In the rush of working life, you seldom have the chance to explore your back yard. But with retirement, any Saturday can be a good day for smelling the roses just over the fence.
For those of us on the east side of the Twin Cities, our back yard is Wisconsin. I explored that back yard recently on the back of a KLR motorcycle, confirming there is more to Wisconsin than just cheese, Packer-backers and beer. This back yard has beautiful farm fields, small towns - some with visible economies and some without - and rolling hills. On this trip, I chose to seek and ride some of Wisconsins "Rustic Roads."
The Wisconsin state Department of Transportation has marked 117 roads with the Rustic Road designation, covering 669 miles over 59 counties. These scenic, lightly traveled roads are intended to provide local access to and through outstanding natural features like rugged terrain, native wildlife, native vegetation, or agricultural vistas that set them apart from other roads. Quite a number of them are in our back yard. The state identifies the routes on road maps by their number, 1through 117, beginning with an R. On this day, I traveled R3 and R4 outside of Glenwood City, R116 outside of Boardman, and R13 just outside of nearby Hudson, Wisconsin. Some are paved, some dirt, all are winding - motor-cyclist's paradise.
Another discovery on this ride was an Amish population that I hadn't realized had settled in our back yard. As recently as 2012, several Amish families moved up from Missouri, looking for lower cost farm land. Running down county road D on my return from Glenwood City toward Woodville, I experienced quite a contrast. As I passed Amish farmers walking behind their draft horses pulling discs between their cornrows, a helicopter was spraying the adjacent fields. I pulled over and shut down my bike to listen to the whop-whop of the helicopter blades as they drowned out the sound of clanging draft horse harnesses. One of the pictures below is fuzzy because I took it at a distance, but you can see the two teams working the fields. You can also see the stack of logs set to be converted into lumber in the background. I was curious how they rig the power for that saw mill seen next to the stack, since electricity or combustion engines are not an option.
Further down the pike, I found another Amish family cutting hay and stacking it high on wagons with a pitchfork. I have to admit, I'm hard pressed to understand why you would make so much work for yourself using more than century old methods for farming. I get the whole unplugging from the world thing, but it sure seems you could put that energy to better use for the community or for your family.
Next time I'll ride further into the fields beyond our back yard, south in the valley to explore other Rustic Roads and small Wisconsin river towns. Who knows what surprises will await.
For those of us on the east side of the Twin Cities, our back yard is Wisconsin. I explored that back yard recently on the back of a KLR motorcycle, confirming there is more to Wisconsin than just cheese, Packer-backers and beer. This back yard has beautiful farm fields, small towns - some with visible economies and some without - and rolling hills. On this trip, I chose to seek and ride some of Wisconsins "Rustic Roads."
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| Rustic Road #4 |
The Wisconsin state Department of Transportation has marked 117 roads with the Rustic Road designation, covering 669 miles over 59 counties. These scenic, lightly traveled roads are intended to provide local access to and through outstanding natural features like rugged terrain, native wildlife, native vegetation, or agricultural vistas that set them apart from other roads. Quite a number of them are in our back yard. The state identifies the routes on road maps by their number, 1through 117, beginning with an R. On this day, I traveled R3 and R4 outside of Glenwood City, R116 outside of Boardman, and R13 just outside of nearby Hudson, Wisconsin. Some are paved, some dirt, all are winding - motor-cyclist's paradise.
Further down the pike, I found another Amish family cutting hay and stacking it high on wagons with a pitchfork. I have to admit, I'm hard pressed to understand why you would make so much work for yourself using more than century old methods for farming. I get the whole unplugging from the world thing, but it sure seems you could put that energy to better use for the community or for your family.
Next time I'll ride further into the fields beyond our back yard, south in the valley to explore other Rustic Roads and small Wisconsin river towns. Who knows what surprises will await.
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