Y'all heard of cheezconsin before?

[herseyb]

Started out Friday evening 2up camping, racing a bad storm out of Madison.  Caught a corner edge of the system but hardly got wet.  It caught up with my gal Sam and me as we made a mandatory Culver's stop in Spring Green.

The sun went down, no pictures taken and we finished the night by camping at the Driftless Folk School in La Farge. driftlessfolkschool.org/ 
   
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/43.0833901,-89.3659292/La+Farge,+WI/@43.2683223,-90.5307967,9z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-90.3717439!2d43.4905165!3s0x87fdc7535041ebbd:0xd06f001253dae506!1m5!1m1!1s0x87fc330b3afc8ffb:0x230ed8b844f99f13!2m2!1d-90.6404083!2d43.5746959!3e0


Sam had an all day paper making class, so after breakfast I headed to the closest ridge to see if Johnny could make it:

[herseyb]

No luck with Johnny, so I decided to head to the Mississippi by dead reckoning.

I took random back roads through wisco amish country, finally getting low on gas, and running into a major highway I see a pair of enduro's heading left, and follow them to the nearest gas station.  Turns out that Jim's (I think) dad has a '92 K75 in blue, and they live about 6 blocks away from my parents in Chicago.  Small world.  I liked their ancient yamaha 250's and might get one to mount a pair of outrigger snow skis onto.

More random riding eventually took me to a Rustic Route, so I decided to get a head start on collecting photos.  This was the start of some really gorgeous riding, and lots of friendly waves from Amish farmers.

[herseyb]

Johnny had warned of mud slides and random gravel patches on the small back roads.

I didn't run into an mud slides, but it did hit a couple patches of unmarked gravel on otherwise paved roads.  Once the road split to a Y at the top of a hill, and my rear brake skidded twice for short distance before gravity stole my inertia and I was able to leisurely take the left branch.  Another small side road down a beautiful valley had a mile or so of fresh pea gravel, but I took it easy and was back on the road to yeehaw in no time.

I finally came across another random Rustic Route, not too far away from my ultimate goal Goose Island County Park.  This proved to be one of the best stretches of the ride, and I could help but yet out some mad whoops and hollers when I made it to the top.

[herseyb]

After a nice hike at Goose Island, I mostly took Co Hwy P back to La Farge.  A beautiful valley road with some great turns for spirited riding 

I had to lean hard as I crossed the center line on one turn, and the front wheel began to get a little squirrely on me for a moment - I reckoned this meant I was finding far end of the leanable range of the bike.  That and having to hit some heavy hooks coming into another turn reminded me that scenic driving was an option too, and I took it at a more sedate pace the rest of the way back to La Farge.  Skipping lunch and feeling a bit of a rush to get back isn't the best mental state for riding! 

The third gravel patch was waiting for me on a county highway, this was some bigger stones spread right along the curve headed into the shadow of a cliff, and I'm glad I had slowed way down due to the low visibility.  The rocks were at a 3 or 4 inch density for about 10 feet through out the entire lane, and it was a bit disconcerting to ride over. 

[herseyb]

Loading back up, I noticed the new backrest rack definitely places my backpack higher and farther back than my previous attachment.  I felt a little top heavier, and nearly felt like I could busted a wheelie once on the way home, but everything went smoothly.

We stopped at organic valley's outlet for great deals on meats and cheeses, along with a dinner at the fantastic Driftless Cafe in Viroqua.  The gent an Organic Valley clued us into a camping spot along the Kickapoo river that we made use of and the cayotes sang to us in the night.  Sand hill cranes, blue herons, bald eagles, turkeys, fantastic draft horses, frogs and turtles highlighted the trip.

I busted 20,000 miles on the odometer on the way to dinner, and noticed a K1200 across the street after dinner.  A blue K75 waved to us on the start of our adventure Friday night as well.  It was rte 14 and Cty Hwy T out of Spring Green, and rte 18 back in to Madison to take us home, but my phone had long lost charge by that point.

[johnny]

greetings...

really like your ride report...

i getts my calendars on monday... looks pretty good... will post up at the meet spot...

j o