Bezabor: (posted from home)
Sunday, 30 April-
Today I spent much the day cleaning up my older Miata and the KLR motorcycle after their long layups. I had stored them back in August because we were going to be away for September and October and they would be better off in enclosed storage than sitting out in the driveway. Then the colder weather was coming on so it didn’t make sense to bring them home in the colder weather just to put them back in storage a month or so later. After washing the Miata today, I drove it in to Starbucks to work the cobwebs out of it and just enjoy the perfect day for a convertible. In the afternoon I installed new footpegs on the KLR, replacing the stock rubber footpegs with more substantial (and less slippery) metal ones and taking care of the oxidation of the plastic bodywork. Labashi and I went out for subs late in the day and when we came home I washed her car.
In the evening, I worked on the blog while Labashi did some research on the web.
Saturday, 29 April-
Today Labashi and I went to visit my brother and my Mom, who live about an hour from our house. It was good to see them and catch up. We took Mom for a drive and stopped for ice cream, one of her favorite things to do…. (mine too)! In the evening, I mowed my section of the lawn. I’m sorry to say it’s now clear that the dandelions are a lot smarter than I am.
That evening we watched ‘Saving Face’, a likeable little comedy about a Chinese girl coming to terms with coming out as a gay woman and how to deal with her family about it.
Friday, 28 April-
Though I wasn’t supposed to do anything for two days after the dental implant, I thought I’d like to talk a little walk. I drove my beater van (‘Cherry Larry’) to the Appalachian Trail crossing on Whiskey Springs Road, between Dillsburg and Boiling Springs. As I got out of the van, I noticed two backpackers coming northbound on the trail and I hailed them as they approached. They turned out to be ‘Skyrider’ and ‘Captain’, two fellow recent retirees, both from Air Force jobs. They are from Hampton, VA and were on the last day of a six-day hike. They are planning to section-hike the AT from Pennsylvania to Maine and this was their first section. They had left PenMar five and a half days ago and were headed for Boiling Springs today. Skyrider was pretty happy-go-lucky but I believe Captain was overtired and was particularly unhappy at the prospect of the uphill sections between here and Boiling Springs. But we had a great chat. I was full of questions about how things were going compared to what they had expected. I apologized for breaking their stride with my questions but they said they were quite content to just socialize for awhile. After twenty minutes it was time to move on and they loaded up and headed uphill. I went back to the van for my day-hiking gear and then followed. I stopped at the top of the hill to check out a geocache I had learned about in preparing for the hike. My GPS took me near a climbing area among large boulders. It indicated the cache was in an open area but I knew that the GPS is only approximate. I sat it down and soon it changed by some fifty feet, indicating the hide to be among boulders nearby. I spent the next twenty minutes searching in that vicinity and finally came upon the hide, a one-liter screw-lid container wrapped in camo duct tape. I signed the log and started my dayhike in earnest. I took the AT northbound and in about two miles came to the Kennedy shelter, the same shelter I had visited just two days before. Again I took the red-blazed side trail but this time I turned left onto an unmarked and un-mapped trail leading around the hill. The trail kept pulling me on as it changed from a forest road to a narrow walking trail, then hit a tee at what looked like a pipeline cut. I took the steep cut up the mountain to the top and came to a beautiful trail up there. I believe it may have been the old AT. I followed it until it started down sharply and marked my position via the GPS. I’ll have to plot that position and see where I was. I think that trail comes out into the White Rocks development. That would make sense since I remember years ago parking near that development for one of my first hikes on the AT.
As I retraced my steps, I came to the intersection of the pipeline cut. But I wanted to continue exploring the mountaintop so I ignored it and continued on the old AT. That soon led me to another tee and it was time to get out the GPS and figure out whether I’d be able to hook up with a trail below or should retreat. I could see my track from two days ago on the GPS and thought I’d take a chance that the now-descending trail would connect to that track. But near the bottom of the mountain my trail ended at a forest road going the wrong way. So now I had to decide whether to bushwhack to intersect my trail or retrace my steps. I decided to bushwhack and about 1000 feet later I intersected the AT I had been on two days ago just as my GPS ran out of battery power. I would have been okay, though, even if the batteries had run out earlier--- I could see I was going to intersect my old track so all I had to do was keep going in a straight line and I would have to hit it. A couple of hours later I was back at the van, having done about ten miles today, perhaps a little more, in my six hours of walking.
Thursday, 27 April-
Today I rode the Concours into town and went looking for some endurance and muscle-recovery drink mixes for my hiking. I’ve wondered whether the so-called endurance drinks really help. I’ve found that Power Bars do indeed work for me but they aren’t the most convenient thing to use while hiking. I thought I’d like to try a mix so I can carry a lightweight powder packet rather than something like a quart of Gatorade. Also, I want to be able to sip a bit every twenty minutes rather than have a chewy, hard-to-swallow, hard-to-store-once-opened bar periodically. The trick was to find some single-serving packets so I could try them and not have to pay $15-$20 for a large bottle of it only to find that I didn’t like the flavor. I found a PowerBar version at a local running store and a version called Hydro-Pro at a General Nutrition store in the local mall. More on this later.
In the afternoon, I had a dental implant done. This was my first implant. The procedure went fine and there was little pain. I’m now the proud owner of a titanium dental implant. But it’s not clear whether my bone graft ‘took’ as well as it could have so I still have several months to go to find out if additional work will have to be done.
Wednesday, 26 April-
In the morning I worked for a little while on the web then worked for an hour or two with Labashi on her new birdhouses. They are actually three birdfeeders which she is preparing to mount on a tree in our side yard. They are going to be a classy little addition to our yard. I was just helping to set up the radial-arm saw so Labashi could cut the trim for the mounting platforms.
In the afternoon I rode the Concours to Boiling Springs for a hike. I hiked in to the Alec Kennedy shelter, then explored a red-blazed side trail I had seen nearby in a winter hike there. Once again the trails kept beckoning me on. Along the red-blazed trail I came to an enticing unmarked trail and thought I’d just see where it went. That one came out on a forest road and not far from there was another trail leading upward. That took me to a pipeline cut and I took that to the top of the mountain, which felt very remote. All in all it was a long, splendidly-remote day. I hiked about 12 miles and never saw another person until I ran into a guy walking his dog on the AT as I neared Boiling Springs again.
When I got home, I looked for the birdfeeders and indeed Labashi had them mounted and they look great.
That evening we watched the remainder of the extra features on The Virgin Spring DVD. Good stuff!
Tuesday, 25 April-
Today I blogged in the morning then rode the Concours down to Rocky Ridge park for a walk in the afternoon. I had a nice workout from hiking the three steepest trails in the northwest corner of the park, hiking up and down each one twice. That evening we watched Ingmar Bergman’s “The Virgin Spring”, a 1960 film described in IMDB.com as follows: “Set in beautiful 14th century Sweden, it is the sombre, powerful fable of peasant parents whose daughter, a young virgin, is brutally raped and murdered by swineherds after her half sister has invoked a pagan curse. By a bizarre twist of fate, the murderers ask for food and shelter from the dead girl's parents, who, discovering the truth about their erstwhile lodgers, exact a chilling revenge.”. I loved this film the first time I saw it and was not disappointed tonight. I was therefore surprised to learn that even though it helped establish Bergman’s reputation, he does not consider it among his best work.
Sunday, 30 April-
Today I spent much the day cleaning up my older Miata and the KLR motorcycle after their long layups. I had stored them back in August because we were going to be away for September and October and they would be better off in enclosed storage than sitting out in the driveway. Then the colder weather was coming on so it didn’t make sense to bring them home in the colder weather just to put them back in storage a month or so later. After washing the Miata today, I drove it in to Starbucks to work the cobwebs out of it and just enjoy the perfect day for a convertible. In the afternoon I installed new footpegs on the KLR, replacing the stock rubber footpegs with more substantial (and less slippery) metal ones and taking care of the oxidation of the plastic bodywork. Labashi and I went out for subs late in the day and when we came home I washed her car.
In the evening, I worked on the blog while Labashi did some research on the web.
Saturday, 29 April-
Today Labashi and I went to visit my brother and my Mom, who live about an hour from our house. It was good to see them and catch up. We took Mom for a drive and stopped for ice cream, one of her favorite things to do…. (mine too)! In the evening, I mowed my section of the lawn. I’m sorry to say it’s now clear that the dandelions are a lot smarter than I am.
That evening we watched ‘Saving Face’, a likeable little comedy about a Chinese girl coming to terms with coming out as a gay woman and how to deal with her family about it.
Friday, 28 April-
Though I wasn’t supposed to do anything for two days after the dental implant, I thought I’d like to talk a little walk. I drove my beater van (‘Cherry Larry’) to the Appalachian Trail crossing on Whiskey Springs Road, between Dillsburg and Boiling Springs. As I got out of the van, I noticed two backpackers coming northbound on the trail and I hailed them as they approached. They turned out to be ‘Skyrider’ and ‘Captain’, two fellow recent retirees, both from Air Force jobs. They are from Hampton, VA and were on the last day of a six-day hike. They are planning to section-hike the AT from Pennsylvania to Maine and this was their first section. They had left PenMar five and a half days ago and were headed for Boiling Springs today. Skyrider was pretty happy-go-lucky but I believe Captain was overtired and was particularly unhappy at the prospect of the uphill sections between here and Boiling Springs. But we had a great chat. I was full of questions about how things were going compared to what they had expected. I apologized for breaking their stride with my questions but they said they were quite content to just socialize for awhile. After twenty minutes it was time to move on and they loaded up and headed uphill. I went back to the van for my day-hiking gear and then followed. I stopped at the top of the hill to check out a geocache I had learned about in preparing for the hike. My GPS took me near a climbing area among large boulders. It indicated the cache was in an open area but I knew that the GPS is only approximate. I sat it down and soon it changed by some fifty feet, indicating the hide to be among boulders nearby. I spent the next twenty minutes searching in that vicinity and finally came upon the hide, a one-liter screw-lid container wrapped in camo duct tape. I signed the log and started my dayhike in earnest. I took the AT northbound and in about two miles came to the Kennedy shelter, the same shelter I had visited just two days before. Again I took the red-blazed side trail but this time I turned left onto an unmarked and un-mapped trail leading around the hill. The trail kept pulling me on as it changed from a forest road to a narrow walking trail, then hit a tee at what looked like a pipeline cut. I took the steep cut up the mountain to the top and came to a beautiful trail up there. I believe it may have been the old AT. I followed it until it started down sharply and marked my position via the GPS. I’ll have to plot that position and see where I was. I think that trail comes out into the White Rocks development. That would make sense since I remember years ago parking near that development for one of my first hikes on the AT.
As I retraced my steps, I came to the intersection of the pipeline cut. But I wanted to continue exploring the mountaintop so I ignored it and continued on the old AT. That soon led me to another tee and it was time to get out the GPS and figure out whether I’d be able to hook up with a trail below or should retreat. I could see my track from two days ago on the GPS and thought I’d take a chance that the now-descending trail would connect to that track. But near the bottom of the mountain my trail ended at a forest road going the wrong way. So now I had to decide whether to bushwhack to intersect my trail or retrace my steps. I decided to bushwhack and about 1000 feet later I intersected the AT I had been on two days ago just as my GPS ran out of battery power. I would have been okay, though, even if the batteries had run out earlier--- I could see I was going to intersect my old track so all I had to do was keep going in a straight line and I would have to hit it. A couple of hours later I was back at the van, having done about ten miles today, perhaps a little more, in my six hours of walking.
Thursday, 27 April-
Today I rode the Concours into town and went looking for some endurance and muscle-recovery drink mixes for my hiking. I’ve wondered whether the so-called endurance drinks really help. I’ve found that Power Bars do indeed work for me but they aren’t the most convenient thing to use while hiking. I thought I’d like to try a mix so I can carry a lightweight powder packet rather than something like a quart of Gatorade. Also, I want to be able to sip a bit every twenty minutes rather than have a chewy, hard-to-swallow, hard-to-store-once-opened bar periodically. The trick was to find some single-serving packets so I could try them and not have to pay $15-$20 for a large bottle of it only to find that I didn’t like the flavor. I found a PowerBar version at a local running store and a version called Hydro-Pro at a General Nutrition store in the local mall. More on this later.
In the afternoon, I had a dental implant done. This was my first implant. The procedure went fine and there was little pain. I’m now the proud owner of a titanium dental implant. But it’s not clear whether my bone graft ‘took’ as well as it could have so I still have several months to go to find out if additional work will have to be done.
Wednesday, 26 April-
In the morning I worked for a little while on the web then worked for an hour or two with Labashi on her new birdhouses. They are actually three birdfeeders which she is preparing to mount on a tree in our side yard. They are going to be a classy little addition to our yard. I was just helping to set up the radial-arm saw so Labashi could cut the trim for the mounting platforms.
In the afternoon I rode the Concours to Boiling Springs for a hike. I hiked in to the Alec Kennedy shelter, then explored a red-blazed side trail I had seen nearby in a winter hike there. Once again the trails kept beckoning me on. Along the red-blazed trail I came to an enticing unmarked trail and thought I’d just see where it went. That one came out on a forest road and not far from there was another trail leading upward. That took me to a pipeline cut and I took that to the top of the mountain, which felt very remote. All in all it was a long, splendidly-remote day. I hiked about 12 miles and never saw another person until I ran into a guy walking his dog on the AT as I neared Boiling Springs again.
When I got home, I looked for the birdfeeders and indeed Labashi had them mounted and they look great.
That evening we watched the remainder of the extra features on The Virgin Spring DVD. Good stuff!
Tuesday, 25 April-
Today I blogged in the morning then rode the Concours down to Rocky Ridge park for a walk in the afternoon. I had a nice workout from hiking the three steepest trails in the northwest corner of the park, hiking up and down each one twice. That evening we watched Ingmar Bergman’s “The Virgin Spring”, a 1960 film described in IMDB.com as follows: “Set in beautiful 14th century Sweden, it is the sombre, powerful fable of peasant parents whose daughter, a young virgin, is brutally raped and murdered by swineherds after her half sister has invoked a pagan curse. By a bizarre twist of fate, the murderers ask for food and shelter from the dead girl's parents, who, discovering the truth about their erstwhile lodgers, exact a chilling revenge.”. I loved this film the first time I saw it and was not disappointed tonight. I was therefore surprised to learn that even though it helped establish Bergman’s reputation, he does not consider it among his best work.
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 21:13
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