Been a while...deep thoughts!

  So here I am about 11pm on a Friday night, making sure my boy Jackson is truly asleep and not pulling his little cat-nap trick again.  I truly hate waking up after only half an hour...it's like someone punches me in the face and then makes me walk a tightrope.  Anyway, I'm sitting here waiting...and it hits me...life changes!  Not only does it change, we MAKE it change!  The trick is making the changes you want while trying to achieve every American dream: pursuit of happiness.  Let me back up a bit...Tarantino it all if you will...
  I'll only go back to college, because let's face it - high school blows.  You really understand this once you LEAVE high school and see how cool college is.  But that's just my point!  Get this...think about every life-changing experience you've ever had and go back in time one week...one month...or maybe half a year.  Now tell me, how comfortable were you?  When I started college, it was a little scary but exciting at the same time.  But during about the third year in school, I started to become very comfortable where I was at and was loving just being in school.  Hell, that's part of the reason I stayed another two years!  But you graduate and start looking for jobs, that feeling of 'what the hell is going to happen now?' comes back.  The same scared-but-excited feeling returns!  So you find a job, big deal, everyone works right?  But you soon realize you don't know anything about how the real world works.  You only know what they taught you from the books...there is no 'real-world 101' class.  And again, the scared/excited felling is back...or more like 'wholly shit, man...I don't know what I'm doing!  I hope nobody notices...'.   But alas, a year goes by and those feelings pass. 
  If you are so lucky you'll find someone you can call your best friend in the whole world.  And if you're luckier, they'll agree to spend the rest of their life with you.  Yes, this is another one of those moments that can be scary/exciting.  Yes, I say it CAN be because I have a confession to make: marrying my wife was easy.  I didn't have butterflies the day of my wedding, I didn't wake up in cold sweats, I didn't even forget anything for the wedding!  It was easy because I was COMFORTABLE with the situation I was getting into.  I dated her for almost five years, most of which was long-distance.  But she was worth traveling every distance to me...she is my best friend.  And honey, if you are reading this...I love you!  ...now let's get back to the situation...
  Kids change EVERYTHING!  Anybody who says kids don't change anything are full of bull-pucky...or just lead a very boring life.  When we had the first ultra-sound and I saw the legs, arms, and head of my little Claire...yes you guessed it...scared/excited again.  If you ever read this Claire, don't take this the wrong way...but when I saw those pictures of her I was struck dumb.  I thought 'wow...what am I going to do with this little girl!?'  I know...weird thought, huh?  I thought so too.  I realized then and there that I would never be absolutely ready for fatherhood...but you know what?  After one year with Claire, all those feelings of trepidation are gone.  I'm gettin' comfy again!
   Now comes the epiphany I started out with: pursuit of happiness.  See, I was married to Joyce for two years before we had our first child, Claire.  Man we had some times!  We toured a bit of Alaska, went camping, fishing, traveled to Canada a few times, went skiing every winter, enjoyed the family cabin together...yada yada yada...man it was fun!  It was comfy!  I went riding, golfing, and fishing whenever I wanted, and she traveled and did whatever she wanted when she wanted.  But that all changed with kids.  We don't camp, fish, ski, or anything like that anymore...yet!  This is what hit me tonight (I get great thoughts at night!)...though my hobbies have dwindled to a select few, my life is plenty full.  Most of the hobbies will come back again someday, but will be different because the kids will be involved with them.  When they're of age, we'll go fishing and camping and hiking again.  I'll teach them to ride motorcycles and how to hit that ever-so-tiny ball with a steel-shafted club (hopefully better than I do - that's every father's dream isn't it?).  So the real trick is simply this: how will the kids, wife, and I all have fun doing what I like to do?  And that's the real poser...every kid is different...they all like different things, and that's great!  My job is to expose them to the hobbies I know and love and hope that they like at least one enough that we can spend quality time together doing it.  Who knows, they may show me a thing or two along the way too...
  So that's it...I know, I know...THAT was the epiphany?!  To all you old guys that just said that, I think this is a huge realization for a young father...and don't kid yourself - you remember going through the same things!  And for all you guys that just don't understand what the hell I'm talking about...just wait...it'll come to you someday.  What's funny now is - I don't think I'm going to be comfortable again for a VERY long time!  I hear the kids make sure of this...
  ...I'm done and spent!  Jackson's definitely asleep now...me pillow beckons me...

My Little Dancer

  I realized (with the help of my buddy Rob) that I didn't have hardly any pictures of my little girl, Claire.  So I thought I'd one-up him with a really cute video...

  She really likes to dance...

1978 Husky - First Ride!

So I made a 3mm woodruff key from an 1/8" key...filed it down...close enough!  And here we go...
  ...here's the youtube link if it doesn't show up on the blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utJqZcOqV4s

 

  It won't go on the pipe for some reason...I'm going to try and dig into the carb sometime this week to see if I can find a problem with the main jet.  But I was amazed with the mid-range power it has.  

Vintage 1978 Huskvarna 390 OR Dirt Bike Rebuild

  This bike has a long history...which begins in Idaho Falls.  My neighbor had this bike under his deck, just rusting away until my 18-year old neighbor bud (Devin) bought it to rebuild.  After it sat in his parents garage for a year (or two?), my dad somehow came to buy it from Devin.  And again...it sat outside for another number of years.  I went off to college for a number of years, moved to Post Falls, and eventually bought a house.  At this point I think my dad realized he wasn't going to be able to get to it, so he sold it to me for pennies.  Here's what it looked like before:

 I first started work on the engine the winter of 2009 while trying to obtain a title for the bike.  These vintage bikes are a real pain to get the titles for because up until...like...'77 they didn't sell the bikes with titles in many states (including Idaho).  Nowadays you can't ride a bike offroad without producing a title to buy an ORV sticker...so a bike is pretty much useless unless you have the title in hand anymore.  Turns out the title was still in the original owner's name, who unfortunately had passed away some years ago.  Lucky for me, his wife is still with us, remembers the bike, and signed the title over to me.  It really worked out well...
  Here's some pics of the rebuild:

Clutch pack and bearings...yuck!

Bearing replacement

   To change the bearings in these old magnesium cases without warping them, they need to be heated evenly to about 300 degrees...what better way to do that than in the oven?  I have to thank the wifey for letting me do this...it made the oven smell like degreaser for a few days...

Freshly sandblasted and painted frame

Engine, swingarm, and triple-tree installed..

Rebuilt forks, carb, rear suspension, and air cleaner can installed

...just something rad about these bright red springs...

after a bit of time on the seat and fenders, and a ton of time on the tank...the finished product...

After kicking the damn thing over hundreds of times and finally getting the carb set right, it fired up...and how!  It is one gnarly-sounding beast.  Unfortunately it was 8:30 at night and there was no way I was riding this thing in the dark...not to say I didn't entertain the idea!  A couple days later I was going to ride it for the first time, but as I got ready to go it bogged down and died.  After a quick trouble-shooting session I found the woodruff key to be sheared in half!  Turns out I didn't torque the flywheel tight enough and the power was too much for the poor little 3mm key.  The crappy thing about it is...nobody carries metric keys!  I'm still in search of a damn key, but when I do get it I'll fire it up again and take some video...

Canning...

  I have an addiction...I think it stems from what my parents used to do to me when I was a kid.  I still don't think it's terribly awful, and I certainly don't think I need therapy.  I suffer from an affliction called gorgious-peachosis...gorging on peaches! 
  I grew up in Colorado where a great, juicy, softball-sized peach (a MAN's softball that is...) was just an hour or two away in Green River.  Since moving to northern Idaho close to the Washington border, I have finally been able to find some really great fruit again...and I have some catching up to do!  I think I ate half of the first box of Red Globes we bought, then got a crazy idea...why don't we can some for winter?  I realize not many people my age can fruit, but like I said....I'm sick.  And how bad-ass would it be to have peach pie in winter!?
  Here's a pic of our initial efforts...

Joycie and the peaches

   ...as you can tell, me wifey is prego.  We were also thinking we could make some baby food as well.  While we were at it, we also decided to make some peach jam...and it ROCKS!  For those who don't know me, I'm a huge sucker for Raspberry Jam (yes, it's capitalized...as it should be), and Peach Jam comes in a VERY close second.
  So I didn't think this was enough to last all winter, so I bought another box!  This box was dedicated to peach jam, and I found raspberries on sale so we made some jam wit dem babies too!  About two weeks later, the Red Globes were gone from the stores so I bought another box of whatever they had left....as well as a box of bartlett pears....and we got busy!

Ummmm...I think that's enough now.  This batch took us 5 hours to complete, which felt an awful lot like work.  The canning thing is a giant pain in the pit, but it will be well worth it this winter...
 

Riding Testle Creek Area; 9-25-2011

  So I'm trying to get as much riding as I can this fall before Joycie gives birth to JJ.  To that end, I went riding with my buddy Ron last weekend north of Avery, ID and this weekend he offered to show me around the area east of Sandpoint, ID.  We rode up Trestle Creek Road to the very end, which winds up into the mountains and peaks out at Lunch Peak.  There's a really cool lookout there, which Ron says can be rented.  Can you imagine waking up to this view?

Lunch Peak in the morning sun...

   See that little road in the valley?  That's Lightening Creek road, which we will be going down to find the trail leading to Porcupine Lake.  Dipshit that I am, I ruined this perfect picture with the damn date...I be a little pizissed about it...maybe I can photoshop it out? 
  On the way, we took a small detour to Char Falls...

Upper Char Falls

The main water fall (150 ft?)

...finally realized the date stamp was turned on... doh!

Lower Char Falls

   Ridin' the road to Lightening Creek...this is the road we saw from Lunch Peak earlier that morning.

Lightening Creek Road

Lightening Creek

This is the beginning of the trail...yes is starts off as a 'creek' crossing.  This is looking back at the trail head, which is about 100 yards beyond that trail marker in the middle of the rock bed.  I have to admit, I got my feet wet...there are some mighty slick rocks under that foot of water!  Ron was telling me that he used to be able to drive into this lake, but after the spring runoff destroyed half a dozen bridges over the years it's designated as a trail now.  This must be one gnarly river in the spring...

Ron on the Pogostick

So this is where it got REALLY rocky.  I'm starting to understand that any old road or trail in or around Montana is granite rocky, beat-the-shit out of you rough.  To make it worse on Ron, he's riding a '95 XR200 that he bought brand new.  There is ZERO oil left in the rear shock and I'm pretty sure there's not much left in the two front ones.  But the rest of the bike looks great!  I have to chuckle a little bit when I follow him...the rear fender looks like it's hooked to a paint-shaker...can't imagine what that does to a guy's tush...

Porcupine Lake

  After an equally rocky return down the trail back to Lightening Creek Road, we decided to check out Wellington Creek road, which Ron hadn't been on before.  This 'road' was also extremely rocky.  I couldn't decide if it was smoother the faster I went or not...all I know is my hands fell asleep from holding on so tight!  I really need to get some grips too...there's ZERO cush left in them...

Ron bouncing up Wellington Creek Road

View from Wellington Creek Road

  At the top, we saw two really promising trails calling our names and I had a good 30 miles left of gas.  But we also saw two un-manned 4-wheelers...one of which had a plastic rifle case bolted to it.  I thought for sure rifle season hadn't started yet, and we were only packing a pistol and revolver.  I didn't like our odds...so we headed down the 489 trail to Avery.  Guess we'll just have to come back and check it out another day! 

Lake Pend Oreille from the trail

  the trail down was strictly 4-wheeler and motorcycle trail, so it was pretty good.  It was also steep enough that I was able to coast down most the way.  At the end of the ride, I found that I probably had enough gas for another 20-30 miles.  Really makes me wish we would have taken a few more trails!  Oh well...more for next time...

Track of loop

Riding in St. Joe Ntnl. Forest; 9-17-2011

  So when my buddy Ron said he'd like to do some riding this last Saturday, I didn't realize what he meant.  His version of riding is being on the steed at the break of dawn, and riding dark-to-dark!  You better bring a headlight and some extra gas, because he's out to put some miles on!
  Seriously though, I kinda liked getting on the dirt that early.  It's cool and the brisk breeze at 40 mph wakes you up in a hurry!  We parked the rigs at Lookout Ski Area and rode into Loop Creek Road, where we were going to meet our friend Jason for some trail-scouting.  On the way Ron took me on a side-trip to see Copper Lake...(pictures to come later)...
  After the scenic route back from the lake, we decided to meet up with Jason.  Ron had stashed a few dehydrated meals that he thought would be good for breakfast, so I picked Mac'n cheeze.  After the first few bites I noticed the expiration on the meal was dated when I was in high school...they don't go bad do they?  After breakfast Ron took us around to a few trailheads that looked really promising.  After scouting out 3 trailheads Jason and I picked this one...a richter trail climbing up to Shefoot Peak

J-dog's steed in the rut

  ..yeah, that's a 450 buried in a rut.  This was one of about eight of the gnarliest switchbacks I've ever seen...

Yeah...it's a goat-trail

 This pic really shows just how steep this mountainside was...and why the damn switchbacks were so tiring.  What this pic doesn't show is the ankle-deep dirt 'powder' on every one of these switches.  There was literally NO traction, which meant that you really had to carry the momentum to make it without getting off the bike.  If you look behind Jason, you'll see just how narrow this single-track was...good thing there were trees or a slight mistake downhill could end in tragedy.  There were a few areas where I banged the pegs on rocks and trees just to stay on the trail...talk about something that will make the butt pucker!  And somehow I was having a really great time...

Sheesh!  Steep!

 We finally got some relief from the switchbacks and enjoyed some really great wooded single-track up the ridge to Tanglefoot Point.  What a view this was! 

Tanglefoot Point

 Another mile or so and we were finally there...

Shefoot Peak

 After this jaunt we decided to head back to camp and have a few beers...the beginning of the trail really took it out of us.  After a few energy drinks (kokanee's my fave), we enticed Jason's girlfriend Annette (spelling?) to get on a bike and ride with us to Avery.  She did pretty well considering she hadn't ridden in eight years.  We took Bullion Road down to the Milwaukee Road which ends just a few hundred feet up the road at Avery.  I never even knew this road existed...pretty cool!  Along the way, Jason and I rode up a single track for a quick look that still has me dreaming to go back...just LOOK at all the trails!

Full Track

Shefoot Area

   All-in-all it was a great day, and we found some stuff that I want to go back for.  I think I might have found my new favorite area to explore...

It's aaaaaallllliiiiiiiiiiive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Boy oh boy...this has been a long time coming!  After almost three years of working on this beast, I finally got it running tonight.  I've been kicking the piss out of the damn thing thing every night for the last week....tweaking the carb...draining the exhaust pipe when it got full of fuel...checking for spark...is there still gas in this thing?  FINALLY!!!!!!!

Now it's time to add on all the do-dads that make these old vints look so sexy...but tonight, I rest.  My leg feels like it's going to fall off...
  I'll make sure I upload some video when he's running...yes, I said 'HE'...you'll understand when you hear it...
WAHOOO!!!!   okay... I go to bed now...

Adventure Ride, Sunday, July 31st: Day 9 (Final Day!)

So here we are...the last day of an epic trip.  What better way to wake up to a nice babbling stream next to your tent...

Palouse 'River'...more like stream

 To my surprise, Fud  beat everyone up...just in time to see Mike crawl out of the prophylactic...

Yessss!  The last night in this tent!

  What wasn't talked about but I'm sure was on everyone's mind were their hunny's back home...

Fud n' da pinky

...well...except for Fud...he pretty much says what's on his mind.  Every time he says something he cracks me up...this day was no exception.  The only problem is that I don't really feel comfortable repeating ANYTHING he said on this blog!  The guy just reminds me of a retired sailor...'nuf said!
  Our campsite was down a small muddy hill, which we had to go up on the way out of camp.  Some did it with a little more style than others...

Scotty Ridin' the rear..almost too fast to capture on film!

The mule takin' er nice n' easy

  We stopped again in St. Maries at the local diner for our last breakfast of the trip.  After breakfast, the scenic loop around Coeur d'Alene Lake brought us to the c-ya later pullout...

C-ya later

 We all checked out the scenery a bit and said our goodbyes...the end of a great trip!  I think Fud had a bit of pent-up anxiety from not being out front since the Magrudor incident...or maybe his hunny was on his mind... either way, he took off first like a bat out of hell!  I didn't see him after the first 2 miles of interstate!  I think it was just tunnel vision...
  Here's the final track of the trip:

Day 9 Track

  I rolled into the driveway, got off the steed, and had a very happy wife waiting for me at the door.  Good to be home!  Absence makes the heart grow fonder....
  So I learned a lot on this trip (this might get a bit sentimental, so grab your hanky)...stuff like: packing lighter, suspension needs on the bike, where not to put tool tubes....but the biggest lesson wasn't about the hardware or how to ride better.  Riding, for me, is %80 about who you ride with.  Really, you could be with a bunch of boneheads on a day-ride and it ruins the day.  But if you have guys to ride with that are really great to be around, that other %20 just becomes that much better...exponentially.  All these guys I would ride and camp with again...which says a lot.  Ask my wife, I don't camp with just anybody.  I took a chance on Fud, who I didn't know, and am glad I did...
  Special thanks to:

Mike: Trail Boss n' head-honcho...master of all terrain

The Fud: Comic relief, owner of infamous 'granola chair', master of all 'Fudisms'

Scotty & Bumblebee: the shredders of dirt road

My poor tired mule

Can't wait for the next trip!  Phildo signing off...