Lately I’ve been very tired. I can’t decide if it’s Lyme disease or just my busy and sometimes stressful work and activism schedule. Certainly at times I’m a bit achy or with a headache like when I first awoke this morning.
Seven days in the wilderness should help a bit, with no real schedule except to float, paddle and ride to my hearts content. Lots of reading and lazy floating around in the tube. Sleep as late as I want. Nights under the stars, nothing much to rush or bother me much.
It felt good to know the new SuperDuty is substantially complete, I am ready travel with the kayak, solar, and bed lights all working. While technically I took title of the SuperDuty on March 31st, it didn’t really feel like my truck until I got the cap, racks, solar, and lights wired up.
I was more then a little pissed 😡 that I misplaced the 3M tape and crimp connectors, and had to take the SuperDuty to Lowes to buy more shit for my truck build. I just hate burning more gas for no purpose and spending more money, but then I got home, finished wiring up things, and with one more blown fuse and a spark or two, things were working. I read one of hot and neutral terminals on switch box backwards, but his time wasn’t as dramatic as when I accidentally touched a hot battery cable to the frame and did my little welding experiment with the bright arc flash blinding me until the fuse popped.
Like anything, the project is not and there is more to wire, but these purposes I’ll consider it substantially complete. ✅ It feels good to see the kayak on the roof my truck, watching as the gauges put out over 100 watts from the solar, the relays and controls clicking on and off as they should. 🔌 And everything is holding in place and working reliably after bouncing along that rough road up to the Grafton Forest. 🌲 I actually wanted to go up there, just to drive one of the roughest roads I would likely regularly drive 🚛 with the kayak on the roof to see if I had any obviously loose connections or problems wit hhte kayak rack. None noted. Everything is testing out well, everything stayed in place and is connected. And will bring a screw driver, wrench, crimp tool and some twist ties in case I have problems camping, 🏕️ but I’ve gotten better over the decades at wiring up things tight.
I decided to drive out to Grafton Lakes State Park, and paddle 🚣♂️ Long Lake for a hour or two yesterday afternoon, just to get use to driving with the kayak on the roof and notice any differences from Big Red. Drives pretty much the same, if anything with the SuperDuty being a bit lower and heavier, it’s even a bit more stable. Bigger engine, heavier brakes if anything makes it drive much better with the kayak on the roof. Between the weight of batteries and camper shell, the rear wheels now have enough weight on them, so they drive well. The handling over that rough road up to Grafton Forest – Skunk Road – was excellent and the control you get with Hill Descent Control is excellent, though sometimes it’s almost a bit annoying how it keeps your speed. More annoying though is the hill start feature when you are doing a three point turn on a hill – it just a bit laggy as you take your foot off the brake each swing you make. But it does keep you from rolling. The kayaking was excellent and views from the overlook on Grafton Forest were nice.
They didn’t have sparklers a Wally World, 🎇 but I did get some additional fireworks to light off up north, which should be a lot of fun. I wanted to get Sparklers to give to my team for the 4th of July this year, but they didn’t have them and I’m not going to drive out of county before I leave on Tuesday, so oh well. Got a few supplies – shredded parm and hot sauce – things I was avoiding over the winter without trash service 🗑️ but now I figure I can enjoy them when I’m regularly up in woods with fires. 🔥 Going to look at the campstove and see if I can repair it or use it for the next adventure today when I move camp gear over to my new truck, but if the burners are as shot as I remember them, I might just part it out and get another unit. I hate how the burners keep burning out on my, but I do a lot of cooking in the wilderness. And got some spinach, and made eggs 🥚 last night, and this morning it was cornmeal pancakes with spinach, and lots of hot sauce. Good stuff. 😋
Might head to the Pine Hollow Arboretum shortly on my bike 🌸 then shower, and head out to the folks house to clean my old truck 🛻 and move gear over. Want to photograph it and get it clean so it’s ready to list when I get back from camp a week from Monday. Really would like to get rid of Big Red by my summer vacation on July 29th. Kind of need the money, as the truck build was expensive, and I had to move money around to cover my rent check, though I’m getting paid on Monday. At least my blog made $100+ in revenue for the month of June so I’ll be getting that check before the next month is done. The truck build took forever and ended up running over initial estimates, but that’s to be expected. But I am happy with how it turned out, it’s very similar to Big Red but with some improvements. Then Tuesday at 3:30 PM, it’s off to get bacon 🥓, gas ⛽ and then head north. Fill the SuperDuty up and I should be good for the week. I will have to get ice on way to Moose Rivers Plains on Friday but that’s to be expected. Going to be hot on Thursday so I need to plan on floating or doing something fun that day when I’m in wilderness, besides laying in the hammock, drinking cold beer and smoking weed. Though that does sound kind of fun too.
More to do eventually but I’ll be good to get out of town for six nights from June 30 – July 6th. Adks, Moose River Plains, etc
