Ski at home

One of the most notable features of our yard is that it is very sloped. After leaving the showing of our future house the thought popped in my head, "Hey, I bet I could ski down that". Nice idea but small problem. We first saw our house in April. Ever since then, I have been waiting for enough snow to strap on my short skis and let gravity take care of the rest. It finally happened recently. Jess thinks I'm nuts, but knows how much I've been waiting to do this, so without questioning much she pulled out the camera to document this moment. Unfortunately, this may be the only skiing I get in this year. And yes... it was worth it.
A few pics before the run...



and the video evidence...
first run
second run
third run

Day 8: Best in Vermont

Day 8 was supposed to be 4 hours of steam bending. I figured that since I was going to break a few ribs here and there, 4 hours would be all I could take. I started the morning off by marking out ribs every 6 inches. That left me with 18 ribs. Ironically enough, I only had 18 ribs. That meant ANY failure meant another trip to the HD to get more rib stock. But instead....
The backing strip was a piece of gros grain ribbon from a gift box that read "Best of Vermont. It turned out to be quite the omen. I succeeded on all 18 ribs (so I broke one, but its at a tip, where two piece ribs are often used anyway). I'm real good at wordy posts, so no more words, just pictures.





And then I took a lunch break and refilled my steamer. Once back in the workshop I needed to wait 15 minutes for the new rib to heat up. I had nothing to do and had a camera...









And a video of the bending.

Day 7: First Blood

So day 7 was supposed to be easy and a prelude to steam bending ribs tomorrow. Steam bending ribs is somewhat exciting (relatively speaking). Deck beams are not all that exciting on the other hand. But installing 5 deck beams was today's chore. Considering my Greenland yak has 8 or 9 deck beams, this was supposed to be easy. Instead it took all friggin day long.
One major difference between a canoe and a kayak is the lack of deck beams in a canoe. Usually there is only one deck beam called the thwart. The stems are heavily reinforced with a breast hook or a wedge to help the tips angle apart. Instead of the breast hook, I'm using two closely spaced deck beams to give it shape (along with the thwart). Being that this is my first canoe, I really hope this all works. Only when I take out the forms will I find out if it keeps its shape.
Installing deck beams if fairly strait forward but tedious. Each deck beam has two angles that need to match the gunwales. The first angle is the shape of the gunwales as they are close to each other at the tips and spread apart in the middle. This angle is achieved simply by tracing the gunwales on the deck beam. Flip the deck beam over and around and the line drawn on the bottom is now on top. The gunwales do not sit parallel to each other but instead spread apart such that the top of the gunwale is further apart than the bottom of the gunwale. I use a tool such as this to find the angle and trace it onto the deck beam. After that, its just a matter of making an accurate cut to make the deck beam fit the gunwales. Lots of words to describe this and lots of detailed work to make it fit perfectly.
To make the deck beams stay put, they get lashed and pegged. Pegging is strait forward. To lash it, I have figured out the most secure and tightest way is to drill two holes in the gunwale and saw two groves in the deck beams. Wrap sinew around the deck beam and gunwale and then pinch the sinew tight. The resulting lashing resembles and "H".
First Blood: In all my woodworking projects, bleeding seems to be a requirement before they get finished. While installing the thwart, I finally drew first blood. My pull saw is a very sharp saw and very good at making detailed cuts. When making detailed cuts, my hands are often a little too close the business side of the blade and cutting myself is quite common. I cut the tip of my finger and bled a small amount. Just enough to leave a few blood spots on the thwart. Now that I can check "bleeding" off the check list I hope I do not have to check "bleed again" off the check list.
Steam Bending: While this post is way too wordy, I might as well mention the next step of steam bending wood. When done correctly, its a miracle in woodworking science. When done incorrectly, its the most frustrating thing on the earth. The basic idea is that when heat is applied to wood, the chemical bonds that hold wood fibers together loosen up just enough to allow them stretch. Upon cooling, the bonds reform in their new positions and the wood is strong again. Steam is the most common way to apply heat to the wood. Certain woods bend better than others. Oak and ash are probably the best. My steam box is a PVC pipe and my steam source is a wallpaper steamer. While the wallpaper steamer is new, the PVC pipe is seeing its second action. Hopefully the revamped steam box will give me good results and I will create ribs, not firewood.
This post is definitely way too wordy but fits my day quite well... Way more complicated than I predicted.

update on the Lassie

So I've been a bad blogger. I've let many days of work pass without an update. I guess between a choice of working on building a canoe or writing about working on a canoe, the choice is obvious. I'm assuming people will be reading this and might be interested in building their own. A lot of the techniques I am using I have learned from building a few SOF boats already. If you are interested in building your own boat, a website or two and a few books are definitely worth looking into. Most skin on frame boats are made as Greenland kayaks and therefore most the directions are for building a Greenland yak. They are an excellent design and fairly easy to build. I have built two of them and like them both. The same techniques can build just about any boat, however.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Greenland-Kayak/ Its free and written by a very knowledgeable builder.
http://www.qajaqusa.org/Equipment/kayaks.html qajaqusa's website if very informative and the books listed here are the complete listing. I used Morris's and Cunningham's books. Unfortunately Morris's book is out of print. Star's book apparently uses similar techniques to what I'm using (by setting up forms to shape the ribs).
http://yostwerks.com/ Tom Yost does something very different but very functional. I have built a ribbed boat and a Yost boat, so I can recommend both techniques for building. The biggest problem with Tom's building technique is you need Tom (or someone else) to make the patterns first. For this reason, the Wee Lassie had to be ribbed.
So on to the building updates...

Day 4
Short day involving lashing the gunwales to the stems and the keel to the stems. I love using artificial sinew (waxed nylon). It combines my love of sewing with my love of wood working.
Day5
Very productive day. My goal was to set the stringers (stringers are longitudinal strips of wood to give the boat its shape, the keel is the middle one). I started on form 4 because its the widest one. I basically eyeballed where the stringers should be and marked them. I transferred the marks to the other side and drilled holes into the form. I figured I could adjust the placement of the stringers if need be, but found that it was not necessary.
Cable ties secured the stingers. I then proceeded to one end and secured the tips of the stringers to the stems with cable ties and did the same thing to the other end. That was the basic extent of placing the stringers. I really thought it would be more complicated than that, but it wasn't. I continued down the boat until all the stringer were cable tied to all the forms. Up next was shaping the stringers to fit the stems (much like the step of shaping the gunwales to the stems). After shaping the stringers, I lashed them to the stems. While it only took one paragraph to describe that, it took most of my day off to do it. It definitely looks like a boat now.
Day 6
Day 6 was supposed to simply be taking the boat off the strong back, but I could not stop at that. I had to do more. So I started off with unscrewing the stems and forms from the strong back (tip, screws with the star head kick ass). I lifted the boat up and off the strong back and then rolled it over. In the back of my head I heard a yell of "FREEDOM" as the boat rested upright for the first time. In no time flat the strong back got turned back into a pile of lumber to be used for deck beams and chicken roosts (long story).
This was supposed to be the end of the day, but I started looking at cutting the stems away from their support and couldn't resist myself. It turned into the hardest two inches of the entire boat. As described in Day 3, I left the stems attached to the plywood it was cut from. In the past, my stems ended up crooked. To prevent this, the Lassie was built using a strong back and the stems were firmly attached to the strong back. Now I just need to finish cutting the stems out. Unfortunately a pair of stringers blocked the final two inches from being cut. My solution was to remove the blade from my jig saw and attach it to a clamp turning it into a hideous but very small saw.
Needless to say, it took a while to cut the stern end free. The other couple of inches needing to be cut off could be reached with my pull saw and came off easier. I finished the stem by cutting the top flush with the gunwales. For the bow, I decided to use my 1/4 inch drill bit and just drill the be-jesus out of the two inches. While not pretty, it did work. My Dremel tool will finish the stems off and make them look pretty.
Although I say this at the end of every day, it really is looking like a boat now.
It looks like I could just jump into bending the ribs, but I do need to install deck beams first.

Day 3, lots of glue

The goal of day three was to attach the keel to the stems and shape the gunwales onto the stems. It must be pointed out, that will all my builds, this last step is my least favorate. In fact, I hate it. Unlike yesterday, in which I had a day off, today would have to be a partial day as I work second shift and have my mornings to work on the boat. I got to work pegging the keel in place. The keel it attached by placing two or three pegs in different directions. The force off all the angles working against each other holds them tightly in place. Through trail and error, I also lash them in place. I'm using 1/4 inch dowels and I glue them in place. Quickly done. Up next, my least favorite job.
I am trying something new this time and placing a strip of wood (the tip of a gunwale) on the stems and using that as I guide to cut off gunwale. I had to do this a couple of times to remove enough wood. In the past, I used the saw itself and slowly rubbed off little bit, by little bit until it was angled correctly. Of course in all my builds, they rarely angled nicely the first try. I'm also using a nice sturdy strong back to hold everything in place, so I was hopeful. To my surprise, it worked beautifully and it was done fairly quickly. This would be a good time to point out, how I made my stems. The stems are cut out of a larger peice of plywood. I left it attached to the plywood however and cut out about 75 percent of the inside cut. When everything is firmy attached to everything else I will cut our the rest. Only time will tell how easily it will be to finnish the cutting. It definitely worked to keep the stems strait and true.
With my daily goal done, I checked my clock. I still had 45 minutes left. With the next step being glueing the gunwales together, I started to get the ready. Most canoes use and inwale and and outwale with the ribs sandwiched between On the other side of the skin is usually a rub strip too. I decided to glue the inwale and outwale together to simply make a gunwale. My reasoning to use two peices instead of one to make the gunwale was to hopefully make them hold the curve better, the basic idea of laminating. My reasoning of not using the traditional order was because it seemed way too over complicated. Only time will tell if my decision was a good one. The tricky part would be to take the outwale off, while leaving the inwale attached and then to glue it back on in the exact same placement. This really wasn't all that complicated (but it was tedious) and it was done in all due time. With everything strapped back together, I decided to peg the tips the the stems. Once pegged it will get reinforced with lashing (literally hand sewn together). With my artificial sinew and needle in the house, the day was done. Another day of more progress than expected.

Day 2, mistakes and progress

So day two was supposed to be just setting up the strong back and putting the keel on. It started off with a mistake and an epiphany of sorts (not a major epiphany, though). I had cut out the first and last forms wrong. I then thought to myself, the success of this project will not be avoiding mistakes all together, it will be how I work with the mistakes I'm bound to make.
So with all the mind numbing, life changing discoveries over, I could get on with the build. Stems on, forms up and it kinda sorta started looking like a canoe. The afternoon quickly turned dark and my two window work shop started getting dark. I pulled out the camping lantern and paused to enjoy the moment. I could hear our brook/creek/ditch in the background. This canoe was going to be built two winters ago, but the wife finally came out of her grad school induced haze to stop me. She told me we would have to wait till we bought a house until this boat could be built. Of course I would not forget such an agreement and I have been waiting ever since. We have owned the house for about 5 months now and this canoe has a sense of pride with it. It means we finally are making it in this world. It was very peaceful. Back to work, the keel went in place and I had to keep going. So I pulled out the milled strips that the gunwales would become and started putting them in place. After a lot of strapping they were in place and it was looking slightly more boat like. The day ended with more progress than I expected.

wee lassie

So my blog is going to turn into a builders log for a little bit. I'm going to build another boat. I have already built about 5 boats, two were fantastic failures, one I gave away and two I still have and use. So why another? I have been on the quest for the perfect small boat and believe I found it in an 11.5 ft canoe called the Wee Lassie. The original was built by J. Henry Rushton in upstate New York in the late 1800's. The version I'll be building is based off of the book "Featherweight Boatbuilding" by Mac McCarthy. Although the original is a piece of American history, these days any small canoe is called a Wee Lassie, regardless of how closely it follows the original lines. Although Featherweight Boatbuilding describes how to build a strip built boat, but I'm going to make it a skin-on-frame since its the style of boat I have built in the past and the style I have the most experience in. I plan on building my Wee Lassie in our two story shed this winter. I will have to wait until the spring to finish it as the skin needs to be painted in warmer weather. I plan on using mostly pine that was cut from 2x4's and 1 inch stock. The stems will be made from plywood. My gunwales will be two strips of 1/3 inch by 1.5 inch strips that will be placed on the forms and then glued together. The oak ribs are 1/4 inch by 3/4 and were cut from 1/4 inch strips of red oak from Home Depot. The gunwales and stringers will be molded to a forms giving the boat its shape. After the shape of the boat is given on the forms, steam bent oak strips will be placed inside the boat to give it structural rigidity. Once everything gets lashed together, the forms will be removed leaving a frame ready for skinning.

Part one: To build my boat I will be cutting out cross section forms and placing them on a "strong back" to give the boat shape. To do this, I followed the patterns from the book and placed them on paper. Once on paper they are modified from the original patterns for strip building to the dimensions needed for skin on frame. The original pattern are made 1/4 inch smaller than the finished product to account for 1/4 inch thick strips of wood. A skin on frame on the other hand use 3/4 inch stringers. Once modified, the shape is transferred to plywood (in this case OSB). Today's job was to transfer the patterns to the stems and cutting everything out (the forms were transferred previously). Up next it to place the forms onto the strong backs. I'll include a picture or two as well.

my ride home today

Clock out of work. Today is the day we try the “long way home”. 18ish miles opposed to the usual 6. Unlock the bike, hop out the parking lot going down Stratton Rd. We are avoiding Rutland altogether today. Stratton Rd turns into Cold River Rd, something we have already rode before. East Claredon Rd branches off to the right and is a bitch of a steep hill up. Short, but steep. Turn down N. Shrewsbury Rd. “From this point on, we are now going further down this road than we have ever before”. Nice little downhill with some crappy railroad tracks. Stop at Hwy 7 and wait for the light to turn green. Turn down 7b and enjoy the small town of N Shrewsbury (or is it Alfrecha?). Turn down Alfrecha road and enjoy the corn fields. Are we in Vermont or back in Illinois? Look at the mountain directly in front of, definitely NOT Illinois. Turn down Creek road. On the map it looks pretty cool, on the road it is a very nice little road. Enjoy the coolness of the shadows. Road turns to dirt just in time for the monster hill we have to climb. Turn down Walker Mt Rd, get ready to grunt. Road stays dirt, goes up. Shift into the lowest gear on the middle ring, grind up the hill. Hill continues up, we continue to grind up it. Hill still continues up, shift into the granny gear. Notice it may be faster to walk up the hill, continue to grind up the hill. We knew this hill was long, so no surprise here. Hill is over, adrenaline takes over. Pump fists, flex muscles, be happy. Turn down Quarterline Rd at the ball field mowed into a hay field. If you build it, they will come. Notice Quarterline is dirt, be happy. Grind up a hill. Top the hill and notice the next hill staring at you. Be amazed at the long, steep white road a head of you. Start to grind up the hill. No middle ring here, go strait to the granny gear. Grind up hill. Continue to grind up hill. Notice it appears that you are going nowhere. Notice it may be faster to walk up the hill. Continue to grind up hill. Wonder when this ends. Continue to grind up hill. Hill ends. Dirt road, still going slow, no fist pumping or muscle flexing, ear to ear grin will suffice. School House road branches off to the left, sign announces you are entering a class 4 road. Assume that means it’s not maintained very well. Enter a nice little green tunnel. Turn the corner and be happy that the green tunnel continues. Enjoy the crappy little road and green tunnel. No steep up hills, no steep down hills. Green tunnel continues. Road starts going down, shift into the big gear. Enjoy the green tunnel and kick ass road. Road turns to pavement, we turn down Boardman Hill Rd. We have been here before. Dirt road, steep slightly bumpy down hill. Speed picks up road turns to pavement, road drops down the hillside. Steep turn next to the entrance ramp. Cars suddenly appear. Welcome to West Rutland. Turn down Hwy 4, cars buzz by, no more country roads without cars. Perform track stand in the middle of road while waiting to turn left onto Pleasant St. We live on this road, we have ridden it many times. Notice how quickly we went from the middle of nowhere on gorgeous dirt roads back to ordinary. Turn into driveway. Go inside, hop on the computer. This is a ride we don’t want to forget. Continue to grin.

Rutland, VT

So here is a small summary of my first two days in my new home of Rutland, VT. Jess and I are purchasing a house in West Rutland, but before the mortgage gets done, I need a paycheck from my new job. So we are living in the most swanky hotel in town, the Best Western Suites. Its basically a one bedroom apartment. The day one portion was sent to my old co-workers at The Baptist and copied, because I'm a lazy fuck.

Day one went quite well. I unpacked most of the whole dang truck myself into the storage shed. Jess's job was to return her head to normal for her interviews, so I did my husbandly duties and unpacked most the truck myself. Unfortunately I failed at one thing.... I unpacked a 15 ft truck into a 20 ft shed and came up 3 ft short, so we will need to rent another storage shed. Either that or unpack everything and re-pack it... screw that, 60 dollars will fix my packing failure. The hotel room is nice, like a one bedroom apartment. Jess did well in her first interview and came back wanting the job real bad. She will hear back in the next few days. Interview number two is tonight. (interview one was the elementary school and interview two is the head librarian at the place where the picture was taken) I'm quite happy how things are going. I'm not very sore and we are in Rutland. Wednesday will be fun for the two of us... No more unpacking the truck, no more interviews. Jess will unpack the apartment/hotel room and I will find a big hill to bike up (and back down of course).


Day two:
So we started the day with another complimentary breakfast (I'm going to miss not having a free breakfast). Jess and I stopped by Godards furniture (the owners of the storage shed) and we got another shed to keep everything else... (it turned out to be a good thing that we have the extra space). Jess and I moved the damn couch and I rolled the couch over my ankle for good measures. I came out OK, but I was pretty close to breaking my ankle, which would have been wonderful since we have no insurance currently. My knee also started hurting... a lot. I drove the moving truck to the drop off, which just like the pickup, was a tool rental shop. Long story, but I want to buy an electric lawn mower for the new house. The drop off place had an electric mower real cheap and we now have the room to store it for a month, so its a deal I wont pass up... tomorrow. Back to the hotel for a nap. I got antsy so I decided to visit the new employer and it was cool. They were excited to see me and I got to look at my training schedule. In addition to me, they also hired two new grads from UVM. So I will be sharing the bottom of the totem pole with some other people. The rest of the day has been about getting Jess ready for her next interview. Some time earlier in the day, Jess's first interview called her up to talk about teaching certification crap and mentioned they talked to one of Jess's references. We are trying not to get excited, but generally people only check references if they want to hire you (right?). Hopefully Jess will have a job in the next few days. I'm currently chillin while Jess is interviewing and I am hoping to put some pedals on one of the bikes for a ride around town tomorrow.
Life is feeling pretty good right now.

Looking Back Moving Forward

So Jess and I are packing up everything so we can move to Vermont. Jess found a bunch of hiking trail maps from North Carolina and Pisgah National Forest and got sentimental about them. Surprisingly I was not sentimental about the maps. Maybe its the librarian in Jess that would make her want to save them and categorize them. But for Jess it was also that these were the trails that she discovered big woods are big fun. She discovered the joy and peace that comes with being in the middle of nowhere. Her first backpacking trip and even her first poop in the woods happened somewhere along the trails in these maps. For me, these trails were a continuing evolution in my road to happiness. I am never done learning more skills in the outdoors. Even after spending 6 months hiking the AT, I still learned more about spending my time in the woods and making sure I make it out of the woods at night. I learned a great deal along those trails in the maps. The biggest thing I learned along those trails was to love Jessica. We are inseparable and our happiness is directly linked to one another. It was in the mountains along the streams and ridge lines that this bond was formed.
But yet I feel very little connection to the maps. I have always felt that a map is a tool that must be used correctly. It is a tool for the future, however. Future adventures, future time learning more about what makes me tick, future time to return to a state of peace in my life. The past is kept in my memories. My memories are very valuable to me. The best pictures I have ever taken were not taken on digital format or 35mm film. There were taken on grey and white matter and saved somewhere in my head. I do not look at maps to remember the past, I look at maps to plan the future.
To prove my point I let Jess know about the maps she was not packing away. I once owned a folder crammed full of photocopied maps and USGS maps from Southern Illinois and Shawnee National Forest. These were the maps that helped mold me into the person I am today. Just as Jess had learned to love big spaces in NC, Shawnee was where I learned to appreciate small corners of very big spaces. I learned to find peace with myself and appreciate myself for who I am. The hills of Shawnee helped pave the future. The two weeks spent along the River to River Trail with Bob, Nina and Josh where two of the greatest weeks of my life. The RTRT helped me to love spending A LOT of time in the woods. My RTRT hike was a direct stepping stone to the AT. Finishing the RTRT with Bob, Nina and Josh was even more fun than finishing the AT because we all suffered together. We started and finished together, which is a joy I could not replicate on the AT. I dearly miss Lusk Creek, Bay Creek, Bell Smith Springs, Burden Falls, Panther Creek, Cedar Lake, Horse Shoe Bluff and a many many more places. But none of those maps have followed me to Boston and soon to be Vermont. I know I will never be able to return to the trails in Southern Illinois that I hold so sacred. And since maps are for the future, I have chosen not to carry them with me. The memories are firmly planted in my mind. And just as I will never hike Shawnee again, I will never hike Pisgah again. So the maps of Pisgah are now Jess's to cherish and remind her of what was. I will be finding new maps of Vermont in the mean time.

hardcore hiking

So I do a lot of things in the outdoors, but one of my favorites is hiking a nice brutal trail. There is something cathartic about exhausting all your energy until all your stress is no longer important. You end up just living and not thinking about the world around you. The pain you experience the next day is a reminder that you lived well. I'm not bragging too much here, but I've got some considerable experience hiking and therefore it takes quite a bit for a trail to become brutal for me. What makes a trail brutal in my mind? It definitely helps to have steep pitches and no interruptions in the pitch. Rocks help. I was originally going to do this as a top ten list, but hiking is not about competition, so the list is simply in random order.
Skyline Trail in Blue Hills park south of Boston. What, never heard of this trail? The Blue Hills are an urban wonder of rocky hills. The Skyline Trail makes no apologies and tops as many of the summits as possible. Switch backs do not exist. I hiked most of it in one day in a true epic hike but enjoy hiking it whenever possible.
Little Hermit Trail in the Grand Canyon. This trail is concidered the third easiest trail in the park. Calling it easy is just not fair however. It is as remote of a trail as you can get. Rock and dirt slides engulf the trail multiple times leaving you a 6 inch path on loose soil with a very scary slide and a probable fall your your death if you loose your step. Combine with a backpack and the elevation of one of the biggest pits on the earth and you have a wonderfully miserable trail. Garnet Rapids at the bottom are a sweet reward before you get to hike the trail in reverse order back up to the top. Concequently this was my first backpacking trip.
Rea Lakes Loop in Kings Canyon. After spending a summer as a campground ranger in the summer of 2001, I hiked this trail before leaving California. As the name implies, its a loop that goes up one canyon, crossing the crest of the Sierras before coming down another canyon. Most people do this trail in 5 days but I missed the memo and hiked it in four days. Wonderfull Sierra terain at its greatest.
Middle Teton in Grand Teton NP. Its a long story how I got myself involved on this hike, but this "trail" tops the list. Middle Teton is called the "easier" of all the summits, but that does not make it easy. A trail leads you to the basecamp for Grand Teton. The trail officially ends and you take a left towards the saddle between Middle and South Teton. A steep rock stramble to the summit and you are on a small rocky sumit looking up to Grand Teton and down onto South Teton. What makes this adventure the most brutal was the panic attach induced by my fear of heights. I did not hike down from the summit but slid down on my butt, missed the correct path and ended up sliding down a long, dangerous ice feild to safety. The assholes who hiked with me left me behind even though they knew I was panicing. Great story none the less.
Lineville Gorge in North Carolina. Linveville gorge is known as one of the most rugged trails in the east and it deserves the reputation. A steep "V" shaped canyon with a raging creek/river in the middle with no sections of flattness is what makes this trail so burtal. Starting at Lineveille Falls is the easiest way down. For my hike it rained and my glasses got fogged over. Whenever the trail encountered a boulder feild, I lost track of the "trail" and had to refind the trail. I lost and re-found the trail a couple of times. Of cource its hard to get lost in the gorge. You only can hike down gorge or up gorge, there is no where else to go. After camping in one of the rare flat spots, a long and steep hike to the top finnishes this incredible trail.
Rim Trail in North Carolina. While Lineville has the reputation, The Rim trail is a harder hike. Missing the memo again, I hiked a three day loop in two days. Keeping with its name, the Rim Trail follows the ridge of a large bowl, never leaving the top of the jagged ridgeline. You begin wishing for switch backs or at least going around a summit opposed to going directly over the top of it. The second day was much less brutal and very beutifull. A wonderfull waterfall ends an incredible hike.
AT... I spent an entire summer hiking the AT, so of cource I'm going to include sections of the AT.
Mahoosic Notch and Mahoosic Arm. Mahoosic has the reputation of being the hardest mile on the AT. I completely dissagree. It was the most fun mile on the trail. The notch is a steep gorge with house sized boulders lying in all degrees of confusion. You hike over boulders, around boulders, and under them. Very fun. After the notch, you get to hike strait up to the top of a mountain called the Mahoosic Arm. The climb out of the Notch was probably harder than the hike through it.
White Mountains. Even after hiking 1500 miles, we were scared of what we going to encounter. Moosilauke was the first bump and a wonderfull introduction. Kinsman Ridge was not any easier and of course the Presidentials were the crowing jewel of the mountains. Lots of elevation, lots of trail above treeline and no switch backs. As an unfortunate note, the lone death of 2002 happened in the Whites as a nice older gentleman basically let himself succome to hypothermia. I can't immagine a better place to spend all of eternity.
Lehigh Gap, Pa. While a short (comparitively) climb, it was very steep and exposed. It was the only spot where I was scared of falling off the trail. It ends on the baren ridge of Blue Mountain. Blue Mountain is the site of a SuperFund site as a result of zinc smelting. My favorate quote of the entire trail happened in Lehigh Gap by Sunshine. "I told myself I would not cry until I reached the top. When I reached the top, I decided I would either cry or eat my cupcake, so I ate my cupcake".
Mt Katahdin. Mt Katahdin was the hardest mile of the AT. Its the longest and highest (change in elevation) summit on the trail. Bouldering was a neccesary skill in many places, but the reward was the greatest of the trail. After spending over 2000 miles to reach Katahdin, the pain was not noticeable.
So thats it. My list of wonderull hikes that will make you happy to be alive once you take an ibuprophen and a hot shower.

Life AS TurkeyBacon

So it would seem from reading my first three posts that I still obsess over my time on the AT. Its really not so...
So this past week was really hard on me. I had a bad mental event (what ever that means), had to rethink the way I'm looking for jobs, and got sick with the stomach virus my lovely wife passed on to me. It was time for a little AT therapy. I pulled out my old Priority Mail box crammed pack full of AT photos (I hiked just before digital took over photography) and most importantly, my trail journals. When someone decides to do something as extreme as hike the AT, they want to remember it and most to all of us journaled quite a bit. The greatest gift I gave myself from the AT was my journals. I haven't read them in quite a while, in fact the box was still taped up from when we moved to Boston. I definitely noticed a few trends. First and foremost, I have forgotten just how unhappy I was before I started. The other obvious thing I noticed about reading the journals was my desire to find a serious relationship. I can laugh now at how much I tried to "hook up" on the trail. It definately makes me beleive that the AT simply cured my unhappiness. Meeting Jess is what polished me off and made the person I am today.
I was a lot of fun to read them. I have forgotten how many blisters I got. I mostly remember getting heat rash on the soles of my feet (yes, it hurts), but the blisters are not on the top of my memory. I constantly complained of a knee or ankle hurting. The same knees and ankles that I have to be gentle with today. But the reality of the AT is that is all about surviving the suffereing. If you can take pain, you are more likely to do well. My emotional transformation was also apparent. It is often said that people learn the most from suffering. New Jersey and New York were bad for me. I thought I developed Lymes disease and got treated with anti-biotics for it in New Jersey. I got a fever, even though it was constantly in the high 90's in New York. And after all that suffering, things changed. My first few days in Conneticuit is when my journals turned into "therapy sessions" as I called them in my journals. I could read the transformation from a pessimist to a optimist. And then the calling of Katahdin took over. New England was a wonderfull place for me. I definately felt like I was out there to become a happier person and definately felt like I was accomplishing my goals. Ironically, I also thought I was going to be a biology teacher in Maine. So I am in New England, but happily a med tech.
The two things I tell people I learned from the hike was patience and not to sweat the details. I never mentioned either one of these things in my journals. These apparently were learned in retrospect of my hike.
So what did I learn from this trip down memory lane? I've come a long way since my time before the AT. This will help me recover from past week and help me in the next coming weeks as I start to interview for my next job. Of cource all the jobs Jess and I are looking at are pretty close to the AT. So maybe the AT will stay an important part of who I am for many years to come.
Scott (TurkeyBacon NOBO 02)

anniversaries

So today is the seventh anniversary of starting the AT... And the thirty first anniversary of birth.

Lars Anderson Ride

So today was gorgeous and I got to go biking. Even though I commute most every day by bike, today was my first solid, long ride of the year. It was time to dust off the road bike, put pedals back on it (I have three bikes and two pairs of pedals... long story), change a flat tire and take it for a spin. Since this was the first time on the road bike for the year, there is one instant realization... The road bike is much much faster than my commuter bike. Its like driving a Ferrari after spending all your time in a pickup. My road bike is a fifteen year old Speciallized Epic. It is an old school carbon fiber frame that was too flexible for larger riders, but a joy for lightweight shits like myself. It has aged very well and still feels like the same bike I bought with money from my paper route as a teenager in Illinois.
Boston is fortunate to have the Charles River Wheelmen. The CRW is a wonderful bike club with very regular rides planned. Today was the Lars Anderson ride (named after the park it begins in). Its very close to our house in JP and I get to ride to the start of this ride. The Lars Anderson ride is roughly 20 miles long. While non-cyclist would concider this long, its just an early season warm up. Perfect for building miles for longer and harder rides later in the year. The best part of the Lars Anderson ride is we go through numerous traffic rotaries. While this is normally a very dangerous thing to do on a bike, there is power in numbers and we get to take over the road, for just a few fleeting moments. Shorty after the rotaries is a super fun downhill through Stony Brook Reservation. After that, the memory fails me and the rest of the ride is just relaxing and enjoyable.
Last years ride was a very large ride with maybe 50 if not more riders. We took over the city streets of West Roxbury in a long fast line of cyclits. When I sleep and dream about riding, I am often re-living last years ride going through the rotaries and barreling down through Stony Brook. This year however... There was confusion as to where it started but eventually about 15 riders left Lars Anderson Park. One of the riders was one of my heros... Century Joe Repole. Joe is an older cyclist who has the odd habit of riding a 100 mile ride once a month, every month for a few years now. Joe can definately not be described as fast, but he is super freindly and carries a lot of respect. Unlike most CRW rides, no one actually remembered the exact route this year and we needed to use paper cue sheets. Needless to say, we got lost a few times. The ride definatly felt like a scavenger hunt. We stayed together as a group, mostly because no one wanted to get left behind and lost. Every now and then someone would point out we missed a turn and we would turn around. Ironically, the best hill was an "oops" up a dead end street followed by a relaxing spin down the hill we just climbed. The ride ended very anti-clamatically and as far as I know everyone made it back.
While the zenlike nature of last years ride was simply not there it was a nice ride and I will not complain about that. I'm looking forward to another enjoyable season of biking and today was just the beggining.

the first post; explaining TurkeyBacon

So I really have no clue why I am suddenly deciding to create a blog. I guess I figure its a good place to ramble about my thoughts. So what's up with the TurkeyBacon reference? It all starts back many years while at Southern Illinois University (at Carbondale, of course). Up until this point, life was full of bad memories, horrible anxiety, low self esteeme and general lack of people skills. I was not very happy. I realy do not know how the world around me saw me, but I do know it wasn't spectacular. I needed to find me. The Appalachian Trail is what I decided I needed. I needed to explore the territory between Springer Mt in Georgia and Mt Katahdin in Maine. I needed to suffer through 2168 miles of mountains, ridge lines, rivers, creeks, freezing cold and horrible heat, dehydration and a week of non-stop rain, blisters, sore muscles, hiker hobble, "the hunger", bugs, sunburn, chaffing and even heat rash on the soles of my feet. I was hoping that somehow through all the suffering and living the good life I wound find inner happiness through the whole experience. Fortunately for me, I did.
One tradition of hiking the AT is the trail name. Some people choose their own and others let it come to them. Mine was given to me and regardless of how goofy it sounds, its very special to me. I am the only TurkeyBacon (the "B" is capitalized and no space between words) to have ever wandered the woods. I received it by lugging at Subway turkey with bacon sandwich for two day so that on the very first night on the trail, I would not have to cook. It sounds real simple, but while someone was suffering though his first trail dinner, he gave me my trail name. It stuck and I cherish it.
I started on my 24th birthday in a symbolic re-birth of sorts. Roughly five and half months later, I stood on top of Katahdin. I could not let myself get off the mountain. I had worked so hard to reach that point that I did not want it to end. So I decided to stop hiking but continue with my journey. For a couple of years after getting off of Katahdin, I lived and breathed the AT. I moved to Western North Carolina to be close to my beloved trail. But as years have passed, it leaves me with confusion. Has the journey ended by now? I can very easily argue that when I returned to Springer Mountain a couple of years later to propose to my wonderfull wife, I started another journey that has been equally rewarding and my journey started on the AT ended. But then again, I have never returned to the despair of my life pre-AT, so I feel like I am still living by what I learned that incredible summer and that journey still goes on. Regardless, I have not been called TurkeyBacon in years. I have moved on to other big plans, like a carreer, marriage, soon to be home ownership and even a child. I am ready for my life after the summer of 2002 when people did not know me as Scott, but TurkeyBacon. I am ready for even bigger and better things. However, if anyone were to call out TurkeyBacon, I will most definately respond.