Headlamp Relay, the Weather and American Discovery Trail Inspection

I'll have to lift the battery out of my 1987 Chevrolet G20 Sportvan in order to see what's under it.  I have yet to find a relay for the head and bright lights.  Right now, both sides are not responding.

I live closer to the east side of The Wilderness Loop of the Buckeye Trail (North Country partially concurrent).  But there's reasons why I configure my Weatherbug app on my Android based smartphone to monitor the weather in four locations.  Two of those are on-road.  Regardless, if I get a weather alert, know of a hiker being out here and I have the means, I'll go out and get them.

But the other reason is internal.  It tells me what I can do as far as everything else is concerned.  Pruning can be done on any day except lightning.  Blazing can be done on days except lightning, but only if the blazing surface starts out dry and has a window where it hues before it rains.  It's unknown if we can bench the tread if the ground is saturated?  And we can run the DR Mower, weed whackers and chain saws on just about any day, except those with lightning.

But the most finicky tasks are ones having to do with GPS'ing locations.  These require days when the skies are Partly Sunny or better.  Right now, the northeast corner of The Wilderness Loop are predicted to have one suitable day, but the rest are not.  However, go 30 miles south to the south side and I have a streak of 3 suitable days.

Two days ago, I was in the Marietta area.  I had to get some new 6in x 9in speaker boxes, which were at an audio/ video shop in Parkersburg.  I was considering going to the Sternwheel Festival in Marietta, but I wasn't comfortable parking my van there with everything that I was hauling in the van.  So, I made a call from behind the line (a football aphorism) and performed my annual inspection on the American Discovery Trail - Ohio/Kentucky, Segment 01.  I volunteer with the American Discovery Trail Society, too.

It's a 33 mile long, on-road segment from the West Virginia line at Belpre of Washington County to Marion Township of Morgan County, Ohio.  I never liked it much until then.  Apparently, I was seeing it during the wrong time of the year.  For some reason, it's pretty now?  But it can be a bear to park on.

Getting back to the weather, I have an excellent day for tomorrow.  But I have several loads of laundry that needs to get done.  The van really needs me to unload some of the cargo.  And to go to the south side, I really need to camp out there and my tent needs repairs.  But I got some groceries today.  It's always best when I have my cereal because I'm on the road faster.

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.

Log 2016070101

I woke up early, but it was still about 40 minutes late.  I planned to get my motorhome out of storage.  It's parked on gravel, dirt and grass and I have to lift it to get to two, hard to get spark plugs.  As per agreement with the storage facility owner, I can't lift it there anyways.  So, I've got to get it to the house and put the front end up on the Rhino Ramps on a concrete surface.  But because there's a leak in the over cab sleeping area, I have a tarp up there and it's not worth taking it down until the weather clears.  It's 9:52am as I'm writing this and the hour by hour weather report states that this rain that I'm under now might not break until the 2pm block.  Keep in mind that the hourly reports are volatile.  They could change for the better, or the worse.

I have to get the spark plugs, wires, distributer cab, and rotor replaced so I'll have the guts to try and drive it on the road.  If I still need to get one of the family mechanics to work on it, ascertaining it's current status is required. Otherwise, they might come out and find that nothing is wrong and blame it on my imagination (lol).

But I ran it on idle, a second time, for 40 minutes a couple days ago.  And while there's a slight sign of hesitation in the engine, I'd say it's promising now.  The replacement of everything that I just mentioned might just do the trick and I won't need a mechanic?  But with the assessment of most risk, I am usually conservative about it and for all I know it's getting to my head with too much negativity?

Today, I purchased a new Sthil FS130 professional trimmer (weed eater/ weed whacker) with a 36.3cc engine displacement.  I think that will be powerful enough for the mile of the Little Muskingum River flats on the Whipple Section - Buckeye/ North Country National Scenic Trail near Marietta.  The salesman told me that it's designed to run for up to 8 hours every day.  At that rate, it would probably take somewhere under 3 days for one person to clear that area.

But I'm 6'6 with a 36" inseam.  Apparently, there's no way to extend a trimmer's stem.  So, I'll probably have to wear steel toe boots because my stride is potentially longer than the distance to it's head.  And I also forgot to get bicycle type side handles today.

Log 2015070801

New public parking areas were added and linked to the KMZ file on my section supervisors page here on Blogger. The file is incomplete for the entire trail except Whipple. The probe for public parking along the Whipple Section - Buckeye/ North Country Trail is complete. I do have somewhat of a gap and the only way to do it better is to probe off trail with my car. 

      Right now, I'm satisfied with what we have so far except, there are no all weather parking areas for smaller front wheel drive vehicles in the winter. Those hikers would have to have to park in a private lot, such as one for a church, or business then. Hiker's who fit this description need to select a location with a plowed lot that is off a plowed road.

Yesterday, I got Whipple's "Y" blaze painted at the 3-way Intersection with the Stockport Section. But we have a couple of blazes that need to be canceled with the official Yuma Green color that we use for this. Well, my last can turned into a solid from being in unheated storage last winter and I won't be able to get a replacement until next month.

And the last 30 days have been almost impossible to maintain the section due to lightning in the forcast because there isn't anywhere to take shelter for most places on-road and none on-road. Even with the hour by hour reports on my smartphone, which you can't updates for on half of the section (no cellular signal), it could be risky. At 73°F, it probably takes our exterior latex paint about 20 minutes to dry. If it rains, everything painted within the last 20 minutes will streak and that will be a bad day.

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 2014072901

The weather patterns have been uncooperative. Lightning is forecasted for several days this week and I might have to pull swing shifts and ride in between the storm fronts.