I had posted to the FB riding group page about planning a ride today for a lunch stop at The Longbranch Saloon in Germania and eventually an ice cream stop at The Ice Bowl in Princeton. However, it ended up being just myself and Kevin, because one other rider had to cancel last minute and the other potential rider who showed interest never showed up or let us know they weren’t going to make it. We waited though until 10:40, but then we were off.
Although they kept adding some rain into today’s forecast, it was supposed to be pretty spotty, mostly north and only in the morning. Well, it seemed to linger most of the day. However, we luckily were south of it most of the time, but still got caught in it several times.
We headed west and north ending up on one of our favorites, Olden Road, into Ripon and on County J west of Ripon into and through Princeton. Then some back roads and eventually County N into Germania.
We decided to share a burger and entertained the thought of sharing one of The Longbranch’s prized Hippo Burgers, but figured 2 pounds of meat would still be too much even if we shared it. There were some young guys wearing camouflage at the bar drinking bloody mary’s, having lunch and talking to other patrons about turkey hunting. Not sure how much hunting they accomplished as they were still there playing shake-of-the-day when we left.
From there we meandered west and north eventually getting back onto County J. This really seemed to be the pattern of our day… zig-zagging around back onto the same roads we were originally on.
Eventually we made it into Montella where I needed to stop for gas at the insanely busy Kwik Trip.
From there back onto our route taking County C west out of Montella to Packwaukee and crossing Buffalo Lake. When we entered Packwaukee Kevin mentioned something about a posted sign regarding enforced speed limits and he wondered by who, and I replied it would have to be the Sheriff since I doubted it was nearly large enough to have their own law enforcement. And wouldn’t you know it, just as we came around the last dogleg going into town, a Sheriff passed us going the other way. Hah!
It started to rain again when we stopped along County C going through Buffalo Lake and we hightailed it out of there, but it was coming down pretty good at one point.
We eventually snaked our way back into the south side of Montella and then continued on County C on the east side of town. Which at this point, Kevin no longer had any route except taking Hwy 23 to Princeton, but I know I sent him several back roads to take north of Lake Puckaway. Anywho, I remembered them. So, no worries. We were going to stop at a resort along the lake, but opted not to because it was a loose gravel road to get there, Kevin happened to notice deer in the field next to us. So, I pulled over to try and catch a photo of them because there were close to around 10 of them. Well, they spotted me and took off pretty soon after I snapped my first photo and unfortunately they are a little blurry because my camera focused on the trees in front of them.
Given the weather wasn’t so nice, we pretty much had the place to ourselves when we arrived at the Ice Bowl. Kind of funny we opted to eat our ice cream outside next to their burning fire pit to stay warmed up after a somewhat soaker leaving Buffalo Lake.
We saw quite a bit of wildlife today. Kevin saw an albino turkey, and we saw other turkeys, a huge doe ran out a little ways in front of me, and luckily the smaller doe following her decided to turn around, and lots of cranes. We also saw some bald eagles flying around a pond southeast of Princeton. And of course the other deer by Lake Puckaway.
Not quite close enough to make 200 miles, but still the longest ride so far this season. Thanks to Kevin for always being up for a ride!
