A couple of photos from Mother’s Day Weekend Hill Climb 2019. Next event 2019-09-21 Dist. 16/23 Hillclimb. See Indianhead Motorcycle Club fb page for more details. Indianhead MC is celebration their 70th anniversary by hosting grass drags at GAS-LITE Bar & Grill on 2019-09-28.
Other hill climb events in the area: see Valley Springs Hill Climb fb page. Their next event is 2019-07-13.
In a March 28, 1985 edition of the Leader Telegram, the story of Esdaile, WI, entitled Serenity Lingers, featured in Section C, The Road Less Traveled by Chuck Rupnow. Esdaile is no longer what it once was back in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Back in its hay day, there may have been upwards of 500 resident in this small village nestled in between the bluff land along either side of the Isabelle River. Today, there are no more mills, general stores, hotels, or much else. All that remains are individual residences along with Eidsvold Lutheran Church and the Rally Bat Company.
In the photo above you can see a small parking lot at the bottom of the image. There is a public park right along the river. A great place to wander, fish for trout, have a picnic or simply relax in the serenity of Esdaile, Wisconsin.
Esdaile is also home to the 500 Feet of Mean! Valley Springs, a trout farm, also has motorcycle hill climbs. There are three events on the 2019 calendar. If you have never been, check it out.
As the water recedes there remains an unfortunate scene. If it were only driftwood and leaves, no worries would there be. The plastic though – six pack rings, soda and booze bottles, snuff and worm containers and butane lighters litter the shore in Bay City Bay. You can see the line of debris on the road in the photos below.
It’s troubling to see. The Styrofoam chunks. The flip flops and sandals missing their other half. Unbroken light bulbs even. The trash. It’s an ugly sight in such a beautiful place. A very small sample of 2,320 miles of Mississippi River shoreline.
Plastic pollution is terrible. Everyone has seen what is happening in the oceans. I see this a lot in the local trout streams I fish. My fishing net is most often full of cans, bottles and plastic worm containers each time I leave the stream. My wife and I constantly retrieve plastic bottles from the Bay City area while kayaking. Each and every time I encounter this, I utter to myself, “what the hell is wrong with people?” I understand that plastic is extremely useful – especially in healthcare. How some can so carelessly discard it is beyond comprehension. This is only going to get worse unless people start thinking beyond the convenience of today.
Litter is every town’s dirty little secret. No one wants to admit how ugly it is, or the fact that it is getting worse despite decades of anti-litter education such as those early-’70s posters and commercials whose taglines were “Don’t be a litterbug” and “Give a hoot. Don’t pollute.”The dirtiest part of this dirty secret is that many if not most litterers are young. They’re not so young that they don’t realize what they’re doing. They’re cognizant enough to acquire the snacks and cigarettes in the first place, to choose from a selection of products and brands and pay for their selections. When they litter, they know they’re littering.
~www.psychologytoday.com
Some people litter because they’ve come to believe that whatever they do, others will pick up after them. They have no sense of responsibility. This idea was confirmed by a veteran California highway patrolman who reported that in his twenty years-plus of pulling drivers over for tossing litter out their car windows — a misdemeanor punishable by fines of up to $1,000 — not once had an offender ever apologized once caught. They either denied having littered or shrugged off the act as insignificant ~ Rob Wallace, Keep America Beautiful
National Geographic WE MADE PLASTIC. WE DEPEND ON IT. NOW WE’RE DROWNING IN IT. phys.org Beyond the oceans—microplastics pollute rivers and lakes, too inlandwaterwaysinternational.org Prevent plastic pollution in waterways Adopt-A-Drain A initiative to keep trash out of the waterways
The Irish Times Talking rubbish: what makes people litter? End Littering Keep America Beautiful
A landscape photographers constant wish is just the right amount of clouds to make the scene interesting. When that happens, consider yourself fortunate. Today was not one of those days. The scene that can unfold can still be beautiful…if you wait for it. The skies could not have been any more clear or bright.
Just like sunrises with the best color coming before hand, so goes sunsets with rich color happening after the set.
It took a few minutes after sunset for the color to change and pop.
There is nothing quite like the the palette of color nature displays prior to the sun rising above the horizon. Pre-sunrise color can be quite spectacular; as was the case this morning.
Don’t forget to look all around before the sun comes up and the vivid color is gone.
Once the sun broke the horizon the pinks/reds disappeared; the blue and yellow became more defined.
A constant stream of ducks doing flybys pre-sunrise; if you look close enough you can see them in one of the shots. There were lots of geese honking. A single pair a swans swam close by. Two eagles chattered on and on in a nearby Cottonwood Tree. What a great morning and start to the day.
There was no sunshine at sunrise this a.m. I did catch a little bit of sun two hours after sunrise when it began to filter through the heavy fog and clouds.
Situated on the southwest bank of the Mississippi River, the floodplain forest of Colvill Park is one of the most popular spots in Minnesota to watch wintering bald eagles. In the spring and fall migrating ducks such as mallards, common mergansers, and common goldeneyes can be seen feeding. White-tail deer, mink, and gray squirrels are also common sites. ~#exploremn
There were not many eagles this a.m., but the light, shadows and reflections were wonderful.
Bay City is a village on the Mississippi River in Pierce County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 500 at the 2010 census. It is one of my favorite places to shoot a sunrise. It’s close proximity to Red Wing makes it an easy distance to travel. This isn’t such a big deal in the Winter when sunrise is 7:30 a.m. In the Spring and Summer months, though, sunrise is closer to to 5:30 a.m.
I made the trip to this very spot yesterday a.m. and it was less than colorful.
That morning was more suited for photographing the hoar frost.
This morning was a completely different.
It was a chilly morning, but it wasn’t too bad at 19 degrees. Always a good time with nature, cameras and friends.
There was a constant build of anticipation leading up to the fortress; as you can see it a very long way off. The structure was truly massive. You can get a sense of the scale in the photo below. It was a warm August day; I was glad to see that an escalator lay between the bottom and the base of the fortress – easy mode.
I could have spent an entire day here exploring every corner on the interior. The view from the top of the fortress is magnificent. The restaurant was great as well; of course there was beer, lovely ice cold beer. There is quite a collection of items on display inside. Plenty of other attraction all around the fortress as well.
Hohensalzburg Fortress, literally “High Salzburg Fortress” sits atop the Festungsberg, a small hill in the Austrian city of Salzburg. Erected at the behest of the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg with a length of 820 ft and a width of 490 ft, it is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.
1077 – 1462
Construction of the fortress began in 1077 under Archbishop Gebhard von Helfenstein. The original design was a basic bailey with a wooden wall. In the Holy Roman Empire, the archbishops of Salzburg were already powerful political figures and they expanded the fortress to protect their interests. Helfenstein’s conflict with Emperor Henry IV during the Investiture Controversy influenced the expansion of the fortress, with the Archbishop taking the side of Pope Gregory VII and the German anti-king Rudolf of Rheinfelden. The fortress was gradually expanded during the following centuries. The ring walls and towers were built in 1462 under Prince-Archbishop Burkhard II von Weißpriach.
1495 – 1519
Prince-Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach further expanded the fortress during his term from 1495 until 1519. His coadjutor Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, who was later to succeed Leonhard, in 1515 wrote a description of the Reisszug, a very early and primitive funicular railway that provided freight access to the upper courtyard of the fortress. The line still exists, albeit in updated form, and is probably the oldest operational railway in the world. The current external bastions, begun in the 16th century and completed in the 17th, were added as a precaution because of fears of Turkish Invasion.
1525 – 1800
The only time that the fortress actually came under siege was during the German Peasants’ War in 1525, when a group of miners, farmers and townspeople tried to oust Prince-Archbishop Matthäus Lang, but failed to take the fortress. In 1617 the deposed Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau died in the fortress prison. During the Thirty Years’ War, Archbishop Count Paris of Lodron strengthened the town’s defenses, including Hohensalzburg. He added various parts to the fortress, such as the gunpowder stores and additional gatehouses. The fortress was surrendered without a fight to French troops under General Jean Victor Marie Moreau during the Napoleonic War of the Second Coalition in 1800 and the last Prince-Archbishop Count Hieronymus von Colloredo fled to Vienna. In the 19th century, it was used as barracks, storage depot and dungeon before being abandoned as a military outpost in 1861. ~wikipedia
Salzburg, literally “salt castle”, is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of Salzburg state.
Its historic center is renowned for its baroque architecture and is one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps, with 27 churches. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The city has three universities and a large population of students. Tourists also visit Salzburg to tour the historic center and the scenic Alpine surroundings.
Salzburg was the birthplace of the 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the mid‑20th century, the city was the setting for the musical play and film The Sound of Music. ~wikipedia
Our visit to Salzburg, Austria was the highlight of the trip for me. It was the closest we made it to Traun, Austria, which was another hour or so north east. Perhaps we will make it there some day on a return trip tour of Austria by car; a very good reason to come back.
There was rain in the forecast for our day trip to Austria. It didn’t rain a drop the entire time we were out and about though. The clouds looked ominous the whole train ride from Munich to Salzburg.
There is so much to see in Salzburg; I could have stayed here a few days. The river and mountain views were beautiful. The fortress on top of the hill overlooking Salzburg was our destination (next blog post).
Petersfriedhof Cemetery is a picturesque with baroque tombs of nobility as well as 12th-century catacombs & chapels. The adjacent monastery is the oldest in the German-speaking world. Since 696, monks have been living, praying and working there.
