Why Don't I Hike?

Some might ask me why I don't hike.  With 1200 miles covered on the Buckeye Trail and 2000 career, I like to think that I'm just on "inactive status."  But one more hiker isn't going to amount to a hill of beans in Ohio and West Virginia. 

Right now in Far SE Ohio, I'm having a hard enough time "keeping the lights on." We have an annual maintenance contingent from the BTA's Road Fork/ Whipple Work Week, but it gets there in July and this place needs things to start happening in June for economic reasons.  That needs local volunteerism, which we had in the past warm days, but this area has incurred multiple, successive calamities.  And the best thing that can happen now is that we withdraw and regroup now that we're in the cold ones.

Benching

The best trail maintenance to get done from around 3/1 to 6/1 in Far SE Ohio is benching. This is when one uses a mattock axe to widen the trails surface horizontally along the roll of a hillside.  In the Marietta Unit of The Wayne, the Buckeye/ North Country Trail has about 36 miles of nearly continuous off-road trail in the Appalachian Foothills of Ohio. And there's a lot of benching to be done back there.

With a lack of expertise, that had to be learned this year.  And I'm not even on planning for the winter just yet. There is a few personal tasks things to get done around here first.

USB Keyboard, Mobile Hotspot, Motorhome Needs, Weed Whacker Retrofit, Maintenance Day at the Ring Mill

I found the USB fob for my wireless keyboard and touchpad.  Normally, I wrap cling wrap around it and use this for automotive reasons when my hands get dirty.  But if all goes right, this should work with my tablet when I get a tether cable for it?  I'm really glad that I found it.  This should save some money?  I can't order that until I get my PO box changed to my local post office.  Tomorrow being Sunday, Monday is Labor Day, so, changing it will have to wait until Tuesday.

A few days ago, I got a warning that my 15GB allotment for mobile hotspot (using my cellular devices for an Internet connection to my laptop) was down to 10% and wont recycle for another 5 days from now.  I figured that I could stop listening to YouTube videos on my laptop when I'm doing computer work.  Instead, I can listen to them and do most of my communications on the tablet, which has an unlimited connection.

I don't have a coffee shop anywhere within 30 miles of where I live.  And I needed to do some GPS mapping work on Google Earth, which needs an Internet connection to be fully functional.  So, I went to my local McDonald's, but there's something odd on their server that was kicking out an erroneous certificate.  Turns out that I just had to use that 10% of hotspot that I had left.

I might as well spend Tuesday in the Marietta area.  I need about 3 bags of gravel to help stabilize my motorhome here in my oil & gas campsite.  The ground underneath it needs gravel and has sunk my rear wheels stabilizing blocks into the mud.  I have two of my automotive ramps here, but the mud is just going to sink those, too.  It would take a heavy steel plate under those, which could be pricey?  The right side needs to come up a lot.  So, I'm just going to run the right side duallies right up on the bags and see what that does?

My back problems are muscle related.  And my doctors have been wanting me to strengthen it with a back machine at a gym for years.  Considering how maintenance has gone so far, I'm going to take them up on it.  Since I'm pretty much settled in Woodsfield, I joined the local Midtown Gym, which is in walking distance from where I live, but so is any place in Woodsfield :-)).

I retrofitted my personally owned professional weed whacker.  Many weed whackers on the Buckeye
Trail are property of the BTA, so I make sure that I state this clearly so some people don't get any funny ideas.  It has bicycle handles on it for greater swinging ability.  But I added a residential handle to it to improve my stability when walking down trail steeply.  I believe that my other hand could be used for stability because there's some places where the Whipple and Road Fork Section's off-road could get treacherous for someone carrying a weed whacker?

I purchased a new outlet for the motorhome's bedroom.  I wanted to replace the one next to the sink, but the RV store didn't have another one in stock.  But I might get lucky like I did the last time where if I replace one, the other two will come on.

At the hardware store, I purchased 28 snap fasteners for the overhead bunk curtains that I'm making out of the surplus felt, which I used to make my trail promotion backdrop.  I really need 48 for this project, but I'll have to make due for now.  Two of the overhead bunk windows are oddly shaped.
The remaining two are at an angle.  My walls were replaced with pitted hard plastic, so stick on Velcro is out of consideration.   The male end of the snap fasteners will screw in.

The maintenance event at the Ring Mill failed as nobody showed up.  But if there's lessons to be learned, one might be to get in contact with the land owner on the north east side of OH-26 and Jericho Low Gap Road (I believe that it's in Benton Township of Monroe County).  The weeds were so tall on that corner that it was blocking Jericho Low Gap's sign.  Many people in Monroe County are unfamiliar with where the trail is in it's south.


There's a ford on Jericho Low Gap that could get too flooded for cars with a lower suspension.  Honestly, having the event at the Lamping Homestead Recreation Area would have been better had the highway between there and OH-26 not been shut down for so long.  There just wasn't a good alternate way for most people from most of Monroe County to get there and Lamping just wasn't an option.  But for a hike, it is now.

Marietta Unit, New Matamoras Floods, Memorial Day Weekend 2018, Auxiliary Batteries and Whipple Maintenance

- Apparently, New Matamoras floods less than Marietta.  Marietta's problem is that it's near where the Muskingum, Little Muskingum Rivers and the Duck Creek that meet the Ohio River there.  If there's a big enough storm, all of its water is going to converge on the city.

- This is Memorial Day Weekend 2018.  Today, I did some rounds looking at campground capacities and reporting them to the Buckeye Trail Association Facebook group.

- My auxiliary/ house batteries are somehow disconnected from both the generator and the cab's alternator.  But I'm able to charge them now by jumping them with my car.  It takes about 1hr 15min to get them full.  Lightning is in the forecast for tomorrow, so I plan on tracing their power lines.  It's possible that they all need to be replaced?

- The maintenance priority on the Whipple Section is blazing.  We may have a marathon runner/ thru hiker come through.  He's going to need the trail's navigation to become more efficient. 

Smartphone Issues - Likely Hardware Problems

I moved 590 megabytes of e-mails to a back-up location and deleted them from where they normally reside.  That means that when my 3rd party smartphone email app polls the sever, that it shouldn't take as long and that should save on power.  Well, it didn't work and considering every other way that I've cleaned it out, this is now probably a hardware problem?

My Samsung Galaxy SM-n900v was on the market in 2013.  So, the model is only 5 years old.  I've probably had this particular one for about 3 years?  As I've been a trail maintainer, it's been outside a lot, including some cold winter temperatures.  It could be possible that it's power circuitry is corroded?  The first step might be to have it examined at the Verizon store and see if they can repair, or replace it?  If they can't, I might be able to purchase a new, or used model.

Buying a new smartphone right now is not much of an option.  You've got people out there that always need to have the "latest and greatest," so they purchase a new smartphone about every year.  Every time I go into the cellular store, it's like they have somebody trying to get you to do that?  I think that's wasteful.  My current smartphone has served me well.

The faster they get, the more expensive they become.  So the cellular providers are offering payment plans for them and tablets.  Payment plans are for something that get for a car, house, or for some of you, your student loans.  My smartphone probably cost about $700 new?  I'd rather pay for it up front if I can.  But if I end up needing a brand new smartphone soon, I'll probably have to do that.

I had payments on my cellular tablet.  At $24 a month for about total of $800, it was rather painless for me.  I got it for the motorhome because the interior is large and the smartphone was harder to reach.  I use multiple navigation apps, internal music and Pandora.  I just needed something bigger for that cab it couldn't wait.

Sea Foam & Blown Motherboard

I poured a 16oz can of Sea Form in the gas tank of my 2008 Chevy HHR LS prior to 193,437 miles on the odometer to clean the fuel injectors.  It's due for routine maintenance soon.  I have the oil and parts, except for the air filter.  I got them from my local Walmart and I always forget that they never carry it.

Earlier, I purchased the remaining 3 - 6ft USB 2.0 extension cables.  I got back to the desk and found an extra chassis power button and wires.  So, I inserted them around power header cables on The Robot's motherboard.  I can now confirm that the motherboard is bad.  It is a cheap board and this is the second BT150 PC Mate by MSI that I have replaced in this chassis, probably within the last 12 months.  Replacing the motherboard will probably mean that I have to reinstall the operating system and every application on it.  Those three will probably 10 man hours. to complete.

Nicoderm CQ and Vascular Concerns In Hiking and Trail Maintenance

I've been wearing a 21mg Nicoderm CQ patch and have been struggling to stop smoking for the last 2 years.  Recently, I noticed that the veins in my wrist have 65 - 80% smaller than they should be. This is vague, but sometime in the last 8 years, I think that this has happened before?  And when my veins were reduced, so was my stamina.

I'm planning a 17.2mi transit hike soon.  Considering the state of my body from other more recent matters, I'm concerned about it.  But I bet that when I take that hike without a patch, my veins will be more normal.  I can tell you this, my problem is not hydration.

New Maintenance Day Pack

I got my new maintenance pack today.  It's framed, but I think it's aluminum.  REI's site says steel, another one site says aluminum.  Why would a CamelBak make a bag for a weight contentious audience with a steel frame?  I guess I'll have to put a charge to it and find out.  If it's steel, I wonder, if I can cut it out and it'd still be good to use.  What I didn't notice about it before that I just found is that it has zipped pockets on the waist belt. That should come in handy sometime.

My chainsaw and weed eater tool kit is assembled.  The tools are in a pouch and are in the outside center pocket should I ever need to jettison them in a lightning storm.  But my med kit is missing a strap that I could use for a tourniquet.  I should have pieces of an old t-shirt around?  That might be strong enough?

As of now, I still have yet to sew in the mounting cord for the dual CamelBak water bladders.  I'm also not 100% sure if that compartment will hold dual 3L bladders when both are full?

The next piece to get is a road construction, or heavy grade poncho.  I'd prefer military surplus because I've been through after market rain gear and ponchos and they won't last through conditions.  I've finally become utterly dissatisfied with how Frog Troggs stands up to briers and prickers.  And even if hiking conditions on the Buckeye Trail ever becomes picture perfect, maintenance won't.

Omnibus Log 08/02/2017

I've been spouting off ideas for the last 7 years on the Buckeye Trail's Facebook group.  But I'm starting to see that this isn't the time for them anymore.  Whipple Section, maybe even the whole circuit needs actions to be taken.  I might have one after I get the cost analysis done.

The Wilderness Loops resupply strategy is set to be come a part of a protochapter known as "Adventurer's Project."  Well... my current trail promotion strategy is being reduced, we no longer have full control of The Wilderness Loop.  And that's bothering me at the moment.  I wasn't consulted regarding the change.  I had a 15 county area going up through Zanesville.  I'm just about about to execute an evolutionary process, the plan has to be changed.

A reduction in territory is good.  Changing the plan that already in motion is not.  I'm like this with just about anything.

A hiking program is required for Buckeye Trail chapters by the bi-laws. But in building a chapter in SE Ohio, I want it to be a lesser priority and focus more on the volunteer experience. I think that BT chapters haven't been established the right balance yet between what we want to do and what we need to do. What chapters and maintainers need to start doing is separate the maintainers from the rest of the active chapter's membership. That way, the promoters promote and the maintainers maintain. The main chapter keeps the manpower supply going and fills vacancies, while the maintainers ensure that the promoters have a trail worth promoting. Neither side can fail for long before the system breaks down.

Things came through today.  Money that was fraudulently taken from me has been restored.  But I'm going to have to sort through 29 Internet accounts and determine which ones need new financial information?  I have to doggy sit on the 9th.  About a dozen campgrounds and motels need to be called to get rates for my cost analysis.  Once I have those, I can put it down until September.  I have a chainsaw cover coming on the 5th.  The cover has the chain tensioner built into it.

Some kind of new backpack needs to be purchased.  I'd like it to be about 30L, but be able to carry a 4L water bladder.  It's going to become the maintenance bag.  I need to be able to jettison metal tools and gear quickly while being able to wait out a lightning storm.

Smartphone GPS Basemap and Whipple Maintenance 07/24/2017

I continue to download a smartphone basemap for Ohio on Locus Maps.  This is big and is going to take a while, perhaps a month?

I weed whacked from Brooks by McCain Hill and Bean Ridge Roads and got just into the east side of the Little Muskingum River Flats.  That's where my trimmer needed a throttle adjustment and I don't know how to do that yet?  So, I got out of there.

With the DR Mower (Brush Hog), we usually attach a chainsaw to it with bungee cords and cut obstructing downed trees as we go.  But I don't have a DR and the chainsaw would be difficult to carry with the weed whacker.

So, I devised a new strategy.  An ax could be mounted to the trimmers shaft or be carried inside of my backpacks restraining straps.  A special canvas sleeve could be made for a 24" carpentry saw.  I can fit the bottom with the plastic that's used on the corners of some walls (maybe razor it down) to insert in the sleeve for the blade to grid up against when when I put it in, or take it out.  I could sew it to the bottom of my backpack and with the plastic angle, I should be able to re-insert with my backpack still on me?

I'm probably known for using a carpentry saw to remove obstructions.  It takes about 40 minutes to go through the sides of a 18-22" downed tree.  It's not like a chainsaw where you can just cut straight down.  This has to be done in "V" or "double V" (same thing, but upside down) cuts.  It's too easy to pinch the blade going straight down.

Sometimes, my cuts aren't spot on.  So when they get close, I start using the ax and I try to chop that pie cut out of there.  The chain saw would go there in minutes, but I'd rather cut them as I go because sometimes I encounter downed trees with the weed whacker and have to maneuver through them like a jungle gym.  I guess I could just take the chainsaw through and make two passes???

Whipple Maintenance 06/04/2017

Intersections between Whipple 01 - 04 were re-blazed, with the exception of Segment B and the remainder of C.  My 2008 Chevy HHR LS has a manual transmission and a parking brake cable snapped.  It has about 181k miles and 1st gear isn't holding on any sort of incline.  So, I had lunch in Marietta and purchased wheel chalks from a nearby auto parts store.  I went back to continue re-blazing when a tree that I needed had some ivy on it.  I didn't bother to check if it was poison ivy, but I realized that I wasn't prepared for any today and it was more likely than not that I was going to encounter it down trail.  So, I wrapped it up and called it a day there.

I missed the turn to finish Segment C and start D.  The road to get into there is Bean Ridge and I think it was hidden on a curve on C9?  Segment D is Whipple Section, Pt. 05 - 06 and the two points have to be approached on opposite ends because Brooks Rd/ T94 in Lawrence Township of Washington County is rough between them.  I avoid that portion of road whenever I can.

Automotive Maintenance 06/02/2017

My 2008 Chevy HHR LS was serviced yesterday and today at a local garage.  The mileage recorded is 181,320.  I had the catalytic converters, intermediate pipe, muffler and two wheel bearings replaced.  I was once told that one of the O2 sensors shorted out.  It turns out that both still work.

The car is ready now to make hitch my utility hauling trailer and make two runs to the local landfill, then depart for the Marietta of Washington County area for trail maintenance.

Car Maintenance and Check Engine Codes

I changed the oil , oil, air and cabin air filters today in accordance with standard maintenance procedures on my 2008 Chevy HHR LS.  But I haven't rotated the tires yet.  The odometer reads 180,862

The check engine light is on and the computer is showing codes P0449 as current and P0420 as pending.  I just looked up the first one and I think I'll have a professional garage fix these along with potentially replacing the right rear brake line.

Log 2016091701

The Robot is still up and running, but I put off some tasks just to use Google Earth and Maps.  Now, I'm starting to catch up with them.  The lastest is moving all of my documents, videos and music from the orginal install directory to where it needs to be on another hard disk.  That means that my Map Repository is in the process of moving.

The Robot has a 4 hard disk system that is on two controller cards, one being the motherboard.  If they were on just one, I believe that I would be able to create something that would view them all as one hard disk and spread the load of the files evenly amongst them.  But since their on two, I'm doing the distribution manually to keep the system running faster.  Basically drive C is only used for the operating system and a number of essential applications.  This is so if needed, the system could run with the other three unplugged and still boot.  That's necessary because hard disk drives fail and chances are it won't be the main one.

The Robot is a custom built computer system that's taken a lot of static shock in the last 6 years.  When that happens, you can expect hardware failure to occur some time.

I've been in communication with a prospective Whipple Section - Buckeye/ North Country Trail hiker the past two days.  We have a collapsed trail in between Pts. 02 - 03 that's unsafe to pass that BTA doesn't have a trail alert for.  The problem in getting to Pt. 03 is Big Run Rd that off of Archer's Fork Rd/ C14 in Independence Township of Washington County.

Coming from the North Country/ Buckeye Trailhead at C9 and Archer's Fork Rd, Big Run Rd is 2.3 miles NW.  As Archer's Fork (body of water) is along the west and south side of the road, Big Run will have the only concrete bridge crossing it, but it's unsigned.  Once across, there are immediately what looks three drives.  The one to the south is Big Run Rd, but it may not look like one.  And the hikers aren't able to see it enter the treeline from the bridge, so they may think that it's private property.  It's not.  They should follow it parallel to the south treeline and when they do, they'll see it enter the woods.  Once thing to note is that there's not much on Big Run Rd.  It's traffic consists of the immediate resident, NFS naturalists, NFS and BTA maintainers and perhaps one oil well that I'm not sure is even working?

That turn from Archer's Fork Rd to Big Run Rd is even tricky for me.  I've never done it without a GPS.  With that in mind, the hiker might want to proceed W on County Rd 9/ C9 and pick up where the the trail is temporarily on that road.

Log 2016062902

My large desktop computer, aka "The Robot" crashed twice two days ago while working on the track for the Superior Hiking Trail (North Country Concurrent) in Minnesota.  I had a browser issue where I had uninstall it and install something else in it's place.  Because it crashed twice, I ran some routine maintenance today on that computer.  Getting through it was unusually fast.

Also, some automotive maintenance documents for my motorhome were moved to the Dropbox that I intend to use on my tablet.

Log 2016052101

The official tally currently stands at 15 of 26 Buckeye Trail sections.  That's how I measure how many places that I've been a trail maintainer in.

Log 2015042501

- I just estimated that I can clear Whipple's obstructions at 0.16MPH.  For the next day or so, I expect that to be lower as I descend down to the flats of the Little Muskingum River.

- Some of the waypoints from my Garmin eTrex 20 hand GPS didn't save or transfer to my laptop.  It's been making errors in saving tracks as well.

Log 2014022701

Oil, oil, air and cabin air filters changed today on my 2008 Chevy HHR LS. The  mileage on the odometer is as shown in the attached picture. Also, the tailgate release mechanism was replaced, but that did not alleviate the tailgate's failure to pop problem.

Upon inspection, I found that the left front strut blew it's bottom seal. It probably took too much stress on the unimproved road in the Arc of Appalachia.

Log 2014090901

Today, I hiked about 8 miles clockwise on the New Straitsville Section - Buckeye/ North Country/ American Discovery Trail from the Village of Murray City in Hocking County to just south of the Tecumseh Park in an area outside of the Village of Shawnee in Perry County.  Once I was done, I intercepted my pre-positioned bicycle and rode roughly the same mileage back, but on a slightly different course.  I had difficulty determining where the trail progressed on about three different occasions.  But I also know the maintainer and I'm certain he's busy at the moment.

On the way back, I had dinner at Ma N Pa's Pizza in the Village of New Straitsville of Perry County.  I had my car and trailer parked at the village park in Murray City.  Because New Straitsville Section, Pt. 27's status is unclear, I decided not to camp there.  Anyways, I have auto parts to pick up in the City of Athens tomorrow, so I'm here for another night at the motel.

The good news is that tomorrow's route is only about 11.5mi long.  The bike will be in Tecumseh Park at pt. 22 and the car will be parked at pt. 27.  This will be a CCW, or counter clockwise hike.  Because of local maintenance, I don't anticipate a flawless hike, but I think it will be quicker than the ones before it.

I intend on performing maintenance on the Chevy's rear brakes at pt. 27 when I get done, then I'll drive south to the Class A campground at Tar Hollow State Park afterwards where Basecamp E will be.  This basecamp will be about 23mi from the City of Chillicothe in Ross County, which is the nearest city with a full range of services.  And it will put me in range of the next hike, which is Old Man's Cave Section, pt. 26 through Scioto Trail Section, Pt. 5.  OMC 26 is the Southwest Lawn of the Pretty Run Property and ST 05 is Tar Hollow.

If everything goes as planned, the New Straitsville Section will be my 21st and the Old Man's Cave will be my 22nd out of 26 sections completed.  Currently, the New Straitsville, Old Man's Cave and West Union Sections are in progress.

Log 2014050401

This is the second day that I've flared up a tendon in my right bicept while working on the car.  This time, I'm unable to ignore it.