jeverich
Luddite
I'll tie a buoy bag to 'em.. just do a low pass in a Jayhawk.
The Little 2TRFE That Could..
- Thread starter jeverich
- Start date
I'll tie a buoy bag to 'em.. just do a low pass in a Jayhawk.
jeverich
Luddite
Posted this over on NW Overland Society; figured Expo would be a proper home for it as well...
Enjoy.
Decided to finally get out into the woods. Yes, much like many of the cliché John Muir euphemisms..
I must admit, there is something ethereal and stark about the level of silence and peacefulness here. Granted, I've got Elvis Costello playing on my MacBook. Yup, I said MacBook – you're probably reading this on your iPad.
Had somewhat of a late start out the door this morning.. actually managed to sleep past 7:00 on a Saturday, which – is somewhat of a rarity for me. Funny how that works, huh? All [working] week it's a struggle to get out of bed for 06:45. Yet, when the weekend rolls around your body rarely lets itself sleep past 07:00. Anyways, I digress.
I've been wanting to get out “off the grid” for quite a while now. I've been in shipyard since April 1, and it's starting to wear on me. It's hard to fathom the fact that I've got a house in Bellingham (Ferndale) that's sitting unused. Still getting used to the Bering Sea schedule, and trying to reconcile the fact that I work for a large corporate entity. Like I said – shipyard is starting to wear me quite thin.
Departed the beautiful Winchester Bay Inn around 11:00. Headed to the shipyard to grab a cooler, cast iron skillet and eggs. Odd combination, I know. (Briefly) contemplated staying at the shipyard for the open house later in the day. Contemplated. Next stop was Safeway – for the essentials. Put 3 gallons of gas in my Jerry Can, threw some ice on a six pack of Ninkasi Total Domination.. and I was off. Set a rough destination of Mount Baldy, which was accessed via Smith River Road. Left Reedsport northbound on the 101, executed a hard right just after the bridge – then found little Burma Road about 10 miles to the East. Did a final check on the truck, all systems go. Entered the woods.
What's deceiving about this area is that there are scarcely few landmarks to judge direction and location by. Everything looks the same. Seriously. I use a Garmin Nuvi, as well as Topo Maps for the region. Take a bearing/position check about every 30 minutes and plot myself on a physical paper Topo. Even doing this, I managed to get crossed up a couple of times during the day. Surprisingly, the Nuvi has many of the obscure USFS roads and BLM roads in it, which is pretty damn surprising. Most of the time, it is dead on with a paper map – although, it does freak out about every hour or so. My assumption would be that it momentarily loses satellite reception..
Setup camp approximately 20 miles to the Northwest; just about at the summit of Roman Nose Mountain (2800 Feet). Quite an impressive gain in elevation on the road up to the summit, probably gained about 500 feet of elevation every 2 minutes or so. Well, at least it seemed like that. Truck is still doing that strange dead pedal thing, where it will just die at random intervals. Ascending that hill today was the most occurrences to date – which leads my to believe that it might possibly be fuel filter/fuel pump related. Who knows?
Before I forget, I need to mention my rock...
Found a (just about) perfectly round rock that had situated itself right in the middle of one of the BLM roads. Even thinking about it now, it's almost strange how it was just sitting there, in the middle of the woods. Perhaps it could serve as a testament to the lack of human traffic that this area receives. I think nearly everyone would be inclined to immediately grab and stash a perfectly round rock that was stumbled up on in the middle a National Forest. Or, perhaps it's just me.
Had a relatively spartan dinner of Progresso “New England Style” Clam Chowder and focaccia bread. Had a big lunch. I just have to ad that the 2 burner Coleman propane stove that I picked up on Wednesday is an incredible piece of hardware. Performed flawlessly to fire up a surprisingly okay tasting batch of instant coffee around 16:00. Starting to see some of the validity to a few of the rigs on here that are completely pimped out with “Overland” equipment. Although, honestly – I think my philosophy on most of it is “KISS”.
Tent is an older Mountain Hardware Hammerhead 3.5 that's been in it's storage bag for the last 6 years or so. Can't complain about it's performance thus far – even in spite of the fact that the rain doesn't seem to have the slightest inclination of letting up anytime within the near future. Some of the seams on the bottom leading edge are leaching a little bit, nothing that I can't handle for the night.
It's amazing the amount of isolation out here. Perhaps it's my naïve way though processes, but I'm still expecting to be awaken by someone ransacking my truck at some ungodly hour... Pretty sure that's not going to happen. Having the 2 Meter rig in the truck is definitely an enormous comfort factor.
Going to attempt sleep soon – planning on bacon, eggs and instant coffee in the AM.
Will do another entry at breakfast. Hoping the noises that go bump in the night and my imagination don't prohibit sleep too much..
Day 2 ------
Needless to say, I made it back to [relative] civilization.
In the end, the rain won out... After laying awake and getting steadily soaked by the seemingly omnipresent Oregon rain, I relocated to a logging landing at about 01:30. Best decision of the entire trip by far.
Well, not entirely true. Packed up camp around 01:00 in a bout of frustration. Was planning on navigating the 30 miles of logging roads at night in order to retreat to my hotel room in Reedsport. Blame those erroneous thoughts on the rain... I must add – it's pretty impressive how quickly a camp can be completely cleared and packed; from the mere musing over “Gee, maybe I should get out of here” to the tent being stowed, and the truck being started: took me about 10 minutes.
As soon as I got into the truck and somewhat dehumidified, logical thoughts began flooding back into my mind. The fact that the fog was reminiscent of pea soup didn't help matters, either.. I'd also imagine that the minds of any curious law enforcement would be piqued at the sight of a few hundred watts of HIDs descending from 3000 feet.
Low and behold, the rain that freight train constant rain was only water coming off of the trees. Decided to head to a cleared logging landing that I passed by a few miles to the East, right below the summit of Roman Nose Mountain (2856 Feet). Like I said, that fog is some pretty deceiving stuff. Really glad that I didn't go another 5 feet and off the edge of a 2500 foot drop.
Got the tarp down, tent up and sleeping bag rolled out in (near) record time. Was in bed counting sheep by 0200. Yes, I actually got SOLID sleep!
Woke up around 0700, peaked outside – heavy fog, about 50 foot visibility. I kid you not. Something about it being daylight made it a hell of a lot easier for me to fall aleep – perhaps the boogie man only strikes at night?
Finally got my *** out of my sleeping bag around 1130. Fog had lifted and I found myself surrounded by mountain vistas and relatively clear skies. Amazing. No planes, no cars – no manmade noises of any sort. Well, except for the low whooshing of my Coleman stove/sizzling bacon and eggs. I must ad – Nestle Instant Coffee really isn't that bad!
Picked up camp and set out again around 1200. Set a rough destination of North Fork Falls about 10 miles to the NW via FS4890. Managed to get in some wheeling along the way – nothing too extreme, just a skidder track that had been washed/rutted out.
Met up with FS48, attempted FS4890 to North Fork Falls, and ended up coming up against a lot of fallen brush around 1415. Weighed my options, decided to retreat and catch FS4820 into Florence, about 35 miles to the West.
Reached Florence around 15:00, got gas – and then caught up with the 101 and headed south to Reedsport.
Successful trip.
Love the Smart Bin that I have in the back of my rig. It's perfectly suited for holding all kinds of gear, and actually stays relatively dry. Just received a couple of d-rings, going to get them installed in the front of the bed hopefully this weekend. That way, I'll be able to ratchet-strap with a more direct downward pull on the box, rather than to the bed cleats.
That $50 Coleman stove is excellent.
Don't store your tent with the zippers open.
Wow. Roof top tents are awesome.
Starting to see the merits of a dual battery setup.
Don't know how I ever felt prepared going into the woods alone without my HAM radio.
Could have spent a week out there.
Think I'm hooked.
Might be able to head out to Hell's Canyon this coming weekend.
Standing by,
Jake
Enjoy.
Decided to finally get out into the woods. Yes, much like many of the cliché John Muir euphemisms..
I must admit, there is something ethereal and stark about the level of silence and peacefulness here. Granted, I've got Elvis Costello playing on my MacBook. Yup, I said MacBook – you're probably reading this on your iPad.
Had somewhat of a late start out the door this morning.. actually managed to sleep past 7:00 on a Saturday, which – is somewhat of a rarity for me. Funny how that works, huh? All [working] week it's a struggle to get out of bed for 06:45. Yet, when the weekend rolls around your body rarely lets itself sleep past 07:00. Anyways, I digress.
I've been wanting to get out “off the grid” for quite a while now. I've been in shipyard since April 1, and it's starting to wear on me. It's hard to fathom the fact that I've got a house in Bellingham (Ferndale) that's sitting unused. Still getting used to the Bering Sea schedule, and trying to reconcile the fact that I work for a large corporate entity. Like I said – shipyard is starting to wear me quite thin.
Departed the beautiful Winchester Bay Inn around 11:00. Headed to the shipyard to grab a cooler, cast iron skillet and eggs. Odd combination, I know. (Briefly) contemplated staying at the shipyard for the open house later in the day. Contemplated. Next stop was Safeway – for the essentials. Put 3 gallons of gas in my Jerry Can, threw some ice on a six pack of Ninkasi Total Domination.. and I was off. Set a rough destination of Mount Baldy, which was accessed via Smith River Road. Left Reedsport northbound on the 101, executed a hard right just after the bridge – then found little Burma Road about 10 miles to the East. Did a final check on the truck, all systems go. Entered the woods.
What's deceiving about this area is that there are scarcely few landmarks to judge direction and location by. Everything looks the same. Seriously. I use a Garmin Nuvi, as well as Topo Maps for the region. Take a bearing/position check about every 30 minutes and plot myself on a physical paper Topo. Even doing this, I managed to get crossed up a couple of times during the day. Surprisingly, the Nuvi has many of the obscure USFS roads and BLM roads in it, which is pretty damn surprising. Most of the time, it is dead on with a paper map – although, it does freak out about every hour or so. My assumption would be that it momentarily loses satellite reception..
Setup camp approximately 20 miles to the Northwest; just about at the summit of Roman Nose Mountain (2800 Feet). Quite an impressive gain in elevation on the road up to the summit, probably gained about 500 feet of elevation every 2 minutes or so. Well, at least it seemed like that. Truck is still doing that strange dead pedal thing, where it will just die at random intervals. Ascending that hill today was the most occurrences to date – which leads my to believe that it might possibly be fuel filter/fuel pump related. Who knows?
Before I forget, I need to mention my rock...
Found a (just about) perfectly round rock that had situated itself right in the middle of one of the BLM roads. Even thinking about it now, it's almost strange how it was just sitting there, in the middle of the woods. Perhaps it could serve as a testament to the lack of human traffic that this area receives. I think nearly everyone would be inclined to immediately grab and stash a perfectly round rock that was stumbled up on in the middle a National Forest. Or, perhaps it's just me.
Had a relatively spartan dinner of Progresso “New England Style” Clam Chowder and focaccia bread. Had a big lunch. I just have to ad that the 2 burner Coleman propane stove that I picked up on Wednesday is an incredible piece of hardware. Performed flawlessly to fire up a surprisingly okay tasting batch of instant coffee around 16:00. Starting to see some of the validity to a few of the rigs on here that are completely pimped out with “Overland” equipment. Although, honestly – I think my philosophy on most of it is “KISS”.
Tent is an older Mountain Hardware Hammerhead 3.5 that's been in it's storage bag for the last 6 years or so. Can't complain about it's performance thus far – even in spite of the fact that the rain doesn't seem to have the slightest inclination of letting up anytime within the near future. Some of the seams on the bottom leading edge are leaching a little bit, nothing that I can't handle for the night.
It's amazing the amount of isolation out here. Perhaps it's my naïve way though processes, but I'm still expecting to be awaken by someone ransacking my truck at some ungodly hour... Pretty sure that's not going to happen. Having the 2 Meter rig in the truck is definitely an enormous comfort factor.
Going to attempt sleep soon – planning on bacon, eggs and instant coffee in the AM.
Will do another entry at breakfast. Hoping the noises that go bump in the night and my imagination don't prohibit sleep too much..
Day 2 ------
Needless to say, I made it back to [relative] civilization.
In the end, the rain won out... After laying awake and getting steadily soaked by the seemingly omnipresent Oregon rain, I relocated to a logging landing at about 01:30. Best decision of the entire trip by far.
Well, not entirely true. Packed up camp around 01:00 in a bout of frustration. Was planning on navigating the 30 miles of logging roads at night in order to retreat to my hotel room in Reedsport. Blame those erroneous thoughts on the rain... I must add – it's pretty impressive how quickly a camp can be completely cleared and packed; from the mere musing over “Gee, maybe I should get out of here” to the tent being stowed, and the truck being started: took me about 10 minutes.
As soon as I got into the truck and somewhat dehumidified, logical thoughts began flooding back into my mind. The fact that the fog was reminiscent of pea soup didn't help matters, either.. I'd also imagine that the minds of any curious law enforcement would be piqued at the sight of a few hundred watts of HIDs descending from 3000 feet.
Low and behold, the rain that freight train constant rain was only water coming off of the trees. Decided to head to a cleared logging landing that I passed by a few miles to the East, right below the summit of Roman Nose Mountain (2856 Feet). Like I said, that fog is some pretty deceiving stuff. Really glad that I didn't go another 5 feet and off the edge of a 2500 foot drop.
Got the tarp down, tent up and sleeping bag rolled out in (near) record time. Was in bed counting sheep by 0200. Yes, I actually got SOLID sleep!
Woke up around 0700, peaked outside – heavy fog, about 50 foot visibility. I kid you not. Something about it being daylight made it a hell of a lot easier for me to fall aleep – perhaps the boogie man only strikes at night?
Finally got my *** out of my sleeping bag around 1130. Fog had lifted and I found myself surrounded by mountain vistas and relatively clear skies. Amazing. No planes, no cars – no manmade noises of any sort. Well, except for the low whooshing of my Coleman stove/sizzling bacon and eggs. I must ad – Nestle Instant Coffee really isn't that bad!
Picked up camp and set out again around 1200. Set a rough destination of North Fork Falls about 10 miles to the NW via FS4890. Managed to get in some wheeling along the way – nothing too extreme, just a skidder track that had been washed/rutted out.
Met up with FS48, attempted FS4890 to North Fork Falls, and ended up coming up against a lot of fallen brush around 1415. Weighed my options, decided to retreat and catch FS4820 into Florence, about 35 miles to the West.
Reached Florence around 15:00, got gas – and then caught up with the 101 and headed south to Reedsport.
Successful trip.
Love the Smart Bin that I have in the back of my rig. It's perfectly suited for holding all kinds of gear, and actually stays relatively dry. Just received a couple of d-rings, going to get them installed in the front of the bed hopefully this weekend. That way, I'll be able to ratchet-strap with a more direct downward pull on the box, rather than to the bed cleats.
That $50 Coleman stove is excellent.
Don't store your tent with the zippers open.
Wow. Roof top tents are awesome.
Starting to see the merits of a dual battery setup.
Don't know how I ever felt prepared going into the woods alone without my HAM radio.
Could have spent a week out there.
Think I'm hooked.
Might be able to head out to Hell's Canyon this coming weekend.
Standing by,
Jake
jeverich
Luddite
Build wise, finally got my Hypertech Speedometer Calibrator in this evening.
Wow! As strange as it sounds, it's awesome to have a speedometer again.
Side note...
These look really tempting.
http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/ptd/3794476461.html
Wow! As strange as it sounds, it's awesome to have a speedometer again.
Side note...
These look really tempting.
http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/ptd/3794476461.html
jeverich
Luddite
It's funny for such a big island there's really only two places to explore.. It'd be pretty awesome to see how far you could get across the island by yourself, though.
soonenough
Explorer
Awesome trip report, love this photo.
I'm curious about this. Don't take this as me saying you're wrong in any way; I'm not. I'm simply curious why your ham radio gives you such peace of mind. And I ask because I'm hopeful that there's something I've missed since installing mine. I've often been out and wondered what I would actually do if I was in an area without cell reception and had to use my ham radio for an emergency. I feel like a good portion of the time, if I tuned to 146.520 and made an emergency call, I wouldn't get a response. The reason I say that is because there have been times when I'm traveling alone and I'm getting tired at the wheel, so I thought 'let me key up the radio and see if there's anyone to talk to'. And every time I've tried it in the past, I've received no response on 146.520.
Is it because you've taken the time to program all of the repeaters in your area before taking a trip? That's definitely something I need to do because there's a much greater chance of reaching someone that way versus just hoping that someone hears you via simplex on a random frequency.
jeverich
Luddite
Man, I'm still waiting on my call sign to appear in the FCC database.. Ugh.
I guess I should rephrase my statement; see edit.
I feel much better about going out into remote areas alone now that I have a HAM radio in my truck.
By and large it seems as though repeaters are the backbone to the 2 Meter Band; so yeah - I'd definitely look up some of the repeaters near you. Or, better yet - pick up the ARRL Repeater Directory. $15, for a list of nearly every known repeater on 2M and 440.
Repeaters will all have Input/Output frequencies (Duplex) with a 600 Hz Repeater Shift in between the two.. usually, many of them also require a sub-audible tone for access as well.
If I'm coming across like I truly know what I'm talking about - I don't. There are quite a few HAMs on here that have some pretty valuable information.
Pretty much asked an identical question a few weeks ago:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/106385-PNW-Ham-Radio-Questions
jeverich
Luddite
Nope, work on the Progress - Icicle Seafoods just bought it last year.
I'd love to pick your brain; I've always told myself that if fishing doesn't work out I'd love to do marine electronics. We've got a KVH VSat system on board, it's pretty impressive for what it is..
What fleet?
Jake
I'd love to pick your brain; I've always told myself that if fishing doesn't work out I'd love to do marine electronics. We've got a KVH VSat system on board, it's pretty impressive for what it is..
What fleet?
Jake
jeverich
Luddite
I've got my 100 Ton Master's - but those are pretty much a dime a dozen. Basically got it to get my foot in the door as far as licensing goes..
I'll have to defer you to Louis as far as engineering goes - he works on one of the Tote RoRos.
Yup, that KVH is pretty frickin' impressive for what it is! There's still something weird about surfing the internet via Wi-Fi network when the boats pitching 30 degrees. Yes, it has it's limitations - it slows to a crawl whenever there is more than one person online, seems to have fastest speeds early in the AM - would assume it's due to satellite footprint/service demand.
Just put a new commutator in our Rapp 3rd Wire winch, spent all day yesterday re-wiring a Wesmar HD 800 Sonar. It's even more funner when the person who took it apart couldn't be bothered to label wires..
I'll have to defer you to Louis as far as engineering goes - he works on one of the Tote RoRos.
Yup, that KVH is pretty frickin' impressive for what it is! There's still something weird about surfing the internet via Wi-Fi network when the boats pitching 30 degrees. Yes, it has it's limitations - it slows to a crawl whenever there is more than one person online, seems to have fastest speeds early in the AM - would assume it's due to satellite footprint/service demand.
Just put a new commutator in our Rapp 3rd Wire winch, spent all day yesterday re-wiring a Wesmar HD 800 Sonar. It's even more funner when the person who took it apart couldn't be bothered to label wires..
Hehe, Im a labeling freak, even had the company buy me a labeler that prints to heat shrink for wire labeling. If they ever give you a grand to buy something, one of those isn't a bad choice.
The downside of the KVH is that there is no guaranteed speed on their system, the more they sell and the more than are online the slower it is. You go to Fleet Broadband and they can keep you at 128k (or whatever package you purchase). I haven't gotten into the Wesmars yet, I think Ill be pulling the last one off this fall.
The downside of the KVH is that there is no guaranteed speed on their system, the more they sell and the more than are online the slower it is. You go to Fleet Broadband and they can keep you at 128k (or whatever package you purchase). I haven't gotten into the Wesmars yet, I think Ill be pulling the last one off this fall.