Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.
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Wanting to reuse a foam brush for applying another coat of stain in a few hours I normally would cover it in plastic wrap so that it doesn’t dry out. Since I was wearing nitrile gloves while staining I instead removed one, turning it inside out while doing so, stuck the brush inside, and closed it off with a rubber band. This should be sufficient to keep it wet until the current coat has time to dry.
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This afternoon I received a package containing 8 packs (32 pairs) of underwear; Fruit of the Loom Boxer Briefs. While they were all purchased from Amazon at the same time, some of the packs were made in El Salvador and others in India. The ones from El Salvador are made of fabric from the US while the Indian ones apparently use domestic fabric.
The difference between the two can be seen in the image above, with the center/top pair being from India and the two side/top pairs being from El Salvador. The Indian fabric is a bit softer with a finer, less ribbed weave. I wonder which version will hold up longer.
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Jeff recently visited Japan and brought Danielle and I these Tokyo Banana snacks. These are banana custard filled sponge cake and are excellent. Apparently these are one of the most popular souvenir gifts from Tokyo, and for good reason.
I particularly like the English writing on the front of the package which reads:
People gather to TOKYO from here and there with memories of their home. And then, TOKYO gets everyone’s home town. TOKYO BANANA.
I’m hoping that these’ll be available at local Japanese shops.
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Bell’s has released this year’s batch of Hopslam and per usual it’s not at all stores. Thanks to Jon Boughner pointing me to Busch’s in Rochester Hills I was able to pick up two six packs for $15.99/ea. I believe there were six or eight cases of it sitting on display just waiting to be purchased.
I’ve got one pack sitting in the fridge, and I’ll let the other sit (and age) in the basement until warm weather arrives. Hopslam is always a nice surprise for people when summer comes around.
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This afternoon an updated copy of my previous map of Oakland County’s Addison Oaks park’s Mountain Bike Route went live on DestinationOakland.com, Oakland County’s portal-ish website for “…all there is to see and do in Oakland County…”.
With some spare winter evenings and a few days off work around Christmas I was able to get the first version completed, and then after working with some great folks at OCPR this new version was developed. Beyond some readability and Point of Interest enhancements it now bears a DestinationOakland.com logo, my Trail Courtesy logo, and can be folded into quarters (for distribution in a map box) and still have all title and all logos visible.
I’m really happy with how it came out, and I’m particularly glad that Addison Oaks now has a usable map of the mountain bike route. It’ll be good for new people to find their way around, trail day work, and trail development proposals.
If you’d like to download a copy for yourself, it is available from either of these three locations: Addison Oaks Park Maps · Oakland County Park Maps · MMBA Trail Guide.
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This past Saturday when I stopped at Cap N Cork to get some brewing supplies I also bought a Brew Hauler. This low-cost (~$12 or so) strap system made out of nylon webbing fits around a carboy making it much easier to carry. Instead of having to carefully lift a full (and potentially wet) carboy and hug it while carrying it around the house I can now just lift the nylon straps and carry it.
This worked well on the initial test of carrying a carboy of Chocolate Milk Stout from the laundry room into the bathtub where it’s fermenting, and I suspect it’ll work well after that. While looking up info on the product I did find this report of it not working right for one person, but I suspect that they didn’t have it set up quite right, resulting in the carboy sliding out one side of it. I’ll keep a careful eye on it, but it seems like it’ll be just fine.
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Here’s a photo from down in the Seasonal Loops at River Bends during today’s ride. The creek is wider than ever and wasn’t worth riding at these temperatures, so I carefully walked across the bridge that someone had fashioned from a few old logs using the bike to help balance myself. With the logs being a bit wobbly it was rather interesting; I probably should have just ridden through the water.
This ride at River Bends happened when I was on the way home (by car) from a ride up at Addison Oaks and Bald Mountain – North Unit with a friend. He and I met up at Oakview Middle School to be between the two parks, rode over to Addison (where he hadn’t been in 10+ years), did a lap there, then went over to Bald Mountain and rode a lap of the east part of the North Unit (red trail). The weather out there was absolutely fantastic, with sunny, blue skies, not much wind, and a nice line down most of the trails. While a little more snow may have been fun, it’s hard to ask for better winter riding weather.
If you’re interested, here’s the lot of the photos that I took today:
2 Comments· Roger’s Vassago Jabberwocky at Addison Oaks after the last of the initial climbing.
· Looking at the flaky, asbestos-like snow on the trail at Addison Oaks.
· Roger walking up Fall Line Hill (Telemark Hill) at Addison Oaks.
· Roger standing in front of Prince Lake as we rode the top of the levee.
· Me (Steve) standing on the levee in front of Prince Lake at Bald Mountain State Recreation Area while out riding with Roger.
· Heavily rutted single track at River Bends, likely caused by people riding muddy trail just before it froze.
· Mukluk leaned on an impromptu bridge in the floodplane / seasonal loops at River Bends.
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With the unseasonably warm weather that we’ve been having in Michigan today was the first properly snowy ride that I’ve been able to go on. Jeremy Verbeke and I headed up to Stony Creek, parking at and heading in through the hole in the fence, and rode a full lap of the trail, including all of the single track and a bunch of two track in the southeast part of the park. Today’s 18°F, little wind, and slightly cloudy skies was as perfect of winter riding as one could ask for.
The trail conditions were perfect, with a good layer of firm, packing, tacky snow on almost everything and no mud. There were some notable frozen ruts throughout The Pines which were clearly the result of over-anxious riders during the last few weeks freeze/thaw cycles, but they weren’t anything that I can see being a problem long term. Most of the trail was in great shape.
Riding, while hard, was otherwise uneventful. Despite snowing riding (and Jeremy’s first time out properly riding in snow) neither of us fell, nor were there any close calls. This was a really nice ride.
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In mountain biking literature it’s common to find graphics which replicate a yield sign and indicate that, as a courtesy while riding trails, cyclists should yield to both hikers and equestrians. I recently found myself needing one of these graphics for a map that I’m working on, and while it’s easy to find small raster (PNG, GIF, etc) versions online I was unable to easily locate a vector copy, much less one that had a license allowing free reuse. So, I made one myself and it’s available as public domain for anyone to reuse.
This graphic, as seen above, can be downloaded from here in EPS format: mtb_trail_courtesy_yield_sign_v1.eps
In making this logo I used cyclist, hiker, and equestrian graphics provided by the National Park Service as part of their Map Symbols for NPS Maps. Being released in October 2011 these are as up to date as possible. Curiously, these symbols have just one symbol for “Bicycle Path” which seems to combine all cycling routes under one symbol.
I believe this artwork (mtb_trail_courtesy_yield_sign_v1.eps, MD5 checksum 4aac401c347b80675a673e756a604480) to be free of known copyright restrictions and I am thereby releasing it into the public domain. If this artwork is reused elsewhere a citation (to Steve Vigneau / nuxx.net) would be appreciated, but it is not necessary.
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I’ve occasionally had people ask me what I carry when riding my bicycle. They are usually wondering what sort of tools to get, what emergency supplies to bring, and things like that. Tonight I finally got around to documenting what I keep in my bag. This is not an exhaustive list of everything I ever carry, nor do I think it’s applicable to everyone else, but I hope it helps some people out with figuring out what they want to carry.
The contents listed here are what I normally carry in my bag, a Deuter Race Air Lite hydration pack, which I first saw my friend Erik using and found to be really nice when I checked them out at Trail’s Edge. In the ~1 year that I’ve been using this pack I’ve been quite happy with it, although I’m still tempted to replace the bite valve with a CamelBak Hydrolock and Big Bite Valve. It’s much nicer than the CamelBak M.U.L.E. that I had previously, most specifically because of the extra ventilation on the back. The bag, packed and ready to ride with, can be seen here: photo.
I’ve also got a Fox 40 Micro Safety pealess whistle attached to my shoulder strap (photo). After hearing this story about a local guy, Joe Foy (hodaddy), who got stuck in the woods while riding in the winter alone I realized that I should have an auxiliary way to call for help, and the whistle it is. After all, one can blow a whistle for a lot longer than they can yell.
So, what’s in the bag? While the foodstuffs vary as they get eaten all of this is pretty typical:
· Cable Ties (Thin/short and wide/long, 4 or so of each.)
· 2x Nitrile Gloves (Stuffed into a small plastic zip-top bag.)
· Crank Brothers multi-17 Tool
· Sawyer Maxi-Deet 100% DEET Insect Repellant (Only carried in the summer, applied only when I need to stop in bug-infested areas.)
· Crank Brothers power pump ultra High/Low Pressure Pump
· Clif Kid Zbar (Half normal Clif Bar size and much tastier.)
· Trader Joe’s Dried Fruit Bar (Like a gel, but almost better.)
· Replacement Derailleur Hanger (from DerailleurHanger.com / Wheels Manufacturing)
· Tire Patch Kit w/ Sandpaper Abrasive
· $20 Cash
· Spare SRAM PC-1 Links, 8 and 9-speed Quick Links
· Presta to Schrader Valve Adapter
· ProGold Pro Link Chain Lube
· 1x Pedro’s Tire Lever
· 1x Tube (Typically Kenda Super Lite 29 x 1.9/2.3.)
· 2x Clean, Old Cotton Socks (Tube packed in one, multi-tool and tire lever in another. Also useful as rags.)
· Olympus Stylus 850 SW Ruggedized Camera (Usually in a jersey pocket, but almost always with me.)
· Car Keys
· Wallet
· Gels (Clif Shot Gels are good, and the Litter Leash works. I’m also fond of Hammer Gel.)
· Cell Phone in Pelican 1015 Case (More Photos)
Except for the camera, phone, and wallet, all of this packs down into a space a bit larger than two fists. It all fits nicely into the bag and leaves me plenty of room to carry extra stuff. If I’m going on a longer ride I’ll also throw in some extra food, such as granola† or maybe a sandwich. Sometimes I’ll also toss a folding saw or jacket in the bag. If it’s night time it’ll also house the battery for my light and a hand-held flashlight, and if it’s winter I’ll also add some chemical warmers and a heavy pair of gloves.
There are a few changes that I should probably make:
· Replace the $20 bill with some change. Maybe 5x $1, 1x $5, and 1x $10, just to make things easier when stopping in an emergency.
· For winter riding add a mylar emergency blanket, candle, and matches.
· Get some alcohol prep pads. Useful for cleaning hands and other things.
· Get some gaffer tape and wrap a few turns around the pump handle.
· Get a Surly Toob, a 3.x” 26″ tube, or something appropriate for the Mukluk. Especially when doing longer, solo winter rides.
· Get a small amount of toilet paper and store it in a waterproof pouch. Perhaps one or two of the packs that come with MREs.
† Trader Joe’s Oh My! Omega Trek Mix is my personal favorite. It’s all nuts, seeds, and berries and doesn’t result in my blood sugar crashing the way I do after a bunch of other more candy-like trail mixes. It also tastes really good when hot or cold.
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