Escape From the Prison Planet

[BLUE]

Looks neat. Glad you had extra material to strap the goods down. I too am interested in that car , pinks a good color. Historical structures are always interesting.

[DRIVEN]

Oddly enough, I never would have seen that car except I caught a momentary reflection off the trim. I initially thought it was a 55-57 Fairlane but that trim says otherwise. Can't figure out what it was.

[Taterhead]

Not sure about the trim you’re talking about bit it looks like a’56 Fairlane Crown Vic to me.

[DRIVEN]

Above the rear window it had double trim and the upper was kind of ribbed. The Fairlane pics I was seeing online only look to be a single piece. You may be right though.

[DRIVEN]

I went over to my dad's shop Wednesday afternoon to sort out my damage. Shifter bent back easily with channel locks but I had to remove the peg mount and use the torch to straighten it out. It was also time for my chain adjustment so I clicked up a notch on the snails.
After that I moved on to the bags. After I emptied and cleaned them I came up with what I think will be a decent solution. Since rain is forecast for the weekend I'll save this project for then and decided to remove the mounts from the rack.

I met up with 3 other riders at the Oreanna church (1883) yesterday morning.


One of the other guys is pretty familiar with the area so the rest of us were tourists on his route. Stone ranch at Hart Creek.


He took us to an overlook off a huge bowl in the middle of the desert but it really didn't translate at all in the photos. One of those had-to-be-there places. After that, on to a miner's shack.

I saw this little Garter snake snatch a lizard and put him in a lung crushing submission hold. It all happened 6' away from me.


On up to the lookout for Castle Creek. Another spot that is far more impressive in person than in photos.



Beyond the canyon we went single track for a while then over a pretty undeveloped grade to the Bluebird(?) Mines. They've been backfilled but there's still remaining ore cart track.


From there we circled around to the Doyle place.

Just across the creek was another cabin dug into the hillside back in the sagebrush.


It was a little out of the way but we side spurred over to the missile launch location. I'm told that this was to be a test facility but was never used.


The last waypoint he was calling the Castle Creek catacombs but I can't find it on a map so it may have a different name. Pretty cool rock formations in a slot canyon that had evidence of flash flooding. In fact, the road leading in to it is really just a drainage wash.





It was about 10 miles back to the church for a total of just over 90. Perfect riding condition in the mid 80s. No one broke down, no one got hurt. Except the lizard.

[DRIVEN]

Just went down to water the garden and found my 1st ripe strawberry. Also saw a sprout on one of my squash mounds that I'd given up on. My seed grown tomatoes are doing great so I may try to divide and replant some.
Supposed to hit 97* today then rain tomorrow and Sunday.

[BLUE]

Strawberries are guuuuudddd

[wayno]

I ate my fill of strawberries yesterday, but I have had this planned since last year when I was saving strawberry plant starts, I started 3 new rows last fall and have been eating strawberries from them rows also, but I have gotten the most out of that fat/wide row I rototilled thru the middle of making it into 2 separate rows.
Home grown strawberries are a 100 times better than what can be bought at the store although Chucks every once in a while during the summer has local grown strawberries for sale, I seen some there yesterday and they sorta smelled like strawberries when I was near them.
It is 52 degrees right now, the high was 65 degrees, seems like it was warmer in FEB/MAR, my water tank has saved around 200 gallons of water today alone, if the gutter extended the whole length of the roof it would likely be full already, that is 300 gallons of rain water in the photo below.

[DRIVEN]

Made an attempt to remedy my saddlebag situation. Made some reinforcement plates for the inside and used screws with nylocks and large washer to spread the load better. The original rivets were super soft when I trimmed them off.




I added some additional hook points and a deeper support loop to the mount too.


Now they have stronger support on the mounts, better bracing an the lower third, and I can strap them tight against the bike so they can't bounce around so much.


I think I might patent the new support system and market it as "The Borat".

[DRIVEN]

Went over to my dad's and worked on the wagon for a while but didn't take any pics. Drove it to lunch then switched gears back to motorcycle chores.

Built a saddlebag mount and got them mocked up. I may sew in a couple more D-rings so I can strap them down tighter.

[DRIVEN]

I needed to retest my luggage on the white bike after the reinforcement and the new Borat system. I left yesterday about 11 and started the day with a taco stop then a few miles of gravel road. The next several miles were decent 2 track through the desert. With all the camping gear, the bike does okay until it gets complicated with steep hills or deep moguls. This hillclimb was a lot steeper than it looks.


As I climbed in elevation the trails got a little, then a lot rougher. On the rocky and steep stuff I discovered that all that weight out back really had an adverse effect on maneuverability. Even with only 14hp, it really wanted to climb. That fat tire wants to grab and push. The problem is that all that weight on the rear makes the front light and hard to direct. Basically, it's a directed wheelie situation unless I'm up on the pegs.

I saw several cabins and a few mines.









I kept climbing to 8002 feet then dropped into the back side of Silver City.







I've been using OnX Offroad for my routing and ran into a glitch or two so far. But this one was pretty inconvenient. Once I left Silver City I was headed to Reynolds and a few miles beyond to where I planned to camp. OnX made no designation to Reynolds Creek road crossing private property and being closed. I passed a sign and shrugged it off until I got to a padlocked gate and turned around. I was going over Black Mountain to bypass and saw a trail on the map that looked like it bypassed the private land. Actually, it was 2 parallel trails. I followed the first but it obviously hadn't been used in a long time. It was a couple miles long and dead-ended at another padlocked gate.


I had to backtrack about a mile to where it looked like I could overland to the parallel trail. Well, after a couple hundred yards it dropped me into a dry creekbed. Looked like a road on the map though. I could see where I was trying to go so I just followed it. Literally 1-2 mph over rocks and sagebrush. I eventually ended up where it looked like maybe there had once been a "road". Maybe.



I followed it another 1/2 mile until I got down to where cattle had been. At one point I got tangled with a sagebrush trunk the size of my forearm and I had to use a hatchet to free the TW. About 100 yards after that I had a 12-16" water crossing to finally get to Democrat road. I ended up behind another chained rancher's gate. Since it was really close to his house I quietly slipped through and bolted toward Reynolds.

Just a few miles NW of Reynolds I found a spot on top of a hill where I've seen wild horses in the past. It wasn't necessarily a comfortable night but I was all alone and the view was unbeatable. Sunrise, especially.

[DRIVEN]

This is probably kind of an odd sidetrack. I've got an bit of an odd fascination with old cemeteries. The first one I stopped at was the one right on the edge of Silver City. The oldest headstone I found was 1874. Most were in the 1890s but I saw one from 1984.




There was a fence that separated the Mason cemetary up the hill. The most ornate headstones were up there but, oddly, so were the most "Unknown" markers. Fire has gone through here several times over the years.






Up the hill from Silver City is the Fairview Cemetary. I only counted 3 actual headstones there. This one had been displaced by the memorial tree and reset in concrete.




There were about 3 dozen "Unknown" headstones next to placed field stones. I would assume that any less expensive wooden markers were probably consumed by any fires that have come through in the last 150 years.


Life was hard back then. There were lots of baby graves in all of the cemeteries.



It was a long and complicated ride but I made a quick stop in Reynolds. The mosquitoes were relentless. This cemetary looks to be from close to the same time frame. I noted the McDonald family lost 6 children in less than 10 years. Mother died in her 40s. Brutally hard lives.

[Taterhead]

I too have an odd fascination with old cemeteries. I’m assuming those were death years, and not birth correct?

I actually memorized an epitaph from a headstone in a cemetery right outside of Selma Alabama that I thought was pretty cool. It went like this:
Remember man as you walk by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now you too shall be
So prepare for you will follow me

[DRIVEN]

Yes, year of death. That was the era when this area of the country was being settled. Prior to that, people mostly just passed through on their way to California or Oregon. https://www.historicsilvercityidaho.com

[DRIVEN]

I ordered up the round boy suspension kit plus a new rear tire and tube. Everything went pretty straightforward.









The last ting I did was put in a new air filter. I'm pretty embarrassed that I neglected the old one so badly.



The new stiffer springs were immediately noticeable. I'm anxious to get it out on the trails and see how it handles off road.

[DRIVEN]

Starting in on a dumb little project. My 5x6 tilt trailer that I bought a year and a half ago is waaay beyond due for new decking. The replacenent plywood has been leaning up in the corner of the garage for well over a year. I decided that since I was going that far, might as well clean it up bit and give it a coat of paint too.


I found a bent crossmember (where the crowbar is pointing) but luckily its fairly flimsy so I just used a baby sledge to send it back home.


This stupid thing is covered in old stickers. Unfortunately all but one are that thin silver backed type that can't be peeled off. Now I get to do it the tedious way.



Not sure I'll have time to get back over there tomorrow. Maybe Sunday.

[DRIVEN]

I tried this experiment because a $10 quart of paint and a $10 HF gun was cheaper than rattle cans. It actually turned out decent.








The 2x6 side rails are done. Just letting the WaterSeal on all the wood dry overnight then it's done.

[Laecaon]

Definitely looks way nicer.

[wayno]

I like the sunken loops on the tops of the side rails, they will hold down stuff even when the straps are very tight, them eye bolts on the sides I am not impressed with, they bend easily, especially when the trailer hits a bump on one side where the load(what is strapped down) tries shifting sideways.
I have always liked the 720 exterior bed hooks, they are tight/close/not tall or sticking out where there is leverage involved, it is very hard to impossible to bend them, I have had them on my work truck since building the bed and have never damaged one, and I have hauled some fairly large loads of firewood and I have them straps tight, very tight, not one has ever even came loose but I don't use them hooks all the time either, I have other places to put the strap hooks if the 720 hook are not in the perfect spot, I need a couple on the rear but so far I have managed without rear hooks.



I suppose that using several straps using them eyes bolts will work as with several mount points being used at the same time as the load can be spread out over several straps and the straps do not need to be as tight, but in the end I can see them getting bent and the load getting loose, the looser the straps get the easier it is to bend the eye bolts, it's like the domino effect, once one fails the others are taking more of the weight which can lead to them failing, the 720 hooks are really easy to use with small strap hooks and I have never bent a strap hook either.

[DRIVEN]

Not a whole lot has gotten done since the wagon sold. Glad to have that behind me. Not sure if it's really even right for me to keep posting here since I'm Datsunless and have zero intentions of ever buying another.

We had people visiting for most of last week so I was focused on house/yard work before they flew in. We hosted a 3rd of July BBQ too because that's when our town does fireworks. Usually Main Street and the waterfront are pretty packed but it was really sparse this year.

With only a few days left until the OBDR ride, I got the oil changed in both as well as the steering bearings replaced on the white bike.





The white one has developed an oil leak at the main shaft and it weeps a little at the kickstarter so I just ordered up all the seals and the LS engine cover gasket. I tore into it this morning only to find that they shipped me the wrong seal. I'll have to find something local or else just replace 3/4 and put it back together. I guess I can always pack a bottle of oil.


Since the work day was a bust, I went on a 100 mile ride over some familiar roads. Riding helps me think more clearly.