Trek 4500 Part II, Manic Mushrooms, Jagged Edge

... got 'Muscle Girl Sarah' out on the trails last weekend - had planned on nothing intense, just a short trip out across the ridge and up to the local 'lookout point' and back - but a usual that plan quickly faded... we made short time in reaching the 'overlook' and by this time she has figured out her shifting patterns and along with 'Z-Man' is amped to move on to better stuff - we got a whole afternoon yet ahead, so decided to continue along the ridge loop which includes some steep hill climbing on now mostly very loose rocky terrain thanks to the recent dry weather combined with the multitude of four wheelers, dirt bikers, quads, side by sides and dune buggys that frequent the area...

... a short stream crossing thru 'Laurel Run'...

... didn't take many photos as we cranked along at a steady pace other than a few bit too frequent short breaks on my part to recover from some out-of-shape conditioning... all told we covered around 9.5 miles with around 650ft elevation gain - for the first time out Sarah performed like she was born for this stuff with a pretty strong performance - personally was gulpin' air a few times trying to keep pace - she surprised as well on the final downhill which drops a very rocky and technical 450ft in a little over 1/2 mile...

... back at the vehicles totin' a bit of trail dirt and mud... good job...

... noticed loads of 'Aminita Muscaria' popping up this season - that's a typical 'red cap' pictured above, the cap yet to spread out - at least we're pretty sure that they're 'Aminitas' - not an expert and always gotta' go back and pull out the mushroom book for identification...

... here;s a few of the white capped 'Alba' variety we photographed the same day growing on the lawn back at the 'Sanctum Santorum'...

... not yet "capped out"...

... same mushroom the next day - remember that these are the psychotic 'Berserker Mushrooms' that the Vikings would eat to prep for some intense pillage and destruction (see 'Magic Mushrooms')...

... Uh-OH!... it's 'Ig the Cat'... what's he up to?...

... "Get away from those things!!"...

... too late...

... didn't see him for a few hours afterward, so decided to take a stroll around the neighborhood to make sure he wasn't flattened road-kill somewhere... never found 'em but he was settin' on the front porch when we returned - appeared as normal as usual...

... thought it was strange, though, that all the neighborhood dogs had been hangin' out in the trees - never saw that before...

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... 'Jagged Edge'...

... 'Mauch Chunk' sandstone, 15"x7"x1", around 10lbs...

Trek 4300 Build Up

... our favorite gal 'Muscle Girl Sarah' dropped off a 'Trek 4300' MTB a few days ago for a tune-up, intending to eventually do a bit of backwoods riding...

... just needed some air in the tires, lubrication and a few cable adjustments - got to lookin' at this thing - hey, not a bad bike - not high end components but Shimano at least - don't know what they're sellin' now'days as far as their mid range stuff goes but we'll definitely find out - figured that they always had more of a problem with us than vice-versa, anyway - don't know nothin' about the 'RST' front shocks as well, we'd prefer 'Rock Shocks' - but we've busted up a lot (supposedly) better stuff - and the (light weight per our standards) frame looks solid as hell - all that matters anyway - we can fix/upgrade all else... so we decided to "soup it up" a bit for her -  that's it above after our modifications - got rid of the "stock" (don't know why we talk like that) big, giant "gran-ma" (there we go again) pedals and replaced 'em with some steel MTB Sport pedals - added some bar ends which she's gonna' need for a few hill climbs we can't wait to get 'er on...

... replaced the stock knobs with a 'Tioga Psycho Genius 2.30' on the rear...

... and a 'WTB Velociraptor 2.1' on the front - have experience beatin' up a 'Gary Fisher' the past year or two with a similar set up and have no complaints...

... finished product - should do 'er well...

Happy Fourth of July

Stone & Steel

... steel...

... have been carving stone on and off for many years and had always wanted to combine some metal shaping to the process, so recently looked into constructing a gas forge...

... and as usual, wanted to keep it simple - came across an instructional 'You Tube' video wherein a guy builds a small gas forge from a coffee can - didn't appear that you could get much simpler than that - we modified a bit of the hardware by ditching the coffee can and substituted a more durable body constructed from an old and worn thin-walled concrete core barrel of tool grade steel - we used a final 1:1:3/4 (Plaster Paris:Sand:Water) mix for the refractory chamber after two failed attempts - we made a first trial batch (1/2 part water) which set great but we failed to factor in the workability of the mix - the working batch was way too stiff and hardened to a too stiff consistency before we could complete hand mixing and placement - the second batch we underestimated the quantity needed, so screwed that up as well - the third 1:1:3/4 mix we didn't mess around - was a great pourable grout-like consistency that we mixed quickly with an electric power drill and mixing attachment...

... heres the final assembly ready for test firing - that's a 'Bernzomatic TS 8000' gas burner and 'MAPP Gas' fuel cylinder supplying the heat...

... first test heat using some 3/8" threaded rod we had lying around (we got the chamber slightly off-center when the form shifted slightly while placing the refractory - who cares)...

... was able to get the rod to orange heat in a little over two minutes (we timed it) and near yellow heat in a little over three minutes - re-heating to orange on an already hot bar takes about 30 seconds...

... not bad...

... this quickly turned to fun - we decided to further test the process by hammering and "drawing down" (yea - we talk like that for those apparently losing sleep over it) the rod to form this (albeit rough) fourteen inch "snake"...

... sort of a hybrid "cobra-garter snake" we'd guess...

... pretty cool how the threads wound up resembling scales... all-in-all we gotta' give the operating Forge five stars (out of five) - the 'MAPP Gas' costs a bit more than propane but up to this point we've done quite a bit of heating and have yet to finish the first cylinder - it also is said to burn at a bit higher temperature than propane (but not as high as the original 'MAPP Gas' which ceased production a few years back) so we'll stick with it - that 'TS 8000' burner is quick on-off firing (although it occasionally takes a few tries while in use and "sweating")... the refractory mix is holding up very well - we gave it a day to cure before the first heat to avoid any cracking considering some of the mixed comments (none with backup - as usual with on-line negativity) we read - lots of people claimed to prefer a 'Perlite' mix... we'll see...

... stone...

... not brilliant but simple... we were playin' around with some new cutting wheels a few weeks back on a pretty crappy, rainy and stormy day - whipped this out in around an hour or two... 'Downpour' - Mauch Chunk Sandstone, around 6 inches (widest) x 15 inches x 3 inches, maybe 20lbs...

Huginn and Muninn

..."In Norse mythology, the god Odin had two Ravens named Huginn (Old Norse "thought") and Muninn (Old Norse "mind"). Every day Odin would send them out at dawn, and the birds would fly all over the world before returning at dinner-time. They would tell Odin everything they saw and heard..."... 

... 'Huginn and Muninn'...

... B&W naturally lighted image.. stone carving on 'Mauch Chunk Sandstone' obtained locally... 18"x20"x8"x6" (around 160lbs)... design from a tattoo we we spotted on some big "Viking-looking dude"... that cloud-like image in the bottom right of the stone is a natural feature - we couldn't remove it no matter how much grinding/sanding - and it only appeared after we had carved the subject image (true - after further sanding) - regard it is a "stamp of approval" from the big man 'Odin' himself, so how cool is that!?...

WhatNot - Ramps, Swampers and Moments of Brilliance

... not necessarily in that order...

... was out last weekend for a "solo flight" MTB ride... got about a half mile from the vehicle parking - had a little slipping of the drive chain to this point - when "pop!" - the chain goes flying' and the cranks spinnin' free - broke a chain link... no big deal - always pack a 'chain repair tool' along for just such and "emergency"... upon inspection discovered that the link in question was completely seized tight - wouldn't have expected that as the chain is relatively new with only a few (albeit muddy) trips on it... had applied a coating of some highly touted (by the salesman) penetrating grease lubricant to it the previous weekend - will leave it go at that... anyway, pressed out the damaged link and am in the process of reassembling the chain when again "pop!" - now the push pin in the tool itself has snapped... maaaan!... don't have another one of those...

... broken pin...

... just need to press the chain pin to reconnect with the inner link and I should be back in business, but don't have any applicable tool - there's a few local dirt bikers we know congregated a few hundred feet ahead on the trail, so I take a walk up to see what tools might be available for quick borrow - could really use a pair of 'vise grips' in lieu of a replacement chain tool, which I didn't expect anyone to have... well, the only tool available was a pair of pliers, with which I was able to push the pin thru the inner link but was not able to generate enough "clamping force" to engage the (inside) outer link... "... man, you guys sure that none of you have a pair of vise grips?" - all respond negative... oh well - would be simple enough to pack up and drift back to the vehicle and call it a day, but hate to give up so easily and besides, it's a pretty nice day outside... so now I'm searchin' thru the pack, scanning the ground - lookin' for anything that might at least "spark the imagination"... I'm lookin' over this always packed "multi-tool" - a useful assembly of screw and hex drives, a socket drive, tire irons and a few external sockets - Hey! - that square-shanked socket drive has possibilities - appears to be just the right size dimensionally to fit between the chain-gripping tabs of the chain one way and the movable screw and chain the opposite...

... and it is (simulation back at the shop)...

... worked like a charm...

... now the next issue - continue on along the six mile loop with the eventual steep hills (with the now known chain issues) or pack up... screw it! - gotta' know how this will turn out, so continued on - wound up cranking the entire "crux" route of the trip with no problems - just got past the very last of any significant uphill to be encountered when "pop!" - there goes the link again - and it's seized solid just as before - but for the most part it's all downhill with one, short low upgrade with a short bit of flat to go - tossed the chain in the pack for later repair at home and easily cruised the two miles back to the vehicle..

... picked up a new chain tool yesterday which included this simple but useful gadget - basically just a short piece of wire coat hanger with looped ends to be used as pictured - can't believe that we've been repairing numerous broken chains over the past thirty years and never one thought of doing' that - sort of like discovering that you can shake the tree to get the coconuts after one falls and conks ya' on the head ...

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.. mounted these 29x10.5 'Super Swampers' on this '06 'Jeep KJ Liberty' (2-1/2 lift on 15" rims) a few years back after we didn't feel like going thru the effort needed to get 'em to work on the 'Suzuki SX4' (see 'Mountain Machines')...

... here they are yesterday after over 20K miles of mainly highway travel (is the "daily driver")...

... never would have expected that type of wear - figured to get maybe 8-10K out of 'em... barely half-worn with probably another 20K to go at this rate.... 

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... the town of 'Dunbar, PA' is holding' their 3rd annual 'Ramp Festival' next weekend, Saturday, May 14th - personally never attended (wasn't aware of the first two) - but looks like a good time - and it's easily accessible by bicycle from the 'Yough River Trail' - take the 'Sheepskin Trail' spur from 'Wheeler Bottom' for the two mile ride - will bring ya' right into town and the festival...

... that's the (non-annotated) 'Sheepskin Trail highlighted in blue - we had to upgrade to a new operating system on the 'Mac' a few weeks back because of compatibility issues for the needed upgrade to the most recent 'Flashplayer' which kept kicking us out of our web browser - the new system totally blows - no longer compatible with every photo/video software package we been using for the past 12+ years and on top of that deleted every individual file folder we had and dumped everything into one massive file now containing over 14,000 images to now resort - luckily we had backed up most of 'em to an external hard drive - it's obvious 'Apple' now only want's to sell ya' some dumb-ass 'Smart Phone' so you can take some idiotic "selfie" image of yourself standin' next to some horses ass (no insult to the horse intended)...

Who's in Control?

... spent approximately four hours today (∼11:45am thru ∼3:30pm) on line (and phone) with an "unknown and unseen" tech specialist (from who knows where?) trying to solve (by remote control) an issue with the home computer...

... now definitely believe that these guys had an idea of "things to come" back in the day:

... so far, definitely a great adventure - and left with a "cliffhanger" ending ta' boot > had to order a "package" from 'Apple' which is said to be arriving next Tuesday...

... or is it really coming from 'Electronics Service - Unit #16'...

... ?...

... Update 04/02/16: Received disc - spent another four hours on-line with "Exeter" - problem solved - situation normal - "Unit #16" did good...