secretreality

Back from the Rubicon

2009-06-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

I still need to collect my thoughts and sort through the photos, but overall it was one of the better trips through that trail. I found I pushed my limits a bit more and spent more time on 2 wheels than usual, but all in all a great time was had.

A good friend of mine sent me this quote, I thought it befitting:
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." - Hellen Keller

Rubicon 2001 Trip Report

2009-06-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a repost of a 2001 trip through the Rubicon where I had a great time with a bunch of great people.

2001 Rubicon Trip Report

I love my topo software and color printer

2009-06-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

We're going out for a little backcountry off roading and kayaking this weekend; sure is nice to be able to knock out a USGS 7.5' map specifically of the area I'll be at. :)

Make Excel talk VBA code

2009-04-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

It's pretty simple and you can use it to read pretty much anything, cell reference, etc. Add a whole new level of creepiness to your spreadsheets.

strTextToRead = "Hello world lol"

Application.Speech.Speak(strTextToRead)

2009-03-28T22:36:00.000-07:00

Hopefully you'll catch the X-Files reference :)

We The People Stimulus Package

A couple new hats

2009-02-16T10:40:00.001-08:00

I decided to try a few different color schemes and yarns so I knocked out a couple more beanies this weekend. Since they're so cheap to make and the only real effort is time, there really isn't any reason not to experiment. Anyway, over the last few beanies I've made I've refined the process and my pattern to the point where I think I've got the perfect tight fit beanie down. I could make another pattern up pretty easy for a folded up base, or a bit looser hat which I might try next. I'm also using a fairly tight stitch on purpose, as I'm aiming for maximum warmth with these hats over style. I think an olive drab might work well for a solid color next, maybe put some sort of small decorative patch on the front.

New beanie

2009-02-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

I decided to go backpacking next weekend and it has been pretty cold at night, so while setting up my gear I decided I wanted to bring a beanie. I unfortunately lost the last beanie I had knit a while back, which is too bad because I really liked it so I was stuck choosing from a commercial beanie. I've got a few I've purchased, but like anything that's made en masse, they all just fit o.k. and going through them I decided I didn't want to bring any of them on the trip.

So I decided to crochet one and since I didn't use a pattern I was able to make it a custom fit for my fat head (24") Since it was crochet in the round there are no seams to contend with and since I made it, no stupid and itchy mfg tags either. Made with probably 50 cents worth of yarn and some free time on my Sunday while appropriately watching Man vs. Wild, I knocked out my earthy toned head-warmer. :)

The completed hat

And on my head

Excel manipulation with VBscript

2009-02-06T10:49:00.000-08:00

So I've played around with it more since the last time I mentioned it, here's a couple new tricks.

Autofit your spreadhseet columns:
cartSheet.Columns.AutoFit

Autofilter your columns:
cartSheet.Cells.autofilter 3, "DOWN"

Bold a range of cells:
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(1).Range("A1:J1").Font.Bold = True

At some point I'll add to the tutorial...

South Lake Tahoe

2009-01-28T06:43:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest reasons I wanted to move up to the Sacramento area was its close proximity to so many of the things I love to do. We have in town lakes and rivers to kayak in, National forest practically surrounds us for hunting/fishing/camping and shooting opportunities and aside from the fact that it takes about an hour and a half to get to Lake Tahoe, I'm now only 50miles from Icehouse Road, which leads you to the Rubicon trail. Alas, the Rubicon has become overrun in recent years, but the trail doesn't have to be run start to finish, you can go in, wheel around, head back from the Loon entrance to Georgetown- the options are endless.

Anyway, it was time for a mini-vacation so with a couple days off from work we decided to head up to Tahoe to enjoy a few comp'd nights at our favorite casino Mont Blu. One of the reasons we love that place so much is the fact that not only do they allow dogs but they are very pet friendly in general and on check in they even have a dog welcome kit with a couple dog bones and requisite poop bag. :) Alas, as with all things, the end has come for dog days at Mont Blu as they have changed their policy and after March, no more pets will be welcome. It is unfortunate as I will no longer stay there; their loss I suppose.

That aside, we had a great time out in the snow and relaxing in general. In spite of a few bucks lost on the slots, we managed to do pretty well and considering the fact that our room was free, we really didn't have to spend much at all, except for some new wiper blades for the Rover, which I won't go into in full detail, but let me just say that $50ea is a bit excessive IMHO.

Ready to roll

Saw this on the way up, thought it was funny. Doggie bag :)

Loved the door hanger

Flora says "I see rabbits damnit, let me out!"

Can we go now?

TONS of animal tracks in the snow, it was fun to follow them and watch Flora trail them.

Brooke had fun in the snow.

My girls

I love that dog

Obviously a stone cold killer

Such a sweet dog

Alas, we must head home.

My new everyday watch

2009-01-20T10:53:00.001-08:00

Victorinox Swiss Army Summit XLT Titanium

For some time now, I’ve been keeping my eye out for a good all-around watch that met some specific requirements; reasonable cost, solid brand, easy to read and most importantly- tough. I’m a fairly active guy and while I’m not exactly a participant in an Eco Challenge, I would venture to say that in general I actually subject my gear to equally abusive, if not worse, conditions. I personally prefer things with a Swiss Army knife sort of appeal, fairly non-specialized gear that excels in many conditions but is not necessarily the best at any one in particular. I also really enjoy watches; men essentially don’t really wear jewelry save for a wedding band and a watch and since ideally the wedding band doesn’t change with any real frequency, watches are the one place where we have some freedom to play.

Over the years I’ve played around with a variety of sub-thousand dollar watches, with the bulk of them being under $250. From Timex and Casio to a recently failed Luminox, I’ve run many watches through unintentional torture tests in the backcountry over the years, with a small sampling of dress only watches thrown in for good measure, so I definitely have some strong opinions on what works for me and what doesn’t. Generally speaking, while very tough, Casio’s digital G-Shock watches with their LCD fail have failed me in the field due to extreme heat or cold washing out the display, something which really applies to any LCD watch; on top of the fact that, let’s face it, style-wise digital watches usually leave something to be desired. Even some of the high end LCD watches such as the Suunto’s will suffer from these problems and honestly, they are just overly complicated as in my opinion a watch is for telling the time- I’ll use my GPS for elevation, compass and altimeter; which leaves me with analog watches.

While there are higher end analogs that are quite nice: Tag, Rolex, Omega, et al. I could not bring myself to subject a 10k Rolex to some of the beatings that the bulk of my watches must endure. Additionally, as a high power rifleman, the recoil of a large caliber round would wreak havoc on the fine inner works of any automatic watch, regardless of price, which also helps narrow down the search. Finally, while I have a small selection of watches to choose from, I generally find that I fall back to one watch I wear most of the time. It is dressy enough to wear to the office but rugged enough to wear into the backcountry on any of the types of trips I enjoy without the fear that it might fail; which brings us to the Victorinox Swiss Arrmy Summit XLT titanium watch.

I personally prefer watches with a Swiss movement, they are accurate and I can count on them to be reliable. Unfortunately not all makers are the same and after the watch that I thought had fit the bill perfectly as my general from the office to the backwoods watch had failed to hold water out after a few kayaking trips and fogged over, a new search began. With my known requirements in mind I started looking around for a replacement and stumbled across the Swiss Army XLT. Already a huge fan of the knives from the same maker, I felt safe sinking a few bucks into one of these watches and after finding the exceptional deal at Sierra Trading Post, I’m glad I did.

The XLT is a slight departure from the modern trend of gargantuan watch faces, which I personally find ridiculous anyway, with its more traditional face size of 28.6mm. The pins are driven in quite solidly and you will find the band will need to be adjusted by a jeweler, unless you happen to have the right tools at home, it isn’t like sizing most low-mid range watches. Though I’m not a diver, the watch does have a second clasp which allows the band to be opened up enough to be worn comfortably on the outside of a wetsuit which will prove useful when ocean kayaking in a wetsuit. Double clasp aside, the standard clasp holds tightly and securely leaving no fear of the watch coming loose. Overall the XLT has a very nice build quality, everything lines up nice and neatly, the design is solid and it is a fine example of excellent craftsmanship. The watch has a screw-in sealed case back which affords a water resistance rating up to 100m, in spite of the fact that the crown does not screw down.

The multilink titanium band offers a little lateral play by design, making it very comfortable to wear as it adjusts slightly during those times when it slides up the wrist closer to the hand. It has luminous hands and hour markers as well as a luminous mark at the top of the bezel to signify the starting point when used as a one hour timer and they do hold their charge quite well, as checking the time at 4am after the watch has been in total darkness for 7 hours has proven and as a side note, they also recharge quite quickly. The one directional ratcheting bezel is made of a tough plastic of some sort with the numbers being painted on in a slightly recessed groove, something which will certainly help prevent wear and make the eventual repainting simple. The bezel is relatively tight, though not overly so and I suspect it will loosen up a bit with use. Thanks to the titanium casing and band, the watch is also exceptionally light when compared to a stainless steel watch and is a pleasure to wear as you sometimes forget it is even there, especially if you are used to heavy stainless watches.

I personally chose the model with the black face and white numbers which is very easy to read, with the time in both standard 12hr and military 24hr format just to the inside of the larger 12hr format numbers. The 3 has been replaced with the date which is in a nice location for easy reading as I find the watches that put the date to some sort of diagonal to annoy me and the 12 is replaced by an artfully designed Swiss Army logo, giving the watch a similar look to a certain popular Tag Heur watch. The mineral crystal should also prove mostly resilient to scratches due to the inevitable knocking around of the timepiece and if you’ll forgive the pun, only time will tell.

Though it has only been through a few small trials to date, I have yet to find any real fault with the watch. I did need to ever so slightly adjust the main and double clasps so that they would grip a bit tighter, but that took only the slightest bit of effort and I would honestly consider that a part of the sizing process. From a strictly cosmetic point of view, some may find fault with the minute hand, which, while going through the ticking process does not always land exactly on the minute mark in question, though the watch holds accurate time and it does in fact tick 60 times through each minute. I cannot speak as to why this is, but it does not appear to affect the accuracy of its timekeeping in any way.

Overall the watch offers all of the things I was looking for and one thing that made the purchase quite painless is the simple fact that before the model was discontinued, the Summit XLT retailed for $325. In the end, the XLT is tough enough to take outback and classy enough to wear to the office. While I wouldn’t wear it with a tux, for the bulk of my ‘normal’ life at work and at play, this watch will adorn my wrist.

New lid

2009-01-05T09:28:00.000-08:00

So I dropped by Cycle Gear for a new lid yesterday and stumbled on a pretty good deal on the KBC VR2 helmet in the Grim Reaper pattern. Personally the XL sized KBC helmets fit my head like they were made for me so I like them anyway, but at the clearance price of $99 I couldn't say no even though I'm just sorta so-so feeling about the design.

Nice features, mouth breath guard, good vents, very nice padding inside and a price that can't be beat.

Happy New Year 2009!

2009-01-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

Like many people, I've gone through phases when it comes to New Years resolutions. For a while there I was opposed to the concept, reasoning that if you want to make a change, just do it- you don't need to use a new year as an excuse. Over time however I've relaxed on that viewpoint, I believe a few resolutions are a good thing and the new year really is a good time to do it, you've got a nice window to benchmark yourself against and if nothing else only good can come from it so why not do what you can?

Personally I didn't sit down and create a list of things I want to do better this year, though I have some things in mind that I know I'd like to work on that are probably standard fare, such as: procrastinating less, eating a little healthier, exercising more and getting outdoors more often.

Engine squealing

2008-12-08T15:29:00.000-08:00

So I was getting a loud squealing sound from the Wrangler, classic belt squeal to me, but I looked it over and it seemed fine and had already tightened the hell out of it to no avail. Tried swapping the idler pulley and even the fan clutch, which turned out to not be bad after all (impressive for 160k on the factory one) but was time to replace anyways. Problem went away but came back.

Discovered this awesome trick, to pin it to your belt or not, get a spray bottle and squirt water on the belt while it the engine is on, if she squeal stops, it's the belt, if not, it's obviously something not affected by water on the belt, i.e. bearings or whatever. Lucky for me it was just the belt.

NIN at Oracle arena ROCKED!!

2008-09-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

Catch them on the Lights in the Sky tour. I'll be there again when they're up here at the Arco Arena, hell of a show!

Myth: Gun Control Reduces Crime

2008-08-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

The truth is spoken here.

Birthday girl dinner

2008-08-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was my wife's birthday and her favorite dish just happens to be a specialty of mine, braised lamb shanks over garlic mashed potatoes drizzled with a red wine reduction sauce and I tossed some fresh asparagus on the side to round it out.

Of course, I was starving when I was shopping so I got gargantuan shanks

Just hanging around

2008-08-18T14:02:00.001-07:00

Spent the weekend camping out in the Sierras and generally just hanging out. What a great way to leave your worries behind.

And this is the view from the hammock

Not a bad place to take a nap eh?

Here was the full setup

I even hung out at camp

Hot out there

2008-07-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

It's not as bad today as yesterday's over 110deg temps were, but when I saw the weather.com "Feels Like" spot, I just had to make a little correction.

Enhancing Visual Basic scripts with Microsoft Excel - Part 1

2008-07-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

“Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.” -Francis Bacon

Effectively working with and administering a Microsoft Windows based enterprise environment, let alone any other, requires making full use of all the tools that are made available to you and more often than not, making do with whatever is freely available. In the open source world of Linux this is generally not a problem as just about anything you could come up with a need for has not only already been created but is freely available and the things that aren’t, you can create yourself using any of the many free tools for scripting and programming that are available to fill those voids.

When it comes to system automation in a closed source environment such as Microsoft’s, the Visual Basic Scripting host is an invaluable tool that will let you handle just about every administrative task possible from mass updates to Active Directory to extensive data gathering and reporting; best of all, it is not only free, but it is already integrated into every Windows desktop. Of course, when it comes to automation you’re generally dealing with decently large amounts of data, either coming in, going out, or both; and while you can use simple text files for many things, it often makes more sense to leverage the power of a spreadsheet for both input and reported data.

I’m not looking to write the definitive article on how you can best use Excel with VBS, but my goal is to provide a good starting point, with a decent selection of sample source code to get the beginner or intermediate VBscripter up to speed and hopefully, leveraging Excel spreadsheets in no time, so let’s get started.

Lesson 1: Getting started
Let’s create a real simple script that simply shows us Excel.

DIM objExcel
DIM objTestSheet

Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
objExcel.Visible = True
objExcel.WorkBooks.Add
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets.Add

Set objTestSheet = objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(1)
objTestSheet.Name = “Test Sheet”

Well that was easy, not much to it is there? Well go ahead and save the script and run it and you should see results like those below.

Ok let’s now take a look at the script and see what is going on.

After 1) declaring variables we 4) create the Excel object and bind it to objExcel, calling the application forward. We then 5) set Excel to be visible and 6-7) add a workbook and a worksheet inside of that. Once we’ve got the basic spreadsheet created, we then 9) bind an object to the first worksheet and we 10) give it a name. Pretty simple, but that doesn’t really do much for us does it? So let’s see what we need to do to actually put data inside that spreadsheet.

To “setup” the sheet to the spec we want, we’d like to do things like define column width, setup some header rows and maybe even freeze panes and add an autofilter, let’s see what we can do.

DIM objExcel
DIM objTestSheet

Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
objExcel.Visible = True
objExcel.WorkBooks.Add
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets.Add

Set objTestSheet = objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(1)
objTestSheet.Name = “Test Sheet”

For i = 1 to 6
objTestSheet.Cells(1, i).Font.Bold = TRUE
Next

objTestSheet.columns(1).columnWidth = 10
objTestSheet.columns(2).columnWidth = 20
objTestSheet.columns(3).columnWidth = 20
objTestSheet.columns(4).columnWidth = 6
objTestSheet.columns(5).columnWidth = 30
objTestSheet.columns(6).columnWidth = 15

objTestSheet.Cells(1, 1).Value = "Status"
objTestSheet.Cells(1, 2).Value = "Test"
objTestSheet.Cells(1, 3).Value = "Department"
objTestSheet.Cells(1, 4).Value = "Floor"
objTestSheet.Cells(1, 5).Value = "Room/Area"
objTestSheet.Cells(1, 6).Value = "Room #"

objTestSheet.activate
objTestSheet.Rows.item(2).select

objExcel.ActiveWindow.FreezePanes = True

And here’s the results we’ll see if we run that script.

Pretty cool, we can see that we’ve got the row headers in place and bolded, the sheet is labeled and we’ve even applied a freeze pane affecting the 2nd row and down. Let’s take a look at the new piece of code we’ve added and see how it works.

Though you don’t have to, I used a short little for loop to 12-14) set the first 6 columns to be font.bold. In 16-21) we’re setting the columnwidth to varying sizes based on the type of information we will hold and in 23-28) we are setting the value of the cells to be equal to what we want as column headings. As you can see, assigning data to a cell is pretty easy, you simply specify the object variable you used to bind to the spreadsheet in this case objTestSheet, with .cells(x,y) at the end where x and y are the row and column followed by .value = “xxx” to set that data. In this case we’re obviously setting it manually, but from a scripting point of view, the resultant data from your scriptwork will simply be put into these areas. On 30) we are activating the sheet we were writing data to and then 31) we are selecting row two so that we can 33) FreezePanes on everything below that.

Two other neat little commands I didn’t use yet but that I’ll throw in for you to tinker with until the next lesson are:

a) objTestSheet.Cells(1, 1).Font.ColorIndex = 3
b) objTestSheet.Cells.autofilter 1, "DOWN"

Where a) sets the color of the text in the cell(1,1) which is equal to A:1 to red and b) creates an autofilter, specifically setting it to row 1 and filtering for “DOWN”. You won’t be able to use b) if you don’t have any data to filter, so keep that in mind while you’re playing with it. If that’s not entirely clear don’t worry, as I will cover it in detail next time.

Anyway this gives us a good starting point to begin working with Excel output from VBS direct to the screen. Is this the best way to have your script output data to Excel? Well, not really, but I guess that depends on whether or not you want to watch the results as they happen. There are many ways to use Excel with VBS as we’ll see in the next couple of lessons, but this should get you headed in the right direction. In later tutorials I will cover Excel spreadsheets as input, writing data to spreadsheets entirely in the background and more. For now, play around with Excel as an output medium, writing your results to cells in your loops instead of writing to text files. What’s cool about vbscript’s manipulation of Excel is that not only can you output direct to a spreadsheet, visibly on the screen or entirely silently in the background, but that you can also format that data so completely that there is nothing left to do other than to interpret the results. (Though I’m working on a script for that too btw, lol)

Incidentally for your automated scripts that you’d like to have write to excel spreadsheets in the background, don’t forget you can have vbs send you an email with the results, attaching the spreadsheet to the message, of course, you could also write it to only email you if there is a problem, etc. but that’s a topic for a separate tutorial altogether.

Bunnyhop vs Jet Hop or J-Hop

2008-07-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

I thought I would eliminate a little confusion over some of the terms that are floating around with regard to the infamous bunnyhop.

A bunnyhop is executed by pulling your front tire up first.

A j-hop is not a new trick, it is simply what people started calling a bunnyhop when people started incorrectly calling it a bunnyhop when someone clipped into a mountain bike would lift the whole bike straight up at once.

Technically speaking, since it is not a new trick and simply a renamed existing trick, there really is no such thing as a j-hop.

2008-06-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

Got a few people asking about the authenticity of the photo above which I had posted in a while back when I first redid my site. It is indeed real and the full story is here.

Here's a sample:

When this photograph was first published in Africa Geographic, BBC Wildlife and later in Paris Match and the Daily Mail (London) it resulted in a flurry of e-mails, phone calls and letters from around the world asking if the image was a fake. Following publication no less than 50 websites were hosting colorful discussions about the authenticity of this photograph. The image became probably the most talked about of shark photograph ever and has become my undisputed best seller.

The photograph is real, no photoshop, no digital manipulation, no nothing, in fact it was shot on slide film Fuji Provia 100 using a Nikon F5 Camera and 17-35 mm lens. For those conspiracy fans who still doubt its authenticity please read how I took the photograph.

To capture this image I tied myself to the tower of the research boat Lamnidae and leaned into the void, precariously hanging over the ocean while waiting patiently for a white shark to come along. I wanted to shot a photograph that would tell the story of our research efforts to track white sharks using kayaks. When the first shark of the day came across our sea kayak it dove to the seabed and inspected it from below. I quickly trained my camera on the dark shadow which slowly transformed from diffuse shape into the sleek outline of a large great white. When the shark’s dorsal fin broke the surface I thought I had the shot, but hesitated a fraction of a second and was rewarded with marine biologist Trey Snow in the kayak turning around to look behind him. I pressed the shutter and the rest was history. Throughout the day I shot many more images, most showing the kayak following the shark, but all lacked the power of that first image of the great white tracking the kayak.

Sierras and Rubicon trail, street, dirt and rocks

2008-06-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

I had been wanting to do an adventure touring ride since before I got my dual sport bike last October and while I’ve put quite a few miles on it since then, including my current 900 mile per week commute, I’ve sadly only had the opportunity to take her off road twice. Being a smaller bike, it gets excellent fuel economy, averaging 80-85 mpg, with a low in the 70-75mpg range if I run her into the red for long periods of time. In that regard, this makes her a great touring bike because I can go such long distances on so little fuel. The downside is that the bike only has a 2.3 gallon tank, though I resolved that with the fuel can rack I made. Of course to achieve that great fuel economy, this means my average speed is 55-60mph which I’ve actually come to enjoy, if you’re not in a hurry to outrun the rest of the world, it works out just fine. Over time I had slowly added on the proper outfitting for a dual sport touring ride, the requisite rear rack, hand-guards and RAM GPS holder, the later of which I will unfortunately not be using as 2 days ago I accidentally ran my Explorist through the washing machine with a load of laundry. DOH!

While I have plenty of miles under my belt on the street, I do have to admit that I am somewhat green off-road, having only taken my XT225 out twice, once to Forest Hill and once to Hollister. Of course, I did want something that would offer a decent challenge and would add significant value as a portion of the overall loop so I chose the Rubicon Trail. In researching what it is like to ride this trail I’ve heard everything from “have a great time, it’s a lot of fun” to things like “have you made out a will yet” and my personal favorite was that I’ll be an “inexperienced rider on a marginally adequate bike for the task.” In all fairness to myself, I’ve run that trail yearly in my Jeep for years so the terrain is familiar and prior to getting into motorcycles I was a semi-pro level downhill mountain biker having spent the majority of my recreational life on two wheels. Maybe I was just trying to convince myself it would work out fine, maybe not, but in either case, the plan was in motion and I was rearing to go with my only real concern being ascending Cadillac Hill with a bunch of weight on the back of the bike.

Being my first real, albeit short, adventure ride, I wanted a decent mix of street, dirt, camping as well as the requisite remote and somewhat strange hotel experience in addition to keeping the mileage reasonable as time and my own constitution are the limiting factors. The plan was to head out Friday, ride to and mostly through the Rubicon trail camping out partway through Friday night, then Sat finish up the trail and head into South Lake Tahoe where I’d stay at a local motel, finally heading home late Sunday morning taking the long scenic route back.

The route headed to the trail was roughly 160mi, the trail and back to the road is around 18-20 and the return route was about 190mi for a total of around 370 miles round trip had everything gone according to plan. Alas, the trail did best me partway through and one of my contingency plans was called into action.

Five days a week my ride is about reaching a destination, this time; it was just about the ride.

----

As far as my gear, I was trying to keep it real simple, here's pictures of what was mounted to the bike and what I was actually wearing.

- Sleeping pad
- 5 degree bag
- Softside cooler
- Rucksack
- 4hr firelog (not pictured)

Inside the cooler was my food and cooking gear, coffee and some light first aid supplies, including a whistle should things go badly. The cooler had rope on top that was for both the hammock and for winching the bike should the need arise. Rucksack had the hammock, change of clothes, toiletries, book, etc.

In addition to the load the bike was carrying, I was wearing a camel back and a military style "gun belt" that held a canteen full of water. Boots, knee/shin guards and my jacket rounded out the rest.

Inside the camelback aside from water were a few small tools, lighter, pump and of course a BFK.

While a decent focus of the ride I had planned was the Rubicon itself, the trail was actually just a section of an overall ride, that would end up taking me through some of the most beautiful scenery California has to offer with a total trip distance of 424 miles, 15 of which were some of the most difficult I had ever ridden. Reading through tips and advice from forums and people who ride, in addition to my own experience on the trail, I had a good picture of what to expect from the Rubicon and what challenges I would face. While I like to think on the positive side with that old saying of, “you can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it”, I did have a couple of contingency plans should something go awry and in the end, I ended up putting one into action as the trail did best me midway through; this time at least. And while in theory I think I could have pushed on and made it further if not all the way through, I do try to think with safety first and by that point I had gone so far past what any reasonable person would consider safe it was time to take the alternate route.

I’ve put many miles on the Serow on the street and with a 170+ mile daily commute including a good stretch of interstate, I have shamefully logged very few off road miles and this in fact would be not only her first long distance ride at over 400 miles (ok it is to me at least) but only her third time in the dirt with me at the helm. One day I’ll work up to some of those long distance runs I love to read about on ADVrider.com, but I suppose you do have to crawl before you can walk and for me it started out with figuring out how to load that little bike up with all my gear. I had installed a Turbo City rack on the back which is quite stout and is what I used to mount the gas can racks I fabricated to, which I’ll get into more detail on later. Even packing minimally, I still had to contend with a major lack of space; at a minimum I needed my sleeping bag, cooler with food and some sort of tank bag for spare tubes etc.

I was able to cleverly, in my mind at least, rig up a mil-spec rucksack as a tank bag, which in the end worked out extremely well and when I got off to hike around, doubled as its intended function of a backpack. With clever lashing, straps, a net and a couple bungee cords, I was able to mount up the rest of my gear on my little mule and head for the hills. After filling up my gas cans, which saved my bacon in more ways than one and on more than one occasion, I rode around a little bit to get used to the new distribution of weight, which on the street proved to be negligible; the trail however is another story. :)

One of the first things in order, aside from food prep, was to make sure I had at least some sort of first aid kit. Amazing what $5 will get you at Wal-Mart, this little kit had all sorts of things in it and once I bolstered its contents with some upgrades of my own, it makde a perfect bike first aid kit that found a permanent place attached to my camelback. With the addition of the supercompact deet spray, I was ready for the mosquito infested trail.

Of course let's not forget the important stuff and for portable food storage, I've found nothing near as good as my vacuum sealer. You don't actually need to suck the air out, you can just use it to create an airtight sealed bag, which will sit on top of you cooler ice just fine keeping your food fresh and safe from cooler water. I don't know how I got by without one before.

All loaded up, I am ready to hit the road. Amazing how much crap you can cram onto such a little bike. While I could in theory have gone ultralight, ie, hammock and bag, no cooler, no pad, etc. I figured I might as well be comfortable. :)

Taking the long scenic route to get to the trail, I hit a stretch of HWY50 in the Sacramento area that proved to be less than fun. Some 'tard with a shortbed pickup truck full of what seemed to be sawdust merged onto the freeway right in front of me, a thick cloud of dark brown dust billowing out from behind his truck, leaving me in the wake of his dirty exhaust and carpentry waste. After stopping at the side of the freeway to let him get far ahead of me, which was no great feat as I cruise at 55-60mph, I pulled off to stop at a gas station and eat lunch before making my final ascent into the hills.

And up Icehouse Road.

The ride going up Icehouse Road was awesome, I’d made the trip in my Jeep many times but from a bike you just experience more of the world, taking in more of the view than any enclosed car could provide, the feeling of the road and the smell of the trees. Lazily winding up the hill the smooth road twists and turns offering a new vista at every bend as you leave the rest of the world behind you finally reaching the Ranger station where you can check in and get your fire permit.

Incidentally, for anyone considering having a campfire without a permit, don’t. The fine is enormous while the permit is free, there is absolutely no reason not to get one and they are good for the whole year.

I stopped for a moment to look at the memorial plaque for Air Tanker 6 and in spite of the fact I had no one to talk to anyway, offered them a moment of silence in thanks for their service. Though once I got to the part that says “erected by…” I couldn’t help but remember this classic line “Behold, rising before you, the greatest erection on the continent... the greatest erection of the age... the greatest erection on the planet!” A quote which is actually in reference to a bridge and if you can name the movie that came from (without cheating), first round is on me. (click here for the answer)

Heading down Icehouse Road for the trailhead.

And finally after cresting the rise and following the smooth winding road as I descended down towards Loon Lake, I reached water, the signal that I had reached the Rubicon trail.

The dam before reaching the spillway

And the Loon Lake entrance to the Rubicon trail, which upon sight did make me a little nervous. Suddenly self doubts started to rush into my stream of conciousness; I mean, I really have essentially no off road experience on a bike, wtf am I doing here, can I even run this trail and make it out in one piece?

I quickly ushered these doubts to the sidelines as I fired up my trusty steed and began my descent into the inferno.

After riding down the gravel trail that leads to the top of the rock slab from the picture above, I got stuck behind a Jeep for a bit before passing him on the ascent up the rock face where I was greeted with this view before heading down and to the gatekeeper below.

Once I hit the actual trail and started riding the dirt and rocks I quickly realized two things, 1- that as much as I wanted to see how far I could push the bike with the stock 15/45 gearing, I really wanted to put that 13 tooth countershaft sprocket in that I was carrying in my tankbag and 2- manhandling the bike through those rock gardens at 6000ft was one hell of an upper body workout and I was already starting to feel it in my forearms, which made me nervous as I really hadn’t gone anywhere yet. Alas, like the first 15 minutes back in a gym after a long hiatus, the fatigue wore off, at least to some degree and I pressed on, riding up and over the rocks and pushing the bike through sections of trail I was only able to dream about until this moment.

Eventually working my way past the gatekeeper I reached the climb to the slabs, a multiple stage step up section with large rocks and loose dirt. Unfortunately some of the more challenging and very interesting sections of the trail I did not get photos of, largely because I was just too busy enjoying the ride and trying to make it through in one piece. Honestly when I reached the bottom of the climb I looked at it and quickly picked the line I thought was right, but before attempting it thought about it for a minute or two as failure to make it to the top would not end well and I was somewhat concerned. I quickly dismissed my fears and decided I had the right line, leaned far forward on the bike and hit the throttle. With all the finesse of a car accident I led my bouncing, sliding bike up the climb, her front wheel rising the whole way up threatening to buck me from my steed.

And when I crested the top in one piece, wildly throwing my legs out in an attempt to make contact with solid earth, I was congratulated by the trail with this view of the slabs

Riding down to the base of the slabs was fairly simple, though some care was needed when approaching some of the cracks as they are literally large enough to swallow a bike whole should you let your mind wander and partway down the main path is a rather large junction, that on the bike with a little balance and a touch of throttle proved to be handled with ease, while those with four wheels clearly had some trepidation upon approach. From the bottom of the slabs looking up the selection of lines was somewhat abundant, however as I climbed each new step and crack presented a new challenge that needed to be handled.

Alas as I neared the top of the slabs and reached the launchpad I decided that I would not attempt the climb due to the lack of traction on that rock, my weighted bike and the fact that a crash there would end… shall we say, not well.

Like Dr. Jones however I’ve found that if I just sit back a solution will usually present itself and indeed it did as I was eyeballing the landscape I spotted my easier to crest step up that really only a bike should attempt and I was able to circumvent this little section of the trail before being presented with one field of rocks after another. :)

The trail proved to be everything I thought it would be and more, the rocks were a challenge though it was a welcome one and the bike in spite of her overloaded top and rear heavy payload handled the trail amazingly well. A pronounced lack of rider skill however had us on our sides more than once. If you look back to one of the first pictures in this thread you’ll notice that I’m wearing a canteen on my left side. In theory it was a good idea, I mean, a Camelback is great but you really have no idea how much water is left, I look at a canteen as the “reserve” so to speak, much like I treat my cage water bottle on mountain bike rides. At any rate, that thing must have broken my fall at one point because when I went to take a swig from it after exhausting the Camelback, I realized I had crushed it at some point on the trail.

Crashes were semi-frequent and the bike held up amazingly well, a credit to both the bike and the one skill I am proud of being excellent at, crashing. Now I mentioned previously that the gas cans I had saved my bacon more than once and here’s how. The NATO style cans are quite stout, I can say this with authority because I can tell you I put them to the test. They were beaten on, banged on, bounced around and had to support the full weight of the bike on the rocks, not to mention the full weight of the bike impacting the rocks. The held up well and while looking a bit more battered, they did not once leak. In addition to holding up well, both the cans and the gas rack served a dual purpose. They not only held the bike off the ground and consequently the rocks, thereby saving the engine from many, many impacts that would surely have split a case sooner or later, they also helped keep the bike from crushing my legs into the rocks on more than one occasion and of course, their true purpose, they got me back to civilization when I later ran out of gas entirely; between burning fuel on the street, the trail and whatever dumped out when crashing. In spite of their weight, I was glad to have them.

Pressing on I passed through several water crossings and fields of boulders eventually working my way through Ellis Creek and up to Walker Hill. Having run this trail many times over the last 11 years I have to admit that from a four wheeling, let alone dual sport perspective, the trail appeared to have gotten significantly more challenging in some areas, one of which was Walker Hill. As we know pictures have a tendency to do the real thing no justice and flatten things out, but the rocks were large with not a lot of gap between them providing uneven footing and whatever lines could be spotted were quite difficult to maneuver. The penalty for not making some of the climbs on the route was steep and just about every line threatened to launch me backwards.

I crashed a few times heading up the trail, most of which were slow speed loss of balance related, but by this point in the ride the altitude and weariness had started to get to me and it was becoming quite difficult to lift my bike and I had resorted to the method of back to the bike and lifting it with a squat.

I had selected what seemed to be the only reasonable line up the hill, rolled back a bit, got a little rolling momentum and started my assault, weighting the front of the bike as much as I could when she started to climb high throwing me back on the bike and unfortunately hard on the throttle. The bike launched out from under me and straight up into the air, both tires leaving the ground throwing us both backward into the rock pile. As I was falling backwards with the bike I pushed the bike with all my might hard to the left of me as I tried to roll to the right and it seemed to hit the rocks at the same time as I did with a thundering train wreck sound of a crash. I got banged up somewhat by that crash and once I had regained my composure I feebly attempted to roll my bike back upright so I could see what damage had been done. Aside from slightly bent bars, or possibly very lightly twisted tubes in the triple, the bike appeared to be fine not mentioning the rashed plastics and newly cracked hand-guard, without which my levers would not have made it this far.

While this was the most challenging thing I would endure until reaching Cadillac Hill, both my level of fatigue and fear of injury since I was alone started to set in after that crash, as if I had not rolled out in time the bike would surely have crushed my chest with ease and a helicopter ride out would be my only option. Erring on the side of caution, I decided this would be a safe time to run the remainder of my trip in reverse out the way I came in, a decision which I do not regret in the least. The ride out was just as fun as the ride in, including getting lost a few times since I’d never run the trail in reverse everything looked foreign.

All of the step ups and climbs that were brutal coming in were cake going out. With little more than some body English and a bit of light throttle control; they were all bested with minimal effort, while the rock gardens still proved to be a good challenge.

The ride wasn’t just about the Rubicon however and the scenery and fun did not stop one I had made it back off the trail as my adventure continued on my ride into South Lake Tahoe.

Once I was back on the streets again I continued en route to South Lake Tahoe however after reaching the main road it wasn’t far before I was out of gas having tapped both the main and reserve. As luck would have it I had a spare gas can and used it to top off the tank with enough to get me comfortably into Lake Tahoe. Had I been without it, I’d have been waiting on AAA so needless to say, I was glad I roughed it with the extra weight.

Once I rolled into the Tahoe area and reached the main drag, I approached a Howard Johnsons motel on the left side of the street that I gladly rode towards. Pulling into the check in parking area, I could hear the pack of obnoxious, very drunk guys hanging out in the spa. “That sucks” I thought to myself, so much for that much needed soak in the spa. In the end it turned out it was a pack of middle aged guys riding Harleys that for one reason or another decided to get completely wasted and go soak in the spa. Though they were harassing people that walked by, I was outnumbered by a lot, but not outgunned. Not one to look for trouble, I quietly made my way to my room, unloaded my bike and prepped for a nice hot shower where I was greeted with this nice glove tan.

After the shower however I was feeling so much better and ready to get into dinner and throw back those 2 ice cold Fosters that I had been carting around.

In the morning I made myself a nice pot of coffee, got in another nice hot shower and busted out my cream cheesed bagels for b-fast… hard to beat it. But before I could sink my chomps into the morning’s grub I decided to allow myself one of my few and far between vices of a cigarette and while outside a guy from one of the rooms upstairs started to approach me. As he got closer I said “good morning” to which he replied “this place is harder to get out of than it was to get out of prison.” Lol nice… I guess I got my requisite creepy dude for the trip to top off my 1.5 star hotel.

Before heading out I had to swap that 13 tooth countershaft sprocket back out with the 15 tooth standard as my top speed was currently about 45mph. I’ve got to tell you, once I got that baby back in there it felt like I was on a freakin sport bike, at least for a while. :)

Headed out 89 was one of the more scenic routes while 88 had its own level of beauty. If you look in the second picture below, partway out you’ll notice a guy fishing out there. Looks like great country to backpack in and I think I’ll be investigating what is allowed out there soon. :)

Heading up and out of the valley I took the Serow up to a maximum elevation of just over 8500ft and since I never changed the jetting I was concerned I could make it. Although she performed find at around 7000 with the occasional hiccup, at 8500 I was a bit concerned as to whether or not I would even make it. Slowly but surely however, she pulled me up, over and through the range eventually dropping me off back in the Stockton area, with a short 40mi jaunt to home.

But before getting out of that area, I was first treated to these views.

And finally, my favorite of them all: (Which looks much better full size)

In the end I clocked 424mi. I had a great time and I can't wait to go back. :D :D

Death of a GPS

2008-06-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

Well I misplaced my Magellan Explorist 200 GPS a few days ago and I'd been searching high and low for the thing as I'd really have liked to use it on my upcoming Rubicon trip.

Alas, it didn't turn up until I was emptying a load of laundry from my washing machine, where I found it in its dead state under my clothes. I guess I left it in a pocket and just tossed it in there, man... My last GPS lasted about 12 years, this one < 6 months.

I guess its not washing machine proof.

Extending my dual sporting range

2008-06-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

So while I'd like a little more umph, I do find my little XT225 to be a veritable mountain goat of a bike that really seems to be screaming "throw everything you've got at me." And though I've only had her off road twice, any shortcomings I ran into were mostly my own. So with a Rubicon trip coming up next weekend, I knew I'd need to do something about the puny 2.3 gallon factory tank. Unfortunately Clarke does not make a larger XT tank, so most XT owners end up with some mickey mouse version of a strapped down milk jug, or one of the Kolpin jugs (which can no longer be shipped to CA, which is ironic as with the emission friendly style ones we are sold locally I typically end up spilling gas all over the place lol)

I had spied some spiffy little NATO 5L gas tanks some time ago that I've been meaning to mount up in some way or another and when I recently saw some mounted on a TW200 I was inspired to get off my ass and fab something up for myself. Not perfect by any means and I'm surely more critical of my own work than someone else might be, but with some basic hand tools (and no vice, long story) I bent up and welded these together with about $12 of u-bolts and $19 worth of metal from Home Depot.

I do need to add some sort of rubber on the inside edges to prevent rattling, but otherwise they are quite stout. I can grab hold of one side and lift the bike off the ground with almost no flex, so I think they'll be safe when I lay it over. :) If you're wondering, 10 liters = 2.64 gallons so I've got more than a full fill-up. If I was only getting 75mpg, my range just shot up to roughly 370 miles before I need a fuel station.

It will really make me feel more comfortable going on longer trips and on far backwoods trips without the fear that I might run out of fuel and I've got to admit, I'm really happy with how well it came out.

Camera happenings

2008-05-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

So my awesome little Canon SD600 finally bit the dust, reaching its eventual demise after a careless misstep on my part, concluding a downward spiral that started for the poor beast last December. I'm a big fan of Canon cameras, both my film SLR's are Canons as is my digital SLR (a Canon D60) and my last 2 point and shoots, an SD200 and an SD600 which both gave me great service throughout my ownership. The SD200 was alas liberated from my possession by an unscrupulous auto repair shop and the SD600 suffered some damage while on an off road motorcycle trip last December, crippling the LCD when in picture taking mode, although it still functioned for movie and review modes; that is, until I inadvertently left it on the floor near my backpack and took a backwards step onto it crushing the LCD. And while the camera still functions, it is a sad shadow of its former self in need of retiring.

Thankfully my brother had an Olympus 720SW that he no longer found a need for, which has now taken a place among my collection. While the 720SW pictures are nowhere near the quality of the Canon cameras, I have been an Olympus fan ever since I had purchased my C3000Z way back when. Though the picture quality is not at the same level as the Canon, they are hardly bad pictures and in the end, the shock and waterproof features of the camera make up for this giving me a durable camera that is overall not bad and at the end of the day, the one that survives will still be there to take the shot that the one that failed would not. Unfortunately the data cable was lost and until the one I ordered arrives, my point and shoot duties have been relegated to using the camera feature of my little VuPoint digital video recorder, a device which excel at video, but leaves much to be desired with regard to its photo capabilities.

Now that the weather is warming up and more waterbound kayak trips are in store, it will be good to have a point and shoot camera that can not only survive a bit of water, but a little knocking around from time to time.