5th Annual Bald Eagle Ride January 17-20, 2014

[ajayhawkfan]

I had fun I hope everyone else did as well.

I'm working on photos but wanted to get the history out for the riverboat.



History. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldenrod_%28showboat%29

[ajayhawkfan]

The Brave crossing the Mississippi River on the Winfield Ferry:



ChrisCrash, Ozarksrider, Troy, ajayhawkfan (me)

[ozarksrider]

This was a great ride, and a great group to ride with. Eddie, thanks for all the work to put this together.
Here are a few of my photos....

The bar in the lower right of this pic was made for the 1904 worlds fair. It's been in the Ruebel Hotel in Grafton IL since.



A quick repair on the "Lost Creek Road".



This is the ice on the Mississippi. At lunch one day we watched tug boats pushing barges through this stuff.



Another creekside photo.



And the namesake of the ride, a Bald Eagle is in this photo. You'll see it if you look in the upper right quarter of the pic.

[ajayhawkfan]

That was a cool bar.

I saw somewhere between 35 and 50 eagles. Not a lot of good eagle photos but here is one:

[DirtFarmer]

This is the ice on the Mississippi. At lunch one day we watched tug boats pushing barges through this stuff.

It is miserably loud on a tug when breaking ice. That picture brought back some memories.

[ajayhawkfan]

Here is some pictures from the trip.

It was cold the first day.



We came across this river crossing. We chose not to cross it because it was so cold.





We rode to Cuba and stayed at the Wagon Wheel. The WW is the oldest continuously operated motel on Route 66. It is also on the National Historic Register. The owner described the rooms as "historically small".



The next day it started cold but warmed to about 50 and sunny then dropped to the high 30's with rain.

We stopped at an historic German Cemetery along the way near Hermann, MO.



After Hermann we rode Lost Creek. Troy became an ice breaker and took a little polar bear swim. After that is was a pleasant ride through a number of creek crossings.



Outriders deployed on the KLR.



Crossing the Mississippi River on the Winfield Ferry:



We stayed the second night in Grafton, IL:



The Mississippi was ice packed:



Troy is interested in going back to Grafton because of this place:



At lunch on the IL River there looked to be a tug with barges stuck in the river. There were a couple of additional tugs pushing upstream and then reversing and doing it over and over. It looked like they were trying to break the once from the ice pack.







It warmed to a little over 50 degrees but there was ice in the shade. I hit some and down I went. No real damage to me or my bike but we did decide to stay on main roads for the rest of the day.

The Mississippi River was frozen at Louisinia, MO.



Stayed Sunday night in Hannibal, MO. ChrisCrash left in the morning. It is too bad because some of the best roads were ridden Monday morning.

We rode an a mostly frozen mud road along the Salt River. If it was not frozen there would have been no way to get through. We forded the salt river a few time and crossed it on an old iron bridge.





The back end of Ozarkriders bike after the Salt River Road:



I had a blast. Get Ready for the 6th Annual Bald Eagle Ride next year.

If interested in more pictures you can find them here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/ajayhawkfa ... EagleRide#

[ozarksrider]

...If interested in more pictures you can find them here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/ajayhawkfa ... 0EagleRide#

Hey Eddie, I couldn't get the link to work.

[ajayhawkfan]

...If interested in more pictures you can find them here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/ajayhawkfa ... 0EagleRide#

Hey Eddie, I couldn't get the link to work.

Sorry, please try it now.

[zumo]

Great pics! It kind of makes me pine for a dual sport again, but I'm not sure I would be man enough for the ice... Looks like an epic January trip!

[Creekside]

Those pics are great.

I second that fear of muddy/frozen river crossings in cold temps. How did you guys talk Troy into going first? Fake him out by all going at once and the rest of you stopped? Double dog dare?

We hit some ice down by the Kaw in the shady areas last weekend but it was only a few stretches. The muddy min maint road was worse but alot of fun...since it was by choice and you could see the next gravel road. I think K60s much better than scorps in water holes and mud, but to far and I think they would just fill the fender and stop. They don't clear like 908s.