Car Repair and Adventurer's Project's Upcoming Needs

My car needs at least an oil manifold and timing chain gasket.  I think I might be able to have them in in the next few days.  I have a low profile jack coming that strong enough to lift the motorhome if needed on Wednesday from Indianapolis.

Here's a couple things that we have coming up... Adventurer's Project needs to get new trail adopters in the Marietta Unit of The Wayne (National Forest).  AP Facebook page is starting to get more participation and the audience, like all Facebook audiences are media hungry.  In order to do a better job at volunteer procurement, be it on the Facebook page, or otherwise is to produce what I call a "Vacant Segment Showcase."  I've been involved here for about 4 years.  During the first two, I kept my nose out of the Road Fork Section for the most part.  I was usually too busy to take any pictures on maintenance.  And I was hesitant to start this showcase before because I wanted the photos to be under green foliage.  But I think that I'm going to override that and get them going sooner than later anyways?

Another thing is somebody in the region once tied to make a correlation between the area's flood and certain other sites in the area to determine when they'll flood from a computer.  I believe that their intentions were good, but I think that I have better method?  This involves using a car, smartphone, coming in and out of cellular data signal and monitoring the sties in person before and during flood conditions.

The ones that I want to test are:

- the gauge at Macksburg of Washington County, Ohio vs the conditions of the ODNR concrete ford near Whipple 15 (10/2010 map).

- the gauge at Macksburg and south of Whipple (community of) verses the conditions at Whipple 13 (10/2010 map)

- the guage at Bloomfield verses the conditions near Road Fork Section - Point 21 (7/2011 map)/ Ring Mill Campground/ Walter Ring House and Mill Site and between Whipple 05 - 06, which for the latter, would require hiking about 1.5mi beyond the treeline to access the east side of the Little Muskingum River Flats, which the trail there is lower in elevation.

This will entail hundreds of miles of driving as I'd be going from site to site in large circles encompassing all of the Road Fork Section and 1/2 of the Whipple Section.  It's going to be back and forth for hours on end between these sites.

This can't be planned and I have to be ready to go on a moments notice.  There may also be a question along Wolf Run.  That waterway is dammed just north of the Road Fork Section, but there question may be about the effect of the nearby West Branch Duck Creek as it could back feed and flood Wolf Run onto the near by road that the Road Fork Section is routed on?  Such a flood would have to also flow over a 50 yard wide grass strip between the run and the road.

Could locations on the Northwest Tier of the Whipple Section flood?  Perhaps.  Whipple 20 - 21 would be the most susceptible.  But these are the kind of streams and fingers the feed flood waters into larger ones.  And doing this would have to use flood gauges on the Muskingum River, which are at much lower elevation and could be much less reliable?

What this data could do can be divided into those with smartphones and those without.  For those with, they could hike into cellular signal, log on to Adventurer's Project's website.  With the bit of research that I can do, I may be able to tell them when sites on the trail are flooded based upon the levels of the nearby gauges.  For those without, my visual observations may be able to determine what the waterway's height, or width would have to be in order to flood a nearby portion of trail?

The Whipple Section has a Dry Boot Bypass written into it's map.  It's unmarked, but it's there because if the concrete ford near Whipple 15 is flooded, it's illegal to cross it.  I've heard of the Duck Creek sweeping four wheel drive vehicles into the creek there.  The problem is in the counter clockwise direction.  There's no problem with the clockwise direction because the ford is immediately after Whipple 15.  You can see if the creek is flooding the ford without making the turn on to the next road.  But the counter clockwise traffic has to hike over 2 miles from the intersection with the Dry Boot Bypass before they see it.

Whipple 13 can be under water where it's right next to the Duck Creek.  If it's under water, a high ground by-pass would have to be devised.  Considering that I've seen one of the local highways nearby flood, I'm not sure that this could be done.  It could be a logistical problem with overnight amenities?  And in that case, we may have enough information to tell the hiker to take a zero day (a day off) and wait for it to recede?

Avenza Maps Difficulties in Far SE Ohio

The Buckeye Trail Association's digital navigational aides by Avenza Maps are dependent on the paper ones.  The nearest in-person map retailer is the Wayne National Forest's Headquarters in Nelsonville, Ohio.  It's on US-33 between Athens and Logan, Ohio.

That is about 54 miles northwest of Marietta, Ohio.  That city is on the south side of The Wilderness Loop and has a much more favorable highway system to get there.  I don't even know if they're selling Whipple and Road Fork Sections there?  But once you arrive at their headquarters, the hiker is closer to the New Straitsville Section in the Athens unit and they might as well drive there?

We don't have an in-person map retailer in Far SE Ohio.  Selling this is more like convince stores that sell gasoline.  You don't make much of a profit selling the gas, it just brings people in the store.  But the BT Avenza Maps are new and I don't know what the effect of them are on the paper map sales?  I need to know.  Unfortunately, the paper map sales, like the rest of the BTA store were outsourced, so I can imagine that the two probably aren't talking to each other?

There's another problem... Adventurer's Project needs to increase the number of local hikers.  And that is going to take some time?  There is this concept of setting up it's dominoes to fall in the right order to attain a goal like this for instance.

In the meantime, we have 70 (I think) campground and lodging establishments in our 14 county coverage area.  If we get the attention of those, we're pretty deep and many of their customers are not going to drive to Nelsonville.  We've needed something that could have been easily obtained and it was supposed to be the Avenza Maps.

There's problem with Avenza.  The BTA's good intentions were probably that the trail could be measured using one of it's tools.  I could say from experience that this might work on most places.  But determining distances on the off-road natural surface paths in the Marietta Unit of The Wayne is very fine work that way.

What I did was used the US Forest Service FSGeodata Clearinghouse to write digital mile markers for the off-road trail only.  They are based on their track for this trail in this unit.  It's linked and ready for download on Adventurer's Project's website in the county pages listed under the "Hiker Resources" page.

Facebook Promotion

I just set up another Facebook promotion for Adventurer's Project's upcoming "Introduction to The Wilderness Loop" presentation in the meeting room at Quinet's Court Restaurant in New Martinsville, West Virginia.  Something tells me that I'm going to have to increase the budget for these?  Yesterday, I introduced and linked Adventurer's Project's Facebook page in a post on the Buckeye Trail Association's Facebook group.

Batteries Charged - Motorhome Cab

I just used my new automotive battery charger today.  It reported that my motorhome's cab batteries were down at 60% of capacity.  The motorhome has twin cab automotive batteries under the hood that are linked in series.  It took about 5 hours on the charger's high speed, 8 amp setting to bring it up to full.  When I tried to start it a couple of days ago, the stereo face plate and the fuel pump came on, but there was no sound from the starter.  This has happened before when the cab batteries aren't charged enough.  And mine got low from having sit without starting the engine for months.  The Weather is expected to be warm tomorrow and I look forward to turning the engine over.

There is a disconnect between the dual/ momentary switch, the converter and generator when it comes to the auxilliary (house) batteries.  While it won't take a charge from the motorhome's systems, if they were charged by some other means, they'll still power the overhead lights and, cluster above the stove, water pump and probably the water heater?  I'm going to put those batteries on the low, 2A "trickle charge" tomorrow.

Adventurer's Project's Facebook Promotion Ratios

I was about to state that Adventurer's Project's donated Facebook promotions were lagging behind on the east side of The Wilderness Loop per capita compared to the Marietta/ Parkersburg, WV areas.  But then I had a look at the record of all promotions that the Facebook page, or events have had and have and that's simply not accurate.

On the south side of the loop where Marietta (Ohio), Vienna and Parkersburg, West Virginia are, it has a ratio of 1 Facebook like per every 1,070.25 residents.  The ratio of the east side which centers around communities like Woodsfield, Ohio and Moundsville, New Martinsville and St. Marys, West Virginia has a ration of 1:1,537.3.  But that's only with one promotion.

So, we're doing alright considering the circumstances.  But I know one thing and that is we have one of the most remote areas in the State of Ohio.  And if we were to do better, I'd need to analyze my data to try and approach them with something else.

My car needs just about every gasket that I can think of.  My 2008 Chevy HHR LS has over 210,000 miles.  It's been a towing vehicle.  I know its needed an oil manifold gasket for quite some time.  And it definitely needs an exhaust manifold gasket and now it needs one for the timing chain.  I've got to get more out of this car, so I'm getting read to do the work myself.  My back is holding up and I'm ready to catch up with these.

Hot Water Tank and Car Lifting Problems

Something about the hot water tank in my motorhome has ruptured. Its unable to hold any water now and is leaking out of the left rear fender. I may still be able to bypass this?

But the snow is melting nicely and I'm planning the inspection of the underside of my car for tomorrow. But my suspension is shot and I'm not sure that the trailer hitch will clear the ground if I try to lift it with my ramps?  The hitch extensions are locked and its pins are rusted.

30 Amp Main Breaker and Car Inspection

I think I have a perfectly good explanation why I was blowing those main breakers.  This motorhome is powered by 220 volts @ 30 amps from the outside post.  I went over to the converter box just to make sure and I was running a 20 amp main when it should have been a 30.  How I got along using the 20 all this time, you got me?

I forgot to turn the roof heater off when I left a few days ago.  When I put the new 30 amp breaker on and flicked the switch, the roof heater came on.  Lucky me, that would have blown new breakers before?  So, it might be the right amperage?  A sticker from the original owner read that it should be a 30. 

Before my presentation in at Local Roots in Caldwell, I stopped by Stoney's RV and picked up a tandem 20amp + 15 amp breaker.  At Local Roots, I opened up my motorhome notes and found the main to be a 30.  I was a computer repair specialist with my own business and while I was in college, I was required to take a basic electricity class. 

Where I'm fuzzy now, I was then wondering if the main has to be the same amperage as the motorhome's input?  Is it really that simple?  Well, I've got the 30/15 in now and my roof heat pump powered on really healthy.  And the converter is running silent for the first time in 9 months.

This week is going to warm up.  And it's going to be dedicated to my car.  I don't want to speculate on what's going wrong.  But I do know that the first thing that I have to do is lift it and have an inspection of the underside.  I'm pretty sure that I have to do a visual inspection of the exhaust system and feel if there's anything going on with the vacuum tubes.  Apparently, there's more of them that I previously thought.

150 likes

Adventurer's Project's Facebook page is now at 150 likes.  The Introduction to The Buckeye/ North Country Trail and Trail Maintenace Presentation is tomorrow from 1pm to 4pm at Local Roots in Caldwell of Noble County, Ohio.  I hope my car makes it.