Kuz I said so » camping

Fallen Timber

Mike — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:56:32 +0000

Went out to Fallen Timber last weekend. I like going on non-long weekends. There are too many shit heads that head out on the longs and trash the place. Stupid punk ass kids (and not so kids) that tear up the camp sites, chop down live trees, break glass, and don’t clean up after themselves. They are wrecking it for everyone. Pisses me off.

I heard that Indian Graves is now no 4x4s, no random camping, and they are shutting down the unmarked trails. Which just pushes the idiots to another spot. ugh. No respect for nature.

We leave the site better than we found it. It’s not that hard to do.

We had a good time at Fallen. First time I was there and there were some challenging trails. The worst part was they hadn’t been cleared yet. We spent a lot of time trying to get thru one trail with a small bow saw and a lot of cutting… then cruise around the next corner, and stop to cut a bunch more… crappy thing was, there were 2 chain saws back at camp that we could have easily brought if we had known it was that blocked… we eventually turned around and headed back the way we came.

Had my share of trouble with the quad this trip. Recall that last trip I blew out the front sprocket. The last problem was easy… I pulled a bonehead move and over inflated the tires back home so we just let some air out after our riding buddies noticed how bouncy the wifes quad was riding. A lot easier to get over the rocks and trees!

The first and almost catastrophic problem was I almost ripped off my handlebars! You can see light shooting thru were the top plate is welded to the steering column. (I’ve removed the handle bars in that shot) I got stuck in the mud and started leaning side to side to free the quad. When I went left, the bars bent right down to the plastic! I bent them back up (way too easily), and limped the quad back to camp.

I say almost catastrophic because I fixed it… I needed to weld the top plate back on the steering shaft…. so I thought I was done for the weekend. Lucky for me, a neighbour was coming up the next day for a day ride. (It was a quick friday night ride that I broke the steering.) I have a canadian tire welder that works off of a standard 120v 15 amp circuit. My camping buddy has a generator. My neighbour brought out the gear on saturday mornin.

So here I am, in the middle of nowhere, welding up a broken quad. using my welder, running off one neighbours generator, brought out by another neighbour. I got the best neighbours. And thanks (again) to Dad for buying me the welder. It’s come in so handy so many times.

Unfortunately my photographer was busy getting the gear ready for quading so I don’t have any shots of us at work on the quad. But I’m not a great welder, so it’s prolly a good thing there are no shots of it

44444

Mike — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 16:29:39 +0000

Wife and I have been doing a lot of road trips lately, and one of the fun things to do is watch the odometer tick by…. Yes, road trips are fun, aren’t they?
So, I took this picture while hurtling down the highway at an insane speed!

Sept Long

Mike — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:32:14 +0000

Once again we loaded up the truck and (moved to Beverly….) went quading. This time we landed in Dutch Creek. I love the camping out there. It’s just awesome. The quading is a bit rocky and dusty though. Weather was perfect… still… some rain to keep the dust down would have been welcome.

It was so hot, I ended up going for a swim in the Oldman river… there’s a good swimmin hole right by the camp site. The water was a lot warmer than the may long weekend, but still cold enough to steal the breath out of you.

We got stopped 3 times (!!) by the fish cops. Never seen so many in one weekend. After they check you licence and insurance, they affix an orange ride legal tag to your bike. It’s so you don’t have to dig out the insurance/licence info every time. It came in very handy this trip.

And the hilight of the trip was Wife trying to make her quad fly… Thru some miracle she managed to not break anything… but she’s banged up pretty good. Lets just say that when two roads diverge in a yellow wood, it’s best to choose the road without the 5 foot drop onto the rocky riverbed.

She is a trooper…

Finally, a spare moment…

Mike — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 23:27:27 +0000

It’s been a pretty crazy week.

Work has me busy as hell. I put in an 11 hour day yesterday, and I’m just done now… (and done the work too) Good thing a neighbour is having a TGIF party… I will be the entertainment tonight. glug, glug, glug… either that, or I’ll pass out halfway thru the first beer.

Last week was camping. Wife and I went up to Burnt Timber and had a quiet 5 days of camping. We were right by the creek. (No, not the Red Deer River, but a creek that feeds it) It was an awesome site. Bit of a nail biter getting the trailer into it. The ‘roads’ are more like quad trails at the end… pretty steep and uneven in some spots. Clipped a few trees as well.
Quading was good. Actually got bored by the last day… felt like we really quadded out the area. Wife dumped her quad going down a really steep cut line. SHe’s ok (and so is the quad :p). Trooper she is, she kept riding and still wants more.

Trailer held up quite well… still leaks though, but I bought some trailer roofing compound that I’m going to try (400% expandable it says) … one more season…
Broke another tooth… I’m a grinder… my teeth just shatter every once in a while. Since Wife just got a new job/insurance plan, the pre-auth is going to take a bit of time. It didn’t hurt much before, but now it’s starting to bug me a bit… should be a right bear in a couple of weeks when they tell me they are not going to cover it

I’m totally stoked! I’m going in for an ultrasound on tuesday. Gonna try and get a few pictures. I’m guessing it’s the same maching they use for fetal imaging, so I’m hoping I can get a few shots. “This is my spleen… and see here? it’s a gall bladder!” lol Damn I hope the tech will take some pics for me… I better bring bribe cash just in case…

Not much planned for the weekend… work on the trailer a bit, some quad maintenance, and perhaps a bit on the deck skirting too…

The time, she does fly…

Mike — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:58:28 +0000

I can’t believe that it’s August already!

Camping season is getting close to being over. Mind you, with the Global Warming, perhaps we’ll be good into November this year.

Got a week off coming up and we are going to spend some of that out camping. Still a fireban in the south, so we’ll prolly go back to Burt/Fallen Timber area. Had a good time there last weekend. Good trails, muskeg, some hills, nice camping spots.

Oh! Some wanker drove their SUV off the bridge up in the camp area. There are 2 single lane bridges with timber guard rails… Timber guard rails are inneffective So yeah, bridge was closed and to get around it, as we were camping on the other side of it, we would have to drive up to Sundry! But we (someone who was not me) managed to sweet talk the Bridge Watcher into letting us pass. The bridge is shell property, and until they get civil engineers out to inspect, they closed the bridge and posted guards. Can’t argue with that logic, but it would have been a pain in the ass.

“Hey Mike…” you ask, ” What broke by the end of this trip?”. Good question! This trip brought failure in only one thing!! The water pump. The diaphram was already leaky, and now the pump motor runs at 1/2 speed or so… It’s replacement time…. $140 *cough* shit *cough* … but the new pump is in and working… pressure enough for a shower again.

We also ran out of propane, but that was expected… I carry 2 20lb tanks: one for trailers heat and fridge, the other for cooking. I also carry a couple of tiny tanks as spare for cooking when one runs out. Gonna get a 30lb tank for the camper now… it’s getting later in the season and the furnace will be running more. (Damn… hope that doesn’t break!)

So, just need to extend some propane lines, wash and clean the quads… (and perform a little routine maintenance) then we are ready to go again.

I loaded up the truck with firewood while out there… awesome. Fell’n trees is cool! (only standing deadfall) But with the trailer, and a loaded box, the truck is a little under powered… I don’t want to spend a whack of cash supe’n it up, so I think it’s time for an upgrade… (much to Wife’s excitement) I see a 3/4 ton HD diesel in my future. (next year…. next year)

Oh shit. Need to buy a maul. Axes are for chopping, mauls are for splitting! And they make you feel like a hero… wish I would have known about them years ago..

Camping with an old trailer…

Mike — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 22:06:27 +0000

…is a lot harder than I thought.

This last weekend, the leak in the sink got to a point where water was just running out the tap… I’ll either just get new washers for it or replace the whole thing. I’ll prolly replace the proprietary trailer taps with a generic small set. Like for a bar sink… But then I’ll have to convert the grey tubing to white tubing.

The shitter water valve is also leaking… It’s leaking into the shower stall area, so it’s not all that bad, but your socks get wet. But I really don’t want to have to make due… so I’ll have to pull out the shitter again and try to find and fix the leak.

And finally…. sunday morning, getting ready for the final ride of the weekend, and we notice the blackwater tank is leaking. Awesome. To get at the tank, I’ll have to pull the camper off the trailer. That’s a day’s work right there… I might be able to cut out the boards of the trailer deck instead… but the camper is anchored to those boards, so who knows it it’s possible and what’s going to happen in the end..

good times. I’ll keep you posted.

May Long Pictures

Mike — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 04:16:42 +0000

Well, I guess I should have put these up a while ago, but here are a few pics of us on the May Long weekend quad trip to Dutch Creek. And a flower.

I just finished welding up the mount for my spare trailer tire. Tomorrow it gets welded on the trailer.

The simple pleasures

Mike — Tue, 30 May 2006 15:36:14 +0000

Sometimes the simple things in life are the best things. Or something to that effect (affect? I always choose the wrong one). Aaaanyhoo, Last trip out to Dutch creek, I stopped by the log pile on the way out of the area. There’s big pile of logs and once they are loaded on the big logging trucks, the ends have to be cut off to a certain length. These cutoffs are free for the taking (AFAIK).

So, I tossed about 20 cutoffs into the truck, and headed for home, secure in the knowledge that my chainsaw would suffice to get them into splitable size bits. The cutoffs are about 4 to 6 feet long.
My chainsaw can’t cut butter. I stole it from my dad, but we’ve had it since I was a kid…. Runs great, just can’t cut. I don’t think it was ever sharp! I can recall a few times trying to cut logs with this saw as a kid (teen/young adult I guess…) leaning on it with all my strength, swearing at it, trying to sharpen it, then ending up using a bow saw.

I went to Home Despot and bought the 16″ chain that had my Homelite 245 listed on the back. And lo, it didn’t fit. My old chain is 16″ but has 67 links (a very important thing to know if shopping for chains). The replacement I bought had 54 links. no where near!

I returned it. Then went to Canadian Wheel. I bought a random chain that somehow looked close to what I needed. (it was 18″ and 62 links.) No idea why I thought that would fit…. and it didn’t. suprise!

I resigned myself to sharpening the existing chain, but the teeth were just nubbins, and so badly sharpened in the past that the angles were all wrong. Gee, wonder how that happened. (Apparently there is an art to sharpening chain saw teeth… I have no patience for it) .

One last chance, Wife was going to Rona yesterday. “Check for me please… 16″, 67 link… and bar oil too”, I ask her. Sure enough, the first chain she picks up was the one I needed! And she grabbed the last quart of bar oil. Good Wife.

So I get home, hurridy change in yard clothes and test fit the chain…. like a glove (and not of the O.J. variety). I finish putting the bar and new chain on the saw, adjust the chain tension, top up the gas, and pour in some bar oil.

There is nothing like cutting with a fresh chain. The saw just sliced thru that first cut effortlessly, under it’s own weight, with only gentle guidance from me. All the years of fighting with that POS saw just melted away with that one cut. This saw was now the greatest thing ever. I couldn’t contain my euphoria, a barely audible “woohoo” escaped… Perhaps it was an “Oh, baby…” I can’t recall.

I cut up all the wood I brought home. I tried to tell myself to save a few for later… space out the pleasure… but I couldn’t stop myself. It was just that much fun.

The Trailer…

Mike — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 03:50:11 +0000

Since we moved out into the styx, my neighbours have introduced my wife and me to the joys of quading and camping. Free camping to be precise…. No campsite… you just pick a spot in a pre approved free camping area (like Dutch Creek)

So we did this last year with a tent…. and as much as I enjoyed my morning trek, shovel in hand, to befoul the woods, I’m going to enjoy having 4 walls and a door even more.

With that in mind, we began to search for a trailer… but with 2 quads, we need to have a way to haul them both and have a place to live. Only real option is a truck camper and a trailer or a tow behind camper and a flat deck for the truck.
I wasn’t keen on getting a flat deck, it raises you center of gravity, and it’s always on… can’t haul anything in the bed anymore. So all that left me was a truck camper and small trailer for the quads.

I’m not even going to mention the toy haulers that are more than 50k as I’d need a diesel duelie 1 ton to haul it….

Anyhoo, truck camper and trailer it is… but putting the camper in and out each trip is a lot of work. but good ole neighbour Dan came up with a solution… put the truck camper on a big flat deck with room for the quads… damn if I didn’t like that idea.

Ok, 10′ truck camper and a 20′ flatdeck would fit both quads: camper in the middle of the deck, one quad in front (under the overhang) and one behind. Great part about that, is you have a nice flat deck to set up a table/bbq on after you pull the quad off.

I was telling the father in law this one day, and he says “I got one of those I’m not using anymore… I’ll sell it to ya” wtf?! And here I thought Dan’s idea was the coolest/originalest thing around… as it turns out, there are a few of these contraptions around.

But back to the camper at hand…. it’s on a 16′ trailer, so we’ll have to put one quad in the back of the truck. Now that’s not bad, as weight in the truck is a good thing… especially on the crappier roads…. but the camper/trailer had some other modifications that needed attention (Sorry Dale)

and you know; I hate buying used… I just know i’m going to get screwed… I hate buying from family even more (money and family == bad ) but as it turns out, I’m a lazy, lazy fucker…. and there was a trailer righ there, just beggin to be bought, so we bought it.

Had to clean it up to get the quad under the front and to pull it off the trailer. Have to pull it because on her maiden voyage (Sort of a test flight) we discovered a a leak in the septic system.

So this camper was originally put on the trailer with a forklift or front end loader or something like that… All I had was the camper jacks. But I wouldn’t be able to jack up the camper and pull out the trailer… the front jacks were right in front of the tires… so I flipped the jack mounting bracket from pointing forward to pointing to the side… now the jack was beside the camper instead of right in front of it, but still didn’t clear the trailer tires.

So I added in an extender plate. Thanks to Brad The Welder for his contribution of cut-to-the-right-size 1/4″ x 6″ plate… beers to follow Brad… thanks again.

So here it is, ready to be jacked and the trailer pulled out. Just need to build a couple of saw horses to set it down on, and wait for the weather to break…

It’s snowing again…