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Baraboo Hills ride - Saturday, August 13th

M

ManWorkingHere

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Saturday, August 13th – Baraboo Hills Ride.

This annual ride has been mentioned in our newsletter since January.  Now it is time to ride it!

We’ll meet at the McDonald’s at the intersection of I-94 and Highway 83 in Wales, at 8:00 a.m. for Breakfast.  Kickstands up at 830a.m. and then head west thru Devil's Lake State Park and loop back through the Spring Green/Mount Horeb area. Return time around 5:00 p.m. As usual, you can pick up the ride in progress at the Merrimac Ferry (on the north side of the Wisconsin River) around 10:30 a.m.

Route Map to Lunch:

Route Map from Lunch to Ice Cream:
 

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Great ride Matt, Weather was a little shaky early on but turned into a beautiful day. Thanks for your efforts !
 
I couldn't make the ride because I was out of town. But I wonder if a few of you stuck around the area, or if there was another big sport touring ride around here this weekend. I got home Sunday late afternoon and went for a short ride over to Spring Green, then up 60 to Sauk City before looping back home. Not only did I see a ton of motorcycles out, I counted at least a dozen sport tourers, and I was only out for about an hour. This included 2 C14s, an ST1300, an FJR, several Beemers and a couple I only glimpsed and couldn't ID.
 
Baraboo Hills ride report[size=12pt]
Matt Brzeski
SE WI AAD, COG #9292

Saturday had a gloomy start under cloudy skies and drizzle threatening to get worse.  I rode out to the Delafield/Wales exit with my Klim raingear on.  As I pulled into the parking lot at McDonald’s, Cliff Hill rode in behind me.  We chatted a bit while waiting for anyone else to appear.  Cliff’s son, Tom, declined to ride his sport bike in this weather and rolled back over to sleep said Cliff.

We departed for Madison and the Merrimac Ferry crossing north of Lodi.  Driving the freeway was wet but not raining on us as we rode past Oconomowoc and Lake Mills.  West of Lake Mills, however, we were stalled by a two mile long ‘gapers block’ as traffic stopped to watch a serious vehicular accident get cleared from the other side of the median.  Pet peeve of mine are gapers.  Arrgh!  Our traffic delay did not put us too far behind schedule as we cleared the scene.

Clearing skies to puffy clouds greeted us as we pulled off I-94 near Lodi for a fuel and tobacco stop.  Cliff mentioned that another forum member posted a meetup on the north side of the Wisconsin River.  It was quite exciting to enter Lodi itself to find a parade waiting to happen.  Luckily, the “Precision Entertainment Team of the Concours Owners’ Group”, or PETCOG for short, was able to thrill the eager audience with our professional riding skills.  As we waved to the seated crowds, women swooned, men cheered, and little children wondered who the heck are these guys waving to us.

Cliff and I continued up Hwy 113 to the ferry crossing. We had only a short wait for the ferry to cross back to load us aboard.  We chatted up the minivan next to us about their cottage plans versus our touring excursion.  I always appreciate the National Registry of Historic Places’-recognized ferry carrying us across the bright, blue waters of the Wisconsin.

On the other side, Jerry was waiting for us in a parking lot.  Since he is from nearby Reedsberg, Jerry mentioned that he encountered downed tree limbs and water on the roads going through Devil’s Lake state park.  We set off with that bit of caution in mind. Our merry troupe was me on my ’01 C-10, Jerry on his ’12 C-14, and Cliff on his ’09 FJR.

The roads under the trees in the park were still wet as their shade kept the roads from drying out.  I kept the speed down where the twistier sections were slick.  But the park was pretty as we cruised past the lake itself.  People fishing from the shoreline, and a few boaters were enjoying themselves.

Those puffy clouds turned dark on us as we left the west side of the park.  We were doused as we made our way southwestward toward Spring Green.  The squalls then left us alone as we followed a few of the great County alphabet roads over and around the rolling landscape.

Lunch was planned for Freddy Valentine’s but US Cellular’s signals let me down so a change of plans led us to Culver’s nearby.

When we came out of Culver’s, there was an older couple from Fontana on their cruiser next to us in the parking lot.  They were not familiar with sport-touring bikes so Jerry and Cliff educated them on the benefits and challenges to our choice of rides.

They were interested in my seating option using a beaded, cut-down, car seat to ease my riding muscles.

After our talk, Jerry was headed back homeward.  He promised to look up the COG forum again to get his membership status changed.  He had a lot of good interaction with COGgers there to help him work over his C-14.  Cliff and I continued on this sunny afternoon to our next planned stop in New Glarus.

We enjoyed more entertaining County highways as we worked our way southeastward.  Since the roads merge and share territory at times, I use that excuse for missing the right turn off onto County G as I followed County A to the left.  You can see rerouting in the Spotwalla track I kept of our ride.  Cliff was a good sport as we were having a great ride with little traffic to contend with.

There were other motorcycle riders around but not that many in the area we were.  We did pass a couple of bars were many H-D’s were gathered but we did not pass that many actually riding.

We arrived in New Glarus for ice cream, nicotine, and gasoline to fuel us up.  Once again Culver’s was chosen since the Conoco station is right next door.

Leaving New Glarus on County W put us on 6 miles of fresh gravel that was pressed down by traffic and still left us driving cautiously.  Clearing that road was a welcome relief. As we made our way toward Eagle, we routed around Whitewater on Highway 20.  We followed Highway 67 northward until our paths spilt at Old World Wisconsin. 

Once again, a gorgeous ride with good people and great bikes!
 
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