Some Road Work

Been doing some road riding over the past few days. 18-20 mile jaunts on roads and rails to trails.
This pic from Superior, WI. Years ago a section of the train pier out to Lake Superior dropped.

Grandson Jason, he's growing up fast!

Great-Aunt Joan




Memorial Day, 2009

A time to remember. Memorial Day, 2009.

It is the Soldier, not the reporter who has given us freedom of press.
It is the Soldier, not the poet who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer who gives us freedom to demonstrate.
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
who serves beneath the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.

- Father Dennis Edward O'Brien

My Wife's Uncle Frank on the left, our middle son Nick, in the middle, my wife's Father, Jim on the right.

Nick, far left, Jim in the middle right foreground, Frank far right.

Uncle Frank
Nick

Jim

n + 1???

Saw this while out on a ride this past weekend.....what do you think, should I make an offer?

Sping Mountain Bike

Got into some mud on the Kickapoo Trail in SE Illinois.

Kayak video

Went out to the Little Wolf River with friend Tom. Wanted to get some videos. Water was a bit low and I only got one Vid as the camera switched to "photo" mode accidently.
Oh well. Will get some up in Canada, I hope.





A friends "cabin" along the way.
Remnants of an old bridge.

Spring singletrack in Madison

HE-MAN Canoe trip

Annual Spring Canoe trip. Over 20 years for me and some 30 years in a row for some of the Graybeards.........or Chromedomes or Grayhairs, as the case maybe.
This year had a big turn out of 10-20 guys showing up at various times over the 3 days.
2 were new guys that came with us for the first time. 5 were some friends that floated one day with us on the White River, but really were their own group.

Started out on the Brule River Thursday afternoon with 13 guys. Dropped onto the river a couple miles up from the Winneboujou landing. Gentle Class I with a single Class II. Nice warm up for the weekend.

We finished that and decided to put back in at the Pine Tree landing and go to Hwy. 13. This has a nice long Class II with a Class III sections of drops. Only a couple of us were going to go but then all but 3 guys loaded back up and took off. Most decided to go single in a canoe and me in my kayak, but we also had 6 guys who loaded into 3 canoes to test their skill (luck??) going over the ledges. With the drops and technical maneuvering going single has a much better chance of staying dry.

We all had fun on this stretch, with one duo having so much fun they tipped over 3 times!
The water was cold and the day was getting short as we left the ledges to get to the takeout a few miles down stream. We ended up tying the canoes back on the trailer in the dark after building a warmup fire for the ones, shall we say, a little chilled.
No pics from this day...... a mistake, for sure.

The next day we headed down the White between Mason and Hwy. 112. As with the Brule, it empties into Lake Superior.
It was a great day and after the long day on the Brule the day before, it turned into a nice floater.

Click on the pics to enlarge.

Stopping for a shore lunch of shrimp, burgers, brats and chicken.

Maybe just a little whiskey was poured while the campfire was prepared and the food cooked....

The flotilla heading down stream.

Mac giving some tips.....or just screwing off, which is probably more like it.

Saturday on the Jump, dropped in just above my hunting shack. Temps dropped to 45 degrees. Vinod, being from India, asked for something warmer than a ball cap. I ran back to my hunting shack and grabbed some selective headgear.......he didn't really wear it, just messing around some.

Mac and Tim giving some moral support.

We saw a Pine Martin and family of Canadian geese with a mess of chicks which had the making of Musky bait if they weren't careful.

Nice week of water on the Peshtigo, Brule, White and the Jump Rivers. A great excuse to spend time in the WI northwoods on the water (and off!) with friends, both old and new.

Saturday night was spent at Tom's cabin on Sackett's Lake near Medford, WI. One of the original canoeists and the "Leader of the Pack".

Dinner of grilled steaks. A campfire and sauna with a few dives into the bracing water of the lake to cap the 3 days of river time.

NEWSFLASH: Received an e-mail a couple days after making this POST:

Vinod took a number of pics over the course of the weekend. Pay no attention to the naked guy!

click here for the link

Peshtigo kayaking

Took the afternoon off and did some yakking with the son of a friend of mine. Josh has spent time in a sea kayak but recently took ownership of his Dad's Yellow Submarine, the Prijon Yukon Expidition that I had owned and used out in Montana a few years ago, see the 2 pics below.

Tom bought the Blue Bullet, (formerly Big Blue) a few weeks ago then passed the Yellow Submarine on to his son.

Josh and I started out on the upper Peshtigo and hit some nice Class II's, getting us ready for 2 Class III's further on down the river.

Some river art.

There are3-4 of these narrow chute drops with some nice whitewater on the upper section.

The bottom of the first Class III drop. Looking up from the bottom of MI Rapids.

Zoomed in some.........

Further out..........

Me coming through.

Josh coming through.

We had an eagle leading us down the river. He landed and waited for us 6-8 times to the take-out. I never got a great shot of him, posted a couple here. Zoom in on him. He was a big boy!

Josh coming down through The Dells section.

The Rowe's and their smiles......Josh said a few moments before this, at the start of "The Dells", his smile was more of a grimace of fear than fun!

Handled it like an old pro!