First off, holy crap it has been a long time since I posted. Unfortunately, I haven't been taking any hikes. That is mostly due to a very busy summer schedule with various sports and travel. I'm hoping to get back into that soon as I miss it. Backpacker Magazine has a contest set up for mapping unmapped (to them) hikes and getting prizes for how many miles you map. I had planned to do a bunch this summer (as there are barely any mapped in this area), but I just haven't gotten around to it.
What I have been doing is playing Ultimate (at least twice a week) and baseball. I joined an ultimate league in the area at the advice of a friend. You get assigned to a team (they try to make things even) and play one game a week on Thursday nights. Our team didn't do so well, going 3-7 in the regular season and then losing both of our pool play games in the playoffs and then our first (and only) game in the brackets. Despite not doing well, I had a great time, met some great people, and (I think) improved greatly at the game. I have PLENTY of things to work on in our fun pick-up games with friends. Hopefully, I can continue improving over the year and come back even better for next summer's league.
Another thing I did at the beginning of the Summer (31 May) was purchase a motorcycle. I've been riding it around mostly just for fun on back roads, but I have also used it to commute to school and also to run errands and go visit friends. I've taken a couple of long rides just to get out, too. A couple of weeks ago I headed out to Logan Mills, PA to take a look at the covered bridge there (some pictures here) Last night, I headed down to Greenwood Furnace State Park. I'd been meaning to go down there to go hiking for a while, but never made it. The route looked perfect to ride down though (mostly untraveled roads). I had planned to take a different way back than I went, but that road was quite broken and covered with gravel and loose rock (not the best riding surface). Instead, I decided that it was time to ride on the real highway and turned towards the Mifflin County Airport (right off of 322 just East of the reservoir and 7 Mountains). The frame to the right shows the (partial) GPS log of my trip. For some reason the my eTrex Vista shut off at Tussey Mountain and I had to turn it back on. Because of that (and the less than stellar Garmin Connect website), it is broken up into two activities.
Riding on the highway was not bad at all. I thought I'd be a bit scared, nervous, or tentative; but I was none of those. I just wound up cruising all the way home. The bike was nowhere near the top end of the RPMs driving at 60mph, but you still get a pretty good shake going that speed. Not at all uncomfortable, but I would NOT want to go all day doing that. I much prefer 55mph and lower. I suppose that you could put a smaller sprocket on the wheel or install a larger 5th gear sprocket and that would reduce the RPMs and give a bit smoother ride. Also, you can do some somewhat serious changes to the engine on the bike that I have (rephase the camshaft) that is supposed to smooth out the ride. I don't think that's necessary at this point (or possibly ever). I'll just keep fixing up the small things that are needed and slowly make the improvements that I want on the bike (like saddle bags!)
What I have been doing is playing Ultimate (at least twice a week) and baseball. I joined an ultimate league in the area at the advice of a friend. You get assigned to a team (they try to make things even) and play one game a week on Thursday nights. Our team didn't do so well, going 3-7 in the regular season and then losing both of our pool play games in the playoffs and then our first (and only) game in the brackets. Despite not doing well, I had a great time, met some great people, and (I think) improved greatly at the game. I have PLENTY of things to work on in our fun pick-up games with friends. Hopefully, I can continue improving over the year and come back even better for next summer's league.
Another thing I did at the beginning of the Summer (31 May) was purchase a motorcycle. I've been riding it around mostly just for fun on back roads, but I have also used it to commute to school and also to run errands and go visit friends. I've taken a couple of long rides just to get out, too. A couple of weeks ago I headed out to Logan Mills, PA to take a look at the covered bridge there (some pictures here) Last night, I headed down to Greenwood Furnace State Park. I'd been meaning to go down there to go hiking for a while, but never made it. The route looked perfect to ride down though (mostly untraveled roads). I had planned to take a different way back than I went, but that road was quite broken and covered with gravel and loose rock (not the best riding surface). Instead, I decided that it was time to ride on the real highway and turned towards the Mifflin County Airport (right off of 322 just East of the reservoir and 7 Mountains). The frame to the right shows the (partial) GPS log of my trip. For some reason the my eTrex Vista shut off at Tussey Mountain and I had to turn it back on. Because of that (and the less than stellar Garmin Connect website), it is broken up into two activities.
Riding on the highway was not bad at all. I thought I'd be a bit scared, nervous, or tentative; but I was none of those. I just wound up cruising all the way home. The bike was nowhere near the top end of the RPMs driving at 60mph, but you still get a pretty good shake going that speed. Not at all uncomfortable, but I would NOT want to go all day doing that. I much prefer 55mph and lower. I suppose that you could put a smaller sprocket on the wheel or install a larger 5th gear sprocket and that would reduce the RPMs and give a bit smoother ride. Also, you can do some somewhat serious changes to the engine on the bike that I have (rephase the camshaft) that is supposed to smooth out the ride. I don't think that's necessary at this point (or possibly ever). I'll just keep fixing up the small things that are needed and slowly make the improvements that I want on the bike (like saddle bags!)
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