Coop's Corner: We Found Sand, We Found Some Color

Sunday, September 30, 2018

We Found Sand, We Found Some Color

This is quite representative of the sand...

...and here's some color...

Friday's ride .....

Saturday's ride.....

Eric asked last week and this week, "ETA?"

This week I said, "8:30".

A bit over 4 hours of travel time, some allowance for 'other' and that meant I'd be leaving by 4AM.
At 3:50, I was in the van, turned the key ..... just a lot of very senseless noisy clicking.

There's a local mart open 24/7, so off I went. Rassel'd the old one out, put the new one in and was on my way north by 5:20.

Some rain showers on the way up...at least it wasn't snowing.....yet.

I was walking over to the Pay Station, 10 minutes after arrival when Eric drove in.

We stood around a bit, waiting for the shower to clear and hopefully a bit of sun...it was a very cool weekend. It was late (for us!) when the wheels finally started to roll but it looked and felt warmer with the sun.

The Russian Orthodox church in Corny...

The home that belonged to Peg's family.

We went east using the Star Route....

Then Jammer Hill....

I had marked a few locations with Waypoints that we'd be stopping at, the Washburn Tower the first one.

Potentially challenging intersections with no real designated Right Of Way. I have reason and experience to be a bit wary.

I looked down that direction but went on past. We had to come back.

Feeling a bit peckish, we decided to stop at the Valhalla Inn for some lunch...

Not bad at all if you stay in those grooves....

A little puddle to rinse the accumulated dirt off...

We stopped at Long Lake, a place our family has visited and enjoyed numerous times.

From the beach at the east end of the lake.....

Open this image with a big screen, there's a Bald Eagle in the tree that Eric saw first.

It's still there waiting to fly away as I pass below.

Almost back out to Hwy 13, Superior in the distance.

The end of our Track just west of Cornucopia, we went downtown to gas up.

Even with 30-40 mph winds, it was beautiful.

We rode downtown to Woody's for some fish. Here you can see the beach erosion and road damage caused by last Spring's massive waves....mother nature is putting real pressure on our favorite campground!

We bought firewood, I brought kindling but the gale force winds made an evening fire on Friday impossible. It was not just windy but raw, so we rode over to the Herbster Gym, a public space to get/stay warm, use the WiFi and relax before crawling into our sleeping bags.

Saturday morning....7AM. At least the wind was down but it wasn't feeling all that much better. And oh but the way, we never saw (or felt within a dozen degrees of..) 50.

A couple of guys enjoying a related outdoor endeavor.

This was marked on our top map as an old railroad bed...the area had rails criss crossing everywhere when the lumber industry ruled the area, most if not all narrow gauge.

Our map showed it within a couple hundred yards off this trail. We hiked in based on map information but saw nothing that hinted at a better roadbed than the one we were on.

Another place I had marked, the former Lenawee Lookout Tower location. As we got here, a human profile was quickly seen by both of us up there on the horizon. Another couple was out for a hike, a couple that I recognized from the restaurant Friday evening as we left. Their vehicle is parked right around the corner, the same spot I had parked the KLR 2 years ago when I attempted to walk up to where the tower had been. A storm had come through and blew most of the trees on this ride down, leaving a tangled mess that made walking up that visible ridge almost impossible. As you can see, the entire area has been cleared.

We'll walk up next time....

Some more bear hunters with their pups....

This little road looked worth exploring, it wasn't on my Track.

Up at the end, a marker proclaiming a former Homestead site.

A road that looked okay on the map, but closed.

Once again, this road is dropping faster and steeper than the photo shares, a monster puddle down there at the bottom. 2 years ago, my progress was stopped there coming from the other side. It looked too intimidating for me to attempt alone; a guy could drown out here.

I had it marked with another Waypoint as something for us to conquer. You can see my gloved hands in conquer contemplation stance.

"....right here....."

Eric went first, showing me how it's done....we both made it though it was as deep as it looked, at least to me.

You take them as they come.....

Sometimes head on, other times only near.

I took this photo...

Eric got this one....

I was getting confident with my side lugg'd tires....playing at riding the sideways slopes, more than once crab steering through the puddles.

Keep that front wheel rolling and aimed properly, you just sail through no problem.

But at the approach and execution of these corners.....you've just about got to get it right the first time.

It was getting too late and too cool for us to complete the entire Track I'd planned. Eric reported that we were averaging 10 mph for the day, 20 mph as a moving average.

Over to Port Wing for dinner....

Eric left before me Sunday morning; my plan to hang around to get some smoked fish in Corny but I needed coffee and breakfast....home was sounding good so I didn't linger very long.

Breakfast at the Bear Paw in Port Wing...

Along Hwy 27 on my way....

A stop in Cumberland...sustenance to share with my fellow camp riders next weekend when we do a variation of this weekend. :)

First Sunday in October -> Slimey Crud Run!!

6 comments:

redlegsridesOctober 1, 2018 at 9:00 AM
Coop, looks like Fall Colors haven't quite started over in your neck of the empire....I am hoping you'll provide proof that the reds in the area are equal to the reds in the northeast as claimed by a fellow on FB. It sure would save me a lot of driving some year to capture Fall Colors that include more red!
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MikeOctober 2, 2018 at 1:37 AM
"Hungry enough to peck at some food", peckish (crabby)
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SonjaMOctober 6, 2018 at 7:08 AM
Great pics! What a nice playground, the terrain looks quite challenging but seemed to have mastered it without any major incident. A campfire by the lake... my kind of camping.
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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)