I Went Searching for Fall Color...

... and found some nice motorcycle roads. I left home at noon and headed east on CR-M, a few miles later I was riding through the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Just a few hundred feet before the town of Clam Lake, I turned north on CR-GG. The county has chip sealed and painted it recently and it's in great shape as motorcycle roads go.

Along the way I found some nice colors and got the required motorcycle picture...

Two miles from the town of Mellen...

Town of Mellen Memorial Park...

From Mellen I went south on WI-13 to the town of Glidden. The town has the title of "The Black Bear Capital of the World" because of a record setting bear killed near there in 1963. A mount of the bear is on public display just off the main street in a rock and glass enclosure.

Established 1876.

I left Glidden and back tracked 3 miles to the junction of WI-13 and WI-77. WI-77 is also known as the National Forest Great Divide Scenic Byway. I took 77 west through Clam Lake. There's an experimental heard of elk in the area that are part of a University of Wisconsin program to re-introduce elk to the area...

I turned left onto CR-S. The 10 mile section of county road S has the potential to be an awesome motorcycle road, it just needs to be totally resurfaced. It's been patched and repaired but it will pound you to pieces if you travel it at the 45 MPH speed limit. In the few sections that aren't too bad, there are tar snakes everywhere, both the kind that run parallel to the road and perpendicular. They make cornering a challenge.

County Road S...

When CR-S ended at CR-B, I turned right onto B. I stayed on that until I went left on CR-CC. County road CC is a very nice road that takes you through the Chippewa Flowage. In several places the road is running right along side the water...

One side of the road...

The other...

CR-CC took me to CR-N and on to CR-E. E is A very nice road, running right past and up close to both Grindstone and Spring Lakes. All of the area is part of the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation.

Spring Lake...

From there, it was a short ride out to CR-K, then north up to US-63, to Cable and back home. 151 miles and 3.5 hours

There are several more roads I want to ride... as long as the weather holds out!

Fall's Slow Progress and a Car Show...

While some northern bloggers have ice and snow already, fall, or more precisely, fall color, has been slow to arrive in Cable, WI. I took some pictures today and when compared to last year, the brilliant reds, oranges and yellows of the maple trees just refuse to show themselves. I think we're at least 10 days behind last year...

Today..... 9-26-15.

And one year ago... 9-22-14.

Today, Nancy and I went to the 14th Annual Cable Area Fall Festival   in "downtown" Cable. It was a beautiful 74 degrees and sunny! There were a number of vendors selling their arts and craft items, vendors selling food, and a car show. I was very surprised by the quality of the cars in the show.

Here's just a few...

My first car was a '73 Riviera hat looked a lot like this one.

Catching Up and a Cable, WI Fall Color Update...

It's been three weeks since I last posted to my blog. I've been keeping busy around the house and in the garden, but I've had some fun too.

My buddy, John, and his wife, Wendie, came up for a visit for my birthday/long Labor Day weekend. He brought up his Harley and had the dealer in Rice Lake mount up a new set of tires on it on his way up. We went for a couple of rides and looked at a cabin that's for sale on a local lake.

The weather has been dry and unseasonably warm the last few weeks so Nancy and I took the kayaks out for a trip down part of the Namekagon River.

As we traveled down the river, we saw at least 2 dozen turtles out sunning themselves on rocks and logs. Check out this one... He's got his hind legs stretched out and it looks like he's warming his toes in the sun.

The foliage along the river had just started to lighten. No color yet, as of the 8th of September.

This little guy was sitting in the tree watching us at the Earl Park Landing when we were getting out of the river.

About a week ago I got an email from Doug over at Coop's Corner. He told me that he was going to be up this way and staying in Herbster at a little campground the shore of Lake Superior. On Sunday the 13th, I went north and tried to find him. I found his van, trailer and camp site, but no Doug.

Sometimes, I forget that many people are far more technologically advanced that I am. I never thought to send an email before I drove up there. I figured he was like me and limited to email at home.... not thinking that he probably has a "smart phone"...

On Monday I sent him an email and told him that I'd been there on Sunday, and that I'd try to get back up there later in the day. I left home around 3:30 and made it up to the campground by 5:00. I met up with Doug at the campground and spent an hour and a half shooting the breeze. I made it home just as it was getting dark. Of course I didn't bring my camera on Monday...


It's been very windy and in the low 80's the last couple of days. I think this has made the leaves start to turn color. When I was driving up to Herbster on Sunday and Monday, I noticed that there was very little color on the leaves. That has changed in just 2 or 3 days.
Today, there are signs of color starting everywhere.... All of these pictures are from less than a half mile from home.

The first one is from a maple tree in my yard. There is ONE red leaf today, 9-16. In 2 weeks the whole tree will be a stunning red...

Now it's a race to see what happens first... my tomatoes turn red(some are getting there) or we get a hard frost(we've come close once)!!

The Tractor Gets Teeth!!

I know this post belongs in something like 'Mother Earth News' or 'Tractor & Machinery', and it's not motorcycle related, but hey, the tractor is green and so is my bike...

Owners of compact utility tractors often suffer from the same affliction as motorcycle owners, well I do anyways, and that's the constant desire to look at farkles. I found one for my tractor in the form of a Heavy Hitch brand, bolt-on tooth bar. What's a tooth bar you ask? A tooth bar is an accessory that attaches to the front of the bucket to make digging easier. The buckets on the front of equipment, whether it's a skid-steer, or a tractor with a front end loader, or a piece of large construction equipment, come 2 ways, either with a plain straight edge, or with teeth.

My tractor, a John Deere 1025R, came with a front end loader attachment and a plain, 53" wide bucket. The straight cutting edge is fine for moving snow, scraping stuff off of concrete slabs, and digging loose material out of piles. But for digging up compacted ground it would be like using a wide, flat snow shovel in dirt instead of a narrow, curved and pointed one.

Everyone likes pictures so here they are...

This is the bucket as it originally came. Note the straight edge...

You can see another farkle I added, the bolt on hooks on top of the bucket... See, more of the same affliction as motorcycle owners!

Here's the bucket with the tooth bar bolted on...

Next, I'll be digging up some more flower beds for Nancy... And looking at more farkles... I've got my eye on a carry all frame and either a box blade or a land plane to keep the driveway in shape... It never ends, just like with motorcycles.

Oh, and just to make this post even more 'Mother Earth News' worthy, we made 7 jars of chokecherry jelly the other day. The garden is doing well. The tomatillos are going crazy and have tons of fruit, the peas are done and I think we've picked all the zucchini and given a lot of it away. I put up a little "free" sign and a table at the end of the driveway and put zucchini and some green beans on it. Everything's been taken shortly after being put out there! A few people even left us thank you notes! That makes us happy.