The Peak Color is Here Now!

I can't believe how fast the leaves have changed around here. I have 2 pictures of the same trees in my front yard, taken 7 days apart.

From 9-23, still some green in the trees...

From 9-30.....

The back yard...

A few from today's ride in the country..

Now, I just need to get out and ride and put some miles on the bikes. Then, start to think about getting them ready for winter. The leaves will start to fall off the trees soon!

The Things I've Been Doing Lately...

splitting a face cord and-then-some of Oak and Maple for the fireplace. All split by hand with a double bit axe, an 8 pound sledgehammer, and a wedge. No fancy hydraulic splitters here.

The outside stacks...
All wind-fallen Maple from the yard...

Mostly Oak, wind-fallen...

Oak, mostly dry, but still a little green....

Dry Oak from last year...

Today, Nancy and I went for a ride in the car. She found out about a small waterfall that's a half hour away. We took off around 11:00 a.m. and headed north.
We drove deep into the Chequamegon National Forest, and soon drove past...

And into the parking lot

We walked the half mile path through the woods, over 5 little bridges over small streams...

A little more walking path...

Shhhhh.... sensitive plants...

The falls.

A Link to an Interesting Blog

With all the Fall color pictures and ride reports lately, I thought I add a link to another blog. The blogger, Brian is out near the Flaming Gorge area in Utah. He has posted some really great Fall color pictures and some nice sunrise/sunset pics too.

Ribbon of Highway

Enjoy!

A Little Fall Color...

I think the colors up here will be at their peak in the next week or two. Most of the trees are showing at least some change in color.

A Little Taste of Things to Come!

Last night Nancy and I were up pretty late. At one point she yelled, "look outside, it's snowing!". Not really believing her, I walked to the rear patio door and turned on the spot lights. There it was. Big flakes of snow. Before midnight on the 21st of September.

This is what Fall looks like from our front window... Pretty standard Maple colors...

This is the view out the back door last night!

There was even a little snow still on the ground at 8:45 this morning!

A Bad Day in a Kayak...

Beats any day of working around the house. The other day, Nancy and I were talking about how we hadn't been out in the kayaks in a long time.
This afternoon, the weather was a mild 72°f (22°c) with a partly cloudy sky. A perfect day to paddle some of the Namekagon River. We loaded the truck with the kayaks and gear, packed a small snack and took off. We dropped Nancy's car off at the Cable Wayside Landing, then returned to the Cap Creek Landing, just a mile or so from home, and put in.
It's 5.9 miles of river, and most of it was pretty good. The water level is very low, we haven't had any decent amount of rain in a long time. In parts of the river, the depth can vary between a few inches and a few feet. The rocks that are normally under water and make for a fun ride down gentle rapids, were exposed and ready to bounce us around.

We took a short snack stop at the Phillipi Landing.

Then it was back into the river. The last 2.4 miles were pretty bad. There were more than 25 times where I had to break my paddle in half and use both short halves like cross country ski poles to push my self through shallow spots and free myself from the rocks. Talk about an upper body workout!
We were on the river for just about 4 hours. It was pretty slow going with such low water levels.

A few pictures from today.

Large patches of Forget-me-nots.

Low bridge..

Interesting green life on the end of an old piling...

I know there's a name for this, but it escapes me....

Even with low water levels, a day on the river is better than a day at home!

Days 15 and 16... I'm Home Now

Without going back to check the comments, I don't remember who said it, but they were right...."when the cow smells the barn..."

That's what yesterday and today were like. I took only 1 picture all day on Tuesday. I thought it was an appropriate name for a little town... I took it as my Last Chance to turn around and keep traveling before going home.

Tuesday ended with us trying to get another camper cabin at the KOA in Kennebec, SD, but again, they were all booked. I'll have to remember to call ahead and reserve them. We found a great room just a block or so away from the KOA. The price was right too. $5 bucks more then a cabin!

This morning would be the last run to home. I had 576 miles to go, John, about 160 less. It helped that there was no breakfast at the motel. We were on the road by 8:00. Our earliest start yet! We made a few gas and food stops along the way. I broke off from John at the I-35E/I-494 interchange. I had about 3 and a half more hours ahead of me.
It felt great to be so close to home. I noticed that Wisconsin is a lot greener that most of the places we traveled.
The corn is looking pretty good for a field with no irrigation!

Soy beans too!

Is there any wonder why Wisconsin cheese, eggs, milk, beef and chicken taste better than the products from out west.... No Sage brush in our "pasture land".

I knew I was close to home when I started to see Corn and Firewood for sale on the "honor system".

I guess the high price we pay for gasoline is a small trade off for the high quality of life up here.

By the time I got home, I had logged 5058 miles (8140k) on this trip. The '09 Ninja now has 38,545 miles (62,032k) on it. It needs a bath, an oil change now, and a valve clearance service sometime this fall.

It's good to be home!!!