July 28, 2019

This is how I sleep, Deb is short and has space between her feet and the end of the bed, the dog instead chooses to sleep at my feet, so I have no space!

Morning run.

Saying goodbye!

Some numbers:

Nights Camping – 6

 

Miles Driven – 700+

 

Hikes – 7

 

Movies Watched in camp – 1.5

 

Quentin Tarantino premiere’s watch in a theater – 1

 

Homemade Lemon Pies by Elizabeth – 2

 

Bears seen – 2

 

Runs on trails – 3

 

Trucks stuck and recovered – 1

 

Hiking boots thrown in anger at and hitting Jay’s face – 1

 

Advertisements

July 26, 2019

Today was spent closer to camp, we started by hiking the Lakeside Trail around High Knob Lake.

Kodak was happy to go in and out of the water

Then we visited the High Flag Recreation Area overlooking Norton, VA for a picnic lunch

Norton is a Bigfoot Sanctuary city, locals call it a Woodbooger

and explored a bit

we spent the next couple of hours driving forest service and dirt roads looking for hidden camp spots or whatever else we could find… this trail dead-ended and required a 10 point turn around

The woods are full of these flowers, maybe an upside-down Cheetah Lily

 

Next up – going to see Once Upon A Time in Hollywood

July 24, 2019

Another day in the Jefferson National Forest and the Falls of Dismal

We had the place to ourselves, we hiked up the creek, explored the rocks and I swam around to see if I could jump from the top (I couldn’t) This is a great spot on a warm day to swim and picnic!

The afternoon was spent packing up camp to move further west, getting stuck behind an accident and waiting for Lifeflight (which circled and left) setting up a new camp, and visiting High Knob Lookout Tower for the sunset.

Love

I always tell my students, when photographing a sunrise or sunset, turn around and photograph what is being illuminated by the light!

July 6, 2019

FlipPac repair Day – goal one remove torsion bar and 4 old hinges

At the end of the day we were successful – but it required drilling holes in the back and using a 10 foot rebar to drive them out – video/timelapse here

Thanks James and Elizabeth for driving 5 hours to come help me! I could not have done this without y’all!

July 4, 2019

Early morning ride, like all my out and back rides, I tried to negative split the ride. Out avg was 17.5 mph and back was 19.8 – good start to the day.

This was the crew we camped with – or at least did pot luck lunch with.

Loaded up and heading home… the Land Cruiser did a great job, but I want my Tacoma/Flippac back!

July 6, 2018

My day started like almost everyday of the trip, an hour climb up the forest service road outside our campsite and a 12 minute bomb back down. The best part was at the turn around, there was cell service, so I could check email and make a call each morning.

Fog and nightfall. If you camp with James and Elizabeth, you will eat well and still enjoy a luxury or two…. tonight was movie night, “Paul” was played on the wall of the E-Z up… but the hard drive wasn’t playing nice, so parts were played twice (or more) sometimes it was in French, sometimes a narrator described what was happening (or DV – Descriptive Video)

The middle of the day we searched for and found a swimming hole on a road that wasn’t on a map…. but we cut it short when I discovered a steering rack leak and no fluid in my pump…. how to quickly get to a town without lots of curves in the mountains…. impossible!

July 3, 2018

The day started early with a trip to Wolf Creek Falls.

We had the waterfall all to ourselves.

After lunch, we hiked to a 2nd waterfall – Little Fall Branch.

Then on to Max Patch for a sunset and Milky Way viewing party. Lighting plays in the clouds.

the sunset was amazing!

 

But the Milky Way was awesome with lightning still bouncing around the clouds below it!

July 2, 2018

The day started with a drive through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, a mistake that will never happen again (way too touristy for me) to get to Cades Cove, a neat history filled loop, including this working grist mill.

Just a bear along the road, it was not interested in us at all!

James works on figuring out electrical gremlins, after thinking of complex problems to solve, sometimes the simplest answer is correct… a bad cell in his battery.

James checks how badly I am beating him at an English style pub in Gatlinburg.

Feb. 24, 2018

Everything you need to upgrade your Tacoma brakes to the bigger Tundra brakes.

Nothing is bolt on…. this is only trimming the dust shield

This should be a 3 hour job for the home mechanic, I picked up the parts at 9:30am, went for a bike ride and had lunch, so really started at about 1pm, Clay and I finished at 8pm, after the first bedding of new pads and rotors, we decided to try one more system bleed and one wheel wouldn’t open, so we called it a night. Thanks to Clay for helping and loaning tools.

Oct. 31, 2017

Witches