One of the reasons I got my F650GS was for the pure adventure of riding off the beaten path when the beaten path presented itself. I started thinking about all the abandoned places I would see in the distance and wondered why time left them in it's wake. The first town on my list was Alstown, Southeast of Waterville. I decided to ride through Douglas on Hwy 2 and cut South on Rd. K, then to Rd. 3, connected to Rd. 4 and swung around from behind.
There are lots of abandoned equipment littering the edges of fields or in the strangest places, sometime I speculate that it is simply left where it broke down or was dragged after giving up the last spark. This couldn't have been cheap equipment, and looking at the number of chain drives throughout the machinery and all the sprockets and augers that had to turn I was surprised it was powered by a flat-top six-cylinder gasoline engine.
This was a set of 4 cultivators, each having an individual control set, all chained together and dragged with what could only be something big
Finding all this stuff in the middle of an old lava flow made it feel like an equipment graveyard.
Here we are looking South just before we hit Alstown.
As I rounded the corner and before dropping down I could see a big grain elevator and a small creek cutting across the road. it was only about 18" deep but the rocks were softball-sized and pretty squirrelly underneath.
I intersected blacktop for a short stretch as I came round and then the blacktop ended as the remnants of the town developed. As the railroad passed these towns up there was nothing to do but dry up.
This house looked like it had been occupied up to the last few years but now stands empty.
This one not so recent...
The stables here must have been for sheep or goats and the flagstone foundation is just like the foundation under the oldest part of my house, which was build in 1903.
I always keep my bike on the road when I go scouting around by myself in case I run into trouble, one never knows where an old cistern, well, or other hidden obstacle may render you unable to get out and back to the road and someone will at least know a BWM out of place in this area.
If a town is to survive, water is a must. This stream comes down from Badger Mountain and the snowmelt.
One of the few signs to let you know Alstown even existed.
Badger Mountain View Cemetery
Lots of 1919 end of life dates here...
Supplee was my next destination, and after cutting back to Douglas and winding my way on N. Douglas Rd to Road 2 East, I began my way through what were roads once upon a time and now look long forgotten. Many of these roads are designated by letter or number, and are far from any real road in a travel sense. Washouts, hidden rocks in the grass, trenches eroded from past equipment and even an occasional deer make moving through this area quite deliberate at times.
All that's left of Supplee is a grain elevator and a row of trees where houses and other buildings may have stood. You can see the tree-line in the upper picture.
What a grand adventure weekend, testing out Mystique's capabilities and learning once again how to handle a big thumper off-pavement. I think I'm going to have a grand Summer when Mrs. RedTigre and I aren't out on the LT or she has to work evenings.
The stables here must have been for sheep or goats and the flagstone foundation is just like the foundation under the oldest part of my house, which was build in 1903.
I always keep my bike on the road when I go scouting around by myself in case I run into trouble, one never knows where an old cistern, well, or other hidden obstacle may render you unable to get out and back to the road and someone will at least know a BWM out of place in this area.
