Loggin' miles

We had planned to arrive at Hunt's Lodge right around noon on Friday. That meant leaving here by 10 AM. After all, all we had to do was to jump in and go. Melissa suggested making up an omelet for breakfast and so we postponed our departure time by a little but were still able to make the campground by noon (almost exactly). Perfect!

As I was setting up camp, Skip yelled "What are you doing?" I thought what I was doing was fairly obvious so I looked at him quizzically. He said "It's daylight still! Do you even know how to put it up in the daytime?"  Heh! smartass!

Tent erected, beer on ice and available, bikes unloaded, time to roll! Jack Hunt had given me some recommendations on some areas to ride but I forgot to find it on the map the previous night. I asked Lori and she was unfamiliar with it but said that if you took Epperson some 12 miles away it would lead you to dual sport roads .... Cool!

Found Epperson pretty easily and a mile off 68 there was Cannon Ridge Rd, that Jack suggested to start from. Yay! 

We took that and it soon turned into gravel. A couple miles along there was this triple hump entrance to some trail into the woods. I looked at Skip and he at me and we both grinned. 

Off we go .... 

Heh I was carrying some speed over that third hump and I felt the front wheel loft a bit .... Ooops! Luckily, bars were still straight when the wheel touched down and I just kept on going. We are rolling along this little path that was so indistinct in spots that there were times i was curious if we were still on it. 

The trail started climbing uphill. There was this one hill that I came to and lost momentum near the top. I grabbed the front brake and slowly let myself down backwards and gave it another go! 

I'm spinning! Yippee! it had been raining the past few days on and off so it's muddy.

I was able after a couple tries to free myself of it and crest the hill, but my temp gauge was at 3/4 and fan was rolling so I just shut it off. Skip came back thinking I needed help and I told him I was cooling my engine. We sat there for a few minutes once again enjoying the quiet. So peaceful.

After a few minutes, fired it up and we continued on. This trail was nowhere near as tough as what we saw yesterday. There were still challenging parts but I wasn't near as intimidated by what we were going through this time.

Today though was more stumps, branches, logs lying across the middle of the trail. Some of them were pretty good size. I had to teach myself to just pull back on the throttle and go. We were at about this point here ....

 when I got caught on a log (it's behind this point.

I was stuck.

I couldn't move. SHIT! SHIT!SHIT!SHIT!

The swingarm was planted on the log. I couldn't get the bike to power over it as there was no traction. I couldn't put the kickstand down and get off it because the log was in the way of the swing angle. I could barely flatfoot so I couldn't roll myself fore nor aft.

I was screwed. I basically had to sit there and wait until Skip come to help.

I suppose I could have lowered it to the ground and lifted it up off the log, but didn't see the point if I didn't have to. Skip came and gave me a little push and that was all that KLR needed.

Again, I am soaked from wrestling with this thing. So we stayed there a couple minutes, hydrated and rested, snapped a couple pics and back at it.

We continued down this trail a bit but soon had to turn back around. Yeeha! another bout with this log. I am on the gas and it got a bit squirrely and ... you guessed it .... dumped it again. Got it picked up and was able to get past it this time. 

I think that was the only (unplanned) drop of the day. We continue on another trail and then onto another and come to this nice 180* ridge view so we stopped and got some more pics.

This trail wound down the mountainside and eventually we came to a place where there was a tree felled across the trail at a 45* angle. It was waaaayy too big for us to move, we had no chainsaw (as it was about 18" diameter) but there was enough room between where it touched ground that we could probably lay the bikes on their sides and drag them under the tree. There was no safe way around this tree. Below there was a 4' drop off and above it was a 6' steep climb with trees in the way. 

We would've turned around but there was a gravel road on the other side of this tree, so we decided to drag them under and see where the gravel road went instead of backtracking. So this is what we did.

We got his KLX through with little problem (which we expected) but my KLR was a little more work. We managed to get it through, but were pretty spent from it. We sat there a few minutes and in doing so, I noticed my shifter was now bent. Apparently, it got hung on something as we pulled it under.  

I reach in my toolbag and we remove the shifter peg and are using two rocks to kind of beat it out until I can get it to pivot. It was better but I still couldn't shift it when sitting ON the bike. I could when standing next to it but not sitting on it. 

I didn't realize this until we had started down the road a bit. I tried getting Skip's attention but was unsuccessful and I couldn't catch him being stuck in first gear. We came to a turn and that is when I told him. 

We no longer had any rocks to use and were actually to 68 by now, but I didn't want to run this thing in first gear the whole way so I went into a parking lot, grabbed the shifter with my hand and put it in second gear. I can still take off in second but it lugs. However, it's not running at 5-6K RPMs going 30 mph for 6 miles back to camp. I could run 40-50 comfortably now. That's better.

We got back to Hunt's and I removed the shifter and put it in the vice and tried bending it to an angle that would work more effectively. Thanks to Bob Nelson. He was able to spot that the angle was not right to gain the leverage necessary to move it. We tinkered with it a few times and a quick test run around the lodge and it was workable.

Tina and Mike planned on ordering up some pizzas for everyone. Wow! what an ordeal. It seemed to take an hour and a half to put together that order. Thanks to both of ya. After dinner time passed too quickly and I eventually wandered off to my tent as well.  

Tryin' not to get in a rut!

I had been up late (early?) and had no inclination to get up in the morning. In fact, even when hearing the cowbell ringing signifying breakfast was ready, I laid there momentarily convincing myself to get my lazy bum up. 

It was probably a good move. After a breakfast of eggs, hash brown casserole, bacon, biscuits, gravy, goetta, home fries, I felt much better and was ready to go. 

We hung around for a while but eventually formulated a plan. Erik Kauppi was riding with us on Mike Freeman's DRZ400SM. He knew of a gravel road that went from the base of the Cherahola to TN-68 then we could take the road up to Buck Bald. That works.

When we got to 68 Skip and Erik switched bikes. The view up on Buck's Bald never gets old. It offers a 360* panoramic view that is second to none. Here is about half of it ...

And it's quiet! With the exception of a passing airplane you hear no manmade noise up here at all. Nice!

From there we headed back towards camp. We stayed there briefly and watched Sean fight getting his tire to seat the bead. After a bit we headed out again with Jack leading us to a 600 acre "playground". There were gravel roads everywhere. Most were highly rutted logging roads but there were other trails branching off all over the place. 

Again, just a few minutes in and I am wringing wet with sweat. Skip said "you don't see many fat motocrossers" Heh, i reckon not! 

We played in that for about maybe an hour before heading back to camp yet again. I managed to make it through this day without one drop. Erik had some issues but that DRZ shod with street tires didn't offer him much of a chance on some of that terrain. These roads were rutted real bad if you take a bad line it wouldn't be too hard to fall into it.  

Once back at camp, a beer run was in order then the rest of the night would be at the campground hanging out. 

Soon the dinner bell was rung and the line of hungry maggots began filling their plates and bellies with a feast of smoked, pulled pork, slaw, potato salad, deviled eggs, green beans and more. Yum!

And again the night passed  by all to quickly.

It was a standing room only crowd down by the firepit Saturday evening. At one point Terry Phillips' widow gave an emotional and heartfelt thank you to all who contributed. It seems that $3000 was raised and they won't need to sell off some personal belongings as a result. This is such an awesome group! 

Sunday brought us to Nut-N-Fancy for breakfast and they have proven they are no quicker than the place we used to go to in the square. At least the servers had more personality (cuter too) than the other guy but it still takes forever to get breakfast served.  We got back to camp and loaded up the bikes and headed on home.

What a great weekend! So many good friends and memories are made (and revisited) at each and every event. 

as it turns out

My hops field has gotten out of hand. I wasn't expecting them to be ready this early but they have taken off. Melissa and I did get out there last week and string up the lines, but there were two plants where the stakes had come up so I still needed to stake and string those two.

Besides that, they were growing everywhere. I really needed to trim back all but 2-3 shoots per root. At least that is the generally accepted wisdom. That way, the plant isn't expending it's energy on a bunch of little bines but can put it forth into 2 or 3 different ones and *they* produce more that way. Last year I let them all grow to establish a good root, this year it will be all about yield. 

So anyway, I cut the extra shoots off and stripped back the first foot of leaves to help the soil aerate better. Here is what they look like right now ...

It's a crude picture but you get the idea. It's hard to believe, but just three weeks ago, they were just budding through the ground.

For reference, the ones in the middle are taller than I. The peak where the lines converge is about 14' above the ground?

There is still work to do (always with a garden, right?), but I am content with it for now. Just to the right of this picture is the lower entry/exit of the road loop around the property that will eventually be blazed. I need to get the chainsaw sharpened, but that is another "day".

So with that done, I farted around in the garage a bit, fiddling with various unfinished projects, mostly lathe stuff and I was having no success with any of it.

My bandsaw blade keeps popping off. It is basically wore out. I have tensioned it as much as I can and it still pops off. So i cannot use it to cut a log.

The Poulan chainsaw keeps popping off the circlip/e-clip that holds the drive sprocket on. It usually lasts about half a log before ejecting it. The Stihl is too dull to cut butter. So I got ALL this damn wood lying around and I cannot cut it up for lathe use. GRR!

I tried to chuck up a goblet I had been working on but got nowhere with it as the lateral forces are too much for the small amount of hold the chuck has. I need to fab up a spindle rest that will support the piece closer to where the stresses are coming from. I have found one online and have the basic idea of how to do it, just need some materials.

Meanwhile, these two set waiting such a time as I have made it up -->



I can't cut up any wood, can't work the pieces I have started ... I am really wanting to turn something so I started poking around the scrap pile. I have the base of a lighthouse lamp and am in need of a small piece for the top that will work with it. During my poking around I came across a log of that spalted birch that had a "fatal" crack in it.



I have been wanting to make an egg for Melissa for Easter. This spalted wood would be just perfect to use. The piece I'm looking at has a crack in it that will most likely be transferred into the piece.

A cracked egg? HA! I love it!

Well as it began to take it's form, apparently the crack wasn't as deep into the piece as it looked as the crack had all but disappeared. There is still a little one but it is hard to see. Yeesh, any other time you would be happy to remove that imperfection, but when you want it?   ;)

It will be interesting to see if it manifests itself more as it dries. Here is a pic of the egg ...

Heh. when done I took it inside and tossed it to Melissa and said Happy Easter to my favorite cracked egg.  ;)

I was sitting next to the firepit yesterday morning and just listenin’ to the creek runnin’ because of the rains from last night all the while listenin’ to the dogs in the neighborhood barkin’ ‘bout this and that and the birds singin’ and all the cacophony that is associated with settin’ out in the woods. While it’s not in the woods, it can be peaceful.

The sky was a beautiful blue and there were a few thin wispy white clouds. It was pastoral!

Then I saw the shadow of a bird fly over head and it happened to be a hawk. It’s wingspan was about 3’, maybe 4’. That was neat in itself, but then he circled around just above a clearing in the trees soaring in the currents with a light tip of his primary feathers to adjust direction.

It was looking for food I am sure, but it was really cool to watch him circle around above where I was. It circled probably a half dozen times.

Dammitall! Wouldn’t you know I didn’t have the camera with me? I knew if I went inside to get it the hawk would be gone and I would have just missed seeing the last of it's circling the area.

Bummer too, because with the textured backdrop of thin white wispy clouds on that blue sky, there could have been some cool shots.

the christening ...

Yesterday's weather was forecast to be about 80* and mostly sunny. So I got the 1250 out for a bit. Man! that thing is so smooth it's dangerous! It never once "felt" fast, although you would look down at speedo and be like "whoa!"  


So I am in dire need of chain lube as I had used the last of what 
I had on the 600 when putting on its new chain and sprockets. I headed up to Morristown to the local shop I deal with and grabbed a can of Chain Wax, applied it and then headed over to Knoxville to grab some brews for later. From there, I would decide where to go.


With those "chores" done, it was time to go ride somewhere. I decided I would head down to Hunt's Lodge and bug Lori. The easiest and funnest way is to head down 129 (besides the  Dragon will be  all mine -- it's Monday and early in the "season") so that's what I did. Anyway 129 goes right past the airport and it is pretty common to see an airliner up close and personal as it comes in to land. It's not an international airport, but it is always busy. 


As I went by I noticed out of the corner of my eye (they would be taxiing in from behind me when headed south) I see what doesn't look to be a regular passenger liner... at all. I look over and it's one of the Blue Angels coming in, and right behind him was another. The second one passed right over me as i was in that tangent to the runway. I could see the innards of the landing gear he was that low. It was pretty cool!


Once I got to the dragon, i saw that the photographers were out so appraently it's not that dead but I still had a relatively free run of it. On a whim I turned left on NC-28 and took it all the way down to 64 (I still LOVE that stretch of 28 between 74 and 64). It's so fun I cannot resist going there if in the "area". 


I figured i could cut back west on US 64 to pick up TN-68. However, you got to really love both of those roads to incorporate them on the same ride as that hour long slog on 64 really has you questioning why you went this way.  


Upon reaching 68, I once again had the road mostly to myself. Those times I did approach slower vehicles, just one blip of the throttle and it was no longer an issue. Yeah baby! 


That 3 mile stretch just to the north of the creek as you are gaining elevation in those wide sweeping turns is just too much fun! I admit I think I may have been in violation of the speed limit in this section. ; )


When I got up to the campground, no one was there. So I left and headed across the Skyway, and then one more run up the Dragon. A couple of those turns on the Dragon had me exiting at 55 ish and another at 64 this thing is dangerous-smooth! 


I was fast, but it didn't feel it. I never touched a peg down at any point yesterday, but the speedo kept telling me I wasn't slow. 


Just before I got to the Dragon I could see the skies to the northeast were rather dark ... well, black, and there was really no way of avoiding it. Crud! with such a glowing weather forecast I didn't pack any rain gear at all. 


I could likely minimize it by slogging through it going north, or head east. If I went east I would likely get caught in it twice. So I went north.


It was about a half hour or so of steadily sprinkling. Once I got north of Maryville though it cleared out and the rest of the ride home was dry and rather uneventful as it was dark by now. I just slabbed it on home from Knoxville.


I am really impressed with how smooth this bike is. You never really feel like you're going too fast nor that you are out of control. I missed a couple entries but this bike is so forgiving you can power out or just lean it a bit more to counter any misjudgments. 


It's so smooth in fact, it got named. I now call it Cloud9 because it is just that smooth. Plus it puts that Cloud 9 grin on my face so she has been christened.   ; )

I have yet to get it over 7K RPM. I don't feel the need to. It really delivers well up to 7K and after 5K things start happening  ... FAST!! I am sure with more miles I will explore it's capabilities more. 

can't we just get along?

so I'm not sure who actually reads these blogs of mine, but I suppose I write them as much for me as anyone. I am sitting here with free reign of the TV since Dad's drunkass has already retired for the evening.

Usually, I just turn the damn thing off, unless there is a sporting event (typically college ball) on, I will turn it off or maybe switch to one of the music channels. I tend to check the movie channels we get and the box gets shut down because nothing appeals.

However, tonight "Remember the Titans" was on. I have seen it many times and it's a good flick that I do enjoy watching, so tuned in.

It's a feel good movie, but it's powerful because of all the socially driven context it addresses. It was a different time and racism was much more rampant than it is today.

Sadly though, nearly 40 years after the time frame of the setting of this movie, we as a society, haven't really progressed much. I have lived in the deep south most of my life.

Racism is something that I am not oblivious to. I see way too much of it. I don't get it, but I am in no bubble either.

I hate racism! HATE IT! I do NOT understand how you can have preconceived notions about a person before you have met him/her just because of the fact they are different from you.

The word "individual" is just that! Each person deserves the opportunity to let you down before you determine he/she deserves disdain. Why should you judge a person because of some group they belong to you whether that group wronged YOU or not?

How shallow is that? How come nearly 150 years after the end of the "Civil War" (ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS!!) we cannot get past this hatred? It baffles and sickens me!

This isn't just a black and white thing, though. It's not just race, it's culture. Take Muslims. MOST of them are NOT Jihad lunatics. Yet, we as Americans have a mindset about Asiatic cultures -- stereotyping is a bad thing.

Some of those folks DO have hateful intentions toward us, but not the majority. One bad apple and all that ...

Prejudice knows no bounds. Why can we not break down this wall (as a species)?

It is great to see that blacks and whites can get along. When I was in college (only a decade ago) I shared an apartment with two other guys who were best friends.

One was a white guy, the other a black guy. I was tickled to see this. This has been showcased more and more over the past decade through the media, and I think it is a good thing, but it still remains in some fashion.

I suppose the landscape has changed to where it's not so much black and white as it once was, but we still have that predisposition to judge someone by their culture in a wholistic rather than individual approach. That sucks! When we can accept each PERSON as a PERSON and not part of a group we will ALL be better!

Maybe one day the human race can just get along and agree to disagree on things and it be cool. Right now, not so much.

consumed ...

that's what I am! I am about to head out on a road trip on the bike later this week.

This will be my first road trip in a few years. I sooo miss road trippin' on the bike! It's been waaayyy too long!

I am headed up to the D.C. area to visit with a very good friend for a few days. We have some work to do, but after that ... it's play time!!

On Saturday, we will head up towards Philadelphia where another friend of mine is storing a bike for me. The idea is to load it onto the trailer, hang out for a bit, then head to Philly. Or do Philly first then grab the bike. Either way, that's Saturday's to-do list.

Sunday, I will head on home on the new bike mostly on secondary roads and probably a good stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Of course, if the weather sucks, I guess I will just slab it home. I will leave the KLR up there and Skip will bring it down when he comes down for the Tellico event next month.

So this is *all* I'm thinking about. I am finally going to get to log some significant miles. I get to hang out with good friends. AAAANNNDDD .. I am picking up a bike that I have wanted since it hit the showroom floor. Does it get much better?

I am not a bike slut -- well in a way, yeah, but I mean I have never really lusted after a new bike. Ever since this one was announced I have yearned to own it ... and now I do.

So all I am thinking about is this upcoming trip. I am consumed. Is it Thursday morning yet?