The Fall season is my favorite time to ride. There are many reasons but mostly the obvious ones; cooler temperatures, changing colors and there just seems to be less traffic. Mid-September was no exception as Windy City Rentals & Tours took a group of riders north out of Chicago to Tomahawk WI., for the Fall Factory Tour celebration. Tomahawk is home to the Harley-Davidson Factory plastics & paint plant. It’s where all the saddlebags, Tour-paks and windshields are molded, die cut and painted. It’s an interesting tour experience and gives a keen insight to just how much the Factory and the Tomahawk employees pride themselves on producing a quality product. At the factory there was a great mix of robotics and typical H-D old school mechanics, including a hand buffing and inspection station that gives the final product a human stamp of approval. Cool technology and neat stuff!
For anyone that has never been touring in Northern WI, the riding and scenery are amazing. A seemingly endless number of lakes intermixed with winding, tree lined roads creates an experience that is truly inspiring. I haven’t seen so many CAUTION TWISTYS road signs since traveling the Road to Hana. Numerous inviting “Supper Clubs” dot the roadsides, all pledging top notch Prime Rib and endless fish at their FIRDAY NIGHT FISH FRY. How can you go wrong! Interestingly, for each Supper Club you will also find several local “watering holes” along the way. Most proudly marking their presence with a vintage bar sign of P.B.R. or OLD STYLE. I wouldn’t say that Northern Wisconsin is stuck in a time warp, but the pace is a bit slower as fishing, hunting and the Packers definitely dominate the local conversation.
The local charm is nowhere more apparent than in the small town Minocqua, just northwest of Rhinelander. Surrounded almost entirely by lakes and waterways, the old town charm is found in simple shops like BOOK WORLD and Paul Bunyan North Woods Cook Shanty. The Paul Bunyan eatery features a larger than life statue of the greatest lumber jack of all time. The axe yielding figure greets hungry patrons as they enter the restaurant – a “quirky” dining experience worthy of a Route 66 recommendation. Only in the North Woods!
Getting to Minocqua in itself was a great experience for the group. Traveling north on Route 17 out of Rhinelander we cut west on HIGHWAY D just north of the American Legion State Forest. Continuing west on “D” I don’t think we hit a straight stretch of road as we wound around numerous lakes and “flowages” as they are referred to up North. The scenery was spectacular as we throttled along the Wisconsin River stretch towards Lake Tomahawk. An intersection with Route 51 and a turn north and we rode straight into Minocqua.
We rode into Tomahawk several times from our home base at the Holiday Acres Resort in Rhinelander, each trip highlighted by a ride south along the Wisconsin River on highway 107 towards Merrill. Highway 107 proved to be the perfect rustic 2-lane stretch of Wisconsin road that kept our heads turning on a swivel, looking at the interesting sites and river views. Along the way you couldn’t help but notice the numerous fishing and camping resorts offering shoreline views, welcoming travelers with lit beer signs and cozy looking cabins.
I can’t say enough good things about our back woods accommodations. Holiday Acres Resort has a wonderful restaurant & bar serving a wide variety of comfort food, the perfect place to relax after our daily rides. A combination of rustic cabins and open floor plan hotel rooms all positioned along the shoreline of Lake Thompson.
Overall we put about 1,000 miles on the bikes during the Tomahawk Rally trip. Our stay in Rhinelander at the Holiday Acres Resort was perfect and the riding could not have been better. The fall riding season with the full change of colors will soon decorate the roadways; don’t miss to the opportunity to experience it on a motorcycle. Give us a call or email at Windy City Motorcycle Rentals & Tours (rentals@WindyCityHD.com) and we will be happy to share our experience and set you up on a new Harley-Davidson rental bike. Do be careful riding up north; be on the lookout for deer and Packer fans. You’ll find both up there, lots of them – all over the roads and hard to figure out.
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