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.
Good Morning Red Wing | Sunrise 2019-05-05
Morning Light
Sunrise
I wanted to provide an update on a previous post, AS THE WATER RECEDES – Bay City, WI #plasticpolution. Earth Day seemed like a great time to do so.
The water was receding and making progress, but snow melt in Northern Minnesota and recent rains has the water level on the rise once again. I’ve made several trips to Bay City since cleanup effort on Saturday April 6th, watching and waiting for the water level to go down. The Village of Bay City has made great efforts in cleaning up the debris that washed ashore at Saratoga Park.
It was happy to see that only traces of garbage remain.
If you were ever looking for a bit of driftwood, I would think now would be the perfect time to find whatever shape/size you desire. There are numerous piles that have been gathered up.
What boggles my mind though is there was a fresh Mountain Dew can laying on the side of the road. I still struggle with what goes through the mind of the individual that discards a soda can. It isn’t that difficult to recycle.
It was encouraging to see that the campground area was mostly devoid of trash. During the mechanical clean up, more worm and snuff containers turned up. There is a whole lot of natural debris; cleaning that up will take some work. If only one could snap their fingers to change the hearts and minds of those who seeming don’t give a hoot. It’s a process. Tell people how you feel about this sort of thing; make your opinion known whenever and where ever you can. Plastic pollution is terrible, it’s ugly and it horrible for the wildlife.
We all have one, or many; at least I hope so. I have a happy place. It is one of many.
Hay Creek is a small trout stream in southeastern Minnesota. It has its headwaters west of Goodhue and empties into the Mississippi River just to the north of Red Wing. It runs 25.1 miles (40.4 km), over half of which is a Minnesota designated trout stream. Like the Vermillion River, Hay Creek receives extensive fishing pressure due to its proximity to Minneapolis–St. Paul.
Hay Creek was named for the hay meadows near its banks. A railroad once ran along Hay Creek from the clay banks near Goodhue to the pottery and stoneware factories in Red Wing, which also made use of the water from the creek. The railroad was torn up in 1937, but traces such as trestle pilings remain.
The red dot [on the map above] on the western end of 320th Avenue is one of my happy places. Minnesota Trout Unlimited has done a tremendous amount of work on this stream over the years. It is truly a gem and a pleasure to fish.
The valley is so peaceful; a beautiful display of nature. This morning was exceptionally beautiful with the fog settled in the spring creek valley.
A vertical panorama looking upstream from the bridge on 320th Avenue.
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.
The weather on Wednesday afternoon (4/10) into Thursday (4/11) across Minnesota was terrible. There was some dust in the wind that brought this lovely weather our way.
My normal community route, Hwy 52 North this a.m. Glad I stayed home
While out snow-blowing, shoveling this a.m.; when I was out for a short drive this afternoon as well, I noticed that the snow and sleet had a different hue to it. This is why. Dust updraft from West TX and Southeast New Mexico made its way into the snow/sleet that fell overnight here in the upper Midwest. Now that is some dust in the wind!
#GOES16 Split Window (10.3-12.3 µm) brightness temperature difference showing one the more impressive blowing #dust signatures I've seen in a long while: https://t.co/TuyV7GQVuz pic.twitter.com/v7YETnyd8g
— Scott Bachmeier (@CIMSS_Satellite) April 11, 2019
You can plainly see the difference in hue of the dust in these images taken this afternoon.
Dust in the Wind 😀
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
Sunrise over Colvill Park Saturday March 30th. I wasn’t sure if I was going to see a sunrise or not. The cloud bank was massive, dark and moving along rapidly. You just never know. I was pleasantly surprised.
Pre-sunrise was very cloudy and not very colorful.
I was surprised that the sun made an appearance. The clouds were think and moving. I was a brief appearance.
