Log 2014091901

The current mileage on my 2008 Chevy HHR LS is as pictured.

I had cause to check the rear drum brakes for fallen hardware. Turns out the the spring in the rear driver's side drum did fall, but the rear passenger's side remained mounted. But I have reason to believe that the drums are warped. That's because neither side would re-mount with out an excessive amount of coaxing. Tensioning too little will make the spring's hook too loose to stay in its hole, causing it to come unmounted, then the tension rod drops to the bottom of the brake shoes and starts rubbing on the drum as it rotates when the car's in motion.

If it's too tight, the tensioner is too far out and the drum won't mount. And I think that my rotary are warped because I'm unable to find the "happy medium" that mounts the drum and keeps the spring tensioned at the same time.

On the rear driver's side, I was able to get it on, but wasn't able to rotate the drum. But the car rolled down the driveway and down the street afterwards. As for the passenger's side rear tensioning spring... last time when I serviced the brakes, I cheated mounted it's hook further on another hole. I wonder what the implications of that will be?

Log 2014082101

I reported that the Stockport was my 18th section. After review, I've determined that to be incorrect... it has to be my 20th.

Log 2014091401

New Straitsville Section - Buckeye/ North Country/ American Discovery Trail was my 21st completed section of the Buckeye.  About one day later, I finished the Old Man's Cave Section as my 22nd.  Currently, I'm in the Scioto Trail Section and I have as far as Pt. 6 done.  Basecamp E was set up at the Tar Hollow SP main campground.

Portions of Scioto Trail Pts. 2 - 5 were closed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).  Considering that my basecamp was in the electric camp ground and the only spur trail to the BT/ NCT/ ADT was included in the trail closures, also take in to account that when I arrived and started hiking said section, a trail alert had not been issued by the Buckeye Trail Association (BTA) at the time, so I performed a legal by-pass around said area at my discretion and claimed it as credit toward the BTA's Circuit Hike Patch.

I also made a by-passes on the New Straitsville Section between Points 14 - 15 and 23 - 24.  They were due to not being able to find a trail aperture and the other was because of overgrowth.

The clip that holds my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is made by Otter Box.  This is the second belt clip that I've owned in the last 9 months and as of two days ago, I've managed to snap the securing tab on the replacement unit.  I'm not happy with the performance of that plate.

I purchased a waist pack hoping that I could modify it so that it's belt could be set to loop through mounts on my slack pack's shoulder straps and transport it over my sternum.  But I determined that I would have to sew the mesh on the waist pack strap in place and I didn't want to do that right now.  So, I just wear it on my hip and it doesn't get in the way of my range of motion when I'm hiking.  It's good for maps and the smartphone.

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 2014090802

This Duracell ion Speed 8000 Model CEF15NA refused to charge two AAA battery cells. Well thats good looking out by Duracell because they were alkaline batteries. Alkalines can catch fire in the recharger. Seems that this smart device detected my mistake.

Log 2014090801

I'm at Days Inn in the City of Athens for a night. I still have yet to complete New Straitsville Section - Buckeye/ North Country/ American Discovery Trail, Pts. 19 - 27. The place where I intended to road side camp is a designated parking area in the Athens Unit of the Wayne National Forest, which may be construed as a "trailhead." Road side camping is prohibited within 150' of trailheads and I don't know of another suitable spot around there.

Anyways, I really needed a NiMH battery recharger. My previous unit was lost and I was getting low on charged AA's and AAA's. These batteries power the flashlights and hand GPS and I didn't want to risk loosing both on the next route. I lost my paper map on the previous route and the only thing that would back me up would be navigation by waypoints only on the smartphone.

The smartphone can eat batteries when navigating. The phone's aftermarket application wouldn't take my Buckeye Trail tracks (the line you follow). But it was good with the waypoints, which is a custom file that i wrote corresponding with the points in a Buckeye Trail map. Those points have a descriptive guide that without digital copies from the Buckeye Trail Association, would have taken a considerable amount of time to transcribe myself. And there was no promise that the text would have shown up on either app, or the hand GPS (since i haven't experimented with it yet, I felt that the project was too risky to undergo considering the fixed amount of time I was under to prepare other things.

The track on the hand GPS is based on the the BTA's GPS/ GIS Depository. They are somewhat beta and work as well as displayed on Google Earth. I've only been lost once and that was on an off-road portion where there was a 5-way intersection and for some reason, the trail wasn't blazed there and I had to guess. Well, I guessed wrong. But it didn't take long to know that I wasn't traveling the same course as the track and I promptly fixed that. These days, my hand GPS is my primary means of navigation, even with a map.

Log 2014090301

I was in Lancaster of Fairfield County resupplying and overnighting at a hotel.  My Nishiki Colorado mountain bike has new handle grips, road bike grip tape on my extension handles and a battery bag that mounts within the top back corner of my frame.  The new bag carries my external cell phone battery.

I also got a new machete. This one is curved and I think of it as a Arabic sword.  Two additional 946mL water bottles have been procured.  The reason is that I though I could save one of my 1L bottles, but it turns out that with the high humidity, higher temperatures in southern Ohio (as compared to NE Ohio) and the fact that some of the trails aren't very well maintained, I've determined that my consumption is going to be higher than I originally predicted.

With that being said, I've established myself at Basecamp C again because I did not want to attempt a roadside camp in the Athens Unit - Wayne National Forest when we had a storm 3 days ago.  I'm just not confident that I can park The Cramper in a way that won't get stuck in 3" of muddy top soil.  So the upcoming and remaining hikes on the New Straitsville Section - Buckeye/ North Country/ American Discovery Trail will have to be staged from the campground Burr Oak State Park instead.  And that means that my fuel consumption will go up a little.

I got reports last week that the portion of trail from Tom Jenkins Dam through Murray City area was overgrown.  Last year, I performed maintenance on the New Straitsville Section and based on experience, I think I know what I'm getting myself into.

High grasses can make a opportunity to get ambushed by a venomous snake.  I learned in years past that if I place my retractable hiking poles in one hand in an "X" formation, I can "blast" through those trouble areas, but that makes for an aggressive hike. And then there's the machete...