Valve Manifold, Clutch, Adventurer's Project 04/11/2019

I'll be bolting on my 2008 Chevy HHR's valve manifold tomorrow. And as far as I know, I have everything needed to replace my clutch?  I did a little volunteering for the BTA from behind the desk and some work on Adventurer's Project's website and Facebook page. If I end up replacing my clutch soon, I've got enough Facebook content to last us for the next 5 days.

Once that clutch is replaced, I have 5 gallons of gasoline in my Jerry can that's doing nothing but aging.  I'm pretty sure that I have a clogged catalytic converter or two and I'm not too sure about introducing it into the system until next month.  But who knows?

I'm really looking forward to continuing my geotagged photographic cataloging of the trail here.  Last week, I purchased a 20,000mAh power bank, which is an external battery that you attach to something like a smartphone with a USB cable and it acts like is on a charge.  Years ago, I learned that the thru hikers were using them and they got 9 days on airplane mode per charge.  With photo cataloging, I'm looking at getting about 23 miles per charge if I use this, another 5,000mAh external battery and the one that the smartphone has in it.  Since this photographing takes place at every blaze (painted navigational marker when off-road), I don't think there would be enough daylight during the summer equinox to go 23 miles at that rate.  I'm excited.

In total, this is estimated to produce up to about 3400 geotagged photos, taking over 14 gigabytes of hard disk space.  I plan to extract the geotags in some 3rd party software that will convert the pictures in to thumbnails and put them within placemarks/ waypoints (as to the location that they were taken) in something like Google Earth, or ArcGIS software.

This will ultimately benefit our local maintenance and the BTA's Trail Management Team.  In the short term, it's mostly an internal thing.  But some of the photos will be used on Adventurer's Project's website and Facebook page to demonstrate our vacant trail adoption segments.  And during the winters, we'll have some stock footage to use on it's Facebook page.  At that rate, it will take us 36 years to use all of them on Adventurer's Project's Facebook.  But if we start using different social media platforms, that number will diminish.

Viewers, if you have time, please click on Adventurer's Project's Facebook page and like us!

Smartphone vs Dedicated Hand GPS, Photo Catalog Off-Road Trail,

Normally, you don't want to use a smartphone's GPS to produce data for the public's consumption.  A dedicated hand GPS is a simpler device.  It's power is only committed (for the most part) to one function.  But a smartphone has a CPU, random access memory, internal and perhaps external storage.  It has an antenna for calling, text and data.  Then it has hardware for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a much larger screen and then it's GPS antenna.  The smartphone's power is more diverted than a dedicated hand GPS.  In comparison, it's as energy efficient as the dedicated device can be.  And with all this stuff being "crammed" in one form, it's likely that any given hand GPS has a larger antenna?  On the internal side of things, that alone goes a long way to making tracks and waypoints more accurate. 

The other considerations are usually atmospheric.  For instance, the sky needs to be partly sunny or better in order to accurately record GPS positions.  And very best time to record these is at night under a clear sky.  This is because the sun is not out causing interference in the upper atmosphere with the satellite reception.  However, that' not usually an option with distance trail volunteers.  On-road, you might not want to be caught "lurking around" while trying to get a fix on a location.  And night hiking is slow, more strenuous and there are plenty of tripping hazards.

Hikers, really don't need to worry about this.  With a 15,000mAh power bank, they can extend the length of their smartphone usage by as much as 9 days on airplane mode.  But the power banks are known to be heavy, so there's a trade off that should be theirs to consider.

I started photo cataloging the Road Fork and Whipple Sections of the Buckeye Trail (North Country concurrent).  It's a project that's output would mostly be consumed internally.  The photos are geotagged, which means that when you use 3rd party software, it produces a waypoint in Google Earth with the pictures embedded in them.  And those waypoints are positioned according to the global coordinates that were recorded by the camera.  Smartphone's have the capability.  First the "locater" must be enabled for GPS functions.  Then as a safety, it has to be enabled in the camera's settings as well.

Considering the volunteerism that I've done with this project so far, I can say that the battery in my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 SM-N950U will last for 3 miles one way on hilly and curvy trail if a picture was taken at every blaze.  I have a 5,000mAh power bank that should get me 3 miles out and back.  Then today, I remembered that my laptop has a USB port that is always on.  I don't know if it's always on on battery mode, but if it is and I get an anti-static sealing bag for it, I might be able to "steal," or transfer power from it's battery to the smartphone's?

The last one that I did was 2.2 miles in one direction and I took 204 geotagged photos at 16:9 picture ratio, which is at about 9.1 megabytes per file.  The total project is estimated to be about 3,340 photos and be 29 gigabytes in hard disk size.  Right now, I'm having concerns about the thumbnails used in Google Earth.  That application can only handle 400 megabytes of data at once.  So with the data being broken down between map points, the total file size can't be more than 200 megabytes.  Seeing to this, while keeping the photos at adequate at quality might be challenging?  But actually being out and doing this was actually easier than I originally thought.

I am a volunteer with the Buckeye Trail Association.  I volunteer with a functions under the executive staff.  I'm a non-voting member of the Trail Management Team.  And I'm volunteer supervisor of the Whipple Section.  I usually contribute to it's Facebook group daily.

In 3rd party to that, I lead the Adventurer's Project.  We don't have a corp of officers yet.  Things are very new, so most of it is run by me still.  I'm the admin of it's Facebook page and usually contribute to it daily.  With all it's functions combined, my being the only one isn't the way it should be.  Maybe you might call me a "Super Volunteer" because I'm more of an "orange" than an apple.  I want Adventurer's Project's volunteerism to be measured more by them's than me's.  In fact, there's no measurement. 

If you have a moment, please like Adventurer's Project on Facebook.

Oil Valve Manifold and Auxiliary Battery Re-Charge Continued

The Haynes repair manual for my 2008 Chevy HHR LS wanted me to torque the oil valve manifold bolts to 89ft lbs.  I got my torque wrench ready today and as I did this, I snapped two bolts in the engine manifold.  Haynes' torque specifications must be talking out it's behind.  It certainly wasn't that hard to get oil valve manifold off.  In ignorance, I was taking Haynes' word for it, but now I think I should have known better?  It was the first time working with my digital torque adapter.  Now, I'm going to have to get them replaced and find a way to get out what in the engine side holes.

The battery charger that I'm using is a Carquest CQ-80CR.  From yesterday's log, this morning, it read an error code of FO5.  Last night, I had both deep cycle marine batteries hooked up to simultaneously charge.  I'm not sure if my little 8amp charger can really handle the load?

Oil Valve Manifold Gasket, Seals Grommets and Auxiliary Battery Recharging

When the 5th leak happened in the motorhome, it was right above the kitchen table where I had the laptop.  It was leaking from the plastic surrounding the front roof hatch.  So, I place the laptop on a towel with the keyboard upside down because that was what got wet.  Shortly then after, a second leak from the roof hatch started pelting down on the table where near where the laptop was and got its underside wet.  So, I not only had to keep in on the towel for 24 hours... no, I put it on a towel in an unaffected area for 48 because I had to change it's resting position to make sure that any water inside the laptop either left out through the keyboard, or on its side through the CPU's breathing gills.

Suffice to say that I tested all the keys except for the "F" ones.  I couldn't test the F keys because I'd probably have to go through about 5 different applications just to test them.

I just replaced the oil valve gaskets and I'm in the middle of finishing up the gromets.  My tool kits contain just about everything that has ever been needed for my 2008 Chevy HHR LS.  And I don't usually miss not having a small, thin, flat screw driver.  But today, I was having to use a razor blade to cut the old gromets off, then fitting the new ones around some flanges with my fingers.  There are  15 of these and they have given my hands a workout.

The coil for spark plug #4 is showing a little antifreeze.  It looks like I'll be doing a cylinder head gasket replacement in the near future?  But tearing down the oil valve cover wasn't a big deal, it just took the better part of today and this was my first time doing one.  I've looked at the procedure regarding the cylinder head gasket and I'm comfortable now with doing it myself.

With certainty, I'm sure that my clutch master cylinder is gone.  My clutch pedal goes to the floor and doesn't come back.  That might have been one of the leaks that I observed when I changed the car's oil about a week ago?  And I also noted proper brake pedal pressure, which is something I haven't had in a long time. 

When I last did the oil change about a week ago, I used a couple ounces of sea foam to try and solve some idle problems.  But I wasn't getting a dip stick reading after I turned the car on.  I had it up on ramps and when I saw it spitting what I thought was oil, I immediately shut it off and waited about a week, which is today.  The problem is that I'm not sure what the Seafoam has done with it sitting.  I was using it to temporarily seal my gaskets.  It really hasn't gone through the system, so, I'm going to replace the oil again just to be on the safe side.

If I just had an hour more, I could have finished the job.  I got a late start today because I had a medical appointment this morning.  My AC powered battery charger has not been up to the task of charging my motorhome's auxiliary batteries, which are dual marine deep cycles.  So, I did what I've done before, which is hook them up to jumper cables, attach those to the motorhome's cab batteries and run it for about 90 minutes.  I had ever breaker on my converter switched off and my interior lights came on using the batteries.

My car has a 50amp fuse for my batteries and it's alternator is smaller.  But seeing if the motorhome's amperage is similar, my AC charger only puts out 8amps.  Currently, it's charging both deep cycles and is reading as "LO" or low.  I'm content to leave it connected to the marine batteries over night and see what it does?

It wouldn't do them when they were dead.  All it read overnight was a moving "8," which is when the unit is initializing.  But with them jumped, the charging light is on.

All in all, everything that's going on alright.  Even if I have to do a Oil Valve, Cylinder Head Gaskets, and a clutch, it's just things that have been put off since my back was messed up.  But my therapy ended 3 weeks ago and after a day of working on it now, I feel great.

5th Leak - Motorhome

The motorhome just took on its 5th leak today. The laptop got some of it. I have its keyboard upside down on a towel for the next 24 hours as is standard proceedure.  I also went up on top of the roof and used a broom to get the pooling rain water swept off. There was quite a bit near the front roof hatch where the new leak is.

Two days ago, I adjusted the level in under the rear right of the motorhome. I barely increased the height back there. That might have been what caused the water to pool at the front hatch.

Assuming that it rains when its colder in the day before, I'm just waiting for a string of 70°F days to reseal the roof.

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.