Painting

Got one cowling painted, played games, hung out with buddy. Travel next week

Just want to sleep

Lazy weekend, looked at the 300, bought Negima!? 2 and Tsuro, hung out with buddy.

Volunteering

Museum scanning, UFC fighting, heavy sleeping, escalator conquering.

Vegas bound

wedding and Catan via skype

Puppy sitting

Rude service, new tires and idler arm, yard work, watched Max, off-roading, lake walking.

Seiryu's FB

If anyone is bored out of their mind and wants to follow along with the rebuild, I'm posting updates on Seiryu's FB account. I think I have it set so where you can simply subscribe as I still have no interest in FB whatsoever and won't be reading it unless I am posting something there.

I'm on Twitter and I like that a LOT better.

Anyway, linky: http://www.facebook.com/seiryu.otobai

Nevada Rock Art

Interview and sanding experiment.

Knew it'd happen eventually

Wrecked

Hike and bike

Sierra hike and bike loop along Tahoe

Utica

Camping, kayaking, off road, and lowside

Animals

New camera and Animal Ark

Hanging with Mom

Annual Yard Party and ride to Walker.

Trackday!

First trackday at Reno Fernley Raceway.

Lumberjack

This weekend had a common theme through it.

Friday got off work and decided to finally take care of the mop that had grown on the top of my head. So got it whacked off in what the stylist calls a "high fade". Basically, number two clippers all the way up to labored my ear line, then a trim on the top. I like the look so far. Headed home and crashed on the couch to watch Sam Neill's Merlin on Netflix. Ended up falling asleep and heading into Carson late. I had intended to have dinner with Dad before meeting up with my buddy. Instead, bought fast food to go, delivered the burger, and crashed into bed exhausted.

Saturday morning woke up and we headed up to every motorcycle shop in Reno looking for a pair of real race boots for me. My motorcycle boots work, but since I am going to be starting to head out to track days, I want real protection for my ankle and shin. While everyone was very happy to order me any pair I wanted, I did not know the size I would wear and so wanted to try them on. Aside from BVH, NO ONE carried boots in stock. BVH had only a size 13 which was way to large for me. Eventually we made it to Sierra BMW who not only carried Sidi boots in stock, but Tom was simply an awesome sales dude and ended up outfitting me with a pair of Sidi Corba Air boots. On order and should arrive on Wednesday. Afterwards, headed back home and again crashed on the couch waiting to go meet up with friends at tonight's UFC bout. Long and slow fight so just hung out and had dinner while yacking, before going over caching plans for Sunday.

However, as exhausted as I was, Saturday night had that weird insomnia of can't/don't want to sleep. So laid awake all night reading Hunger Games, and then Catching Fire, and started Mockingjay. I like the books, though the same issue I had with Peeta in the movie was in the book so I'm just discounting him as a decent character all together.

Once the sun rose, was picked up by Puzzleman to grab coffee and ensure all GPS units were loaded up. Up to Truckee to get him the 20 needed for a milestone then over to Tahoe City to show him the Tahoe Treetop Adventure Park. Finally we went down to Blackwood Canyon for the Powertrail there. Unfortunately, by this time the exhaustion caught up with me and I crashed out in the Jeep. Next thing I know is we're heading down the hill towards Carson. Stopped long enough to upload field notes to the server and grab dinner with my Dad. Then I packed up and took off towards home.

As I watched the moon rise over Lahontan, red through the smoke of the Chip fire, I couldn't help but focus on just how exhausted I was still.

"Watch out for that tree!"

I'll start with the fail of the social-era Olympics in that on Friday, despite a rather lengthy search, I could not find the opening ceremony online (unless I was a cable subscriber, which I'm not). So, ended up watching a few hours of it at my Dad's before going to hang out with a friend and had a good time just talking.

Saturday morning started out way early, but that left me time to head out with Dad to the soft opening of the new I-580 connection between Reno (Mt Rose Highway) and Washoe Valley (at the former Bower's Mansion exit). I took the motorcycle while Dad took the Jeep and we crept our way along the 8.5 miles of new interstate. Very scenic up there and even ran into a few friends while standing at the center of the huge arch bridge. The big concern continues to be the wind, with as bad as it gets on the valley floor, a bridge stretched across a canyon to just channel that intense force seems ... Foolish? We'll see how often it becomes closed due to the wind racing down from the Sierras. Later went over to the bike demo setup for the AMA International Women and Motorcycle Conference. Not sure what was open to just public attendance, so just drifted around looking at the bikes set out. Then went home where the exhaustion finally caught up with me and I crashed hard on the couch. After I finally woke up, did some minor maintenance on the bike (and cleaned it) before heading up to the truck route again to get some pics of me coming around the corner. I'm looking further into the corner so my head's turned right, now to just get my body in line with the bike. Ran to grab dinner then met up again with my friend for dessert (for me anyway, grabbed the last chocolate chip cookie).

Sunday had zero plans and overslept anyway. Dad suggested going up to Tahoe to see what the Tree Top Adventure Park at Granlibakken, just south of Tahoe City, was all about. We got there, managed to get partially lost in looking for the ticket booth, got back on track, and found out the next session started in 45 minutes. I took the adult course (though the kids course looked very fun) and climbed, balanced, zipped, and cycled my way through the pine trees. I had so much fun, and surprisingly was able to do all five courses in the time I was there. It was truly a cool experience and I would definitely go back to play some more. More details can be found here: ziplinetahoe.com. Had a yummy dinner at China Jade Horse before gearing up to head home. Short stop at a coffee shop to ensure I was awake enough to ride and then off I went.

Overall fun weekend, hands and legs are sore, I have mystery bruises that I'm not sure when or what caused them, and got to hang with family and friends. All good!

Climbing high

This weekend was an interesting one in that quite a bit happened, but mostly it was a quiet weekend.

Came in on Friday and enjoyed a dessert with a friend while chatting about what we each were doing this weekend. None of us noted the tragedy of the massacre in Aurora. Nothing here we can speculate about, let the police do their job and the families heal.

Saturday helped Dad with the drip system and weather station. Stupid juniper bush gave me a rash that I dealt with all day. But got the ground cleared around it and water flowing again so it stops turning brown. Weather station wasn't transmitting so had to crawl up to it and give it a good solid whack to get it working (as well as push the reset button). Afterwards, Puzzleman swung by and it was time to go hiking. The plan was to go around the Kingsbury North section of the Tahoe Rim Trail and pick up the numerous caches along there. The first one was about three miles from the trailhead and knowing how freaking slow I walk lately, I suggested driving up then back to hike the closer ones. Well, we ended up driving all over up there and grabbing several outlying caches (with two DNFs) before going to dinner. My buddy has a neat thing he does with the waiters and this time ended up with a gumbo dish that reportedly was good. I'll stick with my steak thank you! We then went back and set up camp to stargaze and just chat about stuff.

Then the coyote hunters rolled in. Yeah, that was interesting to say the least...

Sunday morning we drove back down trail a bit and took a bushwhack short cut down to the TRT. The third cache we went for left a bitter taste in my mouth and almost had me truly quitting right there. It was a small pill bottle tucked up under a rock overhang that created a small shelter. The problem was it was several hundred feet up the mountain side, pushing through thick manzanita, fallen pine trees, dead branches, and slippery rocks. About a hundred feet away I was silently complaining about the placement. I mean really? What's the point!? (mental version had a few more choice words as colorful as the rainbow.) I was happy to get back on trail but afterwards had really low interest in even bothering to look for others. We did stop at the ones along the trail, but I was more focused on keeping my pace steady, my breathing regular, and my knee functioning. I think the best part of the day was when we ran into a family with kids and introduced them to the fun of geocaching. (See, I can promote how fun and exciting this is even if I am personally getting to hate it.) Then it was back down the hill to grab lunch and a drink while talking about the weekend before going to clear a few DNFs that he had. A lightning storm had started a big fire in the Pinenuts so I watched the smoke billow up into the clouds while he looked and signed logs.

Homeward bound through the monsoon was entertaining, but it was good to get home and crash on the couch with the kitty kat. Been watching Eureka and borrowed season 5 since its not on Netflix yet. Sucks knowing this is the last season. Why do the good shows cancelled? Damn! :-/

A whole lot of pavement

Weekend started early as I met up with a friend at Olive Garden for dinner and a wander around Scheel's before heading back home. My eye sight is really starting to concern me as it's becoming difficult to see clearly at night. For those I haven't told, imagine a nice crisp morning where a thin layer of fog has settled and all the lights have a nice circular haze around them. The lights, signs, buildings, cars, whatever are all clear but just surrounded by a halo. Yeah, that's what I see daily (nightly, actually).

But Saturday oh Saturday!! Got up early and headed out with my bike to the Reno Fernley Raceway where I sat and watched some truly fast bikers take off around the track. And when noon rolled around, it was my turn! Though I had to wait while a spill and two bikes were cleaned up from the "Bowl" (I think), an area on the back side of a huge horseshoe turn. Led by Chad and followed by Mary and Jerry, I got to go around the track three times at a nice controlled speed. OMG THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN!! I even dragged my foot peg twice on the same corner! Must find me a leather suit so I can go back out next month and ride for real.

Afterwards, seeing as it was only 1 o'clock, Dad and I grabbed lunch, filled up the Yaris, and headed all the way out to Pony Springs off Hwy 93 to replace a cache of mine. 8 hours later we arrived and got treated to a BEAUTIFUL lightning storm that was having a fit over eastern Nevada. The return trip was uneventful, having grabbed dinner at the Hotel Nevada in Ely. My eyes were bothering me so I had been keeping them closed most of the drive ... Which resulted in my body thinking it was bed time. Ugh, I got so sleepy I wasn't able to help drive and my Dad brought us all the way back to Fallon to stop at my place. 3 am makes for a LONG day!

Sunday, we were both whipped, so headed back into Carson where I met up with Puzzleman to head to Tahoe (quick bite at Wendy's first) and hang out for awhile. Had a blast up there chilling over a couple Starbucks drinks and surfing around on the Internet. Good way to spend the afternoon.

Dad brought me back to Fallon where we went out to a nice dinner for his birthday. Since it fell out a weekday, figured a weekend celebration would be easier. Yummy dinner and another good chance to sit down and talk.

All in all had a wonderful weekend with a LOT Of driving in it. This week will be a short one for me as I am taking Tuesday off. Hoping to take care of a few things that have been bothering me for a long time.

Until next time! (hikes and a possible overnight up on some Tahoe trails.)

Hiking Nine to Five

What happens when you:

1) Don't drink enough water?
2) Don't eat enough beneficial food?
3) Walk too far after not hiking in a LONG time?
4) Carry too much weight for said hike?
5) Sleep poorly afterwards due to hot house?

Answer: feel crappy on Monday morning. Ugh.

Anyway, so Wednesday hung out at a friend's house to have BBQ burgers, sweet potato fries, caesar salad, and my candy sushi. Then got to play Settlers of Catan for the first time (and WON believe it or not! Yay!) before we all went out to watch the fireworks. Fallon seriously needs to boost the oomph on their show as most of the explosions were below tree level for the rest of town. Grrrr

Friday, went into town early and just reviewed maps and hung out. Saturday, dad and I got my truck squared away with an oil change and rebalancing the tires. Had breakfast at the new Zen's Cafe (which shows the UFC fights with no cover!) and managed to get a hold of Greg's copy of Twist of the Wrist. It's a book that spells out the techniques and reasons why doing things on bikes works the way it does. Then we ran up to Reno to drop in at 2 Wheel Custom Performance. They were holding a Bikini Bike Wash so a lot of people were there. I walked in and was asked what they could do for me. So I blurted out I'd been on Precision Trackdays website and was wanting to do that. Oh Boy! Talk about helpful, informative, great folks who just gave me everything I could ask for! The owner is even one of the instructors and he joined the conversation. The next track day is next weekend and there is a free Try the Track thing. Plus I can wear my own gear for it! Yay. Steve offered to find me a race suit if I wanted to borrow one for awhile until I committed to buying my own. That was freaking awesome! I am so going!! We then headed around town and I bought a new helmet that was more aerodynamic than the one I own so I wouldn't have anything whipping my head around at excessive speeds. Next stop Carson, where I met up with Tarry to compare gear for Sunday. We're both carrying 30 pounds and feel ready for the hike! (I'll refer you back to the opening of this post ... I was optimistic).

Saturday was the night of a big fight between Silva and Sonnen. Several of the early fights were over fast! But the main fight was interesting. Usually there is some dancing around and getting the feel for the opponent. Nope, Sonnen dove right in and had Silva on the ground early in the first round and kept him there. Silva defended well enough that Sonnen couldn't do anything, but they stayed down the entire round. The second round again had Sonnen dive straight in but a missed spinning backfist sent Sonnen to the ground where Silva took advantage and sent a knee straight into his chest. The fight was over and Sonnen declared Silva a true champion. Good fight!

Sunday we all met up at Ash Canyon to carpool up the mountain to Hobart Reserviour. The plan was to hike down to that lake, then out a bit farther to Marlette Lake Rd before turning south onto the Tahoe Rim Trail and continuing out to Spooner Summit where I had left my truck overnight. 12 miles total. We were getting along great (me, naturally, dragging up the rear) and seemed to be going at a fairly decent clip of between 1.5 to 2 MPH (that's good for this asthmatic gimpy turtle). That was until the initial climb to the rim and then the climb up towards Snow Valley Peak decided to remind me I am seriously out of shape to be doing this. The asthma was causing my throat to tighten despite me trying to reserve oxygen and keep my pace steady and my body wasn't cooling off effectively (spiking at one point into a flash rage that I feel terrible about ... Good thing I can bite my tongue and not say evil shit when no one around warrants or deserves it). Tried continuing on, but my body was beginning to hurt and my throat was closing painfully. Yeah, asthma attacks for me aren't sucking air through a straw, it's a pain radiating from my throat to my chest leaving me a sobbing weeping mess of a person. GAH, I must be so lovely! :-)

We stopped just shy of the Snow Valley mountain saddle to have lunch and it was decided that my idea sucked (go back to the Scout alone) and the group would split with me hiking back under the watchful eye of Greg. Probably a good idea as Tarry was already chewing my ass for even suggesting going alone, once he saw how bad my knee was I would probably never hear the end of it (yes, I know you read this). Everyone headed up to the peak after lunch and I was eyeing the ONE SINGLE benchmark that is up here.

Topic break, long ago I had noticed that all along this section of the Sierras, there was only one benchmark indicated on the map. It's called Overlook, http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=KR1674, and was originally set in 1897 as a drill hole. Along in 1951 the next crew set a disk into the original hole and also placed two reference marks and an azimuth nearby. Just a half mile away from Snow Valley Peak, it has always been a curiosity to me. Why there, why no other marks, why?? So, back to the story...

While everyone else was bagging the summit, I was looking out and debating contouring over to go recover the survey mark. But, when I dropped by pack at the junction and pulled it up on the GPS I was a mile away. Figuring the side to be bare (we were above tree line) I pointed my hiking poles in the direction I went and set off. Rounded the one grove of trees blocking my direct view and saw that the tree line was higher here and I couldn't see the peak I was aiming for. I'm not stupid enough to go wandering off trail in a vague direction when the rest of my friends don't know exactly where I am headed and how to find me again, and I can't see my destination nor around me enough to spot them. So I went back to the junction and waited.

Turned out to be the best move. Once I was rejoined by Greg, we headed down Snow Valley Road back to the Hobart parking area. 4 miles and two hours later, we made it back at the Scout and began heading down Ash Canyon. Tarry had picked up my truck at Spooner and we all met up within minutes of each other. Started hiking at 9:23am and finished at 5:10pm 9+ miles for Greg and I. Not bad!!! Then it was off to dinner were I got a nice waitress to just serve me two chicken breast patties (need protein!!!) and headed home. I was really running on empty so caught a quick nap at Dad's before making the long drive back and literally falling into bed once I walked into the house. Left the swamp cooler on because man it was hot! My poor kitty was stretched out on the floor meowing at me how miserable she was. Glad she's a short hair!

And now today I am feeling all gittery and sickly. Think I am going to go fall into bed. :-(

Canyon adventures

So, Saturday I had made arrangements to hang out with Ana all day since I hadn't had a chance to in forever! But first it was a stop at Verizon to deal with my battery. Blasted thing kept dying way to quick and refused to charge half the time. Unfortunately, it wasn't in stock and they needed to order one.

Now the only other complaint I have is while yes, I do know about pushing other products or services to "help" the customer... GOOD GOD VERIZON! No, you do not need to look up my account activity to see if I qualify for your new Shared Plan. That thing is FAR more expensive than what I pay right now. No, you do not need to suggest I add a line in case my main phone dies and I need a backup. No, you don't need to follow that up with a suggestion for your home telephone service. No, I don't need to consolidate my phone and Internet bills. No, I don't want your any of your home services at all. GVIE ME THE DAMN BATTERY! I even told the guy that after the third "No, thank you." I was like, "Look, all I want is a battery. I am happy with my plan, I am happy with my service, I am happy using Charter for my Internet. Stop now because all you will hear is a No."

After that, we popped down to Michael's to check out their customer appreciation sale. Wandered through the bikes and gear and looked at all the shiney. I picked up some gauntlet gloves and asked one of the sales guys about Bluetooth helmets (he recommended just getting the Sena headset) and also about heading out to Reno Fernley Raceway for track days (he recommended talking to Steve at 2 Wheel Custom Performance).

Have I mentioned that here? I WANT TO DO THIS: http://www.precisiontrackdays.com/

By that time it was time to head to Reno. I met Ana outside the college where she was taking a nursing test. We then swung out to REI to shop and pick up my new zero degree down bag that was on sale. Ohhhh toasty warm! Next stop was Cabela's for some more price comparisons and drooling over hiking stuff. It's summer and I want to go backpacking! For real, not just car camping while living out of the backpack. Got most of my gear already, though my full pack still weighs 30 pounds (and that's withOUT the tent, sleeping pad, or Jetboil!). Must bring that weight down some.

We picked up a few caches along the way and then it was time to head back into Carson.


Sunday, dad and I went to breakfast at the Red Hut before heading up the hill to go replace my King's Canyon Adventure cache. Road was great until just east of the cache site. A land slide had dropped some large granite boulders all over the road. I was navigable but without a second rig there as support and backup, we just didn't feel comfortable trying it. After that, we headed down the mountain then back up Ash Canyon to go for Puzzleman's new cache, A Bolder View. It's way at the top with a great overlook of the valley below. Took my Dad awhile looking around at everything before he asked for a hint. He was pleasantly surprised with the camo job. It really does just sit right out there in front of you and you don't see it. Then back down the mountain and we met up with Tarry to go over how to do a route in DeLorme's Topo program.

I like the GPS, I love the integration with SPOT, but you know ... I really really dislike their mapping software. To the point I don't even bother with it anymore. I just load the GPX file straight onto the GPS and go, using the phone to log caches. If I do want the tracks, I download the file and load it into Garmin's MapSource. But, my Dad seems to have some success so the guys went over a few things.

Final results: Tarry's GPS will load caches into any other Topo except his own. His Topo will load caches from any GPS except his own. Routes are doable as long as you live with the fact that it cannot combine "Roads" and "Trails" into the same route. Though it is possible to convert one to the other, but you have to select every single little segment of the path you want and there are MANY of them.

All in all, I like the Topo less and Tarry is more convinced than ever to go back to Garmin only.

Next weekend we're planning on a hike into the Sierras (hence all the shopping) and there's a major UFC fight on Saturday that we'll be watching. Looking forward to the short week (got invited to a BBQ on Wednesday and I am taking candy sushi!!) and then next weekend should be awesome!

Stay tuned!!

Cuddle buddy!

Technically, the weekend started early for me. Had intended to spend Friday hanging out and getting a few errands done. However, shortly into the day I was feeling like crap and really wanting to do something I would probably regret. So mentally, I'm blocking out everything up until 5.

A good friend of mine, Shawn, is visiting his mom this week. I originally met him way back in the days of playing Vampire; The Masquerade. But, like most of the great people I know, I can't quite pinpoint exactly when I met him as it blends and feels like I've known him forever. (Tarry is kinda the exception, as I met him at an event that I can identify, but ask me when we started emailing... Errrr, I draw a blank). Anyway, so I went out to his Mom's place and we packed up to head out for a camping trip. First stop my house to pack the gear, then we grabbed gas and munchies before heading over to his Dad's for some socializing. I figured we'd camp in Dixie Valley to take advantage of the darkness and remoteness for some epic stargazing!

Those who don't really know me might think of me as remote, indifferent, withdrawn, whatever. But for some very few animal-type folks, I am one huge cuddle bear! And Shawn is certainly a fantastic pillow. Yay, I got to cuddle!! First time in a very long time, me was a happy wolf!

That night was chilly but my sleeping bag kept me warm and the dawn woke me up. We hung out at camp for a few hours just chilling before heading out to go visit the Den's waterfall, the earthquake faults along Fairview, the old settlement in Dixie Valley (including two of the tanks along the Tank Trail), the down to Grime's Point for a walk through of the petroglyphs. Home to get cleaned up to go hang out with friends at Bully's for the UFC fight. For some reason the fights were boring me and I found myself watching the baseball game on the next screen. Afterwards we went to CommRow where Shawn turned into a spider and crawled up the outside wall before we played around on the boulders. Made for a very long day when I finally got home around 1 or 2 ish.

Sunday I hung out with Puzzleman for a caching trip to Fernley but we got distracted and headed to Reno to go shopping at Scheels and REI. He got cocoon sunglasses and I seriously scored on a pair of Keen boots. Back home, few more caches, and then I just crashed. Tried loading some heavy music into the Zune to attempt to get tunes on my bike. I think I may give up on the Bluetooth idea and just either hooked up my phone to hear the various audio coming out of it (love the DriveSafe.ly app!) or just listen to the MP3 player I have.

Gots to save money!!

Long distance sighting

So, once again it's Father's Day weekend and my Dad and I are looking for somewhere to go play. Do we go to Lamoille Canyon and play in there, or to Fort Bidwell to see places we both grew up around (him for his childhood, me for my summers with the grandparents), or what? I also have this request from my friend up in Canada about their game that I have previously helped with.

Well, we decide on heading out to Ely to see if we can help him out again. Turns out the position was for a sighting spot to locate another object in the far distance and calculate how far point A to B was. We get there and there is one obvious object that it has to be. So we snap a lot of pictures and then drive closer along a segment of road labeled by Google to be the old Lincoln Highway. And what do you know there are signs along the road indicating just that! So we bop around out there and as we round a corner there appears a herd of ELK right up the hill. Oh WHY did I just turn my camera off!! First time we've seen elk in the wild.

After that we went over into Ely to check in and grab dinner before heading to Great Basin National Park. I needed my park passport stamped and they were having their annual Astronomy Festival that weekend. So we watched a movie on the loss of the night in urban areas before I wandered down to the telescopes. They had set them so far away from the parking lot and it was on a sloped road that Dad wasn't able to make the walk. DAMN! I looked at a few binary stars and clusters and Saturn before I started feeling weird from a numb hand. Back to the Jeep and on the road to Ely.

Something funny (in hindsight) happened too. I had texted my best friend my plans for the night and used the poor phrasing of "Hotel, dinner, then park" to explain. He understood it to be we'd park for the night, not going to the National Park (my bad). So when he texted later and got no response (ZERO signal out there) I ended up with a flood of messages once I got near Ely again. First a text or two, then an email, then a voicemail, then a threat of Pony Express, and failing all that smoke signals. Guess I will choose my wording better next time to not worry folks checking in on me.

Sunday we dropped a bug off at the TB hotel near the high school and grabbed breakfast at the Hotel Nevada. Then off towards home, with a short detour of trying to see the Dry Creek Pony Express Station (private property). Once home, I got the bike out and rode into Carson to treat my Dad to a nice Father's Day dinner at the Olive Garden. Afterwards met up with my friend to chat for a bit before heading home again.

Got an email that we had correctly identified the object and now the team we are assisting is just bouncing up and down with excitement. I hope they win their contest, it'd be a neat ending to that story.

The big blue privacy invader

My stepdad has an account for their Harley, Sydney, used to post pics and trips.

Wow, I think after all this time I might agree that's a good use for Facebook. I mean, really, I had an account and hated it. All it was duplicates of Twitter and twitter can do the same thing I need it to without all the grilling as to who I am or what I do, etc.

But, to use it as a history and journal for my motorcycle adventures and changes? Now that would be a cool idea! Especially if I can get it looking like a travelogue (maps, pics, impressions, etc). So, yeah, I'll do that. Though since the account is new, I can't get the Timeline option for another month to fill in the older stuff. Hence, this entry to keep track of what I do until that feature becomes available.

(why am I agreeing to this FB account vs my own? I can make up BS about the bike and they'll have ZERO information on me. HA!)

May 12: Kurt loaned me his white Honda Ascot 500 (1980's bike) and Jim and Mom, Kurt, and I rode up Monitor Pass and back before having dinner in Markleeville just to get me back into the riding habit.

May 13: joined the Tahoe Blue Riders to cruise out to Quincy for lunch.

May 18: the itch got to bad, BOUGHT SEIRYU!! 1857 miles on her already, and one drop resulting in cracked and holey left fairing.

May 22: removed the MPG Growler exhaust and replaced the stock one. (Willing to sell the Growler!)

May 23: look! Got both the truck and bike into the garage!!

May 27: joined the Tahoe Blue Riders for a lunch trip to Downeyville.

May 31: got the title! Also cruised up 722 for some curves and an attempt at filming the ride.

June 1: ahh, baby got her first bath!

June 2: installed the frame sliders received during purchase. Almost look like highway pegs, but way to high and tiny.

June 4: installed a 12 volt plug under the passenger seat to power my phone and iPad.

June 8: rode into Carson and got pics of me and the bike for ninjette.org

June 9: joined Jim and Mom for a ride around the Lake to Tahoe City and then down into Washoe to visit a friend of theirs.

June 10: Dad agreed to stand on the side of the road and take pics of me cutting through the tight corner so I would have some great action shots!

A Lake Tahoe adventure

I love wind, really I do. It just never seems to stop and keeps letting you know that it is going to be here forever! :head desk: and take out the power just as I am working on a project! So, went home, headed to Radio Shack to grab some parts, and Dad and I installed a 12 volt plug onto the bike. I can plug my phone and iPad in now! Yippee!!

Tuesday I did get to see the transit of Venus. Both through Slooh.com and also through the solar shields we had bought for the eclipse earlier. Thursday was the Annual Meeting and Ice Cream Social at the Churchill County Museum, so I swung by there and listened to all the announcements and wandered through the aisles of artifacts. My kind of hang out.

Before I installed the plug, I wandered the internet looking to see what I needed to do. During the course of that, I signed up for ninjette.org, a forum for 250 owners. So now I am stumbling through there reading the different threads and seeing what's going on with other owners. One thread asked for the women riders to post their pics so I got a few taken of me and uploaded them. All the while playing Minecraft on my iPad. I know the blocks are limited on the pocket version, but while digging down for stone and looking for coal, I came upon Redstone, Gold, Diamond, and Iron Ore!! So Dad came up with the great idea of mining the hell out of the area and saving the game in hopes a future update will allow use of those blocks. Cool!!

Saturday I had planned on trying to go to Valhalla, the Renaissance Faire held annually at Camp Richardson. But when I texted Mom to see if she wanted to join me, I was asked instead if I wanted to join them riding around the lake to go see a friend of theirs. Sure, I'll go! We cruised along the west side of the lake, around Emerald Bay, over to Tahoe City, then on around towards Mount Rose where we stopped and had lunch. Then down into Washoe to visit their friend who is moving to Texas (and is also a new Cacher!). We chatted before continuing down into Carson to grab dinner. Later I hung out with Tarry for a bit just to chat and catch up.

Sunday, neither of us really had any plans so, after I got the swamp cooler reconnected for Dad, Puzzleman and I headed up to Tahoe to grab some caches along Highway 50, then a few in South Shore, before heading to a new park I heard about along the state line. Beautiful place with a great trail going from behind the casinos up to the Tahoe Rim Trail. The TRT has realigned the whole area around Kingsbury Ridge to get the hiking trail out of the neighborhoods. And so there is a mess of new trails all along Daggett Summit and the link through the Van Sickle Bi-State Park connects it to the basin. Overall great hike though a) I need to be able to breathe better and b) I really need to learn to drink water! Once we got back down to the valley I had enough time to ask Dad to go take pictur of me while I cut around one of the tight corners of the truck route to Virginia City. THAT WAS FUN!!

Home then to watch Thor, argue with my wifi, and crash hard after a long weekend. Love it!

Two and Four wheel fun

Beginning to wonder if I should break this into two separate blogs? One for my adventures on the bike and another for general? I dunno, but we'll see how things progress in the coming months.

So Thursday I finally got the title to the Ninja. Yippee!! She's all mine! To celebrate, I rode straight out to highway 722 to play on the short segment of twisties and the oh so nice s-turn. Even managed to wedge my cell phone into the vest pocket and film a portion of the ride. Course, the long flat ride back to Fallon was bleh.

Friday after work I took the bike to get it washed from all the bugs and road grime that had built up on the plastic. Wanted her to look all shiney for her new installation. The prior owner had bought frame sliders and never got them installed. That was the Saturday project. Stripped off the front plastic body panels and carefully installed the tough bolts designed to support the bike in the event of a crash. The key bolt was actually a reinforced replacement of the one that held the engine in place. That was tricky. Later we went to go see Men in Black 3 (good movie and it's been HOW LONG since the first??). Later, I got a call from Puzzleman about some FTF chances up the hill. We raced up to see two rigs already at the site. Bern and Castledwellers were chatting, which is odd as they usually leave after finding it. So why we're we all reliving the grand FTF parties of years ago?

Bern had driven his front tire off the road and his truck was sitting on the front bumper. Oops. Good thing he knows someone with a tow truck! (his own, for those who don't know.)

Sunday, Puzzleman and I again met up but this time it was got go explore options for his new hide. We headed up Ash Canyon, looking at a few good possibilities. But when we reached the top, it was explore time as he'd never been up there and there was a new road leading to an overlook. We found the cache site and it had one hell of a view down into the canyon and valley below! Placed the cache and headed down again to grab lunch and maybe meet up with Dr. Boom. But timing didn't work out so instead we found a new area to play in where Puzzleman came up with an absolutely wicked evil idea for each stage of a devilish Multi. I love it and can't wait to see it come together.

Uneventful ride home after that. Highway 50 really needs some character other than being simply flat and straight, up down flat, up down flat. Snore!!

Memorial Day

Having worked so long at the casino, I still cannot get used to or predict when I get days off due to a holiday. So, this weekend was no exception. Unless I specifically plan of the three days off, I tend to forget and well, Tuesday rolls around with no idea of what to do.

Friday, was given the ok for an early out but the weather was cold and crappy so opted to just stay home and continue watching How I Met Your Mother. Odd watching a show that I feel zero connection with, though I do like Robin's independance and Barney's death grip on single hood. But seriously, I find myself thinking many times "This is what's WRONG! Can't people see it??" Anyway...

Saturday again was cold and I was starting to want warmer gear so I could ride even if it was frigid. Drove to Reno and started working my way through the various motorcycle shops I knew about. Eventually ended up at Michael's where, as I was thumbing through riding pants, another customer came up and politely yet awesomely, pitched and sold one line from Tourmaster. Not only are there two inner liners (one heavy, on thinner) but the outer covering removes to expose the inner mesh layer. I was sold, so we continued the conversation to his various tours and treks across this country and abroad. I loved that chance meeting.

With still no plan, I text around and find out my Mom is riding with her group on Sunday and Puzzleman has a plan for off road caching. I head home, grab the bike, ride back to Carson, and in transit am nearly blown off the road by wind, drenched in Silver Springs, hailed on in Dayton, and soaked again by Carson. I hook up with Tarry and Jeff at Bully's to see the UFC fight before gearing up and heading to Tahoe. BRRRR that was a wickedly cold ride! But I had my gear on so was comfortable enough to not be shivering to death.

Sunday we headed out for the preride breakfast where everyone commented on my bright green Ninja. All smiles and laughs and I really had fun. Doyle, the leader and huge guy (compared to my tiny frame...) asked to sit on it when we got to Donner State Park. He looked cute sitting on my little bike. LOL Our route took us from South Shore to Trucke, along Hwy 40 to Downeyville (got on 42 somewhere in there) and then back to Truckee through Sierraville, and then home. Great fun twisty curvy ride and I was able to keep up with the group with no problems. Hung out at Mom's for dinner before cruisen back down the mountain to hang out at Dad's.

Monday, Puzzleman and I went out along Leviathon Mine Rd to gather up the series of caches along there. 38 of those plus two others was the score for the day. That was is a great one and wound its way back into the mountains and up and over the range until we got to Monitor Pass. I loved that route, the views were phenomenal and the day was beautiful. Cme back down Monitor to 395 along Topaz where NDOT (CDOT?) was completely removing the highway to repair it. Ugh, that was slow. This was also shortly after the Topaz Fire and we were thinking of going to check on a cache we hid with a friend. But our stomachs were demanding attention so back to Minden and lunch. Afterwards we headed home and I was able to catch up with my Dad to go see Avengers (again, love Tony Stark) before gearing up and heading home.

Relaxed and quiet weekend. Not too many pictures, though I will load them soon. Need to figure out a system to get pics while on the bike. I'm loving the GoPro videos on YouTube from bikes so that might be my next purchase. We'll see.

Graduation

I love long weekends, especially when so much happens during them. And last weekend was no exception!

Friday afternoon I take off early to get everything ready for the trip. But I did also happen to see something spiffy on Craigslist. Spiffy and green and affordable! Here's a vid taken by the original owner when he first got it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOLXdcX3jsk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

But now it's mine! Squeeeee! My own video and pics coming later, but I do know it'll end up with a travel bug sticker soon seeing as its yet another incarnation of the Wolf Mobile, though not a dirt road one. I may try taking her out on dirt roads, but I seriously need to improve my skills before even attempting such a thing again.

Saturday, Dad and I headed out early for the straight drive through towards Utah. My cousin is graduating and we are all invited. GAH, I remember when she was born! Now dare she be a high school graduate already? Brother! Anyway, the trip across Nevada was eh mostly because we hit I-80 for the quickest way. Did stop by the Bonneville Salt Flats on the way out of Wendover and took the Yaris out. World's Fastest Yaris! LOL It was my first time out on a real salt flat and that ground is certainly trippy. I expected it to be just like the usual alkali beds that around all over the place out here, but nope. Honest to goodness salt! It was definitely surreal. We continued across Utah where I learned my mistake in thinking that the area outside of Wendover was the Great Salt Lake and it was a dry lake. Um, er, WRONG! Wow, that's a lot of water. Got into town and checked into our hotel (not a recommended place) before heading over to my aunt's for socializing and food. It was a mini reunion for my family.

The next day we grabbed breakfast at Warren's, a place that reminded me of a mix between an A&W Drive In and Keva Juice. Odd, but very tasty! Then we spent time driving around all over looking to see if any motorcycle shops were open so I could get a pair of gloves that actually fit. Um, Sunday ... In Utah. #fail So, back over to my aunt's were we had cake and other yummies before heading over to the nearby Junior High to watch the annular eclipse!! Had Slooh.com running also as their cameras were in the sweet spot to see the full ring. Where we were, only 80% was covered, but still, seeing a crescent sun was awesome!! Got a lot of pictures, some good some not so, and enjoyed being able to see this event. Hopefully next time I'll be able to see the full ring! Back to my aunt's before taking off for the night. During the day, dad had seen a canyon up in the mountain and he wanted to go see if we could drive up there. Turned out to be Ogden Canyon and yes there was a paved road up it. But as it was dark, we didn't see much, however, what we did see inspired us to come back the next day!

Which we would have, had I not seen that Promontory Summit was only about 40 miles away. Er, Historic Site here we come! And blast it! I left my National Parks passport at home. Dang! Grabbed breakfast as Beez Cafe and drove north. First stop was at the ATK facility were a huge display of rockets sits out front. Everything that they make is out there life size, including the Solid Rocket Booster formerly used on the Space Shuttles. Really gives you an idea of how massive these things can be. Then it was off across the street to follow along a section of rail bed that the two companies paralleled each other one before Cngress set the meeting point. Luckily, we got there in time to see the two locomotives roll out and get into position, so many pictures were taken as well as a few videos. I loved it and both the Jupiter and No 119 are beautiful replicas of a bygone era. But, we couldn't spend too much time there as the graduation was soon, so back into town we go!

The graduation was held at the Dee Event Center, a massive place similar to Lawlor Events Center. Lots of people filled that stadium and the graduates all filed in below us. Touching ceremony and some huge accomplishments for those students. Got lots of pictures and I think I got some fairly clear ones as well. I liked my panoramics.back to my aunt's afterwards where dinner was left overs from the party last night and we all sat around and watched Rango. I still think Rattlesnake Jake is BY FAR one of the most awesome villains created. Anyway, spent time there cuddling with Roxie the adorable puppy before it was time to head out.

Tuesday morning found us at the Ogden Convention and Visitor's Bureau before we got back on the road to head home. A long drive straight into the wind slowed us down that we got back later than we planned. But we did see a funky blimp on the way in and enjoyed lunch in Winnemucca. I did drive while Dad looked up information on the Topaz Range fire. The wind was not helping anybody today! Swapped all my gear out of the Yaris and into the 4Runner and I bid farewell to Carson again. Got home, did all my little chores, and worked on swapping the custom exhaust off the bike back for the stock exhaust. I like quiet bikes and find loud ones to be irritating to my ears. So, now mine is quiet again and it was time for bed.

My kitty kat was SOOO happy to see me again, she meowed for a good hour after I walked into the house. Poor kitty!

Utah Vacation

On the road again!

I'll finish this later, but just wanted to put this link somewhere where I wouldn't lose it: http://www.dogwork.com/owfo8/

So this weekend was AWESOME, started out on Friday after work when I decided I just wanted to go driving. Headed out with the oh so vague destination of "left". My brain is weird. Anyway, got out and happened to look at geocaching.com with the intent of seeing if the Hughes Canyon cache was still there... And why is there another green dot in Dixie Valley?!? Turns out a newer cachers (and one of the instructors at my dojo) placed one up Coyote Canyon. Well, I can't pass up a new cache in a new location (and it was left of Highway 50 so...)! Off I go, bouncing up the roadway to find the easy cache. There was also a cute little overnight cabin there that reportedly is stocked with the bare basics. I didn't check because I figured I could get back into town and talk with the owner. Which I did and we did and had a good ok conversation.

But during that I had missed a text from my mom asking if I wanted to join them on Sunday (Mother's Day). She called as I normally don't miss texts and certainly always respond to them. Turns out her neighbor (a wickedly great guy named Kurt) had a spare motorcycle he was willing to loan me. OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! So after sleeping in on Saturday, going to hang out a bit with Dad, I headed up to have time for a reminder ride before the big group ride. It's been almost ten years since I had my bike (I think, I didn't have it in '03 when I got the truck but I did get my second one after starting at the Nugget in '00). We did a quick run down to Markleeview and up to Monitor Pass. It took a few minutes out of the driveway for the muscle memory to come back but I was able to keep the bike upright and moving forward at a decent clip. That was totally fun!!

Then Sunday rolls around and we meet the rest of the group at Lakeside (oh, BTW, we were starting out up at Tahoe. NOTHING beats seeing Tahoe than by bike!) and soon headed north towards Sierraview. I love that little town, quaint little gas stop that is the only place where I have found Slush Puppies! #nomnomnom Afterwards, continued north to grab lunch in Quincy before turning around and heading home via some route that I have no clue where we were. I had my GPS on as the Honda's speedometer was a wild guess at best. But we cruised along the western edge of Tahoe after we got back there and made it home with plenty of time for me to return to Carson. Had dinner with Dad, hung out with Tarry, then off towards home. Got home VERY late so bah, chores can wait for tomorrow.

Course, I told Kurt and Mom that because of this weekend, I WANT MY BIKE BACK!! But this time I want a dual sports as taking a rice rocket onto washboard was an unique experience. My problem is my legs are short! But here are what I am looking at right now:
Suzuki DR200SE
Yamaha XT250
Honda CRF230L
BMW pre-2008 F650

The ONLY reason for the Beemer, the tank is massive and the seat is insanely low! But of the others, I'm leaning between the Yamaha and the Suzuki. The Suzuki has the largest tank of the small ones, but I like the little extra oomph in the Yamaha. We'll see. Price wise they are about the same and already got an insurance quote which is INSANELY better than what Allstate dropped on me just before I got rid of my Ninja.

So the's what's up this week. Next weekend is my cousin's graduation so Dad and I will be taking a road trip to go see her and my aunt. (and the Beemer I'm looking at is just south of them, which is what got me looking at it in the first place.... Must pay bills off first!)

Puppy love!

I am curious what that title brought to your mind, especially if you know me. Hehehe

So this weekend was the so called "Supermoon" and I decided to test a statement I had heard a few years back. Supposedly, the petroglyphs at Grime's Point 'glowed' under the light of the full moon. For some glyphs I have seen I could easily imagine that the pale interior of the rock contrasted nicely with the patinated exterior. However, Grimem's is so old, that many of the glyphs are a dark milk chocolate brown and the rock itself a rich deep dark chocolate (hummmm hungry now). I doubted this theory, but tonight had the opportunity.

I've also taken to watching a few online geek-themed shows, such as The Guild (http://theguild.geekandsundry.com/) and TableTop (http://tabletop.geekandsundry.com/). Yesterday's episode of TableTop featured a quick game called Zombie Dice that looked like I could play solo. Not as fun, mind you, but possible. (ohh looky, they have an iPad app as well!) I ran to Reno right after work to grab that game, came home (ordering Domino's as I stopped in Fernley for a drink), and goofed around until it got dark enough to do wander in the desert.

Well, while strolling across the sandy path under the light of the lovely Moon, unfortunately the glyphs are just too dark to see. I did see one beautiful zig zag and spiral and my camera almost got it. Kinda sorta not really. Oh well.

Saturday morning was Bark in the Park and I took a wander over there to enjoy some happy furry friends who were out playing in the sunshine and the grass! It was a great morning and lots of fun petting on anyone who would pull their humans over to me. They also had ferret races which was giggle worthy and the little ferrets just wanted to play and couldn't figure out why their humans were running back and forth.

A few weeks back, on the return trip from Washington, I met a gal named Margy who volunteered for the Dayton Historical Society. she later contacted me and told me about their Silver Anniversary coming up and asked if I would come by. So I did. I knew where the museum was from helping place a cache there, but did not expect the massive parking problem that little schoolhouse would have! Lots of people showed! Watched a speech given to explain the Society, their history, present, and future. Then a fashion show highlighting various periods of Dayton's history. Finally, wandered through the building being introduced to *everybody* as "The one who saved me!" by Margy. I held her hand while the plane went through some turbulence just after take off, that's what got me talking about anything else to get her mind off the plane shaking. All in all a great few hours and met a lot of really awesome history buffs!

Onward into Carson where I spent a little bit of time hanging out with my buddy. Just had coffee (tea actually I think this time) and babbled about our days and what's going on in both our lives. Weekends are turning into catch up days... :-/ Headed on over to my Dad's where we went out and got dinner - though I had a Filipino dish at the park eariler and was still stuffed! Then, then, (ready for it) we went to see Avengers!! OMG! Really enjoyed the film and had a lot of fun laughing at the comedic scenes. While I am not a diehard Marvel fan, I know enough to know who most of these folks are (except Hawkeye, he threw me but that's what Wikipedia is for). But I agree with a few tweets I saw befo and afterward, the show really belonged to Hulk. Smash!!

Sunday was a run up to Reno to wander around bike shops (would like a dual-sport), REI (still have a dividend to spend), and attempts at a game shop (closed and/or moved). Gave up on that, hung out with Tarry again, and headed home for the weekend. Gotta love chores!

A few other habits I have recently picked up:

Rally loving the band Oomph. I have for awhile, but i still find myself searching through YouTube for their videos and concerts. I was introduced to them by an Ace in Portland and there is just something about their sound that I enjoy. Augen Auf (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcN-QoReNv8&feature=youtube_gdata_player) is my favorite song right now, with Labrynth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzkJYoyHqdI&feature=youtube_gdata_player) coming in second. They are a German band but do have an English album out as well. Oh, the first video I saw of theirs was Brennende Liebe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfxiuoZYdqY&feature=youtube_gdata_player).

Minecraft. Had been watching a few Minecraft videos and thinking how fun! Then found they released a Pocket Edition, so downloaded the demo version. After a few days of getting sucked into that, bought the full mobile version. Been a few more days and now am thinking about buying the PC version to really build! Screen shots will be in today's pictures.

Think that covers it for this weekend. Next is Mother's Day so going to see what my mommy wants to do. Until then, Toodles!!

Doggies and Dresses

Some Rocks and some Art

This weekend was a chance to get out and do something I haven't done in awhile and genuinely miss whenever I cannot be involved, as least as much as I would like. I assisted the Nevada Rock Art Foundation with the field recording of a site near Fallon.

It was a site that I had helped with last year locating the glyphs scattered along the old shoreline. Some beautiful anthropomorphs and zoomorphs that are so heavily repatinated that it was near impossible to see them. One boulder was assumed to be free of any design, until the photography crew was nearby. Looking through the camera with the polarized filter, our photographer clearly saw a glyph!

We spent two days out there drawing, GPS waypointing, photographing, and filling out the IMACS form. Had several new folks who were out there training and a handful of us veterans. I got to spend a half day assisting with the GPS work, and then the rest of the time drawing. I love doing this type of work and if I could find someone needing a grunt to do the dirty work, whether in field or in the office, I'd be one insanely happy wolf.

Beyond that, I popped into Carson on Saturday night to stargaze with my buddy. Saw the rings of Saturn even! Sunday was a quick run to Reno to see if I could find a board game. Unfortunately, almost all the games are 2+ players and cost over $50 (the big role playing games I was looking at, like Settlers of Catan or Dungeons and Dragons). So, just wandered around Barnes & Nobel before heading home again.

Desert weekend

Oi, wee bit behind

Whoops, so I haven't posted anything lately! And now it's almost two months later!!

Okay, let's see if I can remember what's what...

February 29: So Puzzleman has this great idea, get 29 caches on the 29th! We, along with his daughter, head down and grab the Campbell Soup stakes to log enough caches for the day and topped the night off by having Chinese.

March 3-4: nope, don't recall..

March 8-12: my grandma's birthday was this weekend, so my mom, Jim, and I surprised her by heading up to Washington. Typical cloudy weather but it wasn't raining much so we went out and cruised along the highways, checking out islands, wildlife, and lots of greenery. Had a good time and loved seeing my family again.

March 17-18: I think I got cabin fever again so went driving. Headed north through Dixie Valley to go get Mississippi Falls cache (and FTF) then went over the lowest pass I could find due to the snow storm the night before. Got into the other side of the mountains and tried for two others but got bogged down in mud. Headed south again, grabbing a night cache in broad daylight (the sun is the ultimate flashlight) and dropped down along the Stillwaters, admiring a herd of horses as I made my way home.

March 23-25: had a three day weekend thanks to being considered "Not mission critical" so since dad got a new car, we took a road trip to find out if the cattle guard outside of Fallon was truly the only cattle guard along Highway 50. We got to 10 miles away from Utah before we found the second one, and two miles away before we hit the third. Damn! But oh well, had a nice adventure. My camera ended up breaking on Thursday and thankfully my dad loaned me his for the work-cation next week.

March 28: finally acted on the idea I had to help SAR find my sorry butt should I ever need to call them. The box on the top of my truck is now BRIGHT orange. Very very bright! :blink:

March 31-April 8: back down to Florida for the conference. Decided to make a mini vacation out of it, so went down to Fort Lauderdale to meet up with another outdoorsy Ace who took me cycling in the Everglades. And then pointed out a few state parks near Destin. So made it not only to Louisiana, but also Ponce de Leon, Falling Waters, and Florida Caverns. An AWESOME week down there. (and not snowing, unlike Tahoe and Carson, HAHAHAHA)

Florida and Everglades

April 8: hey, look, I have a new addiction - Big Bang Theory!! (Caught a few eps in the hotel, LOVED IT)

April 11: I am now alone in my office. :-(

April 14-15: really down so did nothing (cept watch all five seasons of the Guild) but then got a severe case of cabin fever. Drove out and around Bravo 17, then turned south to follow State Route 839 to Hawthorne and back up the east side of Walker Lake. Yay, Dirt cures all! Did come into Carson to get a new phone. Finally had enough of it locking up. Now I am sporting a 4G Samsung Stratosphere, with a front facing camera. Hello Skype!

April 21-22: spent Saturday night at Bully's watching the UFC fight and Sunday, (the morning when a minivan sized meteor punched through the atmosphere, causing a sonic boom heard for hundreds of miles!!) after helping my Dad install new mudflaps onto his car, went up with Puzzleman to Tahoe to find some caches. Had lunch at the Sno-Flake drive in, whe there was a sign "All my best friends are flakes." We both agreed on that one.

Okay, that should get me caught up. I haven't been uploading many pictures because I haven't really been taking any (beyond the Florida trip).

Um, let's see, yesterday deleted my Facebook account. Why, you may ask? (and I've been asked.) Here's the short answer: I don't like how they have made it so where the posts on my profile are separate from the posts made to other people's comments. Meaning, if I respond to someone, I have a copy of my response on my activity log, and there is a copy on their comment. Deleting one does not delete the other, but because the one in my activity log is deleted, I cannot find their comment to remove my post from their side also. It's a convoluted way of saying I don't like their service making it so hard to remove data. So, ditch the account. Truly delete it, not just deactivate it. Buh bye, adios, see ya! And since Moose Mob is back in the States, the whole purpose of having it is null and void anyway. Text, email, Twitter, blog, Skype, there is still a bunch of ways to get in touch with me.

Now to get back into the habit of writing this blog every week. It's starting to be very warm out and my camping gear is getting way to dusty for my liking!

Death Valley

Remember the trip I took over Thanksgiving, where I got to use a metal detector to help a friend up in Canada find a clue for a game up there? Well, now there are two more that he needed assistance on. Sure, we'll go to Death Valley!

First I went hiking around Grime's Point to clear out the two caches there that I still needed. Leaves me one DNF that I'm going to have to recruit some help to locate as I've been there twice and have struck out both times.

Saturday, we head south along 95 to Hawthorne (grab breakfast), then Tonopah (grab snack and gas for the Jeep), then Beatty (check into hotel and grab lunch), before heading over the mountains to visit Death Valley for the first time! YAY! Though cloudy, it was beautiful to be down there and see the fantastic geology of that place. We stopped by our first goal and after a short hike found the information needed. Then, we dropped the rest of the way in and stopped at the sea level sign. Spent too long there waiting for the GPS to read what the sign was telling us, elevation was 0! After I got that screenshot, we headed further south to go visit Shorty's Grave, what (I believe) is the lowest benchmark in the United States. We found their grave (two men, Jim Dayton and Shorty Harris) before looking for the nearby gravity station. Afterwards, we drove north again and stopped at the trail head to Golden Canyon. In the dim light of the overcast evening, the colors were really subdued but that helped me to see the thin layers and soft ripples in the rock from the ancient lake that was here. Learned a little about the formation of this canyon and the overall valley as well.

Sunday, we headed across the valley through a sand storm to enter the next valley to the west. Turning south, we found ourselves at Ballarat, a ghost town named for the town in Australia where the largest gold nugget was found. Unfortunately, for this little adobe town, no such luck was in their future. We continued up the canyon, passing by traces of the mining history, including zip lines stretching from the canyon top to the floor. Also scattered up there were buildings, trucks, and other evidence of mining activity (read tailings). Once we got back to the border of the park, we turned and located our second goal. Then it was back down to find a few geocaches. Our first was hidden in October 2001, then we found a virtual at the charcoal kilns after we decided to explore Wildrose Road. Back down, the valley was much calmer and the setting sun made for some nice coloring on the mountains. We also found a cache at the Welcome to Nevada sign (miles from the state line oddly) and another old one on the rail bed to the Rhyolite/Tonopah & Tidewater railroad. The final cache for the night was one called Geocacher's Heaven, located next to the lot that sells all those wonderful and varied ammo cans!

Having accomplished our goal, we headed home on Monday. Stopped to clear a 6 year old DNF for me at a State Historical Marker (shuddup, I don't know why I missed it either!). Outside of Tonopah, we headed north on the Gabbs Power Pole Road to go find a cache that I agreed to watch over since I travel down that way so much. But along the way, we see this MASSIVE concrete tower! Thankfully, I had just enough internet signal to locate info on the SolarReserve Crescent Dunes Energy Project. That tower is going to be the center point to the huge solar array and where the salt will be used to store the heat needed to generate electricity. Here's the information I found: Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project

After that, we grabbed Lucky 7's (the cache I needed) as well as 361 Cache, that was hidden in the small sliver of Mineral County between Churchill and Nye (go fig!). Home to Fallon and lunch, yeah I passed up Middlegate Burgers, but I was sleepy and wanted to get home.

A very very successful weekend. I'm having fun with this adventure!

Some of the pictures I took:

Death Valley

Here's the track log:

Death Valley

Share your Adventures with SpotAdventures

An Epic Adventure

Getting closer to my goal of clearing out Churchill County. Down to 17 caches! (Most left here in Fallon, but enough scattered around that it's just irritating! LOL)

Got a bug to swing by Reno and grab a real knife. Now that I actually have a belt that I'll wear every time I go out, I figured it would be beneficial to actually have a knife that was usable if I ever end up in a situation where I am truly stuck or lost. So, I got me one! Here's a review of it that I found, http://youtu.be/VGCTI9xG2J8

Then I headed up to Fernley to grab a cache that DarkStar had told me about. I got a kick out of the two logs already on it and figured I wanted to try my hand at this epic adventure. It's premium member only, so if you have that account at geocaching.com, you can check it out here: Erich Scala, or for those not Premium Members, here is my cache log. Part 1 and Part 2

After that, I went after the goals for the day. A multi (Too Washed Up - DNF), Eagle Rock (cleared a prior DNF), Eagle Salt Works, and Ghosts of the Desert - Leete, Nevada. So, now all I have up there is the one multi and that whole corner is cleared.

I am liking the way my map is looking. Big giant island in the sea of caches!

Pictures!

Leete

Cool map thingy!

An Epic Adventure

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21 to go

Got three more caches this weekend that cleared out the area above Jessup. Down to 21!

Pictures

Jessup

Track

Up through Jessup

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Some Sand and some Love(lock)

This weekend decided to head out to Sand Mountain and clear out the caches from there. 11 of them, and a Challenge thing (wanna be virtual) was at the beginning. So, we drove out and headed in. Turns out its $40/week to get in and no there is no daily option. So got the little tag and headed up the sand. First cache was an easy grab after a short walk, but the second one further up into the mountain (actual mountain to the east of the dune) was a pain in the butt to get to and once the, the coordinates were off. But I spent way to long looking and gave up in favor of going after ones I could actually find. An Earthcache was next, followed by four along the outer edge of the sand and one up in the dunes themselves. Thankfully, it had rained a few days ago and the mornings were chilly, leave us with a nice hard pack sand playground! Further up into the canyon where the sand is creeping it's way over into Dixie Valley and we found two more, one of which I made WAY to hard! The second got us down into a bowl that the warming sun and loosening sand resulted in us having to find another way out. Thankfully, I spotted a road to the north so we swung around, came up a different direction and headed off to the last cache. Which topped out in being an FTF, Whoo hoo!

On Sunday, met up with Puzzleman and we headed out to grab a bunch of caches around Lovelock. I needed the south end of the town cleared out and we also claimed the one on top of Lovelock Point. A very steep scree covered slope with loose razor sharp boulders. Ah, but what do mine eyes see upon the imagery?? A TRAIL! Though nearly 200 ft in elevation over the 500 foot distance, the trail was hard packed and easy (relatively) to climb up, I found the survey marks at the top while Puzzleman logged us in. Afterwards we hit one of the strings of caches left over from a Rally a few years ago before heading down I-80 and clearing the ones that are along the road but inaccessible from the road. Damn fence! We followed the old emigrant route and found a bunch of history marketers I had never seen before. We found enough to bring Puzzleman up to his 3499th cache, then dropped into Fernley to grab a puzzle for his milestone. Found a really neat area there as we drove along a narrow canal edge overlooking the trail tracks below. Eek. Glad there was a turn around spot up ahead! After dinner, we split off and I returned home to try and get pictures and logs all updated. I checked Churchill County and have 25 remaining to grab. 5 of which I am convinced are not there. Still, county almost cleared!! 5,023 square miles of cache free success!

Pictures:

Sand Mountain and Lovelock

BTW - Clicking on the title (yeah, it doesn't act like a link) will take you to the full Spot Adventures site.

Day on the Sand and spreading the Love(lock)

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Fire and Ice

So the Washoe Drive Fire was on Thursday and winter arrived on Friday. By Saturday morning, there was a nice coating of snow on the upper elevations and a nice sheen of black ice in the lower valleys. dad and I had a yummy breakfast at IHOP, before deciding to drive north on the newly opened Highway 395.

Crews were still working on power lines and homeowners were milling around their destroyed lots, but because of the snow, passerby's couldn't really see the burn damage. I glanced up into Pagni Canyon and failed to see the southernmost trestle from the V&T railroad. I hope something remains of those historic bridges. After reaching Reno, we took a look up onto Mt Rose and decided to drive up the mountain. While everything was covered, it wasn't actively snowing. So just slow and go all the way up and over and down into Incline. Drove along the shore back to 50, then headed home. I hung out with Puzzleman for awhile before returning home to watch Dragonslayer and have yummy Domino's Pizza!

Sunday, decided to head south to clear out Yerington and Schurz before catching the few stragglers along Hwy 95. Not too impressed with the short trail in Yerington but those are cleared again (later note, the original six of the now 100 long Powertrail.) Plus grabbed a few others before going and playing once again at the confluence tunnel. The highlight of the day was the two caches along the Walker River in Schurz. WOW, pretty location! And the cottonwoods would be gorgeous come summer and fall! Cleared up that town, admired what I thought to be an old depot, but a sign on it indicated a school, before heading north back to Fallon. I had all the ones along the Speedway, so hung out in the Jeep waiting and playing a totally addicting game called Temple Run! Back into town, back home, and another adventure finished.

Yerington and Schurz

Just cruisen

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One big long adventure!!

What an amazing weekend!!

So, early in December, I start emailing a fellow named Mike over in Livermore from http://offroadexperience.com/. After a lot of fun talking about offroading, the Nevada desert, and a few train wrecks, he invites me out to their company party this weekend. Wo am I to turn down such an awesome chance?

Friday night, I join him, Earl, and Bruce for dinner in Fernley and hang out to continue the conversation until way late. I think I was cross-eyed as I was driving home but was in a totally hyper mood. We were going to roughly head north, to a place he called Schoolbus, and then pop over to Eagle Pitcher. Fun thing was there were a few caches along the way, including an FTF.

Saturday morning, I'm loaded up into the Land Rover and we're off down the road up towards Winnemucca Lake. Head out of Nixon onto a road I wasn't even aware of into a mountain range I had yet to play in. We wiggled our way across old flash floods (Mike having been out here so often and for so long that he could tell me when the flood was and what his crew did to get the road back into drivable condition). We then found the FTF cache and continued up to School Bus. Two big old yellow buses from the 40's (?) were sitting there. Formally used as living quarters, then had long been abandoned and some idiots found them and started blowing holes into the entire vehicle. Damn. We stopped for pictures, then off against up a few washes and then to a split, where one road skirted the top of a wash, the other straight into the wash and the "Rock Wall". Of course we went into the wash! I've been with BigTruckCrew and a few others crawling up rocks, even tried my hand at it, but I have to say, that ride up was one of the smoothest I've been on. Then We got out to take pics of the rest on the convoy coming up. First was the red Tacoma with Bruno and his son. Followed by Earl in the white Taco. And last Bruce in his black Cherokee. Afterwards, we continued up a steep long pull from the bottom of the range right up to the ridge. Crossing over the range, we were taking to a hunter's blind where we stopped for lunch. Then down again on the other side of the range, straight into a gully and out into a long flat valley with a sizable dry lake bed. Blasting across that, we stopped at a windmill and played with the three inch thick ice that had formed. Further up into the next mountain range, we stopped at an old site of a bomber crash from the 1940's. We paid our respects, examined the remaining debris, and then continued north to the Velvet Mine and over to Eagle Pitcher, before turning east and dropping down into Lovelock. Dinner was back in Fernley and another long great conversation had that night.

Sunday, after swinging by to say farewell to the guys, I hooked up with Puzzleman who had plans to head out to Yerington and around to Schurz before coming into Fallon. Well, since I was free, we met up, grabbed a puzzle cache we both needed and then opted to switch routes and head into Fallon first. Almost totally cleared out the Carson Sink area for him and I got to enjoy the day bouncing around on the old Pony Express trail down through there. Had dinner at Jerry's and loved hanging out with great company.

Monday, being a holiday, hung out with my Dad and we had plans to head over to Truckee to rescue a travel bug. But I happened to glance at Twitter in the morning and a local Carsonite was mentioning white stuff. Look out the window to see a light coating of snow all over the road. Had to post on Facebook and was promptly harassed by THREE of my so called friends! Course, one accused me one whining, one was my mother (she has the right to harass me) and the third is from Canada where he just LAUGHED over my so called "snow". Sheesh! The drive over the pass was uneventful and beautiful with the snow filling the cracks of the granite boulders throughout the mountain. TB retrieved and we swung up to Tahoe to get pictures before coming back down to go up to Cabela's for lunch. I had an elk burger, yummy!!

Once I got home, I settled in and took a look at the SPOT data I had been sending out all weekend. Then I discovered the Spot Adventures. Well, the results are below. Click on the title above the widget to go to the adventure page itself. But I do love the automatic geotagging of the pictures. I think i will use this page more often, I like the results.

Pictures below.

Off Road Experience and Adventure

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ORE Weekend

Lame attempt

Endless nights under an unforgiving moon.
The ceiling offering no protection from the rain within,
Staring and searching for that which can never be.
Against all that is normal and accepted and assumed.

The trail unbroken save for a single path behind.
Footprints alone in the vastness that few can comprehend.
Surrounded by others, but a stranger in a strange land.
Alone in a sea of friends, a lost soul without a guide.

A companion to face the path ahead, beside and equal.
Back to back, shoulder to shoulder, utter faith and absolute trust,
That which society denies and cannot understand
Close enough to be more than friends, but never more than friends.

Look for the one who does understands, who also does not touch that way
For a moment of joy, before a night of sorrow.
Never more than friends, but a bond far closer than friends..
Reaching out into the darkness, seeking and finding...

A warm heart with a gentle presence, a cold nose with a steady purr
And a hope that sleep comes soon.

Weekend caching

Nothing much happened this weekend.

On Saturday, Puzzleman and I cleared out as much as we could of Fallon.

On Sunday, Dad ad I cleared out as much as we could of Carson.

Literally, that's all.

Fallon Caching

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New Years weekend

Yay! Another three day weekend!!

Friday popped into town quickly to catch the UFC fight and hang out with Puzzleman again. Silly man, when most normal people would be resting at home, not him! He's hanging out with the rest of the crazies. Sheesh! But on the way in, I grabbed some pictures of the still burning Laurel Fire... a 300+ acre WILDFIRE in December.

Anyway, Saturday and Sunday my Dad and I headed out for some off roading fun. There has been no precipitation at all. Which means the roads up in the mountains are free and clear. We headed up Long Canyon on the western edge of the Stillwater Range. There's a cache up there that hasn't been found since 2008. We were hoping to be the second to find on that elusive cache, but alas, it was not to be. After a 30 minutes search, we gave up and continued on up the road to Wildhorse Pass and around the Humbolt Sink. Got a handful of caches and then home to await the new year. Though I crashed around 10. Ugh.

Sunday, we were back out on the road exploring from Dayton Valley Rd over to Adrian Valley that we explored last week. That was an enjoyable ride and an awesome location to boot. Took a ton of pictures as we made our way over to Hwy 95. Then it was off to grab two new FTFs. While those were fun and successful, the best time was when we found a patch of loose dusty sand and blasted through it with the Jeep. I had a great time grabbing pictures of that!

Monday was just a time to hang out with my buddy and chillax after the stress of the holidays. Didn't do a whole lot, picked up a few caches, and just chatting lightly about flotsam and jetsam.

All in all a great weekend! Hope yours was as well!!

Here's the pictures,

New Years

Geocaching and Exploring

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