Trip to Chippewa Falls and surrounding area

[Baatfam]

In a couple hours, Amy and I are leaving the Chicago 'burbs and riding to the Chippewa Falls area...(home of Jake and John Leinenkugel )
Although we are riding the BMW and are attending the BMW Riders Association Annual Rally, I thought the trip was worthy of a GSR report.
There are plenty of great roads in that part of the state, and we hope to get in some significant "saddle time"....

Day 1:

We are going to slab it out of the suburbs, through Rockford and past Madison, WI...but from there the roads will get better...
Our planned route includes Wildcat Mountain...(the midwest's Deals Gap), and then The Mindoro Cut, which is also a great road...
We will stop the first night in Black River Falls at the Orange Moose...

Our route for Day 1:

While at the Orange Moose we will be lifting the "Curse of the Orange Moose"...something we've been planning for over a year.
In June of 2010, my wife "borrowed" this pint glass from the bar...

The next morning, the ignition jammed on the 1100E...(but we didn't understand why at the time)...
Last fall, when we returned to Wisconsin, my starter failed just after crossing the state line...then my glasses broke, my MP3 player quit, etc....
Obviously, it was the "Curse of the Orange Moose"...

So tonight, we will return the glass to it's home...and the curse will end.

Thursday morning we will head up to Chippewa Falls and ride out of there for three days, returning on Sunday...

That is all for now...I will post pictures as our trip unfolds and video when we return...

 

[Hornswaggle]

That should be a beautiful trip! Better try some of their Summer Shandy when you get to Chippewa Falls, it's quite refreshing

 

[bonanzadave]

Im trying to get the wife over to Ellsworth this weekend for the best Cheese Curds in the world. Ill keep an eye out for ya.....

Have a safe trip....sounds like a blast !

 

[rustybronco]

I picked up my '80 just north of Chippewa falls up in rice lake. it's beautiful country up there. then again I'm biased; my parents live up in the the north woods area.

enjoy the trip Bob.

 

[Baatfam]

Day One continued:

307 miles....great day...
The slab was boring, but uneventful...
Hit Wildcat Mountain about 1pm...then stopped in Ontario for lunch...

Amy in the Paddle Inn restaurant.

Then we headed out to the Mindoro Cut...where we meet some Harley types....

After that it was a short run to Black River Falls and the Orange Moose...
When we went to return the cursed Orange Moose glass, the bartendress, was confused.

She thought we wanted to return a defective glass that we bought, but they didn't have those anymore, so she tried to send us to the front desk...
When we explained that we had "borrowed" it, she understood completely and told us a story about bringing home some stuff from Hawaii, that "cursed" her life and she ended up sending it back....
So....she said we should pay $5 for the glass and the curse would be lifted....
Done...now we need to go down and eat some dinner...

Tomorrow...Chippewa Falls...

 

[Joe Nardy]

There is a historic monument and pullout on the Mindoro cut?

Who knew?

 

[Baatfam]

There is a historic monument and pullout on the Mindoro cut?

Who knew?

If those Harley guys hadn't pulled out...how would we have know....???

 

[Joe Nardy]

If those Harley guys hadn't pulled out...how would we have know....???

You kids be safe and have a great time!

Joe

 

[Baatfam]

You kids be safe and have a great time!

Joe

Will do, chief...all is good so far...

Orange moose continues to deliver.....

 

[Baatfam]

Breakfast in a bit...then I have a nice looking "ABC" route all figured out to Chippewa Falls....

 

[Baatfam]

Forgot this picture from the morning we left...

Now...Day Two, (yesterday)...
Had a very nice breakfast at a little place in Black River Falls...the Country Cafe...

Then we took a couple of hours to get to Chippewa Falls...They have some really nice roads in the area...fun and picturesque...
Stopped at the fair grounds to register...lots of bikes pulling in, setting up....plenty of food, beer and vendors....

Went to the Leinie Lodge down the street...took the Leinenkugel tour and had some free samples....

Finally went back to our room...Amy went swimming for a bit...then we had an excellent, low cost dinner at the hotel restaurant...
And I got a free beer...asked for a Leinie Creamy Dark...they brought me a Guinness, so I got the Guinness free...

Getting ready to head out for breakfast....then I'll study up some routes for today...going to head northeast and see what's what....

Later

 

[Baatfam]

July 1st, day 3...

Did 222 hot, hot, hot miles today....about 6 hours with all the stops....nice roads...good time...
Pics and update later...

 

[bonanzadave]

Did 222 hot, hot, hot miles today....

Stay cool guys....Its a roaster out there.

 

[Baatfam]

Stay cool guys....Its a roaster out there.

Today was better...only mid 80s...did 227 miles today...found some great roads....

Pictures from yesterday and today...soon...beer and pool first...

 

[Baatfam]

July 1st, (day three), continued...

After breakfast, we headed out NE into the Chippewa Moraine area...
Did a bunch of roads and while stopped for gas in Bruce WI, I saw a movie marque which I thought was the current tag in the GS riding game thread...so we took a pic

But I was late to the game...

Later...It was hot and we needed to cool off for a bit, so we stopped at a visitors center for the Chippewa Moraine Ice Trail reserve...
It was very cool inside and very cool...we learned a lot about the glaciers that formed the area, (which is why the great roads)....

So we rode some more, had lunch at an Irish bar, and rode some more...

Coming back down 178, there was this cool, one lane bridge...

Which we had to go over...

Later we crossed the Chippewa River again...

The heat was bad...Amy was getting light headed around 3pm, so we stopped at the Leinie lodge and cooled down...
Then a quick stop at the BMW rally...nothing going on there...except in the beer tent and we had to ride, so that was a no-go...
Had a great dinner at the motel...

More to come...

 

[Joe Nardy]

Amy was getting light headed around 3pm

Sometimes it is SOOOO hard for me not to make a comment........ :hand:

Joe

 

[Baatfam]

Sometimes it is SOOOO hard for me not to make a comment........ :hand:

Joe

Ha...at least I know someone is reading this...

 

[Baatfam]

Saturday, July 2nd...

Much like Friday, we had a good breakfast and headed out to ride...
Went west this time and found some more very nice roads...

We didn't take many pictures this time....
One shot inside the "Chicken Coop" restaurant...where the food was decent....

And there was the town of Colfax...which claims to be halfway between the equator and the north pole...

Did 227 miles in about six hours...had fun!
Skipped stopping in at the BMW rally site...saw it twice and unless your camping, I didn't see the point...
It is like all the Harley rallies we used to go to, without the wet t-shirt contests....

Heading for breakfast in a few, and then homeward bound...
I think we have time to hit Mindoro and Wildcat on the way home...

 

[Baatfam]

Home...safe and sound...
364 miles today...for a total of 1225 on the trip...
We did hit both the Mindoro Cut and Wildcat on the way home...

Just opened an IPA to finish the day...

 

[Joe Nardy]

Home...safe and sound...
364 miles today...for a total of 1225 on the trip...
We did hit both the Mindoro Cut and Wildcat on the way home...

Just opened an IPA to finish the day...

Bob,

Glad you're home safe and sound and glad you had a good time. Thanks for the pics ad write ups.

I hope you'll still be able to slum it and ride with us po' GS riders.......