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.

Da Beer and Da Bon Fire was Da Bomb….

All da guys had a nice evening on da mountain last night (sans da Grizz who was under da weather). Da Weave (aka Man Hut Brewmaster) brought up a partial keg of his magnificent Oktoberfest that we quickly polished off. I previewed his latest brew; an imperial IPA, it is fantastic (click the Brewmation link to the right and learn how he creates these magic brews). Big Lou and Bobo cut some “good wood” to make a bon fire in da big pit.... Da good wood makes da good fire. The G-Man brought up a few liquid provisions from his liquor room (imagine that a liquor room). A good time was had by all.

Oh yeah…. We had a surprise visitor; “The Mrs. Weave” came up to da hut for a drink…. She also supplied da boyz with da pasta and da sauce so she is welcome back anytime.

Dat’s da story.

Happy Holidays

On this Holiday eve 2008 I would like to take a moment to give thanks to our neighbors and friends for the fun, the warmth, the excitement, the wonder, the silliness, the booze, the camaraderie, the adventure, the partnership, the laughs, the sharing, the knowledge and the everyday love and good cheer we share.

From my family to yours, Happy Holidays and a really great New Year!

A Snow Day, Yay!…

The meteorologists finally got one right. Yesterday the northeast got hit with the first major snow of the season. Fortunately for me I had already pre-planned to take yesterday off so I didn’t mind the threat of snow at all… In fact I was excited about it. The anticipation of up to 12 inches of fresh snow when you have no place to go is a pretty good feeling. The wife and I spent the morning in our slippers and sweats, made a fire in the fireplace and put up a big pot of chicken soup. The first flakes fell around 11:30 as best I can tell.

Around 1:00 Big Lou and me got up to the Manhut. By then the first few inches of snow had fallen. Grizz joined us and we just hung out for while. It was pretty nice up there; very quiet and quite beautiful.

But the big news of the day was the call for the impromptu soirée we have come to call Winterfest. This is when a bunch of the neighbors; guys, wives and kids congregate to the cul-de-sac during the first big snow of the season for a few drinks and stuff. For the second year in a row we even had an official tree lighting thanks to the Grizz strapping his electrified tree to his pickup truck.

Highlights: Doughnuts, Doughnuts, Doughnuts! Emily’s, Linda’s and Maria’s first quad rides and the plow guy.

A Cool Experience…

Sunday morning the “Quad Squad” took a ride up to the top of the mountain.
It was beautiful up there. The air was colder and crisper than down below. Getting to the top made us feel as though we were in a completely different climate. The ice from the prior day that had coated the tree branches was still fully intact up there. Down the mountain it had completely melted the prior day. The sun was bright and reflected off the icy trees like Christmas tinsel. The weight was heavy on the branches as limbs were continually falling down around us. We paused for a smoke and a talk. Nice.

PS: Just as were about to leave, we noticed we had been standing directly under a heavily ice laden tree. A limb was dangling above us, broken off and barley holding on. Lucky us.

PSS: Since Lou’s Bro picked up his Can Am Outlander 400MAX Lou he has been “Quadless”. But Saturday he picked up his new toy; a 1988 Honda Foreman 350. Nice ride! That’s Lou catching some air. So now we all pretty much have the same machines as you can see in the pix….

Last Night…

Last night was CRAZY!.... Torrential rains, ice everywhere and wind. The sound of rain, rushing water and falling trees made for a long night of uneasy sleep. In the middle of the night we were blasted from our bed when the sound of a pretty good size tree limb fell on our roof… Not sure if there’s any damage. Going to wait until all the ice is thawed before I climb out there. Also, there was no glimpse of the Manhut from down the mountain this morning… Was it still there?.... Did it survive the night? OH NO! Bob and I took a quick ride up to check out the “situation”. Rode the old logger road up the mountain, which was surprisingly solid considering the rain. Half way up and we still didn’t see the hut. OH NO!...
Alas the hut remains; the heavy ice on the trees had blocked the view until we got almost all the way to the top. Everything is fine. Good thing we build it on a boulder…. Hut is high and dry.

Fire On The Mountain…

Bobo came up with the idea of inaugurating the fire pit last night… Pretty good idea since it was a brisk 28 degrees, and not much else was going on in the hood. Most everyone had commitments, especially since it’s getting so close to the holidays and there are so many chores and “stuff” to do (note to self: leaves still need to be raked). The Weaves were getting a little trim done (tree trimming that is), Big Lou & Co. were busy little elves, and the Grizz and G-Man were MIA. So all in all it was going to be a pretty mellow evening; a fire, a stogie, a couple of brews and that’s it. The fire pit worked out great. The location is good, It’s close enough to the Manhut to keep an eye on, far enough away not to burn it down plus the water barrel off the back roof is just close enough in case things get out of hand. We probably just want to beef up the walls a bit. As the early evening progressed the hut started to buzz; two of Bobo’s young sons came up for a bit, Grizz came up with beer in tow. Later Big Lou and one of his buddies wandered by including a very special guest….. Mr.’s Big Lou!