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Camped at ‘Ant Hill’
Camped back at ‘Ant Hill’ – The only problem with my new tarp is the large number of bits of string it has. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Day Three
Yesterday, I’d broken camp and set off around noon, seeking, once again, a route down to Beaver Creek, only to be thwarted again by the bluffs. I headed back to the Pilot Trail at around 12:55 p.m. and I was back on the trail proper by 1:30 p.m. It took me forty minutes to get to the Devil’s Den West Trail Junction, and it took another forty minutes to get to the arbitrary point I’d picked to turn off the Pilot Trail and start bushwhacking to ‘Ant Hill.’ According to my notebook, I followed a compass bearing of 53°E. It must have worked because I arrived at my destination seven minutes later!
There were storms and a lot of rain forecast overnight, so I played around with my set up lowering the tarp and hammock. Turns out I was a little too enthusiastic with the latter. More about that later.
The forecast was right, the temperatures dropped, the rain, thunder, and wind carried on through most of the night, and it was still raining when I ventured out in the morning. It rained a lot. Apparently, the trees I’ve been using have a dip between them, which proceeded to fill with water, The ground on the downhill side was very soggy. My pack is touted as being highly water-resistant but it didn’t get tested as the uphill side, where it was, remained dry. Much to my alarm, I discovered that in setting the hammock low, I’d made it so close to the ground that my underquilt protector was dragging on the ground and quite wet. But it did its job and kept my underquilt dry.
Checking out the rain. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. A disadvantage of my new tarp is the huge number of tie-outs it has. Eight, yes eight more than my other tarp. There are four side pullouts, and a line to secure each of the four doors. Giving 14 tie-outs in total. But doubling up with multiple tie-outs on a single stake, I can get away with only eight or so stakes, depending on the conditions. The side pullouts do make a huge difference to the amount of room under the tarp, and despite the wet floor, I was nice and cozy, sitting in my chair, cooking and eating.
Time for breakfast. The large amount of steam was a matter of interest. It should have been a warning. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Speaking of eating, I was surprised at how much steam was rising from my cooking pot. I was also feeling a bit cold. Both should have warned me that the forecast temperatures of over sixty degrees were completely wrong. I just thought the dew point must be pretty high, and the damp air was making it feel cold. D’oh!
Wet ground and wooly feet. The ground under my hammock dipped a little so a soggy mess appeared under me. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. 
Morning tea. Making tea while my breakfast rehydrates. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Forest Road
Disused forest road. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. The forest roads can sometimes be difficult to find and see. This one, while quite obvious here, is not easy to spot where it meets the trail.
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Small falls in ‘Deep Hollow’
Small falls in ‘Deep Hollow’ Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. It might be worth taking a dip here in warmer weather.
It seems I took a picture of these falls on December 26, 2020, at which time they were iced up.
Ice falls. Hercules Glades – Day One. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Gary Camped to the north of ‘Deep Hollow’ Hercules Glades
Gary Camped to the north of ‘Deep Hollow’ Hercules Glades. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Day Two – The view from my hammock – Morning sunshine in the woods
The view from my hammock – Morning sunshine in the woods. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Day Two
It was dark by the time I’d carried my water up from the creek, which was running quite well (I decided that I ought to pop down to take a picture of the nearest set of falls before I move on in the morning).
It didn’t take long to get the hammock up and dinner sorted. Then there was time to sit back and listen to the nighttime noises in the woods. I heard some Coyotes, a long way off, but apart from that, it was fairly quiet.
It was a tad chilly – first thing, but it warmed up later. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Confession time. There’s a good cell phone signal here, so I spent a small amount of time online before turning in. In the morning I even did some work before climbing out of my hammock (it is Monday after all).
I was toying with the idea of heading out early and getting some miles in. Instead, I decided to have a lazy morning, and hike back east along the Pilot Trail, stopping for the night at ‘Ant Hill.’ Before that, I wanted to have another try at getting down to Beaver Creek. Thus far the bluffs have thwarted me. And so it proved again. There has to be a way down, I’ve just not found it yet.
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On the Pilot (Tower) Trail to the north of the Lower Pilot Knob
On the Pilot (Tower) Trail behind Lower Pilot Knob. Cheesy grin, but a least my hat’s sorted out now. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Cheesy grin indeed. What I didn’t realize as I was taking this picture, was that in a couple of hundred yards I’d walk straight past the old forest road I need to take to get to my ‘Deep Hollow’ campsite. Oh well…
At least I had managed to give my hat some TLC before I took this picture. It’s looking a whole lot better now.
I’d overshot the forest road junction by several hundred yards when a glimpse of an old fire ring had me bushwhacking to take a closer look,and getting out my GPS to tag it’s location. That’s when I realized my navigational blunder.
Setting off in search of the missed junction, a normal person in this predicament would either use their GPS, or at least get out their compass so they can check what direction they are heading off in. Not me. I blithely hiked back up the trail, missing my turning point yet again.
After realizing I had made yet another navigational blunder, I finally got out the compass, turned around, and started looking for the tree and rock that marks the turn. Having found the junction, it was just a matter of hiking along the forest road until I was on top of the ridge where I needed to turn west. At that point, using the compass I headed off in the general direction of the campsite.
I’ve tried navigating in dense woodland using the GPS, but I’ve found that a compass works better. Especially when I’m bushwhacking. It’s a lot easier to take a bearing, pick a mark (a tree) fifty to one hundred yards or so away, walk to the tree, and then take another bearing. The trees are so thick that you can’t see much further than that.
I arrived at my campsite around five-thirty — just as the sun was going down. So I set up some lights (to make it easy to find my way back to the camp) and headed down to the nearby creek and spring to get water for the night.
Hike for the day done.
With my little accidental excursion up and down the trail, I’d hiked over seven miles in three-and-a-half hours. I’ll take that.
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Looking back (east) along the Pilot Trail
On the Pilot Trail – Getting near to Lower Pilot Knob. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This section of the trail doesn’t get a huge amount of traffic, and as you can see, the trail is not that easy to spot. It’s there though, winding between the brush on the right of the frame.
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Distant Hills
Distant hills – Hercules Glades, Missouri. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. The view to the northeast from the Pilot (Tower) Trail, near Lower Pilot Knob.
When we first started backpacking in Hercules Glades in 2010, there were a lot more views to be had. In the intervening 12 years, the scrub has grown to the point where it’s getting difficult to find any views of the surrounding countryside.
The shrubbery closing in on the trail is making some less frequented routes a lot harder to hike. I do my bit by clearing deadfalls, and the equine users sometimes tackle the larger trees across the trails. But the glades that the area is named after are slowly disappearing, and navigating is getting harder (well, that’s my excuse). Places, where the old forest roads could be clearly seen a few years ago are becoming overgrown.
Growing scrub or not, this afternoon I managed to get a glimpse of the hills in the distance.
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Day One. Back on the trail
My first trip out since November – maybe that’s why my hat is looking a little neglected. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Work — at work and on the house — and the weather has been keeping me off the trails since November. After such a long break, I once again couldn’t make up my mind, whether to try and pile on the miles or just go sit in the woods.
I’d taken a couple of (well earned) comp days, but because I was working on Saturday, I couldn’t get away until Sunday, and quite late in the day at that. I can’t remember what the delay was, but I do know, that as I was driving to the trailhead, I was thinking I might need to cut my planned six-mile hike short if I didn’t want to be setting up camp in the dark.
I decided to review the situation when I got to the ‘Twin Falls Creek’ crossing which is slightly over halfway to my planned destination of “Deep Hollow’ on the western edge of the wilderness.
The weather was forecast to be 61°F today, and low forties overnight. A wonderful 69°F was forecast for Monday, and again low forties overnight with a lot of rain and potential thunderstorms heading in. Tuesday was set to remain rainy in the early morning drying off with a high of 57°F. I was anticipating a hike out in the rain. Nothing new about that. And I was looking forward to giving my new tarp a good run out in some wet weather — that’s what I bought it for! My only constraint was that I had to be home early in the afternoon for Ginger to get to her pottery class.
I arrived around 1:30 p.m. and I stopped for a chat with a guy camped at the trailhead. We lamented the tragic decline of the Weather Underground phone app since it had been taken over by IBM.
Daylight was burning, so I hurried on. The sun was shining, and it felt hotter than I expected. It was great to be back on the trail. I met one couple on the trail shortly before the Pole Hollow Cairn.
Guess where? Yes, back at the Pole Hollow Cairn. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I met another couple soon after I passed the cairn. They were the last people I was going to see on this trip. The chap was wearing a tartan kilt, and I was feeling overdressed in my long pants. He’s the first kilt wearer I’ve met on the trails. It’s good to know there’s at least one other person venturing out in a kilt. I should have taken a picture! His parting comment was ‘You’re brave,’ referring to my huaraches. A prophetic statement as it turned out.
It was lucky I bumped into them when I did, a few minutes later and they would have encountered me in the middle of a trailside clothing change. It was far too hot, and I needed to lose my base layer top and switch to my hiking kilt. Though it would have been good to have been wearing my kilt when I met them.
I arrived at ‘Twin Falls Creek’ at 3:30 p.m. I was going to stop for lunch, but I decided to grab some water and keep going, eating summer sausage and cheese on the trail. If I moved quickly I ought to be able to get to my campsite around 5 p.m. thirty minutes before sunset.
Stopped for a snack – A peanut Snickers. Tasted like a Reese’s cup to me. Over an hour later and I’ve still not sorted out my hat. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. By 4p.m. I was at the Devil’s Den West trail junction, and onto the lesser-traveled trail leading behind Lower Pilot Knob, and a bit further on, where I’d be taking an old disused forest trail north before bushwhacking to my campsite.
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Journal: Three days hiking in Hercules Glades Wilderness, February 2022
Checking out the rain. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Work — at work and on the house — and the weather has been keeping me off the trails since November. After such a long break, I once again couldn’t make up my mind, whether to try and pile on the miles or just go sit in the woods.
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Problems
Problems – Three coats of paint, rubbing down between coats, around 3-4 hours each. And the color of the paint doesn’t match the doors we bought. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. One of the deciding factors in the wall units we bought for the utility room was the availability of color-matched paint. So we bought some for the custom-built shelving.
The color looked off after the first coat, but I went ahead with the second coat, and it’s not right.
Back we went to the store — Menards’ — who refunded us for the paint, but they couldn’t produce a match, and the paint we’d been given wasn’t very good. It was supposed to be self-leveling, but it wasn’t.
After over half an hour of trying to make a color match, the staff (and us) gave up.
We went to Lowes with a sample of the finish and they matched it with some great paint that was self-leveling, matching color, and provided an excellent finish.
Though I still had to put in another three-plus hours work to sand it and paint it, so that’s a total of four coats of paint, at over three-four hours each to prepare and apply.
It’s looking like the other set of shelves may be finished in just two coats.
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Painting
By the way, this is what $700-ish dollars of wood and around 200 screws1 look like when put together.
The final round of sanding and finishing was put on hold while the car was taking up all the space in
my workshopthe garage. The winter storm is over, and it’s back to work. Ginger worked on sanding and finishing last Sunday while I was up working in Kansas City. Today I got everything ready for painting and had just enough time to get the undercoat on one of the units. It took several hours to paint. Now to find time to put the first coat of topcoat on. I’m preparing myself to have to give it two coats to get the finish I want.The better weather is forecast to be with us for a few days. Hopefully, I can find some time to get out here and get painting.
I would like to get out backpacking, but that doesn’t seem to be on the agenda at the moment. Every time I turn around another job at home presents itself. Next is moving the kitchen table light which is 8″ off of being over the table’s center, and needs to be done before the painter starts work on the kitchen. The darned gear closet still isn’t finished. There is a couple of coats of varnish to go on the doors, I then need to fix the door handles and it’ll be done. After that, Ginger’s gear closet, and the monolith — I forgot the monolith — which needs to be cladded and painted. At some point my office will get sorted. I’ll probably have retired or be dead before that happens. If not, it’ll be time to remodel the bathroom.
Footnote
1. 200 screws, 11 screws per shelf, and a total of 17 shelves, that’s 187 screws and 37 feet of shelving.
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Heading North on HWY 7
Heading North on HWY 7 – Driving up to Kansas City. It’s good to see the roads are clear after last week’s winter storm. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. It is going to be a long day today. I left at nine and plan to be at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church by midday. Then we have four hours to get everything ready for the four pm Celebration of Absalom Jones service. After that, break everything down and drive three hours home. Fortunately, I’ve got a group of excellent and willing volunteers in Kansas City to help me.
In total it’s a team of six, including myself. There’s a stills photographer, two camera operators, a sound and video mixer, a social media monitor, and me.
Many hands will help make light work. Even so, it’s going to be after nine pm when I get back home.
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One, two, three. Testing, testing
One, two, three. Testing, testing. I’m doing my first church service broadcast in almost a year tomorrow. Time to check everything still works. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I’m doing my first church service broadcast in almost a year tomorrow. Time to check everything still works.
And it did. It took me a while to remember how everything connected together, and how to operate it all. All six radio mics are working with no crossed channels. I’m just hoping these are not going to clash with the existing wireless mics at the church. If they do, I guess I’ll have to get the manual out and work out how to shift the channels.
I’ve also got a dedicated wireless hotspot. I wish I had thought of this before for home. It is less expensive and more reliable than the awful AT&T broadband service we currently have. Not to worry though. We are having fiber connected on Monday, and then I’ll have a great deal of pleasure kicking AT&T to the curb.
This lot, with a lot of additional cables, plus mic stands and some lighting, fit in a 70-gallon and 20-gallon container. I’ve rented an SUV for my drive up to Kansas City tomorrow. At least the 6″-8″ of snow that’s still sitting on the ground here has been plowed off all the main routes.
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Pantry shelves ready for finishing
Pantry shelves ready for finishing. With a lot of snow forecast, I needed to get the shelves out of the garage to make room for the car… Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Work on house projects has temporarily stopped. a) because the car is in the garage to keep it out of a winter storm. b) because work is keeping me busy.
It would be nice to find a bit of time to get out backpacking. I’ve not been out in nearly three months. I think it is time to address my work-life balance.
Pantry shelves. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Checking the pantry doors will fit. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Well, that didn’t go as planned…
At least one of the shelving units fits in where it is supposed to go. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. As usual, things took a lot longer to do than I anticipated, and I made two annoying mistakes.
You may, or may not, be wondering why there is a set of shelves standing in the middle of the floor. Well… the shelves fit exactly in the space, but I forgot to make allowance for the door trim, so there is no way to actually get the shelves into the space. When I realized this, My knee-jerk reaction — beyond a lot of swearing — was to break the shelf unit down and reduce its width. However, I’d already glued and screwed it together and the glue had set. I tried chamfering off the back corner so it could be rotated into place. Nope. that wasn’t going to work.
Our final plan cannot be completed until the shelves are painted. Then we’ll take down one of the wall cabinets, and that will give me enough room to get the shelf unit into place. What a stupid mistake to make.
This reminds me of my ‘Great Window Frame Debacle’ back in the eighties.
This reminds me of my ‘Great Window Frame Debacle’ back in the eighties. Then I had designed an extra room for the back of my house, complete with a huge floor-to-ceiling window, some eight feet high and ten or twelve feet long. The window frame had to be custom-built and was already being manufactured when in the middle of the night, I woke up to realize there was no way to get the frame on-site, except by craning it over the top of the house. Something that was way out of my budget.
I eventually came up with a solution that involved bribing several of my neighbors with beer, and between us, we manhandled the huge and very heavy window frame across the walls and fences of three adjoining properties. You would think I had learned a lesson not to be forgotten. Obviously not.
The second, error was to pick up non-hardening wood putty, instead of wood filler at the store. Now I have to get all the putty out and then refill fill all the screw holes with the proper stuff. Until that’s done, we can’t paint and install the shelves. Another unnecessary delay.
The net result of the above was that I only got I set of shelves finished Saturday. Sunday after work, I started assembling the second unit, which does fit in place (left of frame in the picture). I still have all the shelves to add, and it has to be lifted up into place. hopefully, I’ll get the last of the shelves and the doors fitted Monday night.
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My task for tomorrow
My task for tomorrow … Is to turn this pile of wood into a ‘pantry’ and shelving unit. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Is to turn this pile of wood into a ‘pantry’ and shelving unit.
I think I’m going to need an early start if I’m going to get this finished in a day. We’ll see how far I get. I worked for a few hours today, so I guess it won’t matter if it overruns a bit into Sunday. (My work week is currently Sunday – Thursday.)
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Impelling
Impelling. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. The view inside the new washer is bright, shiny, and rather sci-fi looking.
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And that’s the cabinets fitted
And that’s the cabinets fitted – I’ve still got to make a pantry to fill the open space on the left, and another set of shelves on the opposite side of the room too. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. How it started out this morning…
A blank canvas – well, wall if you insist. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Cabinets fitted on one side
Cabinets fitted on one side. Now for the cabinets on the opposite wall. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
