Friday, March 29, 2013

The First Ride of the 2013 Season!

The riding gods were smiling today! Weather.com said it was 41º, the outdoor thermometer at our house said 56º. The driveway was almost ice/snow free, but very, very soft. I knew I had to do it!! So I rolled the Wr250X out of the garage, fired it up and let it warm up a bit while I checked the tires and put on my gear. I headed for town to fill the tank with a bit of fresh gas. If it was under 50º, I didn't notice, it felt much warmer.

I circled Lake Namekagon and stopped along the way for a few pictures.

The Great Divide...

The ice is still thick. A couple of people were out fishing...


Lane markers and traffic signs on the ice?


The Maple sap is flowing and being collected...


The public access looks more like a freeway entrance ramp...


It was nice to finally get out and ride. Fresh air and sunshine!! I needed this, winter has been here for too long!!

14 comments:

  1. Erik - does it feel a bit strange with ice fishers still out on the frozen lake and you riding comfortably on two wheels?
    Here the ice on the lake is thinning quickly - time for, you guessed it, open water crossing runs on snow machines - that's right. Every spring when the lakes start to open we have sled riders who attempt to get up enough speed to make it across open water on their snowmobiles. Many a machine has to be fished from the bottom of the lake ... but surpisingly, many others actually do it. (Is this a common sport in your area?)

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    1. It seems like the open water riding falls into 2 categories. Officially sanctioned events, and idiots with too much liquid courage in them. Kind of like "hold my beer and watch this...".

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  2. I guess it is just the right time to get out the little WR. I have never seen how maple sap is getting harvested, is it as profane as it looks being collected in plastic bags?

    Glad you had the weather and road conditions to get out and play at last.

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    1. I think the days of collecting sap in covered tin pails is long gone. I've seen what looks like a web of clear plastic tubing running from tree to tree and down to large collection barrels. I think the plastic bag system is a "one season" use thing. Probably much easier to dispose of the bag at the end of the season than it is to try and sanitize many 1000 yards of plastic tube...

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  3. You got out you Northerner you!!

    I saw many out yesterday but I wasn't one of them. So far, the driveway would be the roughest part of any journey and I've promised myself that I'd wait for the ice, if not the mud, to vanish.

    Haven't been out in the Maple woods yet to see our local harvesters, but hope this will be a better year than some for the freeze/thaw cycle.

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    1. Your driveway looks like it could be pretty bad in the spring. Does it ever get so bad that you have to park at the bottom and walk up???

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  4. WooHoo, you got out for a ride. I bet that does wonders for lifting the spirits.

    Thanks for sharing the pictures. I too had never seen maple sap being harvested in plastic bags.

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    1. It really did feel nice to finally go for a ride!

      When I was MUCH younger, my dad and his brother used to tap maple trees on a piece of property they owned. I remember we used 1 gallon water jugs as collection vessels. The sap was then transferred to a couple of clean copper wash boilers (google image might have a picture for you younger folks) and brought to our family's cabin. The collected sap was then boiled off over an open fire in a big sheet metal pan my dad had made. It took about 40 gal of sap to produce a gal of syrup. I remember watching my dad and uncle boiling the sap. I still have a couple of the old metal taps that they pounded into the trees after drilling a small hole. I even have a few that I made for them out of short pieces of wood dowel by boring a hole through them on a lathe....

      Ahh memories....

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  5. Good for you! Yay! Nice to see the maple's being tapped. That's a good sign!

    How was your snow total this season?

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    1. Martha, you know it's spring when they start to tap trees.

      Our snow totals were down this year. I was expecting more late season snow, but it didn't seem to make it here. I know other people got some late stuff, but it kind of missed us. There was plenty of snow for the Berkie, that was a good thing. Some years, they've had to truck snow out the trails to fill in bare spots.

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  6. Erik:

    Must have felt nice to be on two wheels again. I'm not sure I would have the nerve to ride on the thin, melting ice.

    never knew it took so much sap to produce so little Maple Syrup. No wonder it's expensive

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast

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    1. Bob, My sister and her husband were up to visit last week. They went ice fishing and there was still 18" (45 cm) of ice on the local lake!!

      There's a LOT of boiling to do to get rid of the water.. Some makers will freeze the sap and toss out the ice, then boil it. Others say that's wrong!

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  7. Here I am trying to stay away from 45 degree weather, and you are riding with snow on the ground, lol

    Riding My Own Biography
    NINJA ZX-14 MotoVlog

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    1. Hehehe, I guess it's all how you look at things! I'll have to stop riding for a bit. We got more snow last night.

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