

Yes, that is in fact a Caramel Roll.....

Door stop....in Dairyland.

We were at the cafe for breakfast upon their opening at 7AM.....I had plans and those plans were to be at Sunrise Bakery, on Pa's Road, at the bakery's opening at 8:30. Might have been 8:35 when I arrived, already 2 cars on the Parking Area.

I've been stopping every year the last few rallies and I can tell you the Grand Caravan didn't have any difficulty making the steep gravel road up from County S. This the first time I've visited in 4 wheels and mostly hoping that all future stops will be on 2.

The Top Shelf are all pre-orders. The guy ahead of me took 6 of those pies....a lucky fellow!

Better to be early rather than late at Sunrise Bakery! These disappeared around the campfire Saturday night. The cookies disappeared.....

I left the bakery heading east, indirectly wound up in Rockton and then went south on 131, a destination in mind. I've stopped at the Kickapoo Nature Reserve Nature Center before but was always in a hurry. That was not an issue this Labor Day weekend Friday.

The story of the Kickapoo/LaFarge Dam Project is a long one, I won't try and retell the story. This wall's bricks' commemorates all of the families and property owners whose land was taken by eminent domain for a dam that was never built.

The story chronologically over the Kickapoo Valley and river.

I walked out the ridge where the truck is parked, the earthen dam, to get a look at the now obelisk, essentially the only part of the dam that remains.

Downtown LaFarge....the type of flooding the dam was intended to control.

I'm standing on the top of the ridge, the extent of the dam that was to continue onward across the valley. The multi-story tower (obelisk) center left.

Looking back across the large section of dam that had been completed.

From above.....

FINALLY (you're saying)....motorcycle content!!

Friday afternoon the rest of our rally camping friends were arriving.

Another early morning brew.....

Fresh tracks, fresh early morning dew

Saturday morning at the Old Towne for breakfast...

Rider's meeting, sharing ride safety and plans

Chris's very cool doggy trailer....both pups inside.

Roger stopped by to show me his 'new' 850, a little TLC all it needs....Roger knows his Guzzi's.

We then walked across the street for a couple-hour cup of coffee...and per Roger's encouragement, later in the afternoon I made a loop that included HIS favorite bakery. A pie and a loaf of bread were my take-aways.

Saturday evening a street dance and live music in Viroqua, festival food our dinner's.

Mike was back from Davenport....

All my visits to Viroqua, it took 2024 and a minivan for me to stop at and visit the Big Red Shed. Once a lumber facility (thanks Tom) it now houses.....merchandise....at what looks like on consignment for other local merchants.

The vastness.....

....and something for everyone.....

I was fortunate enough to come away with these three treasures.....

Not the guy, only his sign.....

And before I wrap the long Wildcat Rally weekend up, some random shots while out exploring.

So there you have it, another fine Rally with many thanks to Adam for keeping our group together and thriving. Great weather....no....perfect weather making outside and riding just that much more special. I have every intention of marking 20 years with my attendance.

4 comments:

AnonymousOctober 13, 2024 at 1:36 PM
Thank you Doug- This year’s rally was blocked by the wedding of my last eligible niece (5) out in Sonoma, CA. Your photos of landscape and old friends reminds me of how much I enjoy that trip, and missed this year. I want to visit the big old red barn next time. I’m down to one bike, a ‘77 XS650, so that will have to be the ride next year. Cheers- Mark
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motormikeOctober 13, 2024 at 2:25 PM
I didn't get to participant as much as yrs before... I had hope to sell the BSA at Davenport and the 42' Army developed an electrical gremlin.... If it was easy... we'd all ride Honda's... ( insert smerky face here )
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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)