Coop's Corner: South Shore

Monday, July 6, 2026

South Shore - 2026/07/04

I left early Thursday morning, hopeful that I'd be early enough for the busy July 4 weekend to secure a campsite. My goal was to finally attend the annual 4th of July Fish Fry in Cornucopia, Wisconsin. Who in their right mind would have guessed......that with the 4th on a Saturday that fish would be fried on Sunday the 5th?? Even after looking at (and photographing) the posters for the benefit of this publication did I miss the fact that the event was to take place on Sunday. I missed the fish but that was all.....I had a wonderful weekend Up North on The South Shore.

Site #10 on Siskiwit Lake....

A most tasty Chicken Wrap in Corny at the Siskowit Farmhouse cafe.

Every year, well, every trip, the mandatory photo of my travel conveyance in front of Peg's grandfather's fishing boat The Twin Sisters. Now deteriorating faster, it's slowly falling into the beach in Cornucopia where he lived and made his living on the lake.

Someone is taking better care to preserve Liberty next door.

On my way to Washburn....

Breakfast at Coco's in Washburn...

After breakfast I took the back way into Big Rock Falls, here looking at the old growth trees.

Rode into Ashland to get my sweet....

Ashland Baking for my popovers....

And across the street to Black Cat Coffee.....

Sunday July 5th......bloody obvious to those that pay attention.

After (1) popover and coffee, back on the bike, around the bay, through Washburn and on to Bayfield.

I stopped as I almost always do at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center.

And then it rained.....hard....for a bit.

The only rain for 100 miles....it found me.

Luckily, a wayside/historical site that I've never stopped at before, location crucial to only getting soaked from the knees down.

Parking downtown was crazy....I knew Reiten Park would be available. Although later, this lot was full of cars parked, families enjoying the swimming beach.

Hoop's Fish....right next to the Coast Guard Station.

Sailboats racing in the bay....

My favorite Carnegie Library though the one in Eureka Springs is pretty cool. This one wins due to location ;) It was too early or I'd have been inside.

Back at camp, enjoying Siskiwit Lake. When young Peg and her cousins swam here leeches were prevalent. I saw/felt none.

Friday evening campfire...

Decided to break camp Saturday morning and spend the day wandering the area. That started with coffee on the Corny Beach.

Back to Coco's in Washburn for breakfast and then back up to Bayfield to do more walking about town.

This old AF plane made multiple passes over Bayfield. I made a poor attempt at guessing what it was. Friend Mike knew right away and within a couple of minutes sent me proof.

Driftless coffee in Bayfield...

Paul mentioned Howl so I had to stop and give it a try. A very tasty Chicken Salad sandwich.

Stopped in Baldwin for a cold one.....

Didn't witness a Cornucopia Fish Fry but that doesn't mean I won't keep trying. A great weekend North on the South Shore. Now a Moto Guzzi Rally to load up for.

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"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)