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Wow, what a wild year last year was.
Work got in the way of a lot of things. Which is how things go in this industry and job field, but it still manages to drag you down a little no matter how much you expect it.
This year has started off pretty well. I have made it out a few times already and have kept myself busy on my time away from work.
So some quick updates. In September of last year, I was this close >< to buying a XT1200Z Super Tenere. In fact, I went home, slept on it, woke up ready to go to the dealership and purchase it.
I jumped online, and started to look at all the accessories (luggage, skid plate, crash bars, etc) to outfit it with, and figured up the overall cost after tax and licensing for the bike.
It astonished me… In fact, it outright scared me at the thought of what would be wrapped up into it, so instead I decided that I should look at replacing my trusty Nissan Frontier that I’ve owned since new for 12 years, and nearly 200,000 miles.
I started to search around for certified used, and new pickups. I finally found a pretty good deal (Actually, a really good deal!) on a new 2011 Toyota Tundra.
This time around, I wanted to get a full size pickup again. I missed having the extra space in the bed that my F-250 had, so with that I went to the dealership and began the process of seeing how far I could talk them down.
In the end, I ended up buying a New Tundra double cab. I talked them down a good portion, in fact, I ended up paying less for the Tundra, than I did on my Frontier 12 years ago. It not only has more power, but it really does get better fuel mileage. I’m averaging about nearly 3 miles better a gallon, than my Frontier did.
I did not however get rid of the Nissan. I decided to keep it at least through the winter as I have a nice set of snow tires for it, and figured I would just get rid of it in the spring. Further into the fall/early winter, I realized I really like the compactness of the Frontier, and have decided to keep it and retire it to exploration/winter duty.
Moving on…
The start of this year has gone pretty well. In fact, I think I’ve managed to get out into the mountains more this year already, than I did all of last year.
Most of this is my focus on a hobby I mentioned last year at some point that I got into with a couple of friends, which is recreational prospecting.
It’s a great way to get out, and spend time getting wet, cold, and dirty. I know that may not sound like a lot of fun to some, but I enjoy it. Spending time with some buddies on the river bs’ing and having a good time is a great way to spend a weekend.
This year I want to spend a bit more time involved in this hobby. Mainly cause I want to see if I can’t get enough gold at least to make some kind of trinket.
Because of this, I’ve spent some time gathering up some equipment, both purchased and built.
I’m going to throw up some video’s of each one so you can see them in action and get an idea of what I am talking about.
I bought a blue bowl concentrator back in January. It seems to work well.
Because I live in a small apartment complex (and thankfully on the first floor) I needed to come up with a portable, easy to disassemble water capture and recirculation setup. So you also see the outcome of that, which was two PVC buckets, a couple ABS drain fittings, and a piece of pipe.
The main reason I did it like this, is to allow the water to “settle” a bit (as there is a bit of fine material in it) and keeps the water from getting cloudy. This actually works very well, and I’m happy with the outcome.
The other thing I did recently, is I built a mini-highbanker out of my mini-sluice. This allows me to bring back material when I don’t have “great” conditions to run the sluice in a river/creek by itself and do the concentrating. This was a very fun project, and I’m extremely happy with the final outcome of this, as it works how I hoped it would, and that’s about all I can be thankful for!
And then I built myself a Miller Table, which is an ongoing project as I try to find the right “texture” to capture the fine gold. Right now, it slows it down about half as much as the rest of the material, which does help in sucking it up with a snuffer bottle.
A miller table is really another way of capturing the fine gold like what the blue bowl is used for. I built it because it seemed like a fun project. And well, it was.
Basically the idea here is to put your fine concentrate on the “table” and the water helps carry the lighter material away, while the heavier material stays behind. As I said, it is a work in progress.
Well, that’s about all I really have to update you with! I did make it out snowshoeing earlier this year as well, but then the area I like to go to got shut down. I’ll try to get some of the few photo’s I took posted up.
Keep an eye on my youtube channel http://youtube.com/micsadventure and my facebook page http://facebook.com/micsadventure for updates! I haven’t been using the facebook page much recently (apparently since October!) but as I get back into the groove of things over the next couple months, getting my butt in gear, I plan to use it a bit more.
Well, until next time!
(Oh and here’s a photo stitch of a day out on the Mountain Loop Highway!)
Oct 12
I typically do not spend time writing about my personal life outside of the articles of where I am, where I am going when I am adventuring out and about.
I think a lot of that just has to do with how I view my own personal life. I don’t really take time to reflect much upon it. I kind of just do things when I can, never really paying any attention to how or why I get there.
The last several months I have had a lot of time to reflect this, not in the sense of time off not doing anything, but more looking forward.
As mentioned in earlier posts this year, I had a large project that tied me up 7 days a week for a few months. This ran into when I was originally planning to take my “summer” vacation up north to the Cassiar and around in Canada.
I’ve been trying to get out and about as much as possible over the last month that I have finally had my weekends back, and I have succeeded in this for the most part.
Weekends have been spent camping, crabbing, and other various activities.
Oddly enough, the 2 wheeled transportation has not been getting used as much this summer. We have had a very “mild” if you can call it that, summer here in the Pacific Northwest, especially in the Seattle area.
I’m one of those riders who will ride in pretty much any type of weather, hell, I’ve even ridden while it was snowing. So when a nice day comes along that I can wear shorts and a t-shirt, I take the opportunity to spend it outdoors. We’ve had very few really “nice” days so far this year, so I’ve spent most of my weekends that we do have that kind of weather, in shorts and a t-shirt and in my Frontier (or in someone’s rig).
Jul 4
I’ve kind of disappeared these last few months. I haven’t been active on this site (or my facebook page and twitter).
So why not?
Well, I had planned on taking another trek up North in mid June. Leaving about the same time I did last year, hit the Cassiar, and back around through the Icefields Parkway again. Just to finish up what I missed out on last year due to time and broken bits.
Well, 3 months ago, my team got slapped with a major project at work. This project, which was originally slated to take 9 months, had to be completed in 3.
So that meant many long days. Start with 12 hour days the first month, than on to 16, 20 and eventually at the end of it, working around the clock, taking very little time for sleep and breaks.
The project is now completed, we hit our deadline, and am now able to breathe a little.
I’ve decided to plan something, not sure what yet. I want to head down south later this year and hit Southern Utah, come up through parts of California, cross into Nevada, and up through Central Oregon.
As of yet, nothing is set in stone, and I need to figure out what exactly I want to do. I’m not entirely sure.
I also have a couple hiking trips planned. I’m going to need it. This project, the stress and the sitting around weeks on end without getting out and about, has caused me to gain a considerable amount of more weight. So the plan is to start getting some kind of a routine together. Hopefully with the new changes at work, I can adjust my hours a bit, so I can start later (I start work at 4:30) so that I can get in a morning bicycle ride.
I have a lot on my “to do” list as well. The KLR needs gone through bad. I had to have the rear shock rebuilt, so that is waiting to be put back in (I have the stock in it for now), needs valves done, needs a new chain and sprockets, need to lube the swing arm pivot points as well as the steering head. Need to change out the tires, oil, filter and clean the air filter. Probably toss a new Spark Plug in when doing valves as well.
The XT’s little leaks have decided to grow. So it is definitely time to pull that engine apart and put the gasket kit in, that I have lying around. I should also toss a new chain and sprockets on it as well.
Anyways, the KLR is on my list of “things to get done today” so I should probably get to it.
Until Next Time,
Mic
Recently I’ve been busy with work, and doing a boat load of research on another project I am working on that I hope to be able to talk about a little in the coming months more openly. So it is no surprise, that when I get the chance to finally just head somewhere, I take it.
A couple of weeks back, my buddy Jeff started talking about Gold Panning in our Live Chat session on PNW Riders.
I was actually interested in the discussion, as I grew up always wanting to try it, but living in the desert with no abundant water source, nor really in an area that was ever known for gold, it just wasn’t feasible.
So, with that, I started asking Jeff questions about it, and decided to drop some coin on a gold pan and the other needed essentials such as a snuffer bottle and gold vial.
I’m looking forward to spring to finally show up.
The last few months have been hectic between work, and moving. Getting everything in order, being too tired by the end of the day to do anything but sleep, then the same with the weekends.
Spring will breath new life into me though.
I’m looking forward to getting back up into the mountains, doing some hiking and camping out of the way. Not to mention getting back on the road more.
I took the first “decent” jaunt out this weekend. I haven’t put in over 200 miles on the bike at one time in awhile.
It felt really good to get out, stretch the legs, and just ride somewhere.
It was rainy, it was cool, but neither of those bits bothered me.
I took a ride up North to the city of Blaine, which is located at the US/Canadian Border.
I went up to an area called Semiahmoo Bay, and to the park there.
That was really my only intent. Ride up, go to the park, ride back.
I did so, and it was a very very relaxing afternoon.
Overall, I probably put more miles on my bike this weekend, than I have at any other time in the last 6 months, which is pretty sad. I clocked in just over 350 miles.
I’m looking forward to those 500+ mile weekends.
As far as extended days out, I’m looking at making 2 trips this year.
First off, I’d like to head back up to the Cassiar, as I have mentioned previously, to hit the route that I wanted to before I lost use of my rear brake.
Secondly, I’d like to also head down south to Southern Utah, and make a loop back up through Nevada and Central Oregon.
The Cassiar trip is pretty straight forward, I know where I am going, so not much planning there, besides making a jaunt to Hyder.
I still need to plan my route for the Utah trip though. I could just wing it. Point the bike in a direction, and just go. For some reason, that seems perfectly acceptable to me, probably because after all of the planning I did last year, my trip went nothing to plan, and ended up being a snowball of greatness regardless.
I’m finishing up the new layout for Recipes. Once that gets finalized and I like it, I’ll start getting the old ones moved over to the new layout, and post up some more. I’m also going to start working on some new on the road/trail recipes here pretty shortly. I have some more idea’s I’d like to mess with.
Other than that, everything is pretty slow.
Here’s a Picture from Semiahmoo Park For yah all.
Cannery Lodge at Semiahmoo Park
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Jan 8
I’ve went ahead and removed the “Motorcycle” from my original tag line of “The Motorcycle Adventures and Projects of Mic”.
I came to the conclusion late last year, that there are so many other things to write about that I do, and it all relates.
There are many things I do, and have prepared for, that people use in other hobbies, such as hiking and backpacking. I also like to hike and backpack, so I decided this would all work well together.
Moving forward, I’ve been working on the new “Review” layout. I’m moving away from my “Need to read all of Mic’s ramblings to get an idea of what he thought of it” to a simple rating system with a quick comment at the very top of the review. This way, those who just like to see what exactly my overall impression of it is, can just figure it out with less than an minutes worth of viewing, instead of trying to read through the entire review.