Ramblings On The Road...

I left the house at 7:00 this morning and If I’m lucky I’ll be at the hotel by 8:00 tonight. As I write I am sitting on board a Continental-737 35,000 feet up and headed for California on biz. I’m on flight 1702, 11:20 departure to San Francisco which didn’t leave until 1:00pm due to the obligatory flight delay. With 5 more hours of air between the left coast and me please allow me to ramble a bit...

Last week was a long workweek and I was really looking forward to a Friday evening retreat at the Hut with the guys especially since I knew that Saturday and Sunday were commited for. But alas none of the Hutsters were around to play with so it was just me and the Manhut for a smoke and a cocktail.

When I got up there around 8:00 I got the heater blasting and quickly knocked the 23 degree chill out of the air. Music was cranked up with my favorite Tom Waits tunes from the Small Change album (good thing I was alone cause no one else I know likes him). I burned a Padron 1926 No.2 maduro (1 hour, 10 min) my favorite cigar. Had a Jameson scotch whisky neat in my favorite glass and a frosty cold bottle of Yuengling as a chaser (nice).

A good time was had by all,... well actually just by me. Cheers!

We Have Reached The Summit!...

As you might remember, the Weave threw down the gauntlet (see January 4th entry), challenging the Man-Hut-Quad-Squad to reach the top of the mountain with our machines (altitude 1,247 feet). Well yesterday WE DID IT!!!!. It was our most awesome ride to date. Little did I know yesterday morning when we met up in my driveway at 8:00 am, we would be on a journey to reach the summit. Before leaving for the woods Big Lou went back to get his chainsaw and other miscellaneous cutting utensils. Starting out for the mountain it was my turn to take the lead with Bobo behind and Big Lou bringing up the rear…. Big mistake, I started by taking us off in the wrong direction before we left the Manhut (seriously), and it only got worse from there. When we finally got to Burning Bush Landing, Big Lou took lead and brought us to V-Ledge. This is where we ended our journey for the mountaintop last time (see January 24 entry). But this time was different, we were prepared, the snow was mostly gone and we were ready to go with a nice early start. And so we began, cutting and clearing the dead trees and limbs blocking the visual path between us and the top of the mountain. As we cut through we moved the quads up behind us. It felt great as we made progress and got higher and higher, the view becoming less and less obstructed. It wasn’t long before the chain saw blade was spent and we had to resort to hand saws and pure brute force. I could tell we were getting close to the top when I started to see the treetops sheared off, a distinct feature of the Broken Pines landing that the Weave and I had hiked to in January. As we got to the last 100 feet we all started to take our time, none of us wanted the journey to end. So we took our time clearing the path even more thoroughly than we needed to. In an instant our three quads roared to the top. We paused. Had a cheer. Took in the view. And enjoyed the moment.

Once we got to the top at Broken Pines, we walked along the ridge to the next high spot. Here we found the stone monument you see in the photos. We also found an old fire pit obviously unused for years. We have named this spot High Point as it appears to be the highest point of the mountain ridge, (duhhhh). On future trips we plan to run the length of the ridge and see what waits on the other side. Stay tuned.
Cheers!

Air Max!...

Huge shout out to our lady quadster for achieving maximum air on her 1988 Honda 350 Fourtrax.
Nice one PW…..

Okay, we know you can do it so don’t do it again…. Please.

Cheers!

Happy Valentines Day!...

This is the burning question on this cheery Valentines Day afternoon; has the Man Hut turned into the “Love Shack?” Sources say that late this afternoon one of the guys (I aint sayin who), and their significant other (I aint sayin who), were seen sneaking up to the Man Hut on this fine Valentines Day.
Aint love crazy!.... (I aint sayin who).
Cheers!

Saturday Night...

It’s been a few weeks since the guys got together for a few drinks and a couple of laughs, so last night was an unexpected pleasure. During the day Big Lou had cut some good wood for a bon fire. Bobo installed a knotted rope to prevent us from falling down and I picked up a few provisions (Grizz we need more shelves).

It was a perfect night. The moon was so bright in the woods that flashlights were unnecessary. The temps which had been in the single digits for weeks was a balmy 40 something degrees. And the snow was still on the ground making everything look pristine…..Nice.

So we smoked, we drank, we talked, we laughed.

Cheers!

PS: Thanks for the pasta LP!

Man Hut vs Man Cave.....

According to Wikipedia a Man Cave is defined as follows :
“A man cave is a male sanctuary, such as a specially equipped garage, spare bedroom, media room, den, or basement.”
A Man Hut is similar but not the same as a Man Cave, although it does serve the same purpose, “A male sanctuary”. Unlike a Man Cave a Man Hut must be free standing and detached from your house, preferably as far away as possible. The differences are important; In a Man Hut your wife and kids can’t yell down the stairs to tell you that the toilet is over flowing or that the dog just ate the bird. But then again, a Man Cave is likely to have less creature comforts like a pool table, big screen TV and an actual toilet…. I guess they both have their benefits….
<<< These are photos of the Weaves Man Cave.....
But today is Super Bowl Sunday and since our Manhut buddy (The Weave) has invited us all over to his Man Cave to watch the big game on his big screen who can’t resist (especially since he’s also got a bar and pool table). Check out the photos… The Weave is a lucky man, he has a ManHut and a Man Cave.
Thanks to The Weave and his wonderful wife for a fun evening.
Cheers!

PS: Between all the office pools me and my Mrs walked away the big winners with a big $1,405 for the evening… Not too shabby!..

Man Hut Meets Google Earth.....

I spent a little time the other day exploring the terrain surrounding the manhut to see if I could identify an ATV route to the top of the mountain. Check it out; I plugged in the longitude and latitudes of the Hut, Burning Bush Landing and Broken Pines at the mountaintop. I adjusted the angle of the sun to highlight the mountain ridge from Burning Bush to the very top. I placed markers to create a path. Longitude and latitude at each point can be followed using the Weaves hand held GPS thingy. I’m feeling good about this theory since this is a long gradual path and might have the best potential for getting us up there.
FYI: The Man Hut is located at 590 feet whereas the top of the mountain is at 1,246 feet.

Side Note:
Ok, so if you haven’t tried it yet do it now! The newest version of Google Earth is just awesome. Type in pretty much any place on the planet and the satellite driven software zooms in to that exact location on a topographical overhead map and that’s not the coolest part. Once you start fooling around with the control buttons, sliders, gliders and settings the fun really begins. Mess around with the controls and you can zoom around in a 3-D setting that displays the relationship of surrounding heights, distances and perspective. You can change the angle of the sun based on the date and time of day to increase and pronounce the shadows, features and highlights on the ground. Place markers to set points of interest….. So much more you just got to go check it out.

A Good Day.....

The Quad Squad met up at 8:00 a.m this morning for a ride in the woods. Four of us this time, a first. The purpose was to see if there might be an easy way to the top of the mountain with the machines. We did this in response to the Weaves challenge to get the quads all the way up (see Jan. 4th entry). After a quick stop at Burning Bush Landing, we swung over to the spot where Weave and me started hiking from the last time. This rocky ridge has now been officially named; it is called V-Ledge in the abbreviated form. Everyone scouted around but there was no easily accessible way to get up…. Maybe when there’s less snow on the ground we’ll have a better shot.
We did however find the pond that Max had seen on Google Earth, had been looking for but not found. He’ll be pretty happy to know that it’s a really nice spot. It’s probably up higher than where he was looking. We’re calling it Max’s Pond. We rode around up there for hours before retreating to the Hut for a pit stop. All in all it was a good morning.

Oh The Humanity!.....

Nothing makes a guy sadder than the senseless and avoidable waste of premium beer and wine. You’d think one of us brainiacs would have thought to remove the cases of beer and bottles of wine from the hut when temperatures threatened to hit new lows. So the question of the day is, ”At what temperature does beer and wine freeze?”

According to Internet sources wine and beer (depending on variations in sugar and alcohol content) will both freeze in the low 20’s (wine generally at 22 and beer generally at 24).

Other unanswered question about our frozen provisions:
- Why were some beer bottles frozen solid and others (randomly in the same case) not frozen at all? (same with the two wine bottles of the exact same wine; one frozen with cork popped the other fine?)
- Why would a liquid bottle of beer become frozen once the top was popped? (my theory is that it was like making those super saturated solution experiments in High school) Any thoughts?
- And lastly, is anyone going up there to rescue what’s left of our precious beverages?

Please post your answers and concerns.
Thank You

On A Friday Night...

This was the first week back to work after a long holiday break…. Man, this week felt like a month.What could be better than a Friday night impromptu trek to the Manhut for a few beverages and a stogie or two. Bobo was there, The Grizz showed up and Big Lou brought Mrs. Big Lou who told some old stories... A good time was had by all.

The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown...

Little did I know when I got up this morning that the Weave would throw down the Gauntlet. I mean sure I knew he wanted to do a quad ride up the mountain using Bobo’s vehicle since he’s away in sunny Florida this week. But man, I was unaware that the Weave was obsessed with getting to the very top of the mountain! I took him up as high as Burning Bush Landing, BUT NO!... HE WANTED IT ALL! He was simply not happy until he got to the top. I told him that no one had made it to the very top of the mountain with a quad, but he didn’t care. Fine I told him you take the lead, and so he did. After reaching a few impossible passages with the machines we parked the quads and he made us walk to the top. Do you believe it, WALK!... I mean come on I got a quad so I don’t have to walk! But no, he insisted…. As we began to reach the summit the air must have been getting very thin since I was continually running out of breath as we hiked the steep inclines. After about 20 minutes of hiking we got to the top. The Weave pulled out some sort of GPS thingy which showed the altitude to be 1,247 feet. I have named the summit Broken Pines since that's all that's up there (actually they were broken cedars but that doesn't sound as good).... Plus an awsome 360 degree view of all the other mountain tops. Once we hit the top that's when the Weave made his challenge to the Quad Squad…. If you don’t believe me see for yourself; play the video.

Reflections On A Winter Day…

It’s January 1, 2009. Last night was a great New Years Eve spent with good friends. But today is New Years Day, a fine, cold, clear winter day suitable for enjoying a brisk ATV ride on the mountain. It was 9 degrees Fahrenheit this morning and around 20 degrees when we left at around 2:00. The ground was covered with a couple of inches of snow left from yesterday. This made for a more challenging ride than usual due to the slickness of the snow and all sorts of hidden obstacles. We headed for the top and got there pretty quick and then decided to blaze a new trail. Big Lou lead the way with me and Bobo following. We cut through some pretty rough terrain muscling our way through creeks, over logs and rocks and traversing some challenging angles. When we got back to the Man Hut at 4:00 I was absolutely beat. After sitting for a few I could hardly stand up.

What a great way to begin the New Year.