Pro Deals....

I remember when I was in college all I wanted was a prodeal. Now that Ive been guiding for 7 years I finally get em. But how is the funny part. After seeing a friends Marmot pants on the GC (which he never took off) I commented on how awesome they must be and he agreed. When I returned back to the world of internets I spent considerable time researching gear. Thats when I noticed that I cant afford any of it. About that same time I noticed the link for Pro Purchase programs. I started applying to every company I could think of and then, amazingly, I start getting emails back that Im approved! Being a downtrodden underpaid river bitch has finally swung back in favor. Stoked. So far, I have these great deals that I can flaunt but not share: Marmot, Cloudveil, Columbia/Mountain Hardwear.

Will somebody please give me a job now?

Big Ass....

Replacements....

If I remember correctly, the sixth trackbar is waiting patiently in the back of the truck. But, weather dependent, in two days is the arrival of the cure, a dual heim joint trackbar and relocation bracket. Apparently this is gonna actually fix the problem of premature failure of the ball joint. I have heard nothing but good things about it so I had to get it.


I also have to get the link arms at some point bc after 200k miles I have noticed that the original rubber bushing material is disintegrating and falling out.


If you have a dodge, heres your fix. DT Profab. There will be a full writeup on the installability and driveability of the kit, so dont worry. Funny thing is that the day I was leaving for the Grand Canyon, the intake heater relay got stuck on and almost caught the engine on fire. Fuck.

$$ I need a job.

Other potential projects of note:
-5 speed tranny swap in the yz450
-grouting the fireplace tile
-rebuilding (repair) my bike collection
-learning to spell (spellcheck)

All of the above and more are in need of assistance, so come on over.

Something I learned on the month long NW roadtrip: On Demand Water Heaters are the shizzle. Get One!

Life Above Lava....

Just got back from rafting the Grand Canyon yesterday. Life in the canyon is amazing and re-entry to society is not recommended for most. Its cold. I want to go back. pics on the way.

Support: Living Out of Balance....

Trackbar #5 has been semi successfully installed. Officially it has been almost two weeks since the last one went on in Missoula. The operation took place in LA at Brians abode and fixit while drinking shop. I like that shop. The Hilift I bought in Livingston has proved itself invaluable for roadside steering surgeries. In a couple days I get to go to Flagstaff again and hike down to the river for 2 weeks of pants peeing adventure. Im sure theres gonna be a flip in there somewhere and I bet its gonna be friggin frigid. Stoked.

If you run across a cheaper stock trackbar for a 2003 or newer dodge 2500/3500 4x4, get it or call me or both!

On the bright side I gots the new installment of panoramics processed and considerable too big to publish so far....

Welcome back to Northern California, hopefully my new home for grad school!

Its Official....

.... as of yesterday, the apocalypse is on trackbar #4. I have become officially a master at replacing these. With a Highlift, a hammer and Garrett and Brad, 20 minutes and rolling. Stoked. Remember that I purchased this truck in January.

Oh My Gawd....WTF Version 19.7....

Finally Im getting somehwere. I think. Just balance and oil change and I think I might be on the road. Heres the 12 steps to drive yourself crazy in a single installment over the course of 1 week:

1. Break rim x 2
2. Order new rims
3. Recieve new rims, order new lug nuts
4. Swap tires at local shop, take home, leave out in rain
5. Cuss, invent tool to remove water from inside tires
6. Inflate tires with ether
7. Receive new lug nuts
8. Install new wheels on truck
9. Step back and gaze
10. Painfully remove stuck jackstands
11. Tighten lug nuts with wrong tool
12. Cuss a lot, go pack

Step 1

Note the nice long 2 inch crack in the middle of the four welds....

Step 5

Ingenuity = vacuum + tubes + wine bottle.
Suck for the WIN
Yeah, thats a clay pigeon thrower...

Step 6



Bobber taught me this trick down in Costa Rica, we actually used it a lot. Spray tons of ether in tire, light, enjoy! Ponder smell of burnt hair and find source on back of own hand...

Step 9

I likey!

Project Success due in part to: Eldorado Automotive, Eastside Custom Truck Parts and Fabrication, Brandsport Inc, Juan Valdez' Homebrew, Nitro and Tools, and Keith's Flaming Pallets!

Noticing....

....when you look at the pics that the goods are in, yet flat. Turns out I decided to support my local peeps to mount the tires bc the folks in town are typically incompetent as proved doubly again by this weeks affairs of lack of service. And Im not going back. From here on I need to do this myself, a classic bitter old white guy slogan.

Using fire. Yup. Fire, and something with a high vapor pressure. Done it before, gonna do it again!

Either way the black is awesome and I still have a bunch of wheels Im gonna sell cheap, so come and get em.

Scary Thought....

What if this thing fell over? According to the door sticker it weighs in at just shy of 12000 lbs. The jack I used made considerable squeaks and noises of disapproval. One of the jack stands isnt even resting on all four legs. And to think on this day I hadnt gotten coffee til afternoon...wtf?

Well I got the new rims in, and unlike what the dude said, I DO need new lug nuts. Nobody in town has em, and the ones who can order em cant get 32 like I need. One lady quoted me 13 bucks a nut, which all said and done would cost close to $450, more than the price of the wheels...shipped. So looking back online I find that I get a discount for a quantity order of more than 15, and can ship quick for $.60 a nut. $20 is way better. People in SFe are dumb. Like yesterday, nobody wants my money. I go to the tire place and theyre busy. Instead of telling me to just drop off the tires and hell get to em later, he tells me to come back some other day! The guy at the other tire place was quoting me rims and saying how much Im gonna save in shipping as I watch him add $29 per wheel in labor. Apparently the $70 I paid and the $120 he wanted for a week later delivery are the same thing. I am completely unaware.

When will this road trip ever start? I now have a plethora wheels for sale, come and get em.


Note: Zambi is so guilty at everything last night she had pasta hanging out of her mouth and looked at us like, "what?"

Neato

The Layout....

River 'Secting ....

Over all
Back in action. That was till my rim broke again. Last night. Anyways, about this last weeks job.

Beautiful skies and ginormous downpours accompanied by flash floods. Deep canyons and tamarisk. sometimes sparce, sometimes so dense and youre crawling on your knees and you cant see the sky and you start to lose your mind when you realise you have no idea where your going and the gps doesnt work in vegetaion this thick. I better pee on something. As soon as I hit a wall of russian olive Im done. I give.
One day I was out measuring a point when I heard something on a nice brisk breezy morning. I turn to my left and see a handful of pronghorn, huge antelope only 150 feet away. Down in the river I hear a lot of elk bugles. Pretty awesome birds too. And I got the Apocalypse stuck in leg deep mud and had to get chained out.

The start of a new day...storm enroute

Sometimes the caps Im looking for are a little hidden,
considerable since they were put in in 1949

And some get the base eroded right out from underneath em,
thus fall over and get buried

And then theres one that is really hard to get to, dirty SOB!!

Saturday Morning Shenanigans....

After getting some coffee, I decided that Zambi and I needed a little nature therapy. We headed up to the national forest by Cananda de los Alamos and just kept going down this trail. At a certain spot I had to get out and look to see if we could actually drive down the rocky bit, and then we did. After some chilling in the sun and a walk with the roll of paper towels, we headed back. At the rocky bit I noticed how it looks so much steeper going up than it did coming down. Either way we couldnt make it back out bc of the loose rock. Nows the point where I wish I had a beer. We might be here for a bit.
I found another trail and slowly but surely tiptoed out way up and out of the drainage. The cool part is I mapped it. But I forgot my camera.

Map soon.

Duck Season....

Hunting is here and its time to go get my license. Always practice safe shooting.

Back from the Dead....

The lappy survives another day. I never realized how awesome it truely is to be super disconnected. I got so much done the day after the HDD dropped. Amazing. But now its back, and time to pay some bills.

Not impressed.

I Peed my Pants Again....

So Dan puts this address up and insists that I go there frequently. I did. This is what I found:

"i just threw up repeatedly
on the entire entire walk down A1A
to the pizza place....
then on the way back slipped and fell in it "

I enjoy laughing....

Gear Testing is Fun....

With rainy weather and lack of any significant flow in the river I have decided to test waterproof gear in another creative way.... So far so good.

Thats the new SeaVault Cube from Outdoor Research holding up well.

Another test is also holding its own: 35" BFG MT's! It seems that everytime I put larger tires on one of my vehicles that this is how its supposed to be. The death wobbles have not shown theyre ugly face, the ride is smooth and the bumps in the road eaten up no problem without that weird scary pre wobble shimy. The weld seem to be holding as well.

The Watery Tart....

Everything that you think a moistened bink is and should be. Plus shes heaving swords.

The Moistened Bink....

More wet and sultry shots from the coast:

Potential....

If this isnt the image of a future canadian, than I dont know what is.... I think I should go pro hockey this winter!

McMudder....

There are pros and cons to great deals no matter what they are. Sometimes they can be serious and sometimes not. The first set is a before after comparison..... and yeah those are 35's with no lift....tight.


Right now my sweet Craigslist deal is in the testing phase....

The Coastal....

Note: dog is swimming and somebody keeps getting in my pictures somehow....

Top Ten....

In There....

Finally make it to Cali via the Mojave (sucks) and into the San Joaquin (sucks) and drive right through this oil ranch. I dont think you could get them pumpjacks any closer if you tried. Mind you the temp in the SJ valley is a solid 10 degrees hotter than the Mojave, which was quite unexpected (108F). You could say the jacks, the heat, us, and everything was "In There".

On the Coast all was good. Temperatures went down to the 60's, there was water and Zambi could get out and freak out. Shes perhaps the best travelling dog in the world. She slept from Flagstaff all the way to the California coast. I wish I couldve been doing that.

Dog Mountain....

Perhaps the coolest escape from the world of ugh to the the world of ahh.... Up in Colorado lies this little gem. The yucca and myself still have issues to work out, and we found all kinds crazy relics like Lime Kilns and bleeding feet from yucca, wait, uh.
You will also start to notice that I have a panoramic fetish, and cant shoot images in a flat horizon (click to see full size).


I almost forgot to mention the crazy house:

I wouldnt recommend standing near these as something might fall off at any time!

Serious, Biblical Giving....

So on my way to California (thinking of gold panning) Moriah and I got to a town near Loma Mar where we saw a bunch of free signs. We stopped, and noticed everything had a similar theme. It seems somebody wizened up and decided to get out of the extreme christian following, which is where we found this (note superfluous comma):


This is just a baiter till I get the Pacific Coast Highway pics processed....soon. BTW if your down for some good tunes, try Bonobo in Pandora, super chill.

Species....

Maps for Tears....

With all this time Ive been diving back into my other loves: mapping and mechanics. Plotter is running and humming, and so is the "Apocalypse", which is the new name for the dodge. Last night I sucked off the tracks I made from the trip down to Utah and my college exploration mission to Ft. Collins. Thats a lot of driving. And Im about to do it again.

Bottom right is my house. Top right is Ft. Collins. Left is Duck Creek and that little loop center right was my detour while the fuel gauge read "E" for enough.

If anybody is keen for some sick poster action or maybe some maps of some super sick locales, make an order, bc I need to buy a new brain for this thing, currently setback at $600.

Coming soon in Sept is a mega road trip to Bellingham and maybe a continuation to AK. And for all those people trying to get me on Facebook, you can all suck it. I almost caved in, but didnt.

Steers for Beers....

Driving around scared. Zambi hasnt shit in the truck yet, but shes close. Witnessing the Death Wobbles as driver or dog is a frighteningly miserable experience. But I found the culprit after all kinds of research on the lappy and then actually getting underneath and looking....it was the same damned trackbar that I replaced 6 months ago. Bitch. Luckily I now know how to replace these heavy pieces of shit. After this new one with its lifetime warranty dies, Im modding it up to the 2003 spec, so theres no more ball joint to prematurely wear out. Ugh.

Time to Do Shit....

Now that the rafting world has come to an end, I have time to fix MY world. Steering box on the dodge sucks, apply bandaid. So much dogshit, compost it. Water tank up on the mesa, move it. A little bit of beer left in the keg, drink it. Some sun out and about, soak it in. A half finished flagstone porch, think about doing it later. Pictures of the so far today:

Gear Testing....

Here!!

La Cueva....

Been hunting out this potential mine up in the sticks for a while now and finally made it up there yesterday. thought I saw cabins in the imagery, yet saw none in the flesh. Did find some sick old machinery though, and Zambi has been officially documented as insane and afraid of trees.


On my return there shall be a new search for those damn cabins. What they were mining is still a mystery, but we found tons of green sandstonish rocks, which might be either a coppery oxidization or a byproduct of some sort of chemical leaching process....

In other news, I found out that tires for my dually are super expensive and x6. Its cheaper for me to go to 4 and get rims and tires....so if you know any sweet hookups...lemmeknowyo

Wholly Shit....

Back and packed and ready for accion!!!



Lots have happened in the last month. In Reversish order:

Yesterday I was talking about how I was due for a guide swim. I got it in less than an hour after that in the Fangs, where I swam the 2-fer-1 last year.

Its whitewater hiking season, officially.

Guide Stick Madness, I bought TWO of em, and can already feel my shoulder getting better after 4 days off of aluminum. Ladybugs!!


I just had the worst chocolate shake ever, didnt know that was possible?

Spent about 3 weeks in Colorado, charging the river and having a metric ton of fun. Some of it was with Zambi, who grew up a bit and turned into a really good dog and less of a feral menace to society. Cracking a nail in half really mellows a dog out too.

FIBArk was tight as well!

Within those 3 weeks spent some time in Utah of all places, dirtbiking with friends!

Became one of the infamous Angl-Junc Flyfishing Guides because Ive been fishing so much in the last 5 years....0 times. Funny enough, while I was there I was thonly one to catch anything using my super secret patened technique..."cussing". Im all over the site, poised as the Hairy Guy.

Interested in Western Washington University as a host for my grad school needs. Everyday I find out more interesting reasons to move there.... like Whistler's close range.