Coop's Corner: Another Autumn Weekend In Delta

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Another Autumn Weekend In Delta - 2023/09/28

Same place as last year, only a week later and for the most part, this year's week delay put us into what just may have been on average the most colorful. We've been fortunate enough to witness more brilliance in the area though this year was awfully darn pretty.

We four made our way up Thursday, got ourselves settled and went out in search of what turned out to be a very elusive old CCC Camp. We missed it but it will be a target for next year....our reservation is in for the same cabin, same weekend in '24.

Mileage for me on the weekend was 270 miles...including a few on the Madeline Island Ferry. Thursday afternoon was the quick red loop, Friday was our group ride to Madeline Island. Saturday I took off on my own, a wander that looped up to Port Wing and lunch at the boat ramp.

Check out my new set of Battle Axe tires!

Our 3rd year now at this resort and cabin...

In search of the old CCC camp we wound up at a new place. On previous visits, the road (bridge) to the Fishery was always closed. The new bridge, very grand was worth a stop.

Friday morning, a busy (long wait) Delta Diner. We were glad that we managed the wait however!

My Breakfast Sandwich, Eric's stuffed French Toast across....

County H.....we ran into these horrible tar snakes back in August while camping in Herbster. I think there was consensus, we've never encountered any that were more slippery.

Almost to Ino on Hwy 2.....

Colors were bright....there were pockets.

Peg recommended a hike out to Houghton Falls....so we stopped.

These were on the hike out to the falls but the forest floors in general were home to bounteous mushrooms everywhere I looked.

The cavern, the falls were subdued with not very much water running through.

The end of the trail at Lake Superior.

Bayfield on our way to the Madeline Island Ferry, here the Carnegie Library, a place I try and spend some time in during all of our Condo Weekend visits.

The ferry line.....

There was light drizzly rain on the ferry ride and for part of our loop on the island.

I wanted to share the Big Bay County Park with the guys.

After the park, we looped back to LaPointe

Grampa Tony's....perpetually closed and FOR SALE

We found coffee and some sweets at the Coffee Shop....

We planned a "ride mine, I'll ride your's..." but we never got around to it.

Waiting to board the ferry...

Boarding the ferry...

Working our round-a-bout way to Washburn...

Niemisto Rd, most of which is an off-road bike passage....

I wanted to have fun with this....and I did. Back in August, Steve and I saw a Tshirt, Steve saw a Tshirt that we both looked interesting. The pile was small, 3 in fact and none of them were our size. A small PostIt note, "supply is low, give me a call....John". When we got home from our weekend, I called. Possibly a week later, John called, he found a couple of shirts and offered to mail them or....if I would be coming north again, we could meet. Steve had no idea any of this was going on behind the scenes and I wanted to surprise him with a shirt that he'd forgotten about.

From the island, texts were shared, a time and location that we could make after our ferry crossing was agreed upon. We arrived at the coffee shop in Washburn a few minutes prior to our scheduled time.

John was right on time, we learned more about the old railroads, the area and local history that I was hungry for and that the other guys were tolerant of listening to. Steve donned his shirt right away, a happy customer.

FS-695 on the way to Birch Grove Nat Forest Campground

Long Lake County Park, our family has picnicked and swam here....

Make sure you See Motorcycles.....

I just love the light on these late afternoons in (almost) October

We were almost back to Delta....way tooo many deer lurking in the ditches before we got back.

Saturday morning we split up, I took off on my own and wandered with no real destination in mind. That is until I noticed Orienta Falls on the map. Never heard of it, never been there before, so I had to go.

See 3 fishermen on the shore of Iron River?

A motorcycle in Port Wing....

The village of Port Wing on the right, the Boreal Forest on the left.

The Boreal Forest State Natural Area....

Saturday lunch at the Port Wing Boat Launch...

Another evening meal at the resort lodge....

Sunday morning the guys helped me load the '78 Honda 400 Auto.

Here I was north of Hayward on my way home, WOJB on the radio and I was enjoying Polka Hour. I recognized many of the bands from listening to dad's record....he'd have been proud of me.

A lot of video was taken, on the ground, on the road and in the sky. I'll be Posting at the video place soon, just not yet, I'm in no real hurry.....I'm retired.

We had a great time, no catastrophe's, nothing out of the ordinary at least. The weather was mild, only a few quick showers. The weekend was the end of season event for us as far as I know though we're all hoping to squeeze a few more miles in.

4 comments:

redlegsridesOctober 4, 2023 at 8:12 AM
quite the day of riding! the mud on FS-695 looked slippery.
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayOctober 5, 2023 at 6:26 AM
We always have a great time riding up there, this year's recent rains made the sand easier to navigate but you're right, 695 was gooey in that stretch. My new tires did very well though, I'd have been in trouble with the previous ones.
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mohessianOctober 5, 2023 at 12:51 PM
I like the "you are here" dot on the screenshot.
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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)