Sam's Throne

I took off on the ZRX this weekend and did something I’ve never done before. I slept outside. I took a tent and camped. And I did so at one of the most beautiful places in Northwest Arkansas: Sam’s Throne. It was a fun new adventure, a way to save a few bucks, and it opened up a lot of possibilities for future rides.

On Thursday night, I had a huge army surplus duffle bag strapped to my bike packed with two ground mats, a Marmot sleeping bag, and a two-man tent. I was pleased that I could fit it all on there, but it badly needed downsizing. The next day, I borrowed a solo tent from a buddy at work, ditched the bulky, sub zero sleeping bag for a fleece blanket and abandoned one of the ground mats in favor of my Thermarest. By Friday night, I had a single “bed roll” that fit under my bungee cords easier than my tail bag usually does. I took ZERO extra clothing. I also shoved a Thermarest packable pillow under the bungees. Items going into the tank bag included: a 32oz water bottle, a 16oz water bottle, a 16oz Nissan thermos, an extra ipod with extra remote, 4 protein bars, 2 apples, 1 small bag of trail mix, a book to read, one MRE (meal ready to eat), 2 LED headlamps, 1 clear helmet shield, about half a dozen wet wipes (instead of a full roll of TP), matches, maps and various other small items.

A note on camping. I have camped plenty in my day. I’ve car camped, canoe camped and backpacked. I’ve done primitive camping and I’ve spent luxurious evenings with RV wielding blue hairs in a hot tub at the KOA. I know my way around a tent and a sleeping bag. Actually, I’ve slept in a sleeping bag every night now for the better part of a decade, but that’s a different story. With 62k miles on the ZRX, I have always chosen to rent cheap motel rooms whilst sport touring. I’ve always said I need a hot shower and a soft bed after a long day in the saddle. So that’s partly why this weekend felt like such an adventure for me. It was something exciting and new and I wanted to see if it would be fun or miserable. And the weather was supposed to be ideal for this kind of thing with overnight lows in the 60s and daytime highs in the 80’s.

I had Sam’s Throne in my head as my destination. I’ve been there a few times on my own and I’ve taken at least a few guys out there on rally rides. It’s in the National Forest and so camping would be free. It doesn’t hurt either that it’s in between the twisties and the switchbacks on HWY 123. It’s in the middle of a shit ton of excellent riding. The place has always been completely deserted when I’ve visited there in the past, but I had read that it can get busy on the weekends – supposedly a popular destination for rock climbers. The whole day of riding, I had that location in my head, though I had some backup spots in mind in case it was insanely busy out at Sam’s Throne.

I did 388 miles on Saturday. Only 100 of those miles were slab. I got onto back roads as quickly as I could in Missouri. I went through Eureka Springs and took the Pig Trail (HWY 23) down to HWY 16 and then over to HWY 123. All safe and fun riding. Knowing the sun would set around 6:30pm, I wanted to arrive around 4:30pm. And sure enough, I made that deadline within 15 minutes or so. When I pulled off onto the gravel road for Sam’s Throne, I was very surprised to find cars lining the road. Tents were set up near each vehicle. I ran the hippie gauntlet down the gravel road on my “crotch rocket”. At the end of the road, there was even a canopy tent set up. Turns out there was a rock climbing event going on Friday through Sunday. I found a spot for the bike right in the middle of all the action and unknowingly I set my tent up right behind the official sponsors of the event. As it turns out, there was also a WEDDING taking place on the same night of my arrival. It was a small affair, but hearing a couple take their wedding vows whilst I watched the sunset made for a unique end to a long day of great riding. The incredible vistas you see in my photos are literally minutes away from where I pitched my tent. It takes maybe 5 minutes to get to the farthest lookout point. It’s an easy walk in riding boots and is a zero elevation gain. In short, Sam’s Throne is absolutely ideal for motorcycle camping. It’s off the beaten path, provides no real challenge for the bike, and offers some of the most remarkable views around.

I chatted up some of the sponsors of the climbing event. They were friendly and more than happy to share their camp fire and cold beer (on tap). They even had some fancy cheese and bread. Clearly I was not roughing it. This may be as close to “glamping” as I ever get. I went ahead and prepared the Heater Ex meal (MRE) that I had brought. I had picked it up at an emergency preparedness safety meeting at work years prior. It was a few months expired, but it tasted great after not having eaten much during the day. It was actually fun to make the meal. You add a package of salt water to the pouch and a chemical reaction occurs and heats the sealed meal package. Definitely better than bringing dishes and cooking a meal over a fire. I sat around the campfire with all the climbers that evening. Honestly, I didn’t connect with any of them. I made small talk here and there. Most of them were way younger than me….college age I am guessing. They were content discussing climbing, which only makes sense. I get the impression there is almost no overlap between the motorcycling world and the world of rock climbers. Or maybe it was just perception that made it seem like that. But they were all very friendly and generous and seemed to be fine and dandy with me hanging out and sharing their space and amenities. And after a long day in the saddle, zoning out staring at a campfire was quite relaxing.

Around 10pm or so, I overheard the fella next to me say to a gal… “I’m sitting here trying to decide if it’s too soon for another safety meeting.” My thought was WOW…these kids are SERIOUS about safety. I figured they must have quotas for the number of safety meetings they conduct per day…perhaps this was some sort of sanctioned event. After all, this IS rock climbing. People get hurt. People die. And here these kids are conducting safety meetings into the wee hours of the night around a campfire in the woods. That’s commitment to safety.
“So what’s a safety meeting,” I ask, curious.
“Smokin’ pot,” he answered without skipping a beat.
I got a heck of a laugh out of that. What a hoot.

Speaking of hoots, when I got up the next morning and went to check out the gorgeous views, I was greeted with calls from a barred owl. I hear them plenty out in the suburbs, but it’s a special treat to hear them in such a grandiose setting. Within an hour or so, I would be lucky enough to see a BLACK BEAR crossing the road (on HWY16) about 100 yards up in front of me. Within the next hour, I saw a bald eagle perched in a tree. A black bear and a bald eagle….all before breakfast. Pretty awesome stuff.

There was only one other person out on the rocks to see the sunrise that morning. We chatted it up, discussed our travels, pointed different things out to each other. And that’s the thing about doing trips and travels alone; there’s always someone there when you get wherever you’re going. You don’t have to TAKE someone along with whom you can enjoy the adventure. You will cross paths with folks on parallel adventures with whom you can share your experience. No matter where you go, people will be there. And there’s a damn good chance they share your appreciation for that very thing that you’re there to see. That’s one of the main things I like about my trips to the hot springs out in Colorado. It’s also part of what I enjoy about karaoke and disc golf. I play disc golf with strangers all the time. That’s part of the fun.

Along those same lines, I like to stop along the way and chat people up if they’re doing something that piques my curiosity. Last year, I stopped near Big Flat and spoke to those folks out in a field making sorghum molasses. That stands out as one of my favorite memories down in Arkansas. This time, I stopped near Gainesville and chatted a fella up because I saw him out tending to his honey bees. Folks are always happy to tell their story if you’re in the mood to listen.

Sunday’s riding was good. I took HWY16 on over to Marshall and then to Big Flat and eventually up Push Mountain Road (HWY341). I stopped in Mountain Home and used the bathroom at a gas station. The restroom was so clean and I was so happy to be using something other than a vaulted toilet (and relieved to have not needed to dig a “cat hole” in the woods), I actually tipped the guy behind the register for having clean facilities.

My last long push of the day was from Strafford, MO all the way back home to Overland Park, KS. I did that long (mostly boring) 170 mile haul without stopping for breaks or fuel. I was having to ride with purpose as I didn’t want it getting dark on me. Within 30 miles of home, I was riding down the highway standing up on the pegs stretching my legs and doing my best Ewan and Charlie impression when I noticed my shadow on the embankments beside the road. It was a perfect shadow – completely proportionate and crisp. It was such an awesome sight to see at the end of a fun adventure. I get to see a lot of interesting sights along my way, but it’s not often I get to see me doing it.

Like I said, it wasn’t quite what anyone would call roughing it. But it was a full two days of riding (820 miles) and I didn’t spend a dime on lodging. And I’ve opened up a lot of possibilities. If I can do overnights in a tent, then the next question is how many consecutive nights can I do ? It’s a lot of fun thinking about all the options.

Easy Ginger Beer Recipe; this is officially a food blog now, bitches.

You can complicate the heck out this basic recipe, but my buddy Steve put it most succinctly:
"....it is real easy, and cheap, some ginger, some sugar, some yeast in an old 2-liter and when the two liter gets stiff it is ready to drink."
And he's pretty much spot on. Here's my recipe.

For 2 liters of ginger beer, I use:
One "hand" of ginger (roughly half a pound). Peeled is ideal but not absolutely necessary.
2 lemons
one cup of sugar
1/8 to ¼ teaspoon of yeast.

I've used cheap bakers yeast from the grocery store. It works fine. But if you think it imparts a yeasty flavor or odor, just get your hands on some wine, champagne or ale yeast. I bought some Red Star brand champagne yeast online for 50 cents a packet and a dozen packets will last you forever as long as you store the opened packets in an airtight container in the fridge.

Peel the ginger and chop it into tiny pieces. Add the sugar to about 4 or 5 cups of water. Steep the sugar water and chopped ginger on the stove. I usually bring it to a light boil, cover it, and let it sit on the back burner until it is room temp or lukewarm. Once it has cooled, skim the chunks of ginger out with a wire strainer.

Squeeze two lemons and add those to the ginger sugar water mixture. I leave the pulp in. Transfer it all to the container you'll be using for fermentation. You can use a 2 liter soda bottle or something similar….preferably a plastic bottle where you can feel that carbonation pressure has built.

Add the yeast to the mixture and shake it around a little bit to mix it all up real well. MAKE SURE the water is not so hot that it will kill the yeast. Water should be warm / lukewarm. Not hot or cold. Here lately I've even been rehydrating the yeast beforehand so as to ensure that I don't kill it when I add it to the mixture.

Finally, fill your bottle the rest of the way up with lukewarm or cool water. Leave about an inch of space at the top. Cap the bottle tightly and place it in a dark cupboard or cabinet at room temperature for 24 to 48 hours. That time in the cupboard gives it a nice fizz. Actually, I've tried it after just 24 hours in the cupboard and it had plenty of fizz - no need to wait a second day even. I tend to wait 48 hours when I'm using the champagne yeast because it seems to need it. And it requires less time to carbonate in the summer than in the winter. Under the sink is a good place for the brew to brew, but under the sink is typically much cooler in the winter months, so it will likely need more time under there (usually 48 hours tops). Some recipes suggest chilling for 2 days before drinking to let the yeast settle down, but I don't worry about that.

NOTE. You MUST refrigerate after 24 or 48 hours so as to halt / slow the fermentation process. So when you test it and you’re happy with the amount of fizz in the bottle, place it in the fridge. And if you use glass for the fermentation process, make sure it's heavy duty enough to not explode under the pressure of the carbonation. Understand the danger of using glass bottles: they can explode from the pressure of the fermentation / carbonation. For beginner’s, it is preferable to use a 2 liter soda bottle because when the bottle gets hard like it was in the store when you bought it, that means it's ready to drink. Often that only takes 24 hours.

Here lately I've been making 6 bottle batches of ginger beer. I use 16oz Grolsch bottles as they are thick enough to handle the pressure without exploding. And bail-top bottles are absolutely gorgeous and fun to use. It makes me feel like an artisanal hipster. For the 96oz batch, I use one large hand of fresh ginger and 1.25 to 1.5 cups of sugar. I use 2 or 3 lemons and 1/8 teaspoon yeast. It's handy to mark a 96oz line on an empty gallon milk jug with a Sharpie and then fill the bottles from that jug.

And while ginger beer is my favorite, I have also tried my hand at old fashioned root beer. That required getting my hands on sassafras root from some fella in Tennessee who digs it up off his property and sells it on Ebay. I have made horchata soda, blueberry soda, orange soda (Orangina), Nescafe soda, and grapefruit ginger beer. None have been nearly as tasty as the ginger beer.

Oddly, I thoroughly enjoy the process. It becomes ritual. For example, the best way to peel fresh ginger is with a spoon. You'll cut yourself if you use a potato peeler. A spoon really is your best bet because the skin on the ginger is so soft. And I researched the best way to juice a lemon without purchasing a fancy citrus press. All you need is a fork and you'll want to cut the lemon from top to bottom - not side to side. Roll the lemon on the cutting board first of course. I just acquired this bench capper for $20 locally. I plan to start using old Coke bottles to cap ginger beer and give it away to friends.

Five Hundred Miles for Hush Puppies

Another Solo Roadeo in the books. 950 miles in two days. I passed 60k miles on the clock. Here's the scoop. I left Saturday morning around 7:30am, which actually feels late in the summer. You look up and the sun is already quite high in the sky by that time.

I took a slightly different route South this time. Instead of going down on the Pig Trail (hwy23), I took hwy103 down through Ponca and Boxley. I think it was close to three o'clock by the time I made it to Boxley, so I stopped there and laid down in the shady grass of a church cemetery. I did that a couple of times this weekend. When I'm tired and just turning miles, I take a break, lay down, and I'm usually ready to tackle the corners when I hit the road again.

It was late afternoon when I finally hit hwy16 and started heading east toward Mountain View. It was 6pm or later when I hit Marshall and found an awesome spot to take some glamour shots of the bike. This was my first real chance to take some pictures of the bike with my new Galaxy S5 phone / camera. It did not disappoint. What a dead sexy machine I own.

Within 30 or 40 miles of Mountain View, I noticed it had recently rained in the area. The roads were only half wet and there was steam rising off the asphalt. It was near dusk at that point, probably around 7pm, and the light was lovely - the "golden hour" before sunset. JoeB and I always lament that we never ride at that time of night because of the risk of hitting deer. It wasn't by choice this time, but I relished it nonetheless. It was heaven. The setting sun was gorgeous, the fresh rain smell in the air, the steam rising off the road, the coolness still in the air, and twisty hwy14 in front of me. I was clicking over 500 miles for the day and almost 12 hours in the saddle, but it was riding bliss and I felt fresh as could be.

I made it to Jack's Resort for dinner around 7:30pm. 525 miles for the day. I had my traditional hush puppies, beans and veggie burger. After dinner, I checked in at the Dogwood Motel. All day I had been thinking about how great a cold Miller High Life would taste at the end of a long, hot day of riding. I asked the guy who runs the Dogwood if he happened to have a cold beer. Negatory. He offered me wine or whiskey instead, but I very politely declined. Still, something seemed very quaint about being offered a whiskey on the rocks by the "innkeeper". I almost took him up on the offer on principle alone.

After breakfast at McDonalds, I started Sunday's riding at around 8:30am. Of course I knew I wanted to hit hwy9. I recalled the time when we all were in a holding pattern down at the Angler (near the river) waiting for the fog to lift, only to learn later that fog settles in those "bowls" down around the river and takes quite a while to burn off. I knew to expect it this time. Parts of hwy9 were foggy as pea soup and other parts were sunny as can be. I loved it and this foggy photo is one of my favorites of the weekend.

I did Push Mountain Road of course. That's where I came across this colorful personality on an absolutely pristine Honda CB750 Four.

I was on one of my favorite roads in MO, hwy160, when I turned over 60k miles. By the time I made it home at 6:30pm on Sunday, I was at 60,244 miles. 952 total miles for the weekend. I did the math. I rode 22 hours in two days (minus breaks, of course). But it was a great two days. Good riding on all the best roads (highways: 123, 9, 16, 14, 341, 125). When I unpacked my gear and settled into a nice hot bath, I cracked open a fresh homemade ginger beer.

I Bought a New Camera: The Samsung Galaxy S5

I bought a nice new 16 megapixel camera. It fits in my pocket and is water resistant. It doubles as a phone and even has the internet! Here are some examples of the photo quality out of the camera.
If you'll notice in the photo of the sewing machine the background is blurred. That's actually a feature that mimics the depth of field you get from SLR and DLSR cameras. Just gives the photos a look like they've come from a high quality camera. The list of features on this phone is ridiculous. Voice commands for everything. Camera that shoots in slow motion video and super high def video. It even has a built in heart rate monitor as gimmicky as that is. The way this happened is I took one of my "Scrabble bitches" to the Verizon store on Thursday after work because her son (who lives in Portland, OR) had suggested that she get an iPhone and she wanted someone to help her at the store. Karen is 70yo and has only very limited experience with a pay-as-you-go flip phone that she always left turned off except when she needed it in emergencies. So this was going to be a big step up. The salesperson pointed us in the direction of the Galaxy because of its larger screen and the ease of a "Simple Mode" that can be engaged for people just like Karen. And they quoted her a price on a 1gig data plan that was equal to what I currently pay for my dummy phone with NO data plan. I fell in love with the phone and the price made it a no brainer. So I did a little research and pulled the trigger yesterday. Very happy with my purchase. I am going to love having a nice camera with me at all times! Sidenote: I am on the Verizon network now. I used to be with AT&T.

Throttle Cables Lubed

Even before I got back from AR, I knew I wanted to resolve my sticky / binding throttle cable. It was beginning to fatigue my throttle hand and I was always getting blisters on that hand. So I did some research on the board. I checked the area between the plastic throttle tube and the handlebar. I lubed that and it did nothing. I wound up taking the throttle box apart and re-routing the cables. I had read on the board that the cables should run parallel and should not overlap. That may be good that I did that for the cable routing, but it did nothing to diminish the binding. I pulled on the cable to try and open the throttle and couldn't even budge the thing. So, after a phone call to John and a little instruction, I gravity fed some THREE IN ONE oil down into the throttle cables until oil came out where the cables meet the carbs. That is what eventually fixed the binding. All good now. See the video below. I had read that you're supposed to spray graphite into the cables or some sort of silicone spray. But I've always read in repair manuals that oil is fine to funnel in there. And I usually take John's word as it is informed by many bikes, years, and miles of experience.

"Snip Snip"

Well, fellas, it's officially hiking and riding season. Hiking spells ticks and biking means helmet hair. So, out come the clippers. Snip snip.

Cold Weather Gear

This is another one where the pic ALMOST says it all. These two fellas didn't quite pack warm enough for the fall rally 2012. A trip to the local Dollar General store (for the purchase of these distinguished sweat shirts) was their solution. I remember walking in to the Pizza Hut a little late for dinner to see these two characters. It just made me laugh. I shouldn't make fun; I think Neal shared his pizza with me that night.