Christmas Tree & Work

I missed everyone over Thanksgiving, but I survived. I'll get to see my family over Christmas, so I'm really excited about that. Hopefully I'll get to make it back to Kentucky sometime soon to see everyone there.

Colorado has been great recently, though. Loveland has gotten a ton of snow. They're at over 130 inches for the season, so far. That's over 10 feet of snow and more than double what they had by this time last year. That has made work harder, since I have to clear snow from the lifts all day. On the flip side, though, snowboarding has been great. On Saturday, we had so much snow that I couldn't even feel the bottom most of the time. I work five days a week and go snowboarding on my two days off, so I'm literally at Loveland seven days a week. You can't beat the view from my office, though. I haven't brought a decent camera to work, yet, but here are some pictures taken with my cell phone.
This one is from the middle of lift 4.


This one is from the top of lift 9. At 12,700 ft, it's one of the highest chair lifts in North America.


I went out one night after work with a headlamp and a hand saw and cut down a Christmas tree. I decorated it and put it in front of the picture window so people can see it from the road.
Here it is before I decorated it. Pretty good for finding it at night, in the snow, with a headlamp.


And here it is decorated. I put a white sheet under it for a tree skirt after I took the picture.


I also bought a few strands of small colored lights and put them on the two pine trees in the front yard. They look kind of ghetto, because I didn't have enough lights to get to the top of either tree, so each one only has two strands wrapped around the lower half of the tree. So no pictures of them.

Halloween

I know I'm about a month late, but I wanted to post a picture of the pumpkin I carved for Halloween. It was pretty challenging. I used a couple of kitchen knives, some toothpicks, and a power drill to do the cutting.

It looked pretty good outside for about a day, but the cold weather shriveled it up pretty quickly. I had Halloween candy ready to give out, too, but as I expected, no trick-or-treaters came by. 

Loveland, Thanksgiving, and Cold Weather

I've been working at Loveland for almost two weeks now. I like the work, but it's kind of depressing to work on powder days and not be able to snowboard. I get two days off a week, and for the most part, I spend those snowboarding, so I'm pretty much at Loveland seven days a week.

I changed my oil yesterday. That was an experience I don't plan to repeat, laying in the snow under my Jeep. It was cold. Hopefully, this oil change will last me till spring. I ride an employee shuttle to work, so I probably won't be putting many miles on the Jeep.

I didn't get to come home for Thanksgiving, which I was pretty disappointed about. I miss being able to see my family and friends and don't know when I'll be in Kentucky again. I worked Thanksgiving day, then went snowboarding Friday morning.

It was pretty cold during the middle of this week. The high on Wednesday was 2ºF and Thursday was 12ºF. Wednesday night, the overnight low was -8ºF. When I woke up for work, the water didn't work. The valve in front of the water meter had frozen. I had to heat it with a propane torch to get the water flowing again. Luckily, none of the pipes burst. I'm going to buy a thermostat controlled space heater to put in the bathroom to protect the pipes on cold nights.

New Job

Here's a quick update on my job hunt. I didn't get a job as an instructor at Loveland. I applied for a position as a lift attendant there last Tuesday, though. I got interviewed the same day, and got a call back the next day that I got a job. I had training on Monday, and my first day of work was Tuesday. Though it's not quite my dream job, I'm glad to be working at Loveland, and I got my free season pass, so I've been snowboarding as much as possible.

I have a new respect for lifties. It snowed all day Monday and Tuesday, so my first day of work consisted of shoveling snow all day, scanning tickets, and bumping chairs (slowing the chair down before skiers sit on it). I was pretty sore after work Tuesday.

Since this is a full time job, including holidays, I won't be able to come home for Thanksgiving, which really sucks. But, I did manage to get Christmas off, which will be nice.

Loveland ski area has had a great November. Just this week, they got 40 inches of snow, bringing their total to over 70 inches since opening just a few weeks ago. Needless to say, the skiing has been great for this time of year. I think they already have more terrain open now than they did by Christmas last year!

The downside to getting so much snow is that I haven't been able to do much work outside. I really need to change the oil in my Jeep, but don't feel like doing it in eight inches of snow.

Loveland Training

I went to the training/hiring clinic at Loveland this weekend. It was a lot of ton. It was basically a weekend of snowboarding all day, then hanging out at night. I rode with some really great instructors and learned a lot from them. I also met a bunch of really cool people and hung out with them for most of the weekend. Overall, it was the funnest hiring process I've ever gone through.

Unfortunately, they invited 36 snowboarders to the training clinic and only had 19 spots available for hiring. I didn't get a position, but am on the standby list for possible future openings. So, I'm back on the job hunt and will be applying to a bunch of places this week. I'm still hoping for a position at Loveland, and at least something in the mountains.

New Refigerator

The refrigerator in the cabin died in the middle of last week, so I spent a couple days dealing with that. It started making a noise as though the compressor was trying to start running, but never did. It made that noise ever 30 seconds. I actually unplugged the refrigerator for almost two days before I got a new one, but didn't lose any food, as the average temperature inside the cabin was in the mid 50s.

I did some price checking and found out delivery to Silver Plume would cost nearly $200, and renting a flatbed from the nearest Home Depot would cost at least $60, plus a tank of gas in the ruck, and a few hours of driving. I ended up finding a reasonably priced refrigerator at a Sears appliance store in Silverthorne (30 miles west of Silver Plume) and bought the floor model. I decided to put the refrigerator in my Jeep (it barely fit, and wouldn't have, had it been in a box) to take it home. With the rear seat folded down, the fridge still hung out the back of the Jeep and the rear hatch wouldn't close. I keep a bunch of ratchet straps in my Jeep and used those to fasten the fridge down and keep it from sliding out. The edge of the fridge lined up with my rear windshield when I lowered the hatch, so I connected a strap from the rear hatch to my roof rack to keep the window from slamming into the fridge and breaking. Needless to say, it was a ghetto setup. But it worked. I never went faster than 30 mph and stopped every 15 minutes to check all the straps and make sure I wasn't about to dump a refrigerator onto the highway. It took about an hour to get home. The worst part about the drive was all the big rigs flying past me going up the mountain.

When I got home, the fridge installation process was a typical Fletcher experience. I borrowed a dolly from Sears, which made moving the fridge on the rocky driveway and through the house easier (I definitely couldn't have done it by myself without a dolly). However, I had to remove the doors from the fridge, the pneumatic piston from the screen door, and an interior bedroom door in order to move the fridge into the kitchen.

I found out just how hard it is to get rid of an old refrigerator, too. I found a dump that would take it for about $10, but I had to get the fridge certified freon free first. After calling around to several appliance stores in Silverthorne, the cheapest place I found that would remove the freon cost at least $75. I widened my search and through a series of phone calls found a place in downtown Denver that would take the fridge, remove the freon, and dispose of it for $20. I spent most of the day last Thursday driving; to return the dolly to get my $50 deposit back (30 miles west) and to drop off the old fridge (50 miles east). Note that most places (HD, Lowes, etc) will take and dispose of the old fridge if they deliver the new one. So, if you find a deal with free delivery, take it.

After all that hassle, we have a nice, new fridge that is large enough to hold all our food when the whole family comes to visit. I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

More Updates

An update on my mountain life. I also added pictures to my last post, if you haven't seen those.

Since my last post, I've completely finished painting the cabin, cut down a few more trees to chop up for firewood, cleaned up around the cabin to prepare for winter, and reorganized the shed. All that I had left for painting the cabin was the very bottom board on each side, which I saved for last to avoid getting dirt in the brush and paint can. The cabin looks brand new from the outside, and hopefully won't have to be repainted for a long time. Also, just as an FYI, I used the same four inch brush to apply the green paint to the entire cabin. I kept the brush usable for nearly four months without cleaning it by placing it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator (I also did this to keep the primer and trim brushes usable, but not for as long).

There was a bunch of trash/construction debris in the driveway that I had to get rid of before it got buried in snow and couldn't be found before next spring. I also cleaned out the shed, which was so full of ladders, saws, mowers, paint, and other random junk, that you couldn't even step into it. That was an annoying process that required taking everything out of the shed, then figuring how to put it all back in so that it didn't take up as much space. The outside of the shed is in pretty bad shape, now (peeling, fading paint), so I'm planning on repainting it in the spring.

I cut down two more dead trees at the beginning of the week, then drug about 30 four-foot long logs down the side of the mountain to the cabin (I had several logs already cut up that I hadn't yet moved down the mountain). I still have to cut the logs into one foot sections and split and stack them, but I should have enough wood now to last through most of the winter.







I had to turn on the propane heater in the living room yesterday to keep the cabin warm enough to keep the pipes in the bathroom from freezing overnight or when I'm gone during the day (and can't keep a fire going). With the recent cold front (overnight low last night was 7° F) came our first real snow storm, too. Sunday through Wednesday we had near blizzard conditions in parts of the mountains. Silver Plume only got a few inches of snow, along with heavy winds (40-60 mph gusts), but a few miles west, at the continental divide and Loveland Ski Area, as much as 30 inches of snow accumulated. Portions of I-70 (the main, four lane highway that runs east-west through Colorado) had to be closed for periods of time to clear snow.

Loveland was the first ski area to open in Colorado, and did so last Sunday, after making man-made snow for a few weeks. I haven't gone snowboarding, yet, but will hopefully get to soon, as my instructor training starts the first weekend of November.

I'll upload some pictures as soon as I get a chance to at the library.

Slip Yoke Eliminator Install

Finally getting around to writing up my SYE install. Iron Rock Off Road (IRO) has great instructions on their website. I did call them a couple of times with questions, and their customer service was great each time. I got to talk to their actual technicians that do installs there.

One question I asked was about cutting oil for the drilling and tapping portion. One of the techs told me they now use an expensive Mobil 1 cutting oil for all their work, but that they used to use regular motor oil. So, I used some old Mobil 1 oil left over from an oil change.

On to the work. I did all of this in my rocky, un-level driveway, with a minimum amount of tools. For all the work, all I used was the bottle jack that comes standard with the Jeep to do all the lifting (stacked on several blocks of wood).

First, the before picture of the DS:


The IRO kit came with the bolts necessary to remove my transfer case drop, which was super convenient. For anyone wondering, they are M10 x 40 hex bolts.

All the old bolts came out pretty well, except one, which I used PB Blaster and a little heat from a torch to remove. I followed IRO's suggestion and used anti-sieze on the new bolts I put in.

Next, I removed the old drive shaft. The bolts on the rear pinion yoke came out pretty easily, after I used a little PB blaster. The hardest part was rotating the shaft to get acces to all the bolts (had to roll the Jeep forward a bit). I measured the distanced specified by IRO, then put blue tape around the output shaft and started to cut using a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a 1/8" thick cutoff wheel.


I rotated the shaft by hand every few seconds to help make the cut more uniform. I also went very slowly (removed the cutting wheel every few seconds) and took a break half way through to keep the shaft from heating up too much. I was worried about overheating the seals (though I don't know if that is a legitimate concern).

In hindsight, I wish I had just made the cut with the Jeep running in reverse, so that the output shaft was spinning. I ended up doing this anyway, and using a grinding wheel to smooth and straighten my cut. The shaft spun a lot slower than I thought it would, so it wouldn't have been very hard to make the cut with the shaft spinning.

On to the drilling and tapping. I used an old windex bottle to spray the motor oil into the hole while I was drilling. I marked the center of the shaft by sliding the new yoke on, then pushing a permanent marker through the center hole. It would've been better to use a large drill bit that just barely fit through the hole in the yoke to start a small hole in the center of the shaft, but I didn't have one available. My hole was slightly off, but everything bolted up just fine.

I backed the drill bits (first drilled a small hole, then the larger one) out every few seconds to clear chips and keep the drill bit from overheating. The drill bits supplied by IRO worked just fine for this process, and didn't seem to get dull. I also used the tap from the IRO kit. The kit didn't come with a tap handle, which I was disappointed with at first (since I did't have one). After getting under the Jeep, though, I realized that a tap handle probably wouldn't have fit in the drive train tunnel. I ended up using a small #10 box wrench to turn the tap and that worked perfectly.

I was too oily to take pictures after all this, so all I have are pictures of the new yoke and shaft installed.







The whole installation took me about 3.5 - 4 hours to do by myself, including a break to eat and take pictures part way through cutting the shaft. I'm very happy with the kit so far.

Random Updates

Edit: just uploaded pictures.

I haven't updated my blog in a while, because my laptop died, so I can't get pictures up. So, I decided to update without pictures.


I've Got Wood
Induendo aside, I have collected quite a bit of firewood to get me started this winter. So far, I've cut down three or four decent size pine trees and chopped them into firewood. It takes a while and quite a bit of work to cut down a tree, section it, drag the sections down to the cabin, cut them into one foot long pieces, then split and stack them all. Splitting the wood gets pretty monotonous (and does a number on my back), so I play a little game while I'm doing it. I try to see how many pieces I can split a log into with only one swing. A normal swing splits the log into two pieces. So, I see if I can split it into three or more pieces with just one swing. So far, I've gotten several tripple kills and two elusive quadruple kills (yep, that's a halo reference). Yes, splitting an entire tree's woth of wood is that boring.

Cabin Update
The weather is starting to cool off here (snowed this week), so I'm try to get the outside work done on the cabin before it gets too cold to paint. I've scrapped, caulked, and primed the back three sides of the cabin that needed it, and am ready to paint the whole backside (five small sides), as soon as I get a weather opening. I'll upload some pictures as soon as I figure out how, since I no longer have a laptop to take to the library.

I have gotten two coats of green on the back and am planning on painting the trim today. I accidentally got semigloss instead of flat paint for the second coat on the back, so it glows just a little more than the rest of the cabin. I'm hoping it gets dirty and tones down soon.

Mom's Visit
My mom came in town to visit last week. We spent most of the time working on the inside of the cabin. We got rid of some old furniture that was falling apart and just wasting space, hung some new curtains, and cleaned up a bit. We reorganized the living room so it should accomodate more people than it used to. As always, it was nice to have a visitor.

Snowboard Rack
One of the problems that we have in the cabin is that there isn't enough floor space or storrage space. We've got lots of stuff, but nowhere to put it. One think we have in abundance are snowboards. Right now most of them are stored under beds, but when people come and start using them, we needed a place to store them where they are accessible. I've had an idea in my head for a while to build a snowboard rack, and finally went to Home Depot to get the parts. The rest of this is kind of a how-to, so it might go into too much detail.

I used a 48" long by 3/4" wide flat piece of aluminum (1/8" thick) for the main structure.


I used #8 x 1.5" long screws with tapered heads to attach the alluminum to the wall. The hard part was figuring out what to use to hold the snowboards. I started searching through the random parts drawers at HD and found some small rubber corks (I bought eight of the smallest ones they had). They were perfect for what I had in mind.

I used #8 x 3/4" long screws with tapered heads to attach the rubber corks to the alluminum. It's important that the screws are tapered, so that the heads are flush with the aluminum.


I'll find a way to post a picture of the rack soon, so I don't have to try and explain how it works. The large gap between each of the posts is 10.5" between the center of each screw. The small gap is 1.5 inches between the center of each screw. To attach the rubber corks, I drill one hole were I wanted the cork to go that was smaller than the diameter of the screw. I then drilled a hole with a much larger drill bit to countersink the screw head (I tried using a drill bit with a countersink, but the countersink portion didn't work at cutting the aluminum). It is important that the screw threads into the aluminum partly so that it stays steady and can't move.


I drilled a small hole part way threw the rubber cork, then threaded it onto the screw that was fastened into the aluminum.


Seven more times, and the rack was ready to be mounted. The mounting screws had to be countersunk as well, to keep them from scratching the snowboards.


The final rack is very sturdy and will hold four snowboards. I plan on mounting one more rack somewhere, since we now have five snowboarders in the family.


Slip Yoke Eliminator
I also installed a slip yoke eliminator on my Jeep. It involved cutting, drilling, and tapping the rear output shaft on my transfer case. It was quite a little task for me to undertake in my sloped, rocky driveway, but all went well and the Jeep is driving better than ever. The slip yoke eliminator allowed me to get rid of my transfer case drop, so I have a little more ground clearance now, and a little more confidence that I'm not going to bang my transfer case on a rock off road.

Before:


After:

First Snow
We got our first snow of the season two nights ago. I woke up to about three inches of snow covering everything, but most of it melted by the end of the day. Loveland Ski Area, on the other hand, has been making snow since last Friday, so their opening day is getting closer and closer.

Job Update
I got invited to Loveland's instructor training in November, after which they make official job offers for the season. So, I don't officially have a job yet, but at least I know I didn't blow the interview. Unfortunately, instructor training overlaps with two of my last three OEC classes. That means I'll have to miss the last two OEC instructional classes (one of which is the practice practical exam), then take the practical exam the following weekend, which will be a challenge, to say the least. Hopefully all goes well.

Loveland Interview

I had my interview for a position as a snowboard instructor on Tuesday. It was a group interview, with two interviewers and 5 other interviewees, which was a new experience for me. Overall, I think the interview went well. I was pretty comfortable answering all the standard interview questions. They went around the tables and gave everyone a chance to answer each question, so it was interesting to hear what other people had to say. Some of the other interviewees had some neat answers I hadn't thought of and had very interesting backgrounds.  One guy was a surfer and skateboarder from California, but looked very professional and said he had worked most of his life in construction (I think he was around 40).

The part of the interview that threw me for a loop was the very last thing the interviewers asked us to do. Each candidate had to teach the group something. The Californian went first and handed everyone a piece of paper. He then stood up and taught us how to make a paper airplane. He knocked that task out of the ball park. I went last because I was struggling to find something to teach the class that would engage them and demonstrate my teaching ability. I'm pretty sure I failed, though. All I could come up with was teaching them how to tie a knot, specifically an Eskimo bowline. I took off both my shoelaces, handed one to one of the other interviewees, then began demonstrating how to tie the knot. Only two people participated with me. Hopefully I did well enough during the rest of the interview to get a job.

I'll hear back from them the first week of October, so I'm crossing my fingers until then.

Exploding Plate, Cabin Update, and More

So this is just kind of random. I was making a baked potato in the microwave when I heard a pop sound. I opened the microwave to find this:


I guess there must've been a small crack in the plate that had gotten moisture in it that expanded when it started to heat up.

A quick update on the cabin. I replaced both sections of Plexiglas on the front screen door. The bottom one had been broken and missing for a while and the top one was cracked and faded. The sheets only cost $15 a piece at Home Depot and are fairly easy to install. All you have to do is cut them to size with a table saw, apply silicon sealant the the frame, then slide the panels in and let them dry. For $35 worth of materials, I think the "new door" looks pretty good.

Here's a before shot:


And the after shot:


The pictures don't really do it justice, but the new glass really does make a big difference.

I have a job interview at a ski area tomorrow for being a snowboard instructor. It's a group interview (which I have no experience with), so I'm a bit anxious about how I'll do. Hopefully all goes well and I get a winter job squared away.

I also made a little modification to my Jeep. I removed/cut away the front air dam. I think it looks better, but it should also keep it from getting caught on stuff when I'm 4 wheeling. I removed the license plate cover a while ago, so I think the front end is quite a bit cleaner now.

Before:


After:

Cabin Trim Painting

After I finally finished the second coat of green on the walls of the cabin, I spent a couple of days painting all the trim. It went on pretty quickly and I think it looks great. Here are some of the most recent pictures of the cabin. I still have the back walls to do, but at least from the front and sides, it looks finished. 

The wild flowers I planted are starting to bloom, but something is eating the buds, so I'm not getting as many flowers as I should.

In this picture, you can see the back of the house, which I haven't painted yet. You can tell just how faded and worn the old paint job had become.

flickr has more pictures of the cabin. There are some good up close ones that show the color and detail better.

Climbing Grays and Torreys Peaks

Wow, it's been ten days since my last post. Mostly because I haven't done anything particularly exciting recently.  I have finished the second coat of green paint on the visible sides of the cabin, and started working on the trim. I'll post pictures as soon as I get some more trim paint on. The cabin actually looks pretty good in bright green with brown trim.

I've been studying a lot for my Outdoor Emergency Education class, too. I've read about musculoskeletal injuries and how to treat/splint them over the past two weeks. Pretty interesting stuff. I have to read about soft tissue injuries this week, which I'm not looking forward to, because the pictures in the book are gruesome.

I've also been getting ready for winter. the nights are getting colder, and the average temperature inside the cabin when I wake up is around 60°F. I haven't turned on any of the gas heaters, yet, so I've been making fires in the evenings to warm the house up. I don't have nearly enough wood stored, so I've spent a couple days hiking up behind the cabin and cutting down recent beetle killed trees and chopping them up for firewood. A single tree doesn't seem to make as much firewood as I'd thought, so I've still got quite a bit more work to do before I have enough wood to last through the winter.

So, climbing Mt. Elbert got the bug in me. I climbed two more 14ers this morning, Grays and Torreys Peaks. I was the first person to hit the trail, at six am this morning, when it was just light enough to not need a headlamp. The trail up to Grays is a little under four miles long with  about 3000' of vertical gain. Another three quarters of a mile, down along a saddle and back up 600', and I was on top of Torrey's Peak, all by 10 am. I had each peak to myself for a few minutes, which is apparently fairly rare. Though, I did see several other groups of hikers along the way, and met a few people at the top of Torreys.
Grays peak is on the left, the big rounded one, and Torreys is on the right. Despite how it looks from here, Grays is three feet taller at 14,270'

There was a goat in the middle of the trail between the two peaks I had to detour around. He must be used to the attention, 'cause he stayed pretty still while I took a bunch of pictures of him.

flickr has the rest of the pictures from the trip.
EveryTrail has the trip path and geotagged pictures.

Climbing Mt. Elbert

Tuesday afternoon, I got a message about an opportunity to climb a 14er, one of Colorado's many mountains that is at least 14,000 feet tall. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. The plan was to climb Mt. Elbert, which at 14,433 ft is the tallest mountain in Colorado, and the second highest in the lower 48 states.

Our group of five (plus one German shepherd) met at a campsite near the trailhead at around 10pm Wednesday night. We set up our tents and made a fire, but soon went to sleep, in anticipation of our 5.40 am wake up call. We were a bit sluggish in the morning, and didn't make it to the trailhead 'til 7.00 am, about the same time that the sun started lighting up the top half of the mountain.


The first couple of hours were on a good trail through the woods, a nice, albeit all uphill, hike.


We hit the tree line around 9.00 am.


From there, it was another three hours to the top. It was mostly easy trail hiking, but the last mile (with 1000 vertical feet to go) had some steep loose rock sections that made the going a bit slower.


After five hours, 4.5 miles, and 4,500 ft of vertical gain, we finally made it to the top. We couldn't have asked for better weather for the climb. Clear blue skies, low winds, and temperatures ranging from the upper 30s to lower 60s made for a great day (though, my face got a bit sun burned). Even at the summit (where I had my celebratory PB&J), the wind was very light.


We hung out on the summit for a few minutes, then started the journey back down. It took us less than three hours to make the return trip. For me, going down was worse than the trip up. That's when I started to feel it in my quads. Most of the way up, I felt great, aside from the normal increased breathing rate and pulse that accompanies uphill hiking. I don't think I really started to feel the altitude until we got to around 13,500 ft, which I attribute to the fact that I live at 9,200 feet.

Overall, I had a great experience and couldn't have asked for a better group to climb my first 14er with. Everyone was very supportive and laid back during the climb. Even Isis (the German shepherd) helped by checking on each one of us constantly, and warning the leaders of any stragglers (this was her third 14er). There are a lot more good pictures on flickr. A plot of our track, with geotagged pictures is on everytrail (I haven't figured out how to embed them well, yet). I'm already planning my next 14er...

Few Jeep Upgrades

The past week I've been mostly studying for my OEC course, so haven't been too productive as far as the cabin goes. I've been reading a ton about anatomy and basic vitals for class on Saturday. Brings me back to the days of Injury Biomechanics. I have goten a few things for the Jeep, though. I ordered quick fists (which seem to have tons of great uses) over a month ago, but just got around to buying an ax and installing them. I've also ordered new quick disconnects for the front, but they haven't come in yet.

Clean up

I've been back in the mountains for a few days now and started cleaning things up around the cabin. The driveway was full of trash and construction debris. I bagged up the trash and cut up all the old wood (construction scraps and old wood removed from the cabin) and stacked it for firewood. The weather is still really nice here, but I'm collecting as much as I can now to prepare for the long, cold months ahead.


I spent yesterday cleaning up the inside of the cabin a little. I'm still not fully moved in and have boxes everywhere. It's slowly getting organized, though. I also built a picnic table yesterday using some of the old wood that came off the cabin. I think some of it might be over 100 years old. Some of it is old rough cut that still has rounded sides with the bark still on it. It turned out pretty well and seems pretty stable.


I haven't had much time for adventures recently, cause I've been studying for my OEC class in all my free time. I have a text book that I have to read and understand all of. I can't remember the last time I read a text book cover to cover. There is a lot of good information, though. I just finished a chapter about outdoor emergency survival, which was pretty interesting.

Back to the Mountains

I was back in Kentucky for a little over a month, and just got back to the mountains. Needless to say, I'm glad to be back, though of course I miss my family and friends. I was a little nervous to see how the Jeep and cabin had faired over the past month, but the Jeep was just the way I left it, and started right up. I guess we got plenty of rain while I was gone, cause the front lawn looked like a jungle. Some of the grass was two feet tall. I took on the task of mowing it today, which was a royal pain with a tiny electric mower that kept jamming with wet grass. The wild flowers I planted either didn't make it, or haven't bloomed, yet. I can't tell if the stuff growing where I planted the flowers are weeds, grass, or flowers, so I'm afraid to pull anything out.


Since it's been so long since I posted, I'll just give a brief summary of what I did while I was in Kentucky. I went to Nathan White and Kelly's wedding, which was a blast. I also worked two-a-days for high school soccer, which meant I had to get up at 6.30 every morning for a week. Other than that, I mostly hung out with friends, which was definitely good. You kind of take that for granted until you lose it all together (as in, move 1200 miles away from all your friends).

Right before I came back, I went on a fishing trip to Canada with my family. We stayed in a cabin on Mosher Lake, which can only be accessed by float plane. I love fly in fishing trips because everything is so peaceful. It's completely off the grid, with almost no connection to the outside world (there is a CB radio to contact the outfitter for emergencies). It makes living in the mountains seem like a cake walk. The fishing was alright, but I didn't catch anything huge (a few medium sized walleye and northern pike).

Flickr for more Canada pictures.

I'm taking an Outdoor Emergency Care course (just started yesterday), which should be pretty interesting and useful out here. I may try to get on the volunteer ski patrol at Loveland this winter, which OEC certification is required for. That'll give me something else to do and may come in handy out here.

First Attempt at Fishing

Since Trey left, I'd primarily been working on getting the first coat of green paint on the outside of the cabin. I finished the front and two sides. It looks a lot better than it did before I started.

The weather had been great here the past few days, and I wanted to have a littler more fun before I came back to Kentucky. Trey and I had bought some night crawlers to go fishing, but never got a chance to use them (they've been in my fridge since July 4th). I decided that I'd try to find a good spot to go fishing and use up as many of the night crawlers as I could. Grizzly Gulch is a short drive away, and somewhere that my dad had recommended fishing. I loaded up the jeep with my fly rod, waders, and a few provisions and headed off for the day. The road up most of Grizzly Gulch is gravel, but passable by two wheel drive vehicles. I opted to go a little further, on a forest service road that was in fair condition, high clearance 4 wheel drive at worst. There were a few small creek crossings, and some rocky areas, but overall, the road was pretty easy. It followed Quayle Creek and I got out of the Jeep periodically to check the stream and see if there was any potential for fishing. The stream was fairly small and didn't look too promising, so I kept going up the gulch, in hopes of finding a pond. I came to a section of road that looked a bit more difficult, and less traveled, but walked the road for a short distance and decided to give it a shot. There was s fairly difficult spot with a steep break over angle and a large rock that I didn't think I could clear. A path around the obstacle had been created by other vehicles that went through a narrow section of trees, so I decided to take that route (I forgot to take a picture of the obstacle). The bypass was on a slight side slope and when the rear wheels went over a root, the back end of the Jeep slid into a tree. A short, stubby branch gave me a nice love tap.



I made it through the bypass, only to see that several trees had fallen across the trail 40 yards later. There was  another bypass, but this time I decided to walk further down the trail to make sure it was worth continuing. The trail had deteriorated severely, and after another 50 yards, another set of trees had fallen across the trail, completely blocking it with no alternative way around. I had driven as far as I could go without a chainsaw and would have to turn around. Needless to say the trail was pretty narrow, so turning around was an adventure in itself. I managed to get turned around between two trees, though both bumpers were hitting the trees each time I pulled forward or backwards. I was definitely glad to have steel bumpers at that point. After nearly making the 180 degree turn, I ended up with my right front tire just off the trail, between a rotting stump and a small tree. The Jeep was pretty well flexed out (though the front sway bar was still connected). and I just couldn't get enough traction to back up the slight incline onto the trail.


 

You can see I had very little room to rock the Jeep, or get momentum to back over the stump. The front bumper rested against the tree almost every time I stopped. The front left tire was spinning on some slick rocks, the front right tire was spinning on the rotting stump, and since I hadn't disconnected the front sway bar, the rear right tire wasn't making much contact with the ground. I also hadn't aired my tires down, thinking it wouldn't be necessary, because the road was in relatively good shape (I also don't have a reliable method for airing my tires back up, yet).

I keep a small shovel in my Jeep, so the first thing I tried was digging the stump away. I got part of it out, but I don't have an ax (yet), so I couldn't get the whole stump out. I was able to back up a little further after that, but was still slipping on the stump. I was definitely stuck, and not getting out under the Jeep's power. Luckily, a good friend had given me a hand winch and a snatch strap as going-away gifts before I left Kentucky. Right now, those are really my only two recovery accessories, but they definitely saved my trip. Since I don't have a tree strap (yet), I used the snatch strap to wrap around a tree, then connected one end of the winch to the strap and the other to the hook in the receiver on the back of my Jeep. Several cranks later, the front right tire was sitting on top of the stump. But that wasn't good enough. I tried backing up, but the tires still didn't have enough traction to get the Jeep back up onto the trail.


(Granted, this is just a soft shell jacket, but I didn't have anything heavier to put over the winch line)

I needed to find another tree to loop my snatch strap around. It turns out that the max range of the hand winch was only about six feet, and since I only had one strap, my tree options were limited. After wrapping the strap around a couple different trees that were either too close, or too far away, I figured out the small tree behind the first one I had use was the perfect distance away.



This time, I managed to pull the Jeep just far enough past the stump and towards the trail to give the tires enough traction to get all the way back onto the trail.


On the way back through the bypass of the obstacle, The right side of the Jeep slid into the same tree that dented my lift gate. I didn't think that it had done any damage, though I later noticed it had indeed given me another love tap. All the little dings are unfortunate, but I suppose they build character.


The whole process took around an hour. I was in the woods, a decent distance from civilization, and every time I heard a noise, I'd frantically search around the Jeep for any sign of an unwelcome animal, namely bears.  Needless to say, this experience caused a shift in my priorities, and I've got a list of accessories I'll be investing in very soon, namely more recovery straps, shackles, an ax, and bear spray. I also learned that it's a good idea to disconnect the front sway bars and air down no matter how tame the trail looks.

In spite of the brief scare of being stuck in the woods, I did have a good trip, and at least saw some cool ruins and great houses along the way. This house was pretty far up Grizzly Gulch and had solar power and an outhouse. In the winter, I'm sure it's only accessible by snow machine. Pretty sweet.

flickr for the rest of the pictures from this little adventure

I did manage to go fishing that day, though only in Clear Creek, near I-70, which is still too high for good fishing. I caught a few small rainbow trout, but didn't get any pictures. The only decent size one I caught was a female that started releasing eggs as soon as I got her out of the water, so I released her as quickly as possible. Here's a picture of an old wooden damn that I fished above. It must be from the gold and silver rush days, but has survived pretty well.