Saturday, March 30th The “Plan”
I’m going to Arkansas’ Ozark mountain just east of Bentonville (where the first Walmart started and it’s also known as a huge mt biking area). I’ll be camping in the total eclipse path on remote forest roads. I also plan on doing some bikepacking while I’m down there. I’ll just park the truck at a trailhead when I go do that.
Tomorrow/Easter Sunday, I’m heading out to my in-laws. They live about 15 minutes south of Albany NY. I’ll mooch some Easter dinner and stay overnight at their place Sunday. I’lll probably also see Kris and Glenn while I’m there (Jacqui’s sister and her husband). It'll be good to see everyone; unfortunately, I missed Chuck’s 80th birthday dinner party 2 weeks ago so I’ll get to wish him a belated birthday.
Monday morning, I’ll hit the road. My goal is to get to Bentonville Arkansas by Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, which means a couple of 10-11 hour driving days (assuming no major traffic jams). Instead of going via i-81 south, i-40 west, I’ll head i-90 west to Ohio, then 271 south, 71 south, i-70 West via Cincinnati and St Louis (bbq!!!). After some grocery shopping in Bentonville, I’ll head east a couple hours into the Ozark St Francis National Forest, which will be in the total eclipse path. After a couple weeks of goofing around, I’ll head home via i-40 east and i-81 north and see my friends Mark and Teresa in Maryland on the way back.
Not sure if Jeff will be joining me on this trip, but don’t worry I’ll have my Garmin Inreach Satellite messenger gadget. Anyway, Jeff’s more focused on the eclipse, so he’s going wherever he has the best chance of clear skies for his 50mm wide telescope/camera setup. He’s super into photographing astronomical stuff, and this eclipse will show the corona with the Moon being closer than last time. He’s figured out the software where you take hundreds of photos, overlay them, and let the software run a few hours to create a far more detailed, amazing image. Very cool stuff. The next eclipse is 20 years away and won’t be as cool as this one, so there’s added pressure for getting good photos. Per the weather forecast, it looks like the best place for clear skies to see the eclipse might actually be south of Buffalo in the southwestern corner of NY, assuming things don’t change. That’s super ironic if you ask me. Northern New York is not known for clear skies in April.
He’s also in the middle of having his campervan’s AGM batteries swapped out for LFP’s (lithium iron phosphate) by a nearby shop in Mass. There was a minor hiccup with the battery monitor cable being too short, so they’re waiting on a replacement to arrive. To make it all work, he also had to upgrade the van’s 2nd alternator, add a Wakespeed controller, and tie everything to a battery monitor to properly control the charging of the lithium batteries, but it’ll be worth the headache.
Previously, his campervan only had three 100 amp hour AGM batteries, but with AGM, you can only draw them down to 50% or you risk damaging them. On the other hand, his van has always had a 2nd alternator dedicated to charging the camper’s batteries, so he could recharge them relatively quickly by idling/driving the van for 30-45 minutes. After squeezing in 4 LFP batteries @ 120 amp hours each, he’ll go from only having 150 usable amp hours (1800 watt hours ) to 40 amp hours ( 5760 watt hours). A HUGE upgrade. That’s enough juice to run the camper’s roof mounted Air Conditioner for almost 6 hours, which will be nice when they’re overnighting at a Cracker Barrel or Walmart on a cross country drive.. Hopefully he can get his van back Monday morning, but after that he’ll need a a few hours to get it ready.
Myself, as far as the eclipse goes, I’ll just be happy to be somewhere that gets completely dark. It’ll probably be partly cloudy where I’m going,but I have a bad case of Spring Fever right now. I need to hit the road and go have some outdoor adventures where it’s not mud season. Vermont and the Adirondacks won’t dry out until mid May at the earliest, and with such a mild Winter, the bugs will be like a biblical plague until August most likely. It may not be fun to camp until the Summer gets hot and dry enough to kill off a lot of the bugs, and I don’t want to wait that long after such a meh Winter. Never thought I’d be complaining about not enough cold and snow.
Today, I got all the packing done. It all fits! I’m leaving the portable diesel heater home this time, but that means I have room to bring some campfire stuff. I’m not bringing the big Ranger solo stove which is 15” wide, and 12.5” high . I recently bought a much smaller 6” wide x 7” high $40 Chinese knock off table top version. https://a.co/d/fU64HIF I still have a 5 gallon bucket worth of wood pellets (which the little stove can burn), and I’ll have my milk crate filled with campfire related equipment. I’ll start with pellets and feed in twigs to entertain myself when sitting out at night. When out in the woods, I always turn in early (8-9p.m.) so it’ll just kill time for a couple hours during and after dinner. Smoke also helps keep bugs away.
Today I also did a last minute sewing project to make an insulated bag for the Peak Refuel dehydrated meals I got for bikepacking. You boil 1 cup of water, dump the boiling water into the dehydrated meal bag, give the contents a stir, re-seal it like a ziploc bag, and then wait 10-20 minutes. If you put the dehydrated meal bag into the insulated bag first, the extra heat rehydrates things faster and better. More likely to stay warm as you eat it too.
This is a taped version, I sewed mine.
Monday April 1st, morning heading West
Heading West i-90, weather’s overcast, which actually makes driving easier, no bright sunlight in the eyes.. quick stop at the Mohawk rest area right now as I type this.
Had a nice visit yesterday at Chuck and Bea’s. Kris and Glenn came over for the Easter dinner mid afternoon (ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, corn, and green beans….followed by gluten free apple pie and ice cream. pie was good)
Slept out in the truck, and per my watch, I slept well. over 2 hours of REM and 1 hour deep sleep, which for me is really, really good. I wore sweat pants, a fleece jacket, as well as my synthetic down hoodie and booties, and my wool fingerless gloves. so even thougth I just had my goose down quilt rated for 40F, i was actually comfortably warm as temps got down to 34F overnight. I find the inside of the tent is almost 10 degrees warmer when it’s not windy out, and it wasn’t.
I had my last “real” shower for a few weeks, before heading out this morning. grabbed a quick breakfast at McD’s.
Anyway back to the driving. shooting for the cracker barrel near Dayton Ohio today, along i-70. then tomorrow, I’ll be at st louis at a reasonable time for a bbq dinner. yum!
Monday April 1st, Dayton Ohio
Made it to the cracker barrel in Dayton Ohio. 10+ hours of driving. lunch was a veggie footlong from subway and dinner was a personal supreme pizza from one of those tiny pizza huts at a big gas station.
it’s only 7:30 p.m., but I’m going to set up the tent and try to stay awake until 9. we’ll see how it goes. I think I left Glenmont at 7:30a.m. so I killed about 2 hours with food, biobreaks, and gas stops
tomorrow, i’ll get some breakfast at the CB here, but I’ll bring in a takeaway container. the breakfasts are always ridiculously huge, so I plan on eating the leftovers for lunch at some point. I plan on saving my appetite for bbq in St Louis, which is about 6 hours away.
we’ll see how I feel after that. I have about another 700 miles to get to Bentonville AR. talking w Jeff it may not be as crazy busy there as i feared, looks like storms will be sweeping through Texas and Arkansas on the Eclipse day, but it shouldn’t be too bad in northern Arkansas, but enough clouds to drive away the amateur photographers.
Almost finished the “Fall of Hyperion” audiobook. i don’t know, I never quite got into it. I think Iain Banks' Culture series is superior.
I did text w Jeff some after I ate dinner (voice to text via the fancy Ford Sync system)
he got his van back, and I was off before, forgot his new batteries are 120amps each, so 480 amps total. so 5760 watt hours (12volts * 480 amp hours)
more than 3 times what he had before. he hasn’t tested yet, but it looks like the new alternator can add 190amps/hour, so it’ll be a little less than 2.5 hours of driving to fully recharge, if he ever completely drains them.
anyway, ttyl (talk to you later)
tuesday April 2nd, morning
started raining heavy around 6a.m., it was nice listening to the rain as I woke up. I was parked the wrong way wind wise. Ideally, i park the front/nose of the truck into the wind, but the wind was hitting the back passenger side. all that happens is that the wind pushes the large back GFC tent wall in some and then the struts lift it back up, but there’s no way to sleep through that if it’s all night. i’d have had to get up out of bed and turn the truck around into the wind, so i’m lucky it didn’t start until i was up anyway.
getting breakfast at cracker barrel. taco pancakes, without the cheese. i don’t want to tempt fate with that much grease. the tacos are a pancake with a fried egg and bacon, so I’m already pushing it. lol
last night, i rearranged the GFC’s downstairs a little. I had my folding toilet thing closest to the driver side, but i have a milk crate of campfire stuff on top of a 5gallon bucket filled with wood pellets.(with a screw top, air tight lid). Switching things around so the folding toilet is in the aisle of the truck bed gives me more visibility out the rear window, and it also puts the campfire stuff within easier reach once I get to the woods.
Last night, I also set up the rain awning on the driver side GFC tent door.
It worked like a champ this morning when i was getting out of the truck while it was raining. I’d also pulled up the ladder last night, so having the awning overhead made it that much easier to drop down from up top. i could do it without getting rained on. I’m looking forward to making one for Mark and Teresa, to see how they like it. Now THERE’s a business plan. there’s actually a guy that sells sewed bags you attach to the support beams below, maybe I’ll go into business w him. lol (he makes em and gives me $5. now THAT’S what I call “plantation capitalism”….just kidding. It’s hard work making these things and I don’t think I’d feel entitled to $5 everytime one gets made)
anyway, I might just shoot for joplin missouri today. that would put me 1 hour away from Bentonville tomorrow. then I can hit Bentonville during the day and head east towards the Ozark St Francis Forest. before it gets dark tomorrow.
woofed down my breakfast, time to get going now. onto St Louis bbq!
tuesday April 2nd, 10:30a.m. west of indianopolis.
The sun came out so I’ve parked in a rest area about 30 miles west of Indianapolis. I’ve popped the GFC tent up, so it can dry out some. I had to close it up while it was raining this morning at the Dayton Cracker Barrel. I’m going to give it at least another 5 minutes, then I’ll close it up and get moving to St Louis again.
Nothing like dirtbag camping in full view of everyone! I’ve done this before. I remember stopping like this between camping at Cranberry Lake and on my way to 8th lake campground. Although that time I had wet bedding, so I had everything draped over my open truck doors, and my camp chair too. Take advantage of the Sun when you need it.
Here’s a flashback to then
I think if you care deeply about what strangers think, life is way too hard. Do your thing… Embarrassment is for wusses. In fact, I bet it gives people something to talk about for a bit as they leave the rest area. it’s not like driving through Indiana via i70 is exciting. lots of flat farmland.
April 2nd, St Louis, tuesday 1p.m. cdt.
changed up my bbq choice at the last minute, when i realized the other one was a bit out of the way, and another 45 minutes. with the time change, my stomach knows it’s 2pm, and it’s not happy…but it’s about to be once the food arrives.
Okay, that bbq was awesome…humbling even. The bbq I make in my smoker is not even close. Anyway, good thing I don’t live out here, I’d weigh 400lbs.
April 2nd, Buc-ee’s tuesday 6p.m. cdt.
just finished a stop at buc-ee’s near springfield mo
good as the last one I stopped at, didn’t get all junk. got a fruit cup, yogurt, a veggie burrito, and then undid all that with $15 worth of fudge. but the fudge keeps well, and it’ll be good fuel for bikepacking. or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.
April 2nd, Joplin Missouri tuesday 8p.m. cdt.
setting up the tent seemed easier. i stopped at Joplin. Bentonville is only an hour from here and the bike shop I want to check out doesn’t open until 10a.m. anyway,. if i get to Bentonville early, i can go to Walmart first.
when I set up the tent tonight, i tweaked the cushion setup i have both of the smaller cushions in the center now. one on the passenger side, one on the driver. my standing spot is behind the cooler on the driver side. i’m standing in the truck bed, just in front of the rear driver side wheel.
Having the other cushion in the center on the passenger side makes it easier to get to the clothes bags that I keep on the passenger side. Should have thought of this sooner, but I think on the arizona trip i had less room to stand inside. this time i have more room to stand with the folding dry toilet vs the wet cassette toilet i had last time.
The only problem is the paper towel holder velcro strip i sewed onto one of the 2x2 cushions is in the wrong spot now. oh well. I just want to test this new layout out, I can always use some vhb tape to mount a velcro strip onto the larger movable tent floor panel. no biggee.
time to watch some Ted Lasso and get some sleep. with the hour gain, it’s more like I drove until 8:30. instead of the 7:30 local time. i think i’ll sleep well. i made sure to park the nose of the truck into the wind this time too (west, southwest) hopefully it won’t change overnight. touch wood.
April 3rd, Wednesday 7:30 am joplin missouri cdt.
my neighbors were from Alaska, they had a long wheelbase Sprinter, I took a photo when I noticed they had a starlink dish.
two forgotten things (three actually)
just wrapping up breakfast at the local CB. the road noise was a little louder than Dayton, thank goodness I had my single earmuff. (bought the over the ears style hearing protectors, but I cut one ear cover off the headband because I sleep with one ear down on my pillow)
the rearranged gfc tent floor cushions definitely made getting ready this morning, much much easier.
Soon, i’ll drive the hour to bentonville and do some shopping. i forgot my soft bear bag made out of kevlar, but it’s not rodent proof. so i’ll look for a food bag while I’m in town. I may also look for another hitch lock thing, maybe in joplin before I leave. I actually have the lock for the upper gfc tent, but I forgot the key….
so there they are 2 things i forgot. the streak continues!!!
[a 3rd forgotten thing, the battery charger for my Olympus SLR camera, discovered a few days later]
April 3rd, Wednesday 8:30 am O’Reilly autoparts, Joplin Missouri
one problem solved! they had a small master lock brand trailer lock pin thing for the smaller 1 ¼” receivers. i asked if they had anything in the back so I could cut the pin a little shorter. it’s designed to be cut. worst case they said no, and I’d go over to home depot for a hacksaw, but the cashier guy let me borrow his angle grinder that he had in his truck. I fired up my truck’s inverter, dug out my power cord, and zippity zap, trimmed it to the perfect length! huzzah!! off to bentonville.
April 3rd, Wednesday 12:30pm bentoniville, arkansas
did a quick drive though bentonville’s old downtown. very charming ( and many overpriced cafes I assume…lol)
I moved along to the Mall part of town. and i took care of getting a stuff sack for my food from Bass Pro Shops.
i’ll just have to hang it from a tree. i’ll be packing dehydrated meals and stuff that’s vac sealed, so it shouldn’t attract too many critters hopefully.
After that, I went to a walmart supercenter and topped off my water jugs using the Primo water dispensing thing they have in the store. it’s 46 cents per gallon, so I only paid $4.60 for 10 gallons of fresh clean water. I half filled one of the 5 gallon containers before leaving home, but i didn’t want the added weight on the drive (8lbs per gallon), and i figured i’d want fresh water before going into the woods for a week or two.
I also stocked up in general at the Walmart supercenter. tried to not overbuy, but I bet I did. i had to do some meal prep in the parking lot to get things to fit. mostly just dicing a large red onion and 2 green bell peppers. went through the stuff i got to get rid of all the garbage i wouldn’t be able to burn.
oh and i broke down finally and got a usb/thermacell gadget from Bass Shop Pro too. the usb will run the fan for 9 hours, and it’ll supposedly give a 20ft range. it’s early Spring down here, so i now i’ll be pushing my luck with bugs. i did bring my mosquito head net thing for biking. and I have lots of bug spray. anyway, it’ll be good to sleep in the woods tonight.
texted with Jeff during the highway drive this morning, and he may go to the illinois/indiana area, so not sure if he’ll join me later (he’s looking for the best chance of a clear sky, like a reverse tornado chaser). Anyway, he’s welcome to come find me later of course.
that’s it. just ate a quick lunch at what a burger (first time i’ve been to one, not bad, but greasier than mcD’s or BK imho)
going to double back across the street to the cheap walmart gas and then head out to the woods.
just plugged the coordinates into google maps from gaiagps.. it’ll take about 3 hours to get there.
35.7698111,-92.9170716
no idea if i’ll have cell signal there. i guess before i leave civilization for a few days, I should double check my garmin inreach.
April 3rd, Wednesday 6:30pm ozarks, arkansas
on the drive in, i drove past this cool waterfall
about an hour later, I found a good campsite. i’ll probably stay here until the eclipse. the site has decent cell signal, without weboost on. If i turn it on, i get good 5g.
There are lots of nearby places to explore by bike. i think I’ll just do some regular biking from here. build up some stamina and butt calluses. then after the eclipse, I’ll drive down to the ouachita lake loop. Looks like that’s a better area for actual bikepacking, not sure. Actual bikepacking meaning, I overnight in a tent i strap to the bike, instead of returning to the truck.
here’s a screenshot of where I am now. obviously i have cell signal, or you wouldn’t be reading this
here’s a photo of the new tiny solo stove knock off in action. 20 oz beer can for perspective. it’s warming my legs nicely right now. i wouldn’t want to try and put firewood in it, but it burns pellets nicely. the 5 gallon black barrel next to it has the pellets. the burn barrel will easily fit in the five gallon barrel. perspective wise, it’s a couple feet behind the stove, so it makes the stove look bigger than it really is.
and finally, I made my first batch of air popper popcorn via the truck. that’s twice today the inverter earned its weight. when it finished, batteries were at 96%. worth it. used my coleman white gas stove to reheat the other half of the buc-ee’s veggie burrito. also ate a slice of smoked summer sausage and muenster cheese. living the high life right now!
April 4th, thursday 9:30a.m. ozarks, arkansas
crawled up into bed around 8 last night. watched more Ted Lasso reruns before falling asleep around 9. slept solid until about 4a.m., then woke off and on for a few hours. Lazy morning. got up around 8a.m. tomorrow there’s a frost warning, so I’ll have to be sure to make sure all my little water pump gadgets are run dry before bed, so they don’t freeze and break.
speaking of. I’m loving the little usb-charged electric water pump thing for rinsing the dishes. It’s probably meant for misting flowers/plants, but it works for me. For me, it’s a good size, but it may be heavy for those of the tiny human persuasion. i like when you push the orange trigger button it stays on, you push again to turn it off. used it to mist my air popped popcorn so the nacho salt seasoning would stick. worked great.
April 4th, thursday 5:30p.m. ozarks, arkansas
went for a ride this afternoon. felt great to be on the bike exporing. did a few of the side roads to see what the camps were like. none of the camps were taken.
i was a bit slow at times, but the new bike cranks felt great on the knees. you wouldn’t think shortening from 175mm long to 165mm would be a huge difference, but if you add at the top of spinning the pedals and the bottom the diameter is almost an inch shorter.
i also fired up the Geyser sponge shower after getting back. first shower since Monday morning at my in-laws. I only have 10gallons of water, and even though it uses just 3 liters (you mix 1 liter boiling water and 2 liters room temp), but that’s nearly ¾ of a gallon. it adds up. If I showered every day, I wouldn’t have enough water to last a week . My Geyser doesn’t have the heating element. I actually use my 1 liter electric hot water kettle to boil 1 liter of water to the 2 liters of cold to mix for the shower.
Tomorrow, I may just try boiling half a liter of water and mixing with half a liter and just use a wash cloth to clean up after my bike ride.
i also went for a short walk this morning. even though the gate is still locked, it’s only a 200 yard walk to an open meadow. should be perfect for watching the eclipse. I may fine tune my truck placement, but wind-wise it’s in a good spot. just wish i was getting more Sun this morning for the solar to recharge the batteries . The Sun is hitting the back of the truck this morning, so this afternoon, I should get some Sun on the panel on the front of the truck, but there are trees in the way, so I’m not sure.
and here’s the other half of the cracker barrel taco pancakes, reheated on my white gas stove. it was yummy. the new folding windscreen I bought is working well. I just have to use a tin filled with fudge and chocolate to keep the wind from pushing it into the stove. I’d rather use a rock, but there’s not a lot around here.
and the pellets didn’t burn down as much as I hoped they would. the tiny solo stove worked fairly well, but i’ll have to see if there’s a trick to getting the pellets to burn down to ash better. Maybe i need to get a long metal spoon so I can push the half-burned pellets to one side of the stove before going to bed. looks like a lack of air to me. I dumped it out into the nearby fire ring. looks like rabbit poo.
April 5th, Friday 9:30 a.m. ozarks, arkansas
temps got down to 37F last night. I trusted the forecast which has a town at a similar elevation, so I didn’t bother emptying out all my water pumps.
I did hear a truck drive out and back this morning around 7:30a.m., but so far so good, quiet-wise. Will have to see if the weekend camping warriors arrive later today. On the other hand, with temps near freezing at night, it may be “too cold” for the local campers. Not throwing stones. If i had to sleep when it’s humid and >85F I’d be heading North. It’s all what you’re adapted too.
Even though my smartwatch told me I needed 46 hours to recuperate from yesterday’s easy ride (the watch can be so RUDE at times), I feel fine. So I think i’ll do another easy ride today. I think the watch gets confused when I stop for photos a lot. it thinks I’m stopping because I feel like I’m dying or something. My heartrate was 120-135 most of the time. Wasn’t working that hard.
Food updates….last night i finished the st louis bbq. No more leftover tins in the fridge, freeing up more room for beer and soda bottles.
I had the leftover brisket, pulled pork, ribs, and baked beans. No way those beans were remotely healthy. The sauce is brown sugar based and extremely sweet. They also mix in leftover bbq meat, kind of like how Wendy’s uses up leftover hamburger patties in their chili. Waste not, want not. I never understand why that skeeves people out, it’s all yummy in the tummy imho. Anyway I made some wraps with raw diced onion and green peppers with the leftover bbq meat and I had some bbq sauce in one of my small camping squeeze bottles.
Right now, i’m going to just enjoy the sunny weather for a bit. I’m digesting a 3 egg equivalent omelet I made this morning with the peppers and onions from the fridge. I bought a half carton size of egg beaters instead of real eggs. The half carton is equivalent to 9 eggs, which is plenty for a week in the woods. The carton also packs better in my small dometic 35 liter fridge, and it’s less mess out in the woods, no shells to crack or to put in the garbage.
I used some of the ghost pepper sauce I got from Buc-ee’s it also has a sweet sauce mixed it. very tasty.
And last but not least I’ll leave you with a couple photos. I’d bought a support mount thing for the rear passenger side swing arm, so i could bring a small propane tank along (which I didn’t bring on this trip). Lately, I actually prefer strapping a 5 gallon bucket with an air tight lid on it for trash storage. The stupid propane tank mount thing cost $120, but at least I found a good use for it.
Anyway I’ve been using my folding toilet seat when nature calls, and when done I tie up the bag just using the excess bag material, just like you would for a doggie poo bag. So, even though my white bucket is white, the Sun does heat things up in there. Even when it’s just garbage, it gets a bit stinky in there if it’s getting a lot of sun. So this morning I’m trying to leave the tied bag of my doodoo in the sun for a few hours BEFORE putting it in the white trash bucket. Maybe it’ll cook the stinky gas out of it first.
sorry if this is gross, think of it as a doggie poo bag.
and when done, I’ve been putting them in this bucket. with the air-tight screw on lid. Which I think I got from Tractor Supply because Lowes and HomeDepot only had black screw on lids, and I wanted everything in white to reflect as much sunlight as possible. maybe I should look for some sort of vent I can add to the bucket too, idk… then again, trying to contain the stink is a mercy for my fellow travelers in the rest area parking lots or gas stations when I get rid of my garbage in the trash bins.
and I riveted on this stainless steel D ring thing to the bucket so the strap won’t slip off when driving
Oh well, onto Ted Lasso season 2. Last night I re-watched the first episode of Shogun from Hulu. Amazing series! Watching some Youtube reviews of it, the historian channels are raving about how accurate the set and costumes are.
April 5th, Friday 4 p.m. ozarks, arkansas
Finished a 4 mile ride down to rt 16 and back, making 8 miles. Did a short detour on a rough jeep trail that was fun. I think my truck would make it fine down that trail, but I like where I’m at. Not sure about Jeff’s van though. too many low hanging branches. Definitely a Jeep or side by side trail.
Along the bike ride out to rt 16, there was a lonely donkey that needed pets. Happy to oblige, lol. She was very sassy (aka making loud noises). Probably wanted treats,but I didn’t have anything.
With the weather getting nicer today, I feel like I’m settling into the camping groove. I think what’s helping me relax more this time is having the weboost cell signal booster and the unlimited wifi plan for my smartphone. Last year i only had a 3gb/month plan; although with rollover it was about 9gb the month I was out in Arizona and Utah. you’d be surprised how quickly you can go through that if you go on reddit or instagram. Surprisingly, the weboost sucks almost no power; at most 1amp at 12volts (12 watts or less). the solar offsets enough I rarely see any power draw, even just from ambient light hitting the solar panel.
anyway, here’s some screenshots of what I biked today.
tomorrow i’m going to go the other way to Six Finger Falls, and maybe even the Richland Falls further North. scale is different had to zoom out to show the other target destinations.
the mini solo stove did better last night. I think the thing with wood pellets is to fill it right about a half inch below the inner vent holes that are near the top. Light it and accept your fate. Do NOT add more. if you want more fire later, put on some welding gloves dump out the stove and repeat (fill w more pellets and relight). if you try to add more to the existing pellet fire, the ash buildup in the bottom prevents the additional pellets from burning properly. Still, even with that downside, I’m very much enjoying the little stove. I even have hook things from solo stove that hook into the vent holes. I’d still wear gloves, but they could help with dumping out the ash when it’s hot.
Right now, it’s warm and Sunny enough to need my sunshade tarp.
Overlanding stores charge way too much for their “official” gear. Like $1,000 for a 270 degree awning, and even then, I’d still need to pay more to add their sidewalls to block the Sun which I worry would block/catch the wind. My friend Jeff has a nice mesh sunshade for his van’s awning. I think it was 3rd party, so only a couple hundred bucks. Not sure. His you can see through better, but i’m not sure if it blocks the Sun as well.
Anyway I like my $200 tiny 4ft x 8ft Thule awning and $20 sunshade tarp, which is 6’x8’ I think.
Right now, I’m going to relax, finish my beer, and make spaghetti for dinner in a couple hours.
Beer supply is holding up. I drink ~1 beer/day, usually after getting back from biking, and then I sip my rye whiskey if I get the urge for more booze later by my little solo stove fire. I’ve only worked through ⅓ of my tiny 6 ounce flask so far on this trip. you can’t guzzel rye whiskey, that’s why I like it. It’s more for the taste; lots of flavor notes in it, once you get used to it. Most people’s reaction to it is to make a nasty face and/or spit it out. Anyway, that’s my lame “party mode”. 1 strong beer per day and a few sips of rye whiskey. Very lame. lol.
April 6th, Saturday 2:30 p.m. ozarks, arkansas
got back from a heck of a ride. 1142 ft of climbing! Going down to the six finger falls was fun, but I knew getting back to my truck/campsite, I’d pay for it later. it was a 2 hour ride, and it only took me about 20 minutes to get to the falls. the rest was me messing around and climbing back to camp.
Maybe I should have recorded the descent with my helmet mounted Gopro (actually a dji) , but I dont’ think any of the ladies in my life would have approved of that footage. Hey, you only live once, and I can think of worse ways for things to end as far as being a messy splat against a tree. You know you’re zipping along when you overtake actual automobiles. It’s nice that gravity is actually on my side sometimes.
Anyway, on the climb back up, the shorter cranks proved they were well worth the $500 that upgrade ended up costing. On the one hand, that’s a stupid amount of money just for shorter cranks, but being able to do a climb without achy knees was worth every penny. (no salt in the wound intended Dad, if anything you probably understand that better than anyone else reading this)
I forgot to mention on the way back from the ride yesterday (where I petted the donkey), I found this horseshoe on the road. I’m keeping it right side up in my food bin (at least I know that much about “luck”). Hopefully it’s not bad luck to take it off the road like I did. Don’t need to tempt fate like the Brady Bunch kids in that old, cheesy Hawaii movie. Anyhoo, it’ll make a nice keepsake of the trip
I did another 1 liter washcloth “shower”, I think the only downside of it is that eventually my washcloth is going to get rank, no matter how well I dry it in the Sun. But that’s what laundromats are for.
Jeff texted me this morning. He’s up in the New Hampshire for the eclipse. I almost feel bad for him. I’m enjoying mid 60’s and Jeff’s in the following (take your pick! Lol),.
He did say that the new 480 amp hour battery bank is working great and the 2nd alternator upgrades are working well too. His van consumed 120+ amp hours yesterday, and he can add 190 amps back per hour when he idles/drives. I think the next project is a 100 watt solar panel just to keep the battery bank topped off when the van is parked in the driveway at home.
Finally, I also chatted w Jacqui this morning. 1st phone call in a week. Even when we lived apart while she was getting her PhD, we’d only call once or twice a week. We emailed more than talked, even back then. Anyway, we jabbered on for a good hour before wrapping things up. All is well.
I think the good news from what I heard is that she’s not being shoved aside after giving her retirement notice, but the bad news is that they’re not taking it very seriously that she’s only around another 4 weeks.
If anything, it sounds like some people are truly worried she’s leaving, and they’re trying to pump all they can out of her for projections on how long projects will take before she's not around to give accurate predictions. Oh well,as I often joked during my corporate years, sometimes you just gotta “let it burn”, figuratively speaking. Sadly, there are times you can’t stop the car wreck even when you see it coming from a mile away. No matter how hard you try…
April 7th, Sunday 9:15 a.m. ozarks, arkansas
Slept well, but it looks like there will be some Spring rain to deal with from here on out. I was planning on heading south to Ouachita to do some overnight bikepacking. Looks like tuesday and wednesday will be heavy rain, so maybe after then. I will definitely stay at my current site through Monday night. Maybe the thing to do to pass the rainy weather is to go down to Hot Springs, get some laundry done, eat at a restaurant, and find a place to overnight. per the ioverlander app, the Walmart SuperCenter doesn’t allow overnighting, so I may have to go find a camp. Although, I did see there's a Cracker Barrel in Russellville Arkansas, so maybe that's the better place to go. I'll keep looking on the maps.
Anyway, it just started drizzling here, so I quickly added my rain awning for the driver side GFC tent door. I have the tent door attached to the awning right now, so it doesn’t feel so claustrophobic inside the tent. It's a common complaint of GFC owners, you have to zip closed all the windows and doors of the tent when it rains to keep the water out. It doesn't come with a vestibule. My little homemade awning keeps the rain out but still lets you have a breeze, and you can even see outside still. I also sloped the rear Thule awning before going back up into the tent. You don’t want water to accumulate into a small pond until it gets so heavy that the awning rips.
Anyway like I said the forecast isn’t great for this week, but I do have rain gear. maybe I’ll just have to tweak plans or suck it up and deal with the rain. it’s warm down here at least. And the clouds overnight are like a blanket keeping things warmer overnight. In fact last night was the first night I slept with just the quilt. Didn’t need a hat, gloves, booties, nothing
and while I don’t go to church anymore, the pine trees surrounding my campsite are very awe inspiring. it’s like sitting in an outdoor cathedral. It’s been nice to just relax and listen to the wind and watch them sway.
April 8th, Monday 9 a.m. ozarks, arkansas
just yogurt and blueberries for breakfast. slept fine. weird to think that the eclipse is here today. so far so good, clear skies. a few wispy clouds, nothing else
yesterday afternoon, I just did another quick trip down to the end of the road and back. totaled about 7 miles.
studying the maps more, I think I’ll resupply in Russellville and Dardanelle, but I may not leave here until Wednesday morning. I think that will make my stay here a full week. Seems longer. I like how time slows down out in the woods.
Tomorrow, traffic will likely still be bad with lots of people leaving after the eclipse. We’ll also have a couple days of rain starting tonight. I’d considered moving the truck down towards the stream after the eclipse, but with the rain that’s coming, not sure that’s wise. Not sure how easy the valley floods with the river going through it. Anyway, with my bike explorations, I can leave the back way to get to rt 16 again.
So tomorrow, if I get bored, I may just gear up and ride the bike down to the Falls again. I did pack active-wear rain gear. Even if it’s pouring rain, I’ll be chugging back up the 1000ft climb which will keep me plenty warm. It’s the going downhill part that actually sucks more when it’s raining. Gets very cold. And if there are any small wash outs, I’d rather cross them with my bike then get my truck trapped. You’d be surprised how a small 2ft deep, narrow wash out could stop my truck cold, but with my bike I could just step over it. Weird how that works.
Anyhoo. going to just relax and kill time until the eclipse.
April 8th, Monday 2p.m post eclipse ozarks, arkansas
I sat out by the hayfield. Had the spot all to myself. I can see one other truck parked a half mile away, but don’t see any people.
right around 1:45p.m. the world dims. Very eery. The lighting is like wearing perfect sunglasses in a vehicle with tinted windows. Weird. Not like dawn or sunset at all.
The corona was amazing. Well worth the trip.
my cell phone can’t really photograph the sun, but i got a shot of the horizon during the total eclipse.
and I’m lucky to have had mostly blue sky during the whole thing. the wind really started blowing hard for about 5 minutes before the total eclipse. Could’ve just been a coincidence, not sure.
Before, mostly no clouds
After a sliver of sun reappeared, clouds were heading right for the Sun to cover things.
hopefully Jeff gets good photos with his telescope up in New Hampshire.
Jeff’s SLR photos of eclipse
Jeff took photos in New Hampshire. The corona shot is what I saw from Arkansas too
These were just with his Nikon SLR. wait until you see what he got with his telescope!
And tbh, this is why I didn’t worry about getting “good” photos of the eclipse. I knew Jeff would have it covered.
April 9th, Tuesday 12p.m ozarks, arkansas
Taking a rest day, embracing the boredom. I do feel the itch to go somewhere, but if I head down the hill I lose cell signal, so I’ll stay put.
Tomorrow, I’ll drive out the way I came in unless we get some torrential rain. If that happens, then I’ll head out the back way to rt 16, then 7 south to Russellville. Ideally if I can go out the same way, I can stop at a site near water, scoop some up with my collapsible bucket thing and have a Geyser sponge shower (or two) before going into town. I’m probably super stinky right now.
Tomorrow will be a resupply day. Depending on how long things take, I may overnight at the Cracker Barrel in town, but hopefully it won’t take that long and I can go find a campsite in the woods around Lake Ouachita.
After Wednesday, looks like good weather until Monday, so I’ll swing by the bike store in town and ask for any suggestions about bikepacking routes. Not sure what gear I need, but I should be able to find something to purchase in exchange for info.
So i’m guessing after I get done with my bike touring, and I clean up for a night, I’ll start driving back North towards home. Not sure exactly when I’ll start heading back, it’ll be 2 days of driving either straight home or to my friends in Maryland. Will play it by ear. They may be busy, which is no biggee. Plenty of time to see them the rest of camping season too.
What would I change on my truck?
the truck has felt more dialed in this trip.
Loves
the homemade vestibule/rain awning for the driver side GFC tent door. game changer when it’s raining and I’m stuck inside the tent.
my 40F rated down quilt with the synthetic down hoodie and booties. Slept comfortably down to freezing temps multiple times. Also wore sweats and a fleece jacket when temps were down near freezing overnight. the thermarest mondo king air mattress is super comfy and warm too.
the mounted Joolca shower stall. so much easier to set up and put away, and it doesn’t add weight to the roof ski box like the shower tent does.
the usb chargeable 1 liter water sprayer for rinsing dishes
the popcorn air popper (no chip cravings!)
the safe and the usb outlets inside it. and one of the magnet lights Mark and Teresa got me.
the padded pouch for my coleman stove
the tiny solo stove and wood pellets
the weboost (yes I have to move the transmission puck around, but it’s been awesome, 1 bar of signal becomes 3-4 bars, LTE sometimes upgrades to 5g)
the Meh’s
the surround i made around the fridge has done its job keeping stuff from falling into the drawer space when I slide out the fridge. only downside is that i have to remove it to do work on the electric box. I need to make it easier to add/remove. Star knobs and t-nuts?
the wool blanket and towel inside the GFC tent under the roof. Works great to stop condensation but gets damp and the wool blanket is a bit saggy (maybe 4 inches lower than ceiling in the center). Makes things darker in the morning though and that’s nice. Should I give up and cement a covering up there?
the water pumps for my 5 gallon NATO water jugs. functional but annoying at times. the usb powered one is Sloooowww. but it’s easy to turn on and off. The manual siphon pump can be fiddly, but it’s much faster when dispensing a liter or more.
the primus white gas stove needed a lot of fiddling to get working (should I just get another coleman single white gas burner? or am I’m being whiny because i had to do basic maintenance?)
the GFC tent floor cushion layout I need to move my paper towel holder now I think
my camp chair. sturdy but takes up a lot of room
things I should change/fix/remove?
the positive lead line of the battery monitor should probably be on the positive bus bar instead of the first battery. it’s doing the SOC% (state of charge) off just the 1 battery instead of both.
get rid of the toaster. wraps are just easier when camping and they keep longer. will make more room for the air popper.
go through the campfire milk crate, you brought a lot of stuff you didn’t need for wood pellet fires.
the yard sale I have going on in the truck cab. Bike gear, jackets, shoes, and generally crap everywhere! Maybe that’s just camping life idk.
should I give up being able to put a bike in the back inside the truck? there’s a $800 slideout and tilter for the fridge, then i could have a drawer underneath the cooler…but honestly just putting a bag on top of the fridge when needed would be more versatile and weigh less. I’m leaning towards NO.
things I want to buy/install before next big trip
1st and foremost… a wolfbox rearview mirror replacement dash cam thing. then I can stuff more in the rear AND see better than I do now what’s going on behind the truck, traffic-wise
I could also reconnect the OEM wiring harness to the tailgate which would restore the auto-lock.
a spare olympus camera battery charger, leave in the safe
spare charger lines for induction headphones
large metal spoon for mini solo stove ashes
another 5 gallon `water jug? or….guzzle h20 water purifier (or I should have just brought the msr guardian filter bag)
circular marine type vents for excess heat in rear bed (to help fridge run cool. cheaper project too <$50
later this year, I’ll need new tires for the truck, if the online reviews are true about the stock tires getting squirrelly in the snow/rain after they’ve had 30,000 miles of wear.
a 2nd coleman single burner white gas stove?
April 10th, Wednesday 10:30a.m Russellville, arkansas
With the severe rain, I went out the back way, but in good news, I had just enough water left to take a Geyser sponge shower before I left camp. So at least I’m not stinky now that I’m back in public.
Getting laundry done. A bit of a dive laundromat, but the machines are clean. they’re fairly old machines too.
Snuck my grocery bag sized garbage into the dumpster here (which had a lock bar over it) but I assume being a customer it was okay. I’d guess the lockbar is to keep locals from piling their bigger bags into the dumpster.
After laundry I’m going to get some lunch and resupply at the Walmart Supercenter the next town over. I should gas up too. Then I need to hit the local bike shop and maybe swing by lowes for some cheap earbuds., I didn’t pack a spare charging cable for the bone induction earband headphones that I have. Ooopsie.
I like the ones that have an earbud design but with something that wraps over or around the ear.
This thing at the laundromat was interesting `torture device or laundry press or both? you decide! Lol
l
April 10th, Wednesday 6:30p.m Ouachita National Forest, arkansas
Rain rain go away…. The rain made the back road I drove in on treacherous a couple times. I think it was because of logging trucks adding mud to the hard pack gravel/clay roads. but I’d rate the one slide I had an 8.5 out of 10 on the ole sphincter pucker factor scale. The slide was only about 10-20ft, but oof.
Nothing like when you start to go sideways and no amount of counter steering changes anything. You just keep sliding. I’ve had that experience on snow a few times, but on a muddy road it’s a whole other level of sketchy. It felt greasier somehow. Tires weren’t biting into anything.
Thankfully, I was already going super slow when the skid started, so this happened when I was only going about 5 mph, but it was slightly downhill, so I had to power through the slide without tearing things up or burying my wheels from over-accelerating. I gave enough gas to the tires to try and keep myself centered in the road on the slow slide down the hill. Couldn’t stop the truck. Fun, but oh man, did I get a ton of mud on the sides and under the truck. An offroading baptism of mud? I managed to do it without gouging the road up or bouncing the truck off trees along the road, so I’m happy.
Anyhoo, I just went slow on the nastier spots, but if some young guy went blasting through those roads, it would not end well. luckily things should dry out a bit before the weekend when they show up. It’s only Wednesday after all.
Speaking of, I’m not sure how much biking I’ll be able to do tomorrow. I worry about what I’ve seen on youtube. Bikepackers doing the Great Divide trail trying to ride their bikes after it rains, but the roads haven’t dried out. They try to pedal with an inch of mud caked onto their tires. Doesn’t work well. I may have to give it a day to dry out. If it takes more than that, I may have to cry Uncle and head on home. hopefully it dries out though. But the weather looks promising, I just don’t know how long it takes for the clay/gravel roads to dry out around here after it rains an inch or two. Different conditions than I’m used to.
I managed to resupply in Russellville and Dardanelle except for beer. Maybe I was in a dry county? I searched google maps for liquor stores and there was nada. Oh well, better for my waistline anyway.
i also found a cheap pair of induction headband bluetooth things at Walmart. $40. should be fine until I can get home. maybe I’ll keep them as a spare in the safe.
Anyhoo. you won’t read this until I can get cell signal again. the sky is too obstructed with rain even for my satellite messenger gizmo. but I’m fine. easy drive out tomorrow. i’ll take the main gravel road, which is much firmer than the side ones. I’ll go explore and look for other sites at a minimum. this site is turning into a pond.
here are some screenshots of where I’m at. the yellow path shows the route I drove on the back dirt roads.
I’m getting sprinkled on sitting under my narrow awning. My plan is to make a lightweight attached awning/tarp so I have more space to sit under when it rains. haven’t gotten to it yet. Always more sewing projects!
April 11th, Thursday 10:20 a.m Ouachita National Forest, arkansas. No cell signal at camp.
The Sun is out! It was a bit of a Deluge last night. I have lots of slightly wet stuff hanging out this morning. Things got damp just from walking around setting up camp last night, and the previous night it had rained and I put the GFC tent away wet. I should have remembered to park somewhere in the Sun for a half hour and opened it up to dry out. Dardanelle had nicer laundromats, if I’d gone there I’d probably have felt better about popping up the tent to air out. The laundromat in Russellville was a little on the sketchier side, but it did have that dumpster to get rid of garbage. Pro’s and Cons!
The russellvill laundromat didn’t feel unsafe, but I wouldn’t want to give people the tempation either.
When I do air out the tent, the gzilla poles for the tent doors really help it air out and dry faster. I don’t even bother with both poles per door. just 1 on each door to get air moving through.
Anyway this morning I have clothes drying out in the Sun & Wind. I slept warm last night. No worries, I was toasty and comfy. I just want to get everything dry now that the rain has passed.
Awhile ago, I’d bought a 6-pack set of Rope Rollers from Rollercam. the kit came with some string for 1 pair. I’ve been using that line for new guylines on my Thule awning. Loving them so far.
Being able to sew, I’ve also bought their 10pack of rollercam buckles too. Been making my own 1”wide, custom length straps for awhile now. I think I may even be on my second 10 pack. rollercam.com
Anyway, with their Roperoller, if I remember correctly, it works with 3mm diameter line. It’s been so easy to adjust and re-tighten the guy-lines when I shorten one of the awning poles so rain can run off. You literally just have to pull on the line to tighten it. No knots, no nothing
This morning I added a pair of RopeRollers to some 3/16 line I keep in the truck for clothesline. it just barely fit through, but it’s working well for that too. having the telescoping ladder to get up into the GFC is helpful for getting the clothesline hung up higher on a tree. Just enough to keep the clothes off the ground anyway.
At the moment I’m having doubts about whether I’ll actually go bikepacking. Am I just tired? Idk. It’s my one fear with the truck. it’s just so tempting to return to home base (aka the truck). The food is better. I can have a shower. It has a more comfortable bed. Writing this down is annoying me though. Maybe confessing my wussiness is the public shaming/motivation I need to get off my butt and just go do it. Not getting any younger…
I think I’ll spend one more night here, go for an afternoon bike ride to shake off the cobwebs. Tomorrow I’ll drive down towards the lake to overnight on the trails down there.
When I get cell signal, I’ll have to google Lake Sylvie, not finding it on my gaiagps maps I downloaded. The bike shop guy said that it’s very popular with bikepackers, more rolling hills, instead of the long climbs you get in the Ozarks.
11:30a.m. update a group of 3 guys my age just biked by, chatting away. I’ll take it as a sign to get out on the bike this afternoon. The ground in the campsite has dried up as well. Impressive. In the Adirondacks, standing water like this morning tends to stay around a day or two.
When l go for a ride, I’ll see if I can find a cell signal strong enough for this to update.
Also, in the meantime, I have dried red kidney beans soaking in water to make chili tonight via the instant pot. It’ll use up my old onions and green bell peppers. I’ll be adding chili, cumin and cayenne powder to it as well. I have canned diced tomatoes and one can of plain tomato sauce for the base. I’ll try to record it as I make it.
April 11th, Thursday 4:10 p.m Ouachita National Forest, arkansas. New camp with cell signal!!!!
Had a nice 11 mile ride this afternoon. Feeling reinvigorated now. Took some actioncam footage while I was riding.
Moved back to this campsite I spotted yesterday on the drive in. It’s windier up here, but it has cell signal and the wind is keeping the bugs away.
going to take a shower as I get the chili going. I should probably re-orient the truck too. right now it’s tall butt is in the wind. I need to spin it around for better sleep tonight. Nose into the wind is always better.
Found Lake Sylvia! Ouachita Forest
It’s a tiny lake on the east side of Ouachita National Forest. (wah-chuh-taw), I may back track to the main road I came in on . vs driving the back forest roads to get there. I’ll have to do some route planning on GaiaGPS tonight. Which is like Google Maps, but for people trying to navigate forest roads and jeep trails.
in the 2nd screenshot below. the little orange arrow is me on the bottom left. I basically have to get to the eastern most part of the green area. That blue line was for the eclispse totality path. I’ll have to figure out how to remove that now.
Making camp chili right now. Smells amaze-balls. and of course I forgot to record it on my action cam for a future youtube video. When I’m hungry I get stupid.
And by hungry I mean, biking for 2+ hours and just having a couple snacks.
I took a geyser sponge shower using water I poached from one of the concrete bridge things I crossed. They cement over a couple of 2ft diameter culvert pipes and you drive over the “bridge” which isn’t really a bridge, all the water goes through the pipe.
Driving over a couple of them, there was overflowing water, so i just grabbed my collapsible bucket thing and poached some “clean” water. Clean meaning no visible debris in the water, but as far as I know, it could have all kinds of microscopic critters in it. Only the best water for my skin! Mmmmm giardia…
April 12th, Friday 1:30 p.m Ouachita National Forest, forest road 132, heading to Lake Winona arkansas.
Here are the coordinates
34.82098, -93.02464
Had to stop for a night even though it’s still early. beautiful scenic spot. My view at camp!
I’m along the ridge, fairly high up. Going to read and relax some before seeing if I have the energy for a bike ride this afternoon.
For lunch I stopped at a locally owned Philips 66 gas station that was a little bit of everything. Hardware store, grocery, deli, hamburger, pizza, fishing bait, camping supplies shop.
Anyway, I had a jumbo cheeseburger (two patties) that was better than any fast food burger I’ve had in a long time. Including Five Guys. Gassed up as well, and ditched campsite garbage I’d picked up from the previous sites. Must have been a somewhat popular site, there was a shopping bags worth of stuff I picked up.
Drove north on 27, east on 28, and then south again on 7. Going to take my time on this road, and maybe visit the Hot Springs National Park before I start to head back towards home next week.
here are some more photos of my campsite for today. I’ll be moving on in the morning. Someone made this impressive fire pit just using nearby rock
the site is very close to the road, but there’s very little traffic and the scenic view is worth it IMHO.
here are some screenshots of where I am. I’ll be heading east to Lake Winona
The orange line is what I drove today
Trail Magic for Larry-Boy
I met a young man backpacking by on the road Friday night. I offered him some trail magic, and he was super happy to receive. Larry-Boy is his trail name. Hikers don’t use their real names, they use trail names that they give themselves.. Just search youtube for “trail magic” if you want to learn more about that.
Gave him some food and drink
he enjoyed
summer sausage
new york extra sharp cheese
raw broccoli florets with ranch
and some plain 2% greek yogurt with blueberries and maple syrup
washed down with a coke zero i had chilling in the fridge
I apologized for not having any beer to offer, explaining I accidentally resupplied in a dry county and he laughed saying the same thing happened to him a few days ago when restocked in a nearby town. Now I know why there are so many angry conservatives in Arkansas, lol!
He’s backpacking the 220mile Ouachita trail (wah-chuh-taw), and he’s 160+ miles complete. I thought that trail stayed closer to the lake, but i guess it comes back this far. He said it follows some of the surrounding ridgelines. he was walking the road to avoid a blowdown section. lots of treefall from a recent storm that’s not been cleared out yet.
felt good to make a hungry backpacker happy. the company was welcome, but he didn’t stay long (30 minutes?) ; he needed to go find a tent site before it got too dark. Gave him some electrolyte packets for the warmer weather coming this weekend.
Good deed done for the day.
April 13th, Saturday 3:30 p.m Ouachita National Forest, forest road 132, flat side wilderness arkansas.
Here are the coordinates of today’s camp. It doesn’t have the view of yesterday’s camp, but there’s a nice wind coming through
34.86267, -92.90618
I think tomorrow I’ll go to the quick hike for the flat pinnacle that i biked to this morning. I didn’t want to leave my bike and all the gear in the bike bags, unattended right by the road.
Also, by the time I got my tuckus up to the trailhead by biking, the Sun was out in full, it was low 80’s, full sun exposure for the trail, and I’d have to hike the half mile in my bike shoes. I figure it’d be far easier to eat a quick breakfast and just get there tomorrow morning when it’s still cool. I think tomorrow I want to explore the lower roads around Lake Winona.
I did drive to the Lake Sylvia campground. There were a few sites open but I didn’t see the need to pay $15/night when there are so many good campsites off the forest roads. I think it’s for people who have a phobia against pooping in the woods. Or need running water? idk. Plumbing is overrated! lol
I snapped a few photos of Lake Sylvia’s beach area. Their campground had sites about 20/30ft apart, but almost no trees inbetween. No privacy.
The thing I did notice though is that it’s a popular launching spot for people going biking, so I did the same.
Makes sense. I had a nice 700 ft climb to the Flat Pinnacle. most of the climb wasn’t too bad actually. A nice 4-5% grade, and it was a consistent uphill. Before you get to the pinnacle though it gets mean and goes up to a 12% grade at times. The good news is after all the climbing, it was pretty much all descent back to the truck.
Ron, the turkey hunter
Earlier this morning I talked with a guy that was listening for turkeys. He had one of those weird microphone things with a plastic dish behind it. I guess it will be
Turkey season soon. A very nice guy. Slightly older (late 60’s, early 70’s)
He said the turkey hunters get along well with campers, they have to go deep into the woods anyway, so they don’t get worried that campers will keep the turkeys away like deer hunters worry about the deer. He just recommends not wearing any red during Turkey season. Turkey hunters look for the red waddle on the turkey’s necks, so you don’t want to tempt them by tromping through the woods flashing a bit of red.
Funny thing is that I ran into him again about an hour later but I was dressed in my bike gear. He didn’t recognize me at first. I was just finishing up using my bow saw to cut a felled branch that was in the road. He was super appreciative of that, said he been driving by that branch for a couple weeks now. It wasn’t overly thick (3-4 inches at most), but it was hardwood of some sort. the saw went through it like butter, and more importantly I didn’t cut myself. Good deed done.
April 14th, Sunday 4 p.m Ouachita National Forest, forest road 788 off 122 west side of rt 7 arkansas.
I spent most of today driving through the southern trails around Lake Winona. not nearly as many campsites. most of the campsites were on forest road 132. Plenty of spots to pull a vehicle just off the road and go pitch a tent in the woods, but not many establish pull off spots on the road around the lake..
Heading back North, I hit one majorly gnarly section, coming up forest road rt 2. there was a toyota 4runner without a winch in front of me. They backed up. The washouts had taken out all the soil and gravel leaving large ruts of sharp rock. Coming the other way I saw a modded Jeep with 37” tires clear it, but his buddy behind him with 35’s got stuck. Glad I didn’t try, I only have 1 skid plate up front. I need one to cover my 4wd transmission box thing behind the front wheels.
On our side another vehicle showed up but this one had the works. winch and full skid armor underneath. So he was going to go down the crevasses after the 3 jeeps finished coming up. A tricked out Land Cruiser I think
I wussed out and looking at the topography and took a side road that was level but went around the small mt/hill. other than mud puddles. it was far, far easier. Saved me from having to double back out to rt 7. I was trying to avoid that road so I wouldn’t have to air up the tires just to drive 5 miles. So happy to have achieved that.
I may just air up before leaving camp tomorrow. the gravel roads are pretty smooth and I won’t be far from Hot Springs. My mission tomorrow, other than some hikes, is beer and pizza. looking online Hot Springs is the only national park with its own micro brewery. My kind of park!
if any of it’s good I’ll get a 4pack for the road. After a week of no beer, I miss my liquid bread while camping. it hits the spot like nothing else after biking a couple hours. And I do like the stronger beers, but I’m just a 1 and done kind of drinker. No interest in getting drunk. Too old for that.
Whelp. Tonight may be cowboy spaghetti. I’ve got left over chili to use up, and some spaghetti sauce too. We’re hitting the dregs of what’s in the mini cooler now, but it’s all good. Might make some hot cocoa tonight too, I’ve got half and half to use up.
oh and without the weboost I’d have no cell signal at all. with it I get 3 bars of LTE, but i have to have the puck figuratively taped to the back of my phone. Still worth it. I can get online and get more info about Hot Springs tomorrow. I thought about going today, but it’s Sunday, so I figure it might be less busy tomorrow. Doubtful, but I can hope.
rough plan for the return trek home
monday Hot Springs Nat Park exploration. find a camp site for Monday night back near Lake Sylvia (northeast corner of Ouachita).
Depending on how long I take in Hot Springs, I may overnight at the nearest CB on i40. The truck desperately needs a wash.
Tuesday, start driving back via i40. Probably stop for lunch at the memphis bbq place I found last time. Will skip the nashville chicken and just hit the buc-ee’s before I get on i81north.
Wednesday, drive up to northern Maryland to see Mark and Teresa. Will hang out with them Thursday if they have time
Friday drive home to Jacqui
April 15th, Monday 2:30 p.m Hotsprings then back Ouachita National Forest, forest road 132 arkansas.
Woke up this morning and went into HotSprings. I guess there’s supposed to be 26 miles of hiking somewhere, but I was on a mission for a beer and a pizza. Timed it well, only getting there 5 minutes early.
After finishing half of the pizza and the entire beer, I carried the rest of the pizza back to my parking spot. I splurged and did the paid parking even though there was plenty of free parking. I could have found a free spot if I tried harder, but I didn’t want anyone hitting my bike on the back.
Turns out I should have been worried about my own driving. After getting back to the Ouachita woods, at my campsite I backed into a small tree (thankfully small, the main section only being about 3” thick. Short tree which is likely why I hadn’t noticed it.
Anyway, it’ll only cost me a $10 derailleur hanger for the bike’s rear derailleur. no biggee. Just more of a D’oh! moment. Thankfully it happened on the last day of my trip so that I don’t have to go find a bike shop. and odds are I’d be waiting for a part to arrive. very lucky on the timing.
Tomorrow I head back out onto the highway. Hoping to drive through some rain to clean off the truck. If I dont’ I’ll drive to a self service car wash place and give the wheels and suspension a good cleaning. At low speeds I have a rotational squeaking that’s very annoying. Have to drive around with the windows up on the back roads. could be a stuck caliper or something.
My truck shop guy says you’re not really overlanding unless you’re breaking stuff so mission accomplished! At some point I want to upgrade my front brakes anyway. hopefully it’s just dirt in the leaf springs, but if not, it’s on my upgrade list anyway.
I may also need a new antenna for the weboost if it doesn’t survive the drive home. if it does, I can epoxy a fix with some leftover fiberglass tape, and paint it black when done. If not, another $100. Also from the small tree incident.
All in all, a very fun outing. Traveling alone I’d say that time slows down more. Feels more like a month where it’s only been a couple weeks. I like solo travel though, it’s not a bad thing if I have to head out on my own. Now I know where to go around here too. so next time, I may zip here, and start off with bikepacking before doing the comfy truck camping.
going to enjoy my last few hours in the woods. that’s all for now.
derailleur hangers are intended to be the sacrifical part and to bend. I should order a spare.
the lower bit is supposed to be inline with the gears above it.
weboost antenna damage….
if you look closely from the top down, where it starts to get thin, that’s where I broke it. I put on some all-weather, gorilla-brand duct tape and cinched the tape down further with 3 black zip ties. The plastic enclosure wasn’t cracked all the way through. it just needs some reinforcement.
another shot showing the antenna at the tippy top. Part of why it works so well is that the GFC tent gets it up higher off the ground when the tent is up.
April 16th Tuesday 9:30 p.m Kingsport Cracker Barrel Tennessee i-81
Long day. woke up around 5:30 a.m. in the Ouachita woods, and couldn’t fall back asleep. So I packed up and headed out.
uneventful drive out of the forest. aired up the tires with the air compressor mounted in my truck bed and headed off to civilization.
Not sure I ever mentioned that in the blog before. but on the back roads, I let about 50% of the air out of the tires. You have to drive slower (<= 25mph), but the half deflated tires eat up all the bumpy back roads much better. You don’t want to drive highway speeds with half-full tires though. They’d get really hot, get damaged or explode, the vehicle would not steer well at all, and you’d get horrible mileage.
Anyhoo, after a quick breakfast at the Lake Sylvia beach area, I got on route 10 east and followed that for about a half hour to i-40 east.
Little Rock traffic on i40 is not bad at all. The disconcerting rotational squeaking at slower speeds was still noticeable. Worst betwee 30-45mph. On the rt 10 drive I tried to find a self-service car wash, but they only had the automated or touchless ones. with the ski box on the truck, I’m too tall for those. So I stopped at a truck wash made for semi’s. It cost me $40, but they did a great job. 8 guys with pressure washer spray guns. I’d do it again tbh. Sadly though, the rotors are still squeaking. I think if it was a wheel bearing it’d be loud at highway speeds, so I’m guessing a small rock got in between a disc pad and a rotor. I’d guess the rear driver side. Vehicle brakes fine though, and you don’t hear anything at highway speeds.
Anyhoo, stopped at the big Bass Shop Pro pyramid in memphis. well worth a walk through if you’re ever in memphis. Got some good rain gear for ½ off from the clearance racks. My ratty, cheap Frogg Toggs rain gear for camping were worn out.
The pyramid is bigger than it looks in the photo.
There’s a hotel in there too, who knew? They have giant Spanish Moss trees (fake?) and even an area where they keep small alligators! Why? who knows? Maybe so they can threaten unruly kids with getting tossed into the alligator pit if they don’t behave!
After I killed enough time for my BBQ place to open, I got lunch at Bar B Q Stop in memphis;. so good. Tough choice between them and St Louis. Both are way better than anything I’ve ever made.
I went into the Bar BQ Stop place with my stainless steel take-a-way containers. I felt zero shame. I ordered a huge dinner, ate maybe half, and took the rest to my truck’s fridge for lunch/dinner another day.
Anyway, continuing east. never, EVER drive i40 through Nashville, take the i840 beltway around it. just do it. The time estimate signs lie. It is NEVER faster to go through Nashville via i-40 during the day. Only go into Nashville if you’re doing something in Nashville. the highway committee were drunk or high or both when they did the highway planning there.
through Nashville, i40 expands to 4 or 5 lanes and you’ll have to cross over at least 3 times in monstrously heavy, stop and go traffic. Sometimes to stay on i40 east you have to be in the 2 leftmost lanes, then the 2 rightmost lanes, then back to the 2 leftmost lanes. Awful!!! at the very least take i440 to go around the mess. it’ll be worth it.
Continued on and 5 hours later I was at the Buc-ee’s in Crossville Tennesee. loaded up on gas and had a “light” dinner. Then onto Knoxville. At some point around there I lost an hour to the changeover from Central time to Eastern timezone.
Got through that then onto i-81 north for an hour until I found myself at the Kingsport Cracker Barrel. I’ll get some pancakes in the morning and head up to my friends in Maryland. They’re about 7 hours from here, but add an hour for gas, food and biobreaks. Should be an easier day tomorrow. Today I did the 10-11 hour drive.
Talked with Jacqui, might stay at Mark and Teresa’s Friday too if we’ve got stuff to do. Then I’ll have an easier drive home on Saturday. I might drive to ok4wd.com in new jersey. Just have to leave early Saturday, they close early at 1:30p.m., and they’re 2.5-3 hours from the Maryland place.
April 17th wed 9:30am kingsport cb
slept kind of meh. lots of engine braking from the semi’s, but I slept plenty to drive.
getting breakfast at CB then heading out. almost sad about it being the last CB breakfast for awhile. sad face…😢
April 17th wed 4pm, Maryland
Made it to Mark and Teresa’s !
Just got some very good Mexican from the local place in Hampstead. then hung out for the night enjoying a campfire down in their local pasture. Teresa keeps horses and has an awesome small business helping kids on the spectrum. Horse Therapy. Helps them come out of their shell.
Mark was just adding wood, the photo looks more dangerous than it was. I like his fire pit though. May have to get one. Pro’s and Cons vs my Ranger Solo stove.
Pro’s
Lots of heat
You can stare at the coals
Lightweight and packs up smaller than my solo stove
Easy to add more wood
Cons
Uses more wood than my solo stove to generate a similar amount of heat
Can’t use in fire bans
Can’t put on an ember cover, or heat deflector like the Solo Stove
Doesn’t burn wood pellets
Slightly more smokey than my solo stove, assuming I’m using the solo stove correctly, which often isn’t the case with firewood I buy roadside.
https://a.co/d/cp9QiRN
April 18th Thursday, Maryland
9am
Going to hang out at the horse farm today, and the plan is to head home tomorrow. There’s a overlanding place that’s sort of on the way. Ok4wd.com
going to swing by there on the way home tomorrow. Will try not to spend all the money I’ve saved on this trip.
Even with what I spend on gas and food on the road, I ironically usually spend about half what I normally do at home. Probably because I’m not buying computer gadgets, sewing stuff, woodworking stuff. Gas and food are cheaper, lol
Mark is also a very talented stone wall mason. He teaches classes on it and is almost always working on projects for clients in the area.
This is just an example of a wall he did with students.
Kitty roll call, oldest to youngest. They also have horses, but didn’t get photos of them.
9pm
It was a fun day today. Mark helped me remove the heavy metal hook on the end of my winch line and make a loop with the synthetic winch line instead, which is safer to use. You just need more straps and soft shackles.
I don't have to worry if the winch line breaks free while pulling something, and then having the heavy metal hook come flying back at me or the truck.
April 19th Friday, Ok4wd in Stewartsville NJ
Stopped by this overlanding store/shop on the drive home
bought this heavier winch line blanket. You can also put rocks/sand in it so that if the line snaps, it drops to the ground instead of whipping back at you
This gadget is a propane water heater and pump for showers. Works better than anything else from what Mark told me.
A different brand roof top tent (Alu-cab). has an interesting port hole for this lithium battery powered air conditioner. The tech only sort of works right now, but someday soon, it’ll work great.
and as I was leaving the store this Toyota Tacoma based GFC camper showed up. His name was Hans and he had the version 1 GFC, I’ve got the v2. but good to see their builds last.
and the rest of the way I went home. Basically up i-287 through New Jersey, to i-84 south of Newburgh, then i-84 east home. Going through Danbury and Waterbury on i-84 suuuuucked. All the NYC and NJ people trying to get to the Berkshires I assume, via RT 7 north, early Friday afternoon. My own fault, probably the worst time to try and go through there. May have made more sense to go 87 North to Mass Pike, oh well live and learn.
added a couple hours to the 4.5 hours Google promised
April 20th Saturday, truck pressure wash in my driveway
And one last thing. Once I got home (around 6p.m. Friday EST), the next day the truck’s undercarriage really needed a good cleaning. I found a few pockets of dried on mud and gravel. the dust shields on the rotors trapped a lot of dirt too, so I suspect that was the source of the rotational squeaking that was driving me nuts.
First I used a floor jack to jack up under the rear diff’s cast iron cover. Then I carefully dropped the rear axle onto 2 jack stands. Removed the rear tires, but I don’t have more jackstands, so I could only remove one front tire at a time. Maybe next time I go harbor freight, I’ll get 2 more stands.
Once the tires were off, I’d fire up the pressure washer and really clean off the rotors and brake calipers with the small pressure washer gun. Using the creeper I rolled under the truck and clean things. It was a wet dirty job, even wearing my rain jacket and pants.
The driveway is normally asphalt color, so all the brown mud is from Arkansas
