February Camping

Friday evening was my second camping trip of the year. This time we went to Foster Falls and stayed at Father Adamz campsite. The weather just happened to be perfect - near 70 during the day and low 50s at night. The group consisted of myself, Chad, Robert, and Barry.

Camping

On Thursday I received an email from Chad asking me if I wanted to camping this weekend. After checking the forecast, bitterly cold - overnight low in the lower 20's but no precipitation, I commenced to obtaining permission.

Due to the limited notice (less than one day) most of the regular campers didn't make it. Many excuses were heard. The lamest was

"I can't go, I will make up an excuse later." - D.G.

In the end, the search party would have only had two campers to retrieve.

Our destination was Sipsey Wilderness. I believe we stayed in White Oak Hollow. I never can remember the name of the trailhead. We only saw two other campers on the first day. We beat them to the best spot. They were disappointed.

Because our chief fire marshall did not make the trip, I had to wear this hat. We arrived early enough this time that we had time to gather the wood before sunset. (The sun drops fast when your down between two ridges.) Most of the wood in the area was damp so it was a challenge to get the fire to 'take'. We almost lost the patient twice.

The cuisine this trip was BYOF. No steaks. No Jambolaya. No omlets. No Bacon. Yes instant oatmeal. Yes Ramen noodles. No complaints though. As cold as it was, both the evening soup and morning oatmeal were nice and hot and hit the spot.

I told Chad this was my last camping trip ever. I usually say that and mean it. I will get over it in a few days and be ready to start planning the next trip. Despite the complaints about the cold, it wasn't really that bad and I definitely prefer the cold weather camping to the hot weather alternative.

Foster Falls

I went camping last weekend at Foster Falls. Sleet was falling from the sky as we were setting up our tents. It was cold, but we all stayed warm with the help of a _huge_ fire. Over all it was a great trip.

June, Where has it gone?

I spent this near Jacksonville, FL on business. This was my third trip to this location. I spent most of the week out side and I have never felt so hot in my life. I am certainly glad to be back home.

Last weekend on Friday, I went on a one night camping trip with a David M, and Chad E to Savage Gulf in TN. During this trip, which was also hot and humid, I decided I would never again go camping in June, July, August, and at least the first half of September. I definitely prefer cold weather camping – no snakes and no bugs (especially ticks).

Camping - Winter 2010 - Sipsey

I went camping this past weekend. We camped in Sipsey Wilderness again, but in a different area. This time we parked at Thompson trailhead and followed 206 in a short ways.

I had previously located a nice site right on the water. Fortunately there were not a lot of other campers out for the weekend so the site was empty even though we didn't arrive until dusk. (The forecast had the temperature down to 24F at night and up into the mid 40s during the day.)

First order was setting up the tents. Flashlights we required in order to complete this task. Afterwards we wandered the forest gathering wood for a nice warm fire. I don't think anybody really got cold. We were all prepared for the cold.

We only stayed a single night. I had been out of town the weekend before and wanted to spend at least one night at home this weekend.

Saturday we were buzzed many times by a helicopter. We also met many many people who were out searching for a lost hiker. We eventually found out a 76 year old man had gotten lost in the woods the day before. I read in the paper on Monday that they found him about 10:30 Saturday next morning. He had gotten lost and spent the night under a rock overhang covered with leaves to keep warm. Glad to hear he was ok.

So I was driving along in the zoom-zoom today when I noticed the climate was approaching ultimate camping weather.

Early in the day when I was walking about 100 yards in the rain with a heavy backpack on my back, I had the same thought, Hey this is camping weather.

Yep, the next camping trip is in the planning phase.

Sipsey Adventure

J' and I went hiking in the Sipsey Wilderness this morning. We hiked a trail I am fairly familiar with as I have camped on it 4 times. J' let me blaze the trail on the way in so I would be the web catcher. We evaluated many campsites for future trips.

The Sipsey River was higher than I have ever seen it but still fairly low compared to the obvious water marks. I intended for us to cross at a fork in the river but alas the water was too deep today.

The color was off in most of the pictures I took today. It seems someone was playing with the camera recently and changed several settings including a color filter which caused an interesting effect on several shots.

In the first photo you see us at the trail head ready to begin our 2.5 hour hike. Looks like someone has been eating too many biscuits. The second photo is J' in the (very wet) cave, about to disappear around a corner. The squeeze through the cave seems to be getting tighter every year. Or perhaps someone has been eating too many biscuits.

Foster Falls (Spring 2009 Camping Trip)

This weekend I made a trip up to Foster Falls in TN for a weekend camping trip with some friends. We stayed at the Father Adamz campsite due to our late start on Friday afternoon.

We had an excellent campsite (with the exception of college kids who showed up to setup at the next site over around 2:00 am.)

Friday evening we sat around the campfire and watched the flames dance. Dinner consisted of chili dogs. Saturday AM we scrambled some eggs and fried some bacon. The smell of frying bacon in the woods is awesome. After second breakfast, I took a leisurely stroll to the falls overlook and then followed the trail to the base of the falls. After crossing the suspension bridge I followed the trail along the base of the cliffs. We saw a total of about 20 people doing rock climbing. I stopped and watched for a brief time. It was pretty cool to watch, but you will never get me off the ground, hanging from a rope on the side of a mountain.

All in all the trip was nice. Early Sunday AM, probably around 3:00 it started to rain. The rained caused us to skip the planned pancake feast and pack up early and head for the nearest Cracker Barrel. Not a bad backup plan.

This weekends camping trip went well. The rain stopped before we arrived at the trail head. We arrived at the trail head around 4:30 or 5:00 pm. We didn't get to hike in very far because the sun went behind the next ridge rather early. The camp site we selected was at a fork in the trail next to a fork in the Sipsey River.

We did enough hiking to suit everyone. Friday evenings campfire was weak due to a lack of time to collect wood, but we made up for it Saturday evening. We enjoyed plently of good food as well.

All in all, it was a great trip. I am looking forward to next trip out in the spring.

Fall Camping 2008, Take II

I am heading out this afternoon for another camping trip. We are going to the Sipsey Wilderness again, though a different area. This is a really nice area for camping. Lots of trails, large rock formations, plenty of trees, and several large creeks. (In Texas they call these rivers.)

The weather is not optimal but it appears it may cooperate later. Currently it is raining but the skys are suppose to clear up mid afternoon, maybe.

Time to get packing.

Camping Trip, Fall 2008

This past weekend we (Myself, Billy, Chad, Danny, David, David, Steve, and Jim) went camping at the Sipsey Wilderness in the Bankhead National Forest. It was a nice trip but it seemed like someone was missing.

Oven 4.0 was somewhat of a success: bread, biscuits, brownies, and muffins.

The weather cooperated. We heard lots of wildlife after dark, probably due to the almost full moon. Plenty of trails for hiking. I took two short hikes. One included a trip to the gas station for water. (The water filter gave up on us.)

Good times.

Camp Oven 4.0

A camping trip is planned for the near future. I decided it might be time to build another camp oven.

The previous one (see Camp Oven 3.0 here) was very successful. We used it to bake cookies, cakes, brownies, muffins, bread, etc. on many trips to NC, TN, and AL. The only real problem it had was a hot spot directly over the burner. This tended to cause the food to cook unevenly sometimes. I would use a rock placed over the burner to spread the heat.

This is my latest attempt at a DIY light weight camping oven for back packing.



The oven itself weights 23 oz. That does not include the weight of the grill or burner. I reused the burner, grill, thermometer, and PVC from the previous design.

The oven is made from 20" aluminum flashing formed to make a cylinder. The cylinder is held together by 3 qty 4-40 screws. The diameter is 17" so that two 6-cup muffin tins will fit in it.

The top is simply another 20"x20" piece. The top is removed to gain access to the cooking rack. Because the top is so light, I expect a good gust of wind may try to carry it off. To resolve this and to improve the seal between the main body and the top, place an item on top. I have found a handsaw works fine. Alton Brown would be proud because this makes my saw a multi-tasker and gives it a legitimate use in my outdoor kitchen.
I hung a wind screen below the grill to improve its overall heating efficiently. (It will preheat to 350 F in less than a minute). The wind screen does not completely encase the burner for several reasons: ease of changing the tank, ease of lighting, and not wanting to get the burner valve hot.

The previous oven was used many times. From it we learned that a wind screen was absolutely necessary on a windy day. The outside temperature doesn't seem to matter much though, Oven 3.0 was used many times while the temperature was in the 30's or while it was raining. Simply adjust the valve to compensate for the current weather conditions.



Below you see the oven at 350 F. Reaching over 500 degrees is no problem. The lowest setting on my burner only reaches about 225 F. I have found most things I want to bake need 350 to 450 F.

I drilled a second hole in the top for a second thermometer. I don't expect I will have the diverse temperature range with this oven between the two as I did with the previous version. I haven't verified this yet, as I only have one thermometer. I will be borrowing the second one to verify this soon enough.

According to the spec's for my burner, the propane tanks last 2 hours on the highest setting and 4.5 hours on the lowest. Most cooking occurs somewhere in the middle.





The final picture was from the test-run. The oven heated up quickly. I cooked a few mini-corn-dogs. (My son ate them for dinner.) Below the pan you can see the blue ring of fire on the burner.

The rack shown here is simply aluminum wire. I drilled 12 holes evenly spaced 6 inches from the top. Six inches allows plenty of room for baking a loaf of bread. You can also see a couple of the screws holding the cylinders shape if you look closely.



If you have any questions or want additional details to build your own, email me and I will try to help you out.

The Fall of Rick

Fall semester is off to a good start. I have been busy, but not too busy. Definitely more manageable than the summer was.

On Wednesday, I substituted at a nearby middle school. Seventh grade math. This school was on a traditional 7 period schedule instead of the 4 blocks I have become accustomed to during my field work. The day flew by. I had the opportunity to apply a lot of what I have learned from the classroom management class I took this summer. Overall things went very smoothly, but I know I still have a lot to learn. I have 3 more days of sub'ing lined up. (AP Calculus, 7th grade math, and Spanish III).

I still haven't gotten around to buttoning up the differential. Only a couple hours effort remaining. I hear it calling from the garage. Soon, very soon. Unless of course I decide to take a nap instead.

Last Friday my sinus's started bothering me. I don't know exactly what caused it but I have been miserable since then. Taking meds helps, but then I end up feeling spaced out for several hours. I took some allergy medication at dinner last night which caused me to be very sleepy by 8:30 PM. By 9, I gave in and went to bed. The problem with going to bed early is waking up early.

The date for the Fall camping trip has been chosen. We have 4 ACKs, 3 NAKs, 2 MAKs, and several "No Replies". That usually means their wife hasn't decided yet. :)

Today the local blog critic awarded my blog the most boring blog in the neighborhood award. I guess he missed the geometric proofs from a couple of years back. And the lyrics for 'Oh, Yes Wyoming'. (If your interested, I recently proved the triangle inequality theorem for vectors.)

Then I remembered my blog wasn't really meant to be entertaining, it was intended to document my current obsession, whatever that might be, for example a Miata, a 1925 Chevrolet,rebuilding a 1972 GMC pickup, hoping to acquire an unspecified year Corvette or Volkswagen Beetle, building Furniture, hot tubing, auto body repair, camping, hiking, biking, welding, metal-meet, camping, Dodge Chargers, low carb dieting, school, procrastination, hypermiling, building a foundry, melting aluminium, state quarters, container gardening, MDF, STL, model railroading (n gauge), tenth scale RC cars, RC airplanes, Vertigo, slot car racing, Formula One, the US Grand Prix, attending car shows, Mini Coopers, ping pong, foos ball, chocolate chip cookies, fembots with a penchant for evil, cast iron skillets or even fried okra. Whatever. I feel so validated now.

Mmmm, fried okra.

iMike and Terry did not even get an honorable mention because their blogs are too interesting. Sorry guys.

Hello, Hello, Hola!

Press Button, Get Bacon

I went camping again this weekend. Also to the Sipsey Wilderness. We started at a different trail head and camped at a different site. I don't know where we were relative to the last trip but I plan to check the map later.

We had a small group this time: myself, Brian B., Chad E., David M., and Billy T.

There were a lot of folks (including two Boy Scout Troops) out camping this week. More than I have seen on any other trip. I am not sure if it was the weather or just a more popular area.

The hike in and out included 15 yards through a cave called fat man's squeeze. The packs had to come off to make it through the cave.

We had a nice flat campsite between two ridges with easy access to water. We setup in the fork where a major and minor creek met. It was fairly obviously from looking at the ground that the area was frequented by wild pigs though we did not see any. We did think we heard one the second night.

The evening meals this trip consisted of Jambalaya the first evening and red beans with rice the second evening. Dish duty was easy with the water access only 50 feet away.

Overall it was a great trip.

I went camping this weekend in the Sipsey wilderness. Our camp site had a 100'+ rock wall one side, and a stream on the other. The scenery was spectacular. Lots of rock formations and flowing water. The temperature was perfect all weekend and we only had a couple of minor rain showers. Everyone managed to stay dry.

I saw one rattlesnake too many. And two ticks.

And tonight I will be very happy to be sleeping in a real bed again.

The End.

Can you believe I didn't think I would be able to write a post about camping this weekend without mentioning how many times our trail guide took us down the wrong path? Even so, it was an excellent trip.

Summary For iMike

I am home again. The camping trip went well though the weather tried not to co-operate.

For Fridays hike it, we had temperatures in the low 60s. Almost perfect. The hike in was uneventful, except for a broken bottle of pepper sauce at the parking lot.

Friday evenings meal was the traditional ribeye. That was 5 pounds we were definitely willing to hike in.

Saturday we had a thunderstorm. At one point I heard a thunder clap that lasted no less than 30 continous seconds.

A couple guys (David and Alan) went for a hike Saturday morning. They were out when the bottom fell out. Even with parkas, they were totally drenched. The rest of us (myself, Billy, and Chad) hung around camp and kept the fire burning. This was a bit of a challenge at times.

Saturday during the rain storm I had a drip in the tent and a small puddle accumlated. This was resolved by simply tensioning up the rain fly. This is a rookie mistake, so I had no excuse. Chad had a drip problem also. His sleeping bag ended up getting wet. I think he came pretty close to burning the tent instead of packing it out.

Sunday mornings was cold. How cold? Don't know. But it warmed up some before the snow started to fall. The snow changed to sleet and then back to a very heavy wet snow. The view over the gorge was pretty awesome with the heavy snow.

Sunday morning we heard a wild Turkey call. Didn't see it though. Actually other than a few ants, we didn't see any creatures.

We saw one other group of campers. They were hiking in Saturday afternoon during the rain. They were headed for one of the other primitive camp sites. Their destination had been undersireable to us. It did not allow campfires. What is camping without a campfire?

The oven got put to good use. We baked bread, muffins, CC cookies, and brownies. Saturday night we had Jambo and red beans and rice.

The cold weather from this morning stuck with me all day. This evening I was still chilled when we went out for dinner, even though it was a warmer 55 degrees outside.

I had a good weekend and I am glad to be home. I enjoyed a warm shower and a nice nap this afternoon. I bet I will sleep good tonight also.

Three Day Weekend

Yesterday went by very fast. I had a full day for sure. I believe I ace'd the final and as far as I can tell, I managed to acquire everything at Wal-Mart that I needed for the camping trip. I also remembered to purchase the mandatory civil war re-enactment supplies.

At this point everything is packed and I am waiting for my ride.

Camp Oven 3.0 is making the trip again. Check it out. I suppose I should post another picture of it packed down. Don't hold your breathe.

That is all.