Had a free day and after seeing the great videos
posted by Smell N Roses and Peakbaggers for Cancer (RidgeWalker), I
decided to hike from Snickers Gap north to Raven Rocks and back. This
is a great portion of the trail with lots of places to camp as well as
great views at Raven Rocks. There is a nice spring in the second valley
on the way up to the peak and also some cool rock formations and
under-rock water noises. I had originally planned to stay overnight up
towards the PA border and tick off that portion of the trail, but the
forecast is for 22 degree weather and 2” of snow which I don’t really
feel like doing for my first overnighter of the year. This hike has a
couple of steep switchback sections with nice flat portions in-between.
There is pretty good parking right at the base of the trail on the
westbound side of Rt. 7. Also, there is a cool bar/restaurant, the
“Horseshoe Curve Restaurant” very close to the trail on Rt. 679. It's
only like 15 miles to Harper's Ferry, so I think I'll definitely be able
to fill that part in this season.
Decided we would do a little urban hiking and visit the Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin in Washington DC. 24 March 2016 was predicted to be the peak and it looks like the guessers came pretty close. The weather was beautiful and the blossoms looked great. We took a bunch of photos along the way from the Metro at Washington Reagan National Airport to the Smithsonian stop and our “hike” around the Tidal Basin. On our way around, we stopped at the Japanese Stone Lantern Plaza, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial. I was most moved by the FDR Memorial and it’s definitely worth the walk off the main drag to see that one.
The walking distance from the Smithsonian Metro stop to the Tidal Basin, counterclockwise around the Basin, and back is 3.5 miles. There were a bunch of people there and more were piling out of the metro when we left at noon. Made for a great morning walk after we dropped our son off at the airport to go to Japan. Although there are no Yeti here, you should beware of them anyway!!
Watch my other hiking videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa
This
is a quick video showing how to change the air recirculation actuator motor
assembly on a 2011 Ford Taurus.This is
a common failure in the 2011 Taurus where the embedded actuator sensor stops
working causing clicking noises in the dashboard.The clicking is caused by the motor trying to
turn past the stop points and allowing the gears to jump. The part number from
Ford is AA5Z19E616C and costs $32.The
number on the package is YH-1779 AA5Z-19E616-C MOTOR. In this case, the motor
failure was for the fresh air recirculation door, which fortunately is easy to
get to right behind the glove compartment. Because the repair was so easy, I
posted a real-time video. There are two other motors, one for the hot/cold
blend door and one for the vent settings, both of which are much harder to get
to, but not impossible.
This is a quick demonstration of the Silkman Bear Bag hang method. It is similar to the common PCT hang method except it uses a pair of shackles to create a 2:1, making it easier to haul heavier bags up the tree, when done right it also avoids the line running over the branch with weight on it and cutting into the branch killing it, and it also makes it easier to insert the block stick and it comes back down half as far.
It's tricky to get the top part to stay up on the branch when you pull it up. I ended up using a piece of soft tubing I had laying around at the top of the line just to prototype...it worked well enough to see that with 2:1 you can get a higher hang than with the straight PCT method and can lift heavier objects more easily. There is a risk if you have a 'senior' moment and rig it incorrectly, you will permanently affix one end out of reach in the tree!! (don't ask me how I discovered this... ). The Yale Ultrex 12 (1.75mm SK-75) is easy to splice using standard 12 strand methods. I used brummel lock loops on each end and looped around the Antal rings. The Antal rings are rated to 1700lbs SWL and the Ultrex is rated at 800lbs break. 80' of line, brummels on each end, a pair of 7mm Antal rings, and a slice of the line taken for a continuous loop shackle was only 45g. That's about half the weight of 50' of 550 paracord I was using, not including the carabiners that I don't need with this. I used a folded guitar 'e' string as a fid for splicing the small line.
Beware of the Yeti!
This is a quick overview of my lightweight small stove setup. It consists of a tea light stove that weighs only 2 grams including the integrated cup stand, a Toaks Titanium 450ml cup (70g), Batchstovez 450ml Lid (15g), carbon felt windscreen (27g), small lighter (11g) and fuel bottle (37g full) - 162g total for the setup and fuel for 3 boils! The stove will typically bring a cup of water to a boil in 5 minutes and is perfect for making oatmeal, a cup of coffee, or cup-o-soup.
Watch my other hiking videos and gear reviews: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa
This
is a review of the Batchstovez 450ml Lid for 450ml pots and cups.Specifically, this lid fits the Toaks 450ml
Titanium Cup perfectly. Many sites sell the Toaks 450ml cup without the lid,
although I’m starting to see the cup offered with a lid periodically on
eBay.For those looking for a light lid
that fits perfectly, this is it.The lid
is lightweight aluminum and weighs 15g, it is made in the USA by Sam at Batchstovez,
and it only costs $5!
This is a review of the Bulin BL3000-F2 lightweight portable lantern.
In the box is the lantern with a removable 18” hanging chain, an
adapter for butane canister to lindal valve (camp gas canister), three
mantles, and a small plastic storage box. It’s a great little lantern
with a metal globe that won’t break like the more common glass globes.
It weighs 149g with the chain, which seemed a bit heavy (17g), so I
removed it. The lantern itself weighs 132g. It fits commonly available
hiking fuel canisters and also came with an adapter to fit the tall
butane cooking canisters. It has a reliable piezoelectric igniter that
usually works on the 1st click. This lantern will NOT burn without a
mantle! On high (not its brightest setting...at high flame levels the
brightness drops), it appears to burn just under ~2g of fuel per minute,
which should give 2hrs run time on a 230g canister (worst case). At
max brightness it burns ~3g of fuel in 4 minutes (~5 hrs run time). It
can be turned way down and should last far longer (at least triple the
time) at lower output levels. I also tried using it as a backup stove
to heat water. Although it works, it is very slow (6+min for an open
Ti cup). It's a little heavy to be lugging around for any distance (a
headlamp serves much better) but fun for short hikes. I went back and
used the Olicamp XTS pot and the boil times for a cup of water were
10min (~3g fuel) on low and 4:30 (~4g) fuel on high with butane. If you
are using it, and you want hot water, might as well not waste the
heat. :)
