Berlin Lake Trail Hike

My wife, dog and I decided to go for a night hike at the Berlin Lake Trail. As we drove from the house the sun had already set and it was getting dark. About half way to Berlin Lake I heard my wife shour DEER! It was too late. I looked left and could see the deer on the side of the road maybe 10 feet in front of us. I noticed it just as I started hitting the brakes it decided to jump out in front of us. I hit it hard with the front right side of the car. I watched as in rag dolled across the shoulder off into the woods with its legs flailing all over the place. I stopped the car, got out, and checked  the front end for damage. I contemplated checking on the deer but after aa short discussion, we said a short prayer for the deer and kept driving. As we drove I thought about what I could have done. The only thing I coulda done was put it out of its misery. Unfortunately I only had my typical Ruger LCP 380 with me and it prob would not have  been able to get the job done. So I made a mental note to start taking my 45  with +P hollow points when I drive at night in case this happens again. 

We drove to the north end of the trail. When we got out I checked my camcorder first thing. Unfortunately I somehow let the battery drain so I had to leave it behind. About 50 yards into the hike we heard a loud sigh come from the woods. At first I thought it was a dog....maybe. But thinking about it afterward it was either a moose  or something else big with a similar lung capacity. I then saw the no descript image of a big foot in my mind. Which made me want to get out of there. The sound startled us both but oddly we just kept walking as if we wanted to put some distance between us and the noise. I thought  if  it had been a Sasquatch we should have seen some kind of behaviour from my dog but he seemed fine. So we started walking faster for a bit  to get further away.

It was a typical creepy October night in the woods of north east Ohio. The wind was blowing pretty good. Looking across the lake the lights of  a some houses could be seen through the few trees between us and the water. I stopped at several points along the way to take pictures with my phone. Once we got near the end we crossed a concrete bridge. I took and few more pictures. Just as I turned around to head back to the car I heard a clear knock come from the woods behind us. My wife was talking and didn't notice the knock. I waited a few minutes while I debated telling her about the knock as I was sure it would freak her out a bit. A few minutes later I told her and she got a bit scared. This got me a kind of defensive and I started paying more attention to the other noises in the woods.

As we walked back to the car we started seeing light briefly blinking in and out ahead of us. At first all we saw was flashes of lights. As  we got closer and closer to the car we could see more detail. The lights were actually moving either left to right or right to left. Eventually I figured out they were cars aon the road the path ends at. Because of the  tree coverage we could only see the cars through a 10 foot wide break in the trees  at the end of the trail. Once we got to the car it was obvious I was right.

On the way home I kept thinking of all the encounters I heard on Sasquatch chronicles. I started to get excited because I thought  we had a minor encounter with maybe 2 bigfoot. One sighed at us just as we started into the woods on the trail. Another knocked on a tree just as we started back. I had 2 4000+ lumen flashlights with me. All I had to do was point it into the woods and I would have seen whatever it was. Most of the leaves had fallen leaving nothing to obstruct my view but bare tree trunks. Something made me want to turn and keep walking down the trail. Then I thought, if there were anything in the woods which meant us harm it could have blocked us from getting to the car. Leaving us to run to the other end of the trail where apparently there was yet another one waiting. Thankfully none of that happened and these 2 woodland spirits chose to just freak us out a bit.

Next time I will to make sure I take my camera bag with extra batteries, my 120,000 lumen flashlight, night vision camcorder and infrared hunting flashlight to illuminate the woods for the IR camcorder.

Bicycle Bag Mods

 It started with my wife's back end. I noticed it was all sloppy and slanted to one side. It was suppose to be stiff and properly shaped. But alas as all things that are advertised, they often fall short.

On her rear bike rack was a bag just big enough for her extra bike battery at a mere 16 inches. The bag was stiff on the sides due to the extra panels. The flaw was the bottom of the bag. It was a simple floppy piece of nylon with the straps attached to them. The floppy nylon sheet was loose enough to allow the bag to easily tilt 30° to either side. 

So what her back end needed was a stiffy inserted into it. I had used a sheet of 1/4" ABS plastic to attach the Aventon adapter to so the straps would not prevent the adapter from connecting properly. So I cut another similar sheet just wide enough to fit inside. I put screws through the new board through the bottom of the bag into the sheet attached to the adapter. In order to prevent the tilting I added vertical sheets at either end. Each sheet attached via a combination of metal L-brackets and scrap plastic cut into triangles to add more support. I made each sheet the same length. I should have noticed the flaw.

This proved a mistake as the height prevented it from being inserted into the bag. Each end of the bag was a different height and a bit slanted inward. After trimming the height for each end to counter the height and slant. I slipped it in with a bit of effort and it worked!

It took a slight effort to get the bag snapped into the rear rack the first time. I checked the tiltiness and found very little tilt. I kept a keen eye on my wife's back end throughout the next bike ride. Her back end was, as usual, perfectly shaped and stiff enough to stay straight up.

Goodbye Blue Mountain

Long ago.... in an apartment far far away. I walked up a hill to see the distant Blue Mountain. I had to conquer it. I began with my lifelong road bike. Now its age was in the double digits. Though I had taken care of every last thing on it, metal only lasts so long. I set out through the neighborhoods following the route I had mapped. Reached the base looked up the 1200 foot mountain. The road ran a bit steeply into the state forest up a switch back. I pedaled as hard as I could. I took off up the small road. House after house went by. Each one I had to pedal harder just to keep moving. The last housed passed by slowly. Until I heard a loud clank came from my crankset, the pedals shifted to the right and grinded. There was no continuing. Anything more then light pressure made the bearings grind.

Dreams dashed. I began to disassemble the crankset. I could feel the crankset loosely moving back and forth as I unscrewed the pedals. I removed the adjustable cone. As the bearings fell Out I could see the tragedy in the bracket cups with one split circling nearly all the way round. The metal had a visible dent in it where the bearings had dug a groove into the cup. The steepness of the hill and the power of my legs had caused the fatal damage.

I let the bike lie their in pieces. I stared in sadness, Blue Moutain had taken its first victim. 

Picked up my keys. Hopped in the car and went to buy what I was certain would be its next. I found a huffy 10 speed mountain bike for a mere $99. Threw it in the back of the GEO with plenty of room to spare. Took her home. Thoroughly checked her out. Lubed her up. Took her outside and mopped on, tearing down the road to give it one more try. With adrenaline pumping through my legs, I ripped through the neighborhood back to the base of Blue Mountain. House by house slowly passing by as I road up the switch back. Until finally... No more switch back. Just a straight road up the mountain. Single lane, yellow NO WINTER MAINTENANCE signs paralleling the road. Of course I ground to a halt as the grade increased to an impossible slope. 

Defeated once again.

Days later I got the map out and looked for what all Pennsylvania Appalachians know. there is almost always a switchback. I found the switchback on Lambs Gap Rd on the far side of the mountain. I hopped on my next life partner bike and headed out. I took surface roads heading for the Susquehanna, North on Riverside road to rt 850. Then straight on to Lambs Gap Road where only pain will be found. I arrived at the bottom of the mountain. As I expected the switch back went back and forth about 5 times. At the first and second switch I stopped to rest. Legs burning and barely able to raise them to get off. I looked down the mountain at the pine trees thinking to myself, If I go off the road and fall down the mountain, there is nothing but pine trees to hit on the way down." From behind me I could hear it coming. My guardian angel in the shape of a bumble bee. He buzzed by my ear, striking fear into me. I rushed to my bike, hopped on. Struggling to get going while swatting the bee away. Eventually I got a decent distance from him. Every time I started gasping and slowing down. He would buzz my ear to inspire me to go faster. Eventually I crested the hill and saw the trailhead. I coasted into the trailhead parking lot to take a rest.

In reality it took me 3 attempts to get all the way up the switch back. At least 1 bee to attack me each time. While the down hill parts were very relieving. Each switch meant I had to go from 40 some mph to about 0 to make the 180° turn on the switch. The last switch was so gratifying. No more switches and all the pine trees dropped the temp so much. It was like riding into an air conditioned room. Followed by the defeated trip back to the apartment.

On the third attempt I finally made it. Standing in the parking lot, sweat dripping profusely from every pour on my body, I walked few laps to dry off. I hadn't yet learned to bring a water bottle with me. I could only get a few drinks of the water using my cupped hands before I decided to finish the ride. Hopped on the bike, made the left out of the parking lot. I tried to begin my descent,  but as I got close enough to see just what I was in for. I slammed the brakes. Looking down the road I felt exactly like I was in the front seat of a 1000 foot roller coaster looking down the tracks.

I'd like to say I was brave enough to have gone that first time. I was terrified. I crested the mountain 2 more times. By that 3rd attempt the hill didn't seem so bad.

Boy was I wrong.

Staring down the road, I SHOULD have said a prayer. I pushed off, pedaled twice, and shot down the mountain. Immediately squeezing the brakes as hard as I could. Speedometer shooting through 10 miles at a time till around 40 it started to slow. 41,43,48, 49.5, I was staring at the speedometer too long. I glanced at my knuckles, completely white. I was holding on for dear life.  All I could do was focus on the road. The "NO WINTER MAINTENANCE" signs whipped by. Each at a different angle like they were wobbling. Then I looked down at their base and the edge of the road. It was more like a NO MAINTENANCE road. Huge chunks of the edge of the road had fallen off the edge of the road. Then I saw my tires. Occasionally flashing by a huge missing chunk of the road. In my mind I kept looping through a vision of blowing out a tire and careening into a pine tree after tree, after tree, as I rag dolled down the mountain. I regained my composure and ever so carefully edged to the safer middle of the road. Praying no one was coming up the hill.

Fortunately going 40+ miles an hour eats up the 1,200 ft height of the mountain pretty quick. The grade lessened a bit and I started to slow... a bit. Rushing at me at 30+ mph was the the beginning of the last switchbacks going down the mountain. I started to swerve back and forth trying to eat up my speed. That got me just slow enough to make the turn. I swerved to the left side of the road before hitting the switch, trying to take a wide turn. It was just enough. After that first switch I was going slow enough to calm down and easily navigate to the final stretch at the bottom.

The rest of the ride back to my apartment was downright boring.

I rode that same ride nearly every day taking over 2 and a half hours for the next 2 months. Worst that happened was a flat tire at the bottom of the hill. Which was the only biking tragedy I was prepared for.  I got my second industry job in Columbus Ohio and moved to Clinton township. Never to see that wonderful mountain again.

Goodbye Blue Mountain.

Sounds moving in the woods

 On a typical night after my wife goes to bed early I will take the dog out in the yard with a decent flashlight to relieve myself at the edge of the patio. Looking up at the starts as I go. Listening to the woods  I usually only hear the trucks on the interstate, the  wind blowing through the trees, and occasionally an owl. This night I heard something way off to the left.

So I went into the house and grabbed my night vision  camera and IR flashlight to light of the woods. I had just mounted it on a new rach and clipped it  into the tripod and noticed a flaw in my setup. I had mounted the camcorder inside a u shaped rack with 2 flashlights above it for fill lighting, one white and one IR. However the camera was mounted mid way  up its length to the rack. This prevented the door on the left of the camera from opening up and properly turning on the view screen so I could see what I was doing. As I struggled with the screws to dismount the camcorder I hear the sound moving from left to right. The sound was very similar too the Ohio howl sound recorder in Salt Fork park Ohio. But this sound was very brief almost as if it were an owl moving through the woods. It seemed to be paralleling route 82 north of my house moving left to right stopping occasionally to hoot. If it were following 82 it would have moved almost a mile across my field of view. Eventually the noise stopped, just as I got the camera working. I took some more video of the typical night sounds. I packed up the camera and went back in the house. Immediately I went to Amazon to order some brackets so I could properly use my camera ont he new rack. I even found my omnidirectional microphone which  came with the night vision camcorder, mounted it properly with a fuzzy wind guard. Everything is all set, batteries charged, cera door clearance double checked, and test video taken. 

Everything is ready for my next night adventure into my back yard.

ASUS ROG Strix Flare Repeating Keys

I had been using my ROG Strix flare for over 2 years. Then one day all of a sudden the keys started repeating. Even more frustratingly the delete and backspace keys did the same thing so correcting the issue was even more frustrating.

My main computer setup is in my living room and I use it for gaming, web surfing and general video watching. I have cable only for internet service. The room is about 24x12 and my recliner is about 12 ft from my computer and 65 inch tv. I use 3 usb extension cords to connect to 2 USB 3.0 hubs and a 24" 2K TV with a usb 3 hub built in.

My big mistake was skimping out on the quality of the USB extension cables. Furthermore I never paid attention to the color of the tongue in the usb extension cables. I had plugged one of the extension cables with a white tongue from my computer to the USB 3 hub which connected to my ROG Strix Flare keyboard. Apparently I only had 1 good USB 3 extension cable. Up until the problem occurred I had the keyboard hub plugged in to the proper extension cable. After swapping out some components from my computer I swapped the cables, plugging what apparently was a usb 2.0 cable in to my USB 3.0 hub.

Then the problems started.

When signing in to my computer the password box became very difficult to type in with repeating keys. As if something was slowing the whole computer down so the keyboard wasn't working properly. Oddly Notepad did not exibit the problem. However nearly everything else did show the problem. Web chat windows were even worse.

To resolve the problem I got purchased UGREEN 2 Pack USB Extension Cable from Amazon. I threw out the old cables and installed the new ones.

WALLAH the problem disappeared.

Moral of the story...

• Dont mix USB 2.0 extension cables with USB 3.0 hubs.
• Always match the tongue color of the cable with the port you plug in to.
• If you have a fancy keyboard with 2 plugs and pretty lights, only plug it directly in to your computer or to a properly powered hub.

USB Tongue Colors

I figured this out by referring to A Simple Guide to USB Port Colors and Their Meanings.

The sloweat and meant for low powered devices like keyboards and mice are the white or black tongues. Blue(3.0), Teal/Red/Yellow (3.1 or 3.2) are the fastest. yellow indicating it is always on and can be used for charging while the computer or latop is off.

White ports on motherboards typically indicate it is used to flash the bios with nothing on the board. They will usually have some kind of button next to them to do this like the Gigabyte boards do.

See this video which I followed to flash one of my computers successfully.