Coop's Corner: M.E.A. Weekend In Avalanche

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

M.E.A. Weekend In Avalanche - 2024/10/16

An annual event for public schools in Minnesota, the Minnesota Education Association conferences.....no school....no busses need driven. Knowing this in advance I made plans to do some camping and riding, my choice of where to conduct these activities boiled down to area campgrounds that were still open for camping. The West Fork Sports Club was a place I'd ridden by many times but had never visited. It seemed the perfect location that would allow late October camping and as always, fantastic motorcycle riding environs.

My burgers Wednesday evening....

And then to enjoy....while the 2nd burger cooks.

And later....

(Early) Thursday morning....

Thursday morning...

Rides Thursday (red), Friday (green) and Saturday (blue)....a casual 431 mile ride.

But my riding each day didn't start until around 10AM while waiting for the sun....to burn the frost off my handlebars. This was 7:30 to 9:30 from my tucked in location against the west side of the Kickapoo Valley.

Thursday's ride was a mostly NE ride up to the Hwy 71 Valley which also happens to be the main path of the Sparta - Elroy Bicycle Trail. My first destination Wildcat Indian Motorcycles in the former facilities of the Kendall Public School. Somehow my memory card messed up and video footage was all corrupted. I hope to return when the facility is open. Thanks Larry for letting me know about this place.

From there I worked my way up to Norwalk....and then down to the western portal of the Bicycle Trail's longest tunnel.

The runoff diverting flume....

Dinner Thursday evening....

A snack for later.....

Friday morning, Outside/Inside.....

Friday morning, Pizza Popcorn at Sunrise Bakery....

Oatmeal Raisin cookies, a Blueberry and Strawberry Rhubarb pie, plus the Pizza Popcorn. I ate half the cookies over the weekend, half of the Blue pie, everything else made it home. Consensus here, the Pizza crunch a bit salty but an overall 4 out of 5 stars.

After dropping my goodies off at camp, I took the long way to Viroqua to meet Roger for lunch at the Noble Rind.

Friday afternoon out along the river, a stop for fuel and coffee in Genoa

Friday's dinner....quite good if I say so myself!

A slice of Blueberry....

Saturday morning....

The Kickapoo is known for its fishing....

Lunch in Readstown....

South of Readstown....Eric and I may not be able to tell you exactly which road this is on but we've been past this old school many times.

Through Gays Mills....

Made the pilgrimage once again...to the site where Ben Logan grew up, the neighborhood and farm that was the inspiration for "The Land Remembers". It will soon be time for my annual, seasonal re-read.

The "Hogback", an interesting geological feature in a valley north of Stueben.

I crossed the river on the soon-to-be-replaced Lansing Blackhawk Bridge and had footage of doing so but lost that too....somehow. With time and inspiration, I for the first time walked across the street to do some shopping at Horsfall's.

After coffee.

In the park right next to the Kickapoo, my guess these are parts from an old waterpower mill in Avalanche?

Loaded Saturday evening for my early Sunday departure

I stopped for dinner Saturday at the Buffet in Viroqua, a favorite that did not disappoint. A quick stop at Walmart before heading east on Cty Y to Avalanche....

Back at West Fork...one More fantastic evening!!

I left Sunday morning around 5am, stopped in Coon Valley for a coffee....

Crossed the river and stopped for breakfast in LaCrescent....

Home nice and early Sunday morning after an exceptionally perfect M.E.A. long weekend!

The Himalayan finished the weekend with the odo showing 29967 miles. It will have at least 30k before it sleeps for the winter.

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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)