Coop's Corner: Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail - North Half

Monday, July 24, 2017

Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail - North Half - 2017

We Had A Big Time!

As individuals, we've done bits and pieces of Chad's Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail (he's on Facebook too) over the last few years, mostly the southern sections. A few years ago, I did most of the southern half one weekend (most only because of catastrophic GPS failure) and a few weeks later, the northern half. Both sections were done on my trusty TW200. Last fall I did the section from Point Detour south to Clam Lake. Now it was time to do it with friends!

Thursday evening, on my way east to Neillsville where everyone was gathering. I stopped at our jumping off point....we'd be back here in 12 hours to start The Ride.

A hot, humid day, our motel that evening was exactly what we needed.

Friday's ride, Neillsville (US 10) to Phillips (County W)

Saturday's ride, Phillips to Herbster to set up camp at our favorite place, then on to Point Detour.

To summarize, home, safe and very satisfied!!

Our Ride ------

Giving instructions for waving to any kindred spirits we may meet...."Use left hand"

We were just west of Thorp and Jeff wanted fuel, so he led ....

...to the BP directly across from the Thorpedo.

My timing just off....this cart, full of 4 or 5 young kids, was being pulled by a pony. We'd been following the tire tracks in the wet gravel for quite a distance. Something else I noticed here east of Thorp, there were many bicycle tracks in the road.

Right where the good trails were starting...this gentleman looked at me and said, "You really don't want to ride in there, very wet and I'd suggest that you stay out." But then he looked at Eric and Jeff and said, "well...motorcycles probably could do it but be careful. The guys are laying down matting under the rock. Please don't tear it or spin your wheels...we don't want holes in it."

Brand new, unpacked rock went on and on and finally we got to a spot where it stopped.

I stopped and went back to ask the guys if they thought it wise to keep going. Rod didn't seem all that convinced, but there appeared to be more thumbs up than down.

We were gentle.....

There were many sections where the rock had been well incorporated, well used and easier to ride on.

Our first puddle of any size.....maybe 10,000+ to go.

The guys wondering if this was a Stop or a Rest Stop....I should have spent less time on the waving and more on useful hand signals.

This puddle caused us a bit of kerfuffle.....but we proceeded on.

We are all now a bit better at Picking Lines....quick, spontaneous guesses need to be done on SlopeIntoPuddleTraction computations, especially so on blind corners.

Perkinstown.....

Big Falls County Park....

My bike started having cooling fan issues...on/off at will. It will need more attention once home.

On the front lawn of the motel in Phillips....agreement all around that Life Is Pretty Good

Saturday morning, the plan was to stop in Clam Lake for a late breakfast.

On our way....

Here we were wandering too far from the Track so Eric rode ahead to see if around the corner the trail was going to work its way back to where we were supposed to be.....

....it wasn't so we turned around.

This was the section that Eric and I saw video of at Chad's seminar....and was the part south of Clam Lake that I was most concerned about. By this time, we were way, way, Way past worrying about puddles. This trail was obviously for machines that had handlebars centered over that strip in the middle, not biased to one side or the other.

There was foliage....and then more foliage. I had leaves stuck under my helmet camera, caught in my jacket's armpits, stuck behind me and wedged under my duffel.

I've ridden plank roads before but those planks were at 90 degrees to the direction of travel....not here.

There wasn't just one of them....visibility was poor, the sun off/on and for a ways, they just kept coming.

We got through it, my camera was still on top of my helmet and we all had our topknots, surprising considering the branches and bushes we literally rode through. Jacket's soaked as we dried off the leaves while passing....and we met not a soul.

Clam Lake for lunch at the Elkhorn....

I DID wash my hands too.....but it was this sign that really caught my eye with words To Live By.

North of Clam Lake I started bird-dogging these two tracks.....someone was obviously ahead of us and not very far. The fact that at every turn they were doing what we were doing told me that we'd eventually catch them......and we did. My first reaction to the close-coupled tracking told me that someone was on a smaller trailbike.....and they for all practical purposes were.

A stop in Drummond...Bear Country.

We got to the Delta Diner and there they were....he on a DR400, she on a lowered TW200. We looked at the license plates and then learned more when we started visiting. Florida is a long ways away and I guess I already knew that. They have property in IL and were following the Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail as we were, except they started at the IL/WI border.

Discussions back and forth...how they lowered the TW200 to make it a better fit...how he rode the DR400 all the way UP from Florida....and then we heard something I never, ever thought I'd hear in Wisconsin, "you guys should come down and ride the Everglades, the roads go on and on...."

And off they went....we continued to see their tracks but never caught them again.

Rod and I did some foraging, unsure of what the future might bring.....Yes they were good.

Since we were riding right by the campground at Siskiwit Lake (a place I've camped at before) I showed the guys where we might end up staying for the night, though Eric and I were determined to stay at the Herbster Public Campground. So we interrupted our quest for Point Detour once we got to Hwy 13 and headed west the 7 miles to Herbster to hopefully find a spot late Saturday afternoon.

We found a spot but only because the 3" of rain the night before had driven some of the campers away. Our plan from the beginning had been to stay on the beach in Herbster, one of our favorite places. Next time I'm north, I'm going to contact Open Air Places, a service that our niece is providing for people looking for an experience a bit different than the norm. Check out her webpage and look her up on Facebook!

What 3" of rain will do....

Once setup, it was on to Point Detour to complete our quest.

The end of the road.....

Like herding cats.....we really will have to work on our hand signals for next time.

Completion....

Back to Corny for some dinner....

Some exploring in Cornucopia....

Then in Herbster....The Gym

Finally ....some quiet time on the beach....as it should be.

Sunday morning, almost ready to go....

Breakfast in Iron River....

Rod headed west from here, Jeff, Eric and I went south to Hayward. From there, Eric went SE, Jeff and I SW until Turtle Lake. Jeff back to Minneapolis and me south to Red Wing.

We done pretty good for some old codgers and Eric.

8 comments:

EricJuly 25, 2017 at 6:07 AM
An experience looked forward to for many years!
ReplyDelete
Replies
redlegsridesJuly 25, 2017 at 9:00 AM
Good report...liked your comments re hand signals and herding cats. Group dynamics can be "fun" at times when it comes to communicating intent. I've found intercom systems quite the aid but making them work together can be another set of "fun".
ReplyDelete
Replies
SonjaMJuly 25, 2017 at 11:57 AM
You have me cringe at these trail conditions, you can hardly call them roads, can you? This would be so beyond my skill level. Kudos to you guys to make it through this.

Am I the only one that worries about hygiene when a sign "to wash hands before returning to work" is necessary?
ReplyDelete
Replies
TrobairitzJuly 25, 2017 at 12:53 PM
Puddles!! How dirty were you and your bikes by the end of that trip. It looks fabulous even though you were cutting brush for part of it.

I had to chuckle about the couple with the DRZ400 and TW200 as that is hubby and I when we ride our little dual sports together.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

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)