Coop's Corner: Long Weekend Northern Wisconsin

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Long Weekend Northern Wisconsin - 2022/07/25

Another great weekend in northern Wisconsin. I left Thursday after work for Perch Lake north of Drummond, found a very quiet campground that remained that way for the weekend.

Bike and van loaded, starting for home....at the end of my adventure.

Where the 399.9 took me....

The beginning of the adventure, same campsite that I stayed in back in early November 2020.

Friday morning in a nicely quiet campground.

I overheard the cook asking one of her regular's if he'd be going to the Blueberry Festival in Ironwood.

It took no time to decide that I WOULD be going to the Blueberry Festival in Ironwood...

My plate was soon clean....this Dutch pancake something new for me from the Delta Diner.

The Russian Orthodox church next to where Peg's dad grew up in Cornucopia.

The bear hunters were out...scouting?

Berry Hunters shirley....

Guys, I'm really hoping that our paths cross again, our conversation(s) there in Corny were delightful....I'd like another session! Hope your daughter has nothing but fun on her new RE Classic 350!

A group of kayakers, I believe a class.

Not sure if this is a farm truck....but it's a farm truck.

Fresh and cold from the artesian well in Corny.

Bark Point boat launch...

We're really looking forward to being back here in September!

Almost 2 cups worth in 45 minutes maybe? Don't even ask me where, a Berry Hunter's Secret!!

Soft, glowing grass...

Microwavable mashed and bacon-wrapped pork cutlets. My refrigerator pickles had already been consumed.

Breakfast time the next morning....

Pest control....amazingly effective!

Told you I'd be there...

Been a long time since I'd been to a Tractor Pull. Sanctioned classes, 4-12 year olds, boys and girls with both State and National runoffs too. Who knew?!

The top 4 places in each class, boys and girls, qualified to Pull at the State Championship in Menomonie later this year.

After the smaller people pulled, the bigger people made the effort....with a $$ contribution to the local Lions group. Nothing like having a couple of brother-in-laws in the audience.

....with cheering section!!

You know this was a good Pull!!

Wasn't just BIL's....

If their daughters could do it, so could they.

The 'medals' were made by the local high school Technology Class....printed and machined.

Looks like the old Drummond place is being brought back to life. I've had Friday Fish more than once and when I rode the TW200 on the Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail, I spent the night in the motel.

Pigeon Lake....what a disaster and it still lingers. This road has been built up....for the time being. I stopped up ahead and water was obviously flowing through the freshly dumped fill from one side to the other.

From my 2020/11 visit.....

Back at camp for lunch....

I wear gear to keep the bears away....there was a lot of scat in the area.

Not all of the blueberries were blue...

Bet it's been a long time since you've seen Berries In A Bottle!

My first attempt at bannock this camp....a success!

Sunday morning coffee in Grandview....

The Depot Museum in Mason...I finally got there when it was open!! Not only that, it was to be some refuge from approaching rain....that never happened.

From Mason I rode east, to new territory. I was surprised at how prominent row-crop agriculture was in the area. Huge fields of soybeans and corn, many acres of standing wheat that looked beautiful. I looped up to Ashland for some KT coffee before heading back to camp.

From Ashland, Washburn in the distance across the bay.

Bannock #2, even better than #1 was!

Leaving no trace....the fungi still intact Monday morning when I left.

Loaded for home...

I stopped in Cumberland at Louie's for rations...

Some things I brought home that I hadn't left with...

As James would say, "It was a good camp".

4 comments:

RichardMJuly 28, 2022 at 5:59 PM
Sounds like a fantastic weekend. And you return with cheese curds!
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RichardMJuly 28, 2022 at 6:05 PM
It looks like you pan fry the bannock kind of like a thick pancake. I’ve seen recipes for baked and deep fried versions.
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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)