Trail Angel on Old Man's Cave Section

-I hosted Greg K. at Basecamp D for a few days

We hiked Old Man's Cave Section from Pt. 19 - S to 26 - W, which I've designated as the ST Lawn in the Pretty Run property.

I took a waypoint for Pt. 26. The one that I had was an approximate location.

Afterwards, we met a friend there who is known to many in the BTA. Instead of riding back, I was grateful that he gave me a ride back to Basecamp D.

Correction regarding the name of the campground for Basecamp D. It is the "Old Man's Cave Campground" at Hocking Hills State Park in Benton Twp of Hocking County. 

Axles on my mountain bike need to be calibrated again. I have a quick releases on both wheels with disc braking system. The true on the rear wheel has been holding up, but I'm not sure how much longer?

The bicycle's tires have been deflated to 44psi to put more rubber down and handle more aggressive dirt roads. But when i came down hill around a turn at high speed on a paved road, the rear wheel folded over and i almost wiped out.

The USB generator as mounted on the bicycle's right rear fork was moved back about 1". This was done so that it would no longer knock into the right crank in gears 5 - 7 on the high sprocket. 

Nonetheless,  shifting into gears 5 & 6 high require that I over shift, then down shift into them. 6 high still requires that some torque be applied before it shifts at all. From what I'm told, it's probably a problem with the rear detailer, but it's nothing that needs fixed imeadately.  With all that being said, the gear cassette was just recently changed in Zanesville by a mechanic that i trust and have used in the past. And I'm confident that it's my bike and not their work. Frankly, they are some of the only two people who have ever got my bike right. The way i see it, you have to stick to what work.

My Minora truing stand lost a piece that secures a bicycle axle when the spokes are being serviced. I'm convinced that i might be able to use the other parts of the stand which might bend and reach up to the rim if i attempt to true it as still mounted to the bike using my double kickstand? It could work on both wheels if I place a load on the rear rack to bring up the front tire.

The accuracy of my Garmin eTrex 20 seems to be very good for a hand held GPS.

Some of my NiMH battery cells are bad. They'll have to be charged up one, or two at a time to weed out the bad ones.

The Cramper's awning is showing signs of stress.  During a hard rain, water will pelt through. This piece of canvas was waterproofed in July.

Log 2014082301

Basecamp D was set up at Hocking Hills State Park near Old Man's Cave Section - Buckeye/ North Country/ American Discovery Trail today.

Log 2014081801

I learned last night that some of the NiMH battery cells might be damaged.  And my head lamp might be having a difficult time holding each of its three cells.  I found this out on an off-road hike that spilled into last night.  The GPS needed a change as well.  With batteries that were recently recharged, the screen would flash, but it would fail to power on.

My boots are still giving me blisters and shouldn't be. I'm using my stock insoles to cover the top of my foot along with my Dr. Shoals CF-340's covering my ankles and part of my arches. What's different this year is the use of the stock insoles. I should probably replace those.

Yesterday, I hiked roughly 24 miles around Burr Oak Lake through Burr Oak State Park, Wayne National Forest, and the Army Corps of Engineers reservation at Tom Jenkins Dam.  With that being said, I covered about 12.4 miles of difficult terrain on the New Straitsville Section - Buckeye/ North Country/ American Discovery Trail. It's difficult considering that I'm from NE Ohio, so I'm a flat lander.

On a separate note, I want to say "well done" to the maintainers on those segments. The trail surface was always clear. Otherwise, there were a couple of low ceilings and a broken board on a causeway. Other than that, the trail's surface was as efficient as the off-road gets under the circumstances.

Log 2014081601

Posting here has been very difficult lately. I'm still at Basecamp C. So far, I have about 21 miles of the Stockport Section - Buckeye Trail done as per what was planned on this trip. Last year, I did about 25 of its miles then. So, I'm anticipate that I'll finish this and cross into the New Straitsville Section tomorrow.

Yesterday, I finished the American Discovery Trail - Ohio & Kentucky's east independent arm in SE Ohio. I am now ready for what I'd like to call the "3 trail sweep" in Ohio. To date, I've covered the Buckeye Trail from the Village of Mount Orab @ West Union Section, Pt. 32 to Stockport Section, Pt. 28 @ Shew's Orchard. I've also covered the independent arms of the North Country and American Discovery Trails.

In the east, North Country became concurrent with Buckeye's circuit at Massillon Section, Pt. 23 in Zoar of Tuscarawas County in NE Ohio. It leaves it in Liberty Township of Henry County in NY Ohio. American Discovery in the SE, joins the Buckeye Trail circuit at Stockport Section, Pt. 20 in Marion Township of Morgan County.  It leaves the concurrency in Cincinnati of Hamilton County at Loveland Section, Pt. 1.

Since I have the west, north and east done, and my rate of progress already exceeds the four intersections, the only thing I need to do is hike, or "sweep" across the 3 trail concurrency in the south of Ohio.

Recently, I've had inflammation of my feet which caused me to drive back to home port for about 36 hours.  Once there, I picked up a partial refill on a perscription.

The weather might not corporate with me this week. This might get rough?

Log 2014080901

I finally made it into Basecamp C at Burr Oak State Park and got to sleep in the front seat of my car at about 0530hrs this morning.  Burr Oak doesn't have any sites where campers can arrive after hours, set up and camp for as long as they need.  Instead, they publish a list of vacant campsites and the user has to fill out their camper registration and, well... pray that nobody else is scheduled through that time.

I did that.  And 0830hrs this morning, I got a knock on my window from one of the park staff, telling me that I had to move.  She's so lucky that I awoke then as I was 5hrs from my required 8hrs of sleep.  I was in somewhat of a daze when I had to get up and couple the trailer.  I'd say it was barely in the relm of being a safe thing to do.

She told me to move about 4 sites over and I did.  But when I left, I remembered that she did not tag my new site.  So, I tried to contact the campground, but the only phone number that i have is for a collective of 3 state parks.  It was automated and I left a message.  So far, it's been about a few hours since I did that and nobody there has returned my call.  Burr Oak's west campground is popular and I know that there is a staff member there.

Today, I got some much needed shopping done.  I purchased some knobby tires because the I don't trust the chubby's on some of the backcountry dirt roads that I believe I'm going to put them on.  I want more traction to deal with thick, loose, pasty dirt with flood channels chiseled through them and small boulders embedded in the surface.

Days ago, I found that in the electric camps, I'll want to use the USB powered hub, which is located on the stem of the laptop mount in the front passenger's side of the car.  So far, I have a conventional 7ft indoor extention cord and an DC to AC converter.  But I forgot to get a universal AC adaptor for it.

- pouch for the external bike/ smartphone battery was procured.  When I use the USB generator, it only makes power when I pedal.  And the smartphone is so power intensive, that the best thing that I can do these days is slowly drain it, instead of keeping the power level the same, or charging more than I need.

Corrupted Files on Garmin eTrex 20

It's possible that I only had corrupted files on my previous Garmin eTrex 20 and now I have two of these expensive gadgets. The box for the new one is gone, as is most of its contents. And the nearest Bass Pro Shop is probably hundreds of miles away.

Meanwhile, all of the batteries are charged.

Log 2014080701

This morning, the alarm clock malfunctioned and I was unable to perform my hike today.  My movie player on my laptop still repeats 2 videos on my play list twice, causing the battery to drain. At the moment, I've got the extension on the exhaust on and I'm running the car to charge the battery.

Replacement Garmin eTrex 20

I purchased a replacement Garmin eTrex 20 today at Bass Pro Shops in Cincinnati of Hamilton County, but was did not get the replacement plan.