Unique and special snowflake

The weather forecast called for near sub zero temperatures and negative windchill for my entire weekend. The hardest part about doing anything is getting started. Just like a ball rolling downhill, once momentum is gained its hard to stop. Throughout the work week Ill scour google maps, forums, outdoor discussions and trail maps. Simply looking for a new destination. As much as I hate to repeat a piece of modern pop culture, the water really is greener where you water it *shudders*

First objective. Gain entry. As always I go places in the middle of the week and at an unusual time, purposefully to avoid...stuff. Fences are nothing new and I was in no rush so I took my time finding the best spot. Quickly I realized Ill just trust  good ole animal instinct. 

Follow the critter prints, they know where they are going! In the past year or so Ive realized how much new stuff lies just across the border into Pennsylvania. All too often I was too busy eye humping distant destinations. Thinking Id have to travel far to find anything new. 

There wasnt much info about this place on the internet. In fact I couldnt find any pictures, just a few topo maps and forum blurbs about it being a hot spot for summer activity and cliff jumping. Immediately I could see why. There were multiple ideal jump spots, easily competing with the popular places up in Ithaca. The pictures dont quite show the depth of the watering hole. Its a good 80-100 feet drop into the water from some of the cliff edges. 

Theres rumors on the web about what lies at the bottom. Cars. Trains. Bodies. Etc. Supposedly the railroad company made this hole to drive a train into it to get rid of the train. Doubtful. Its probably beer cans tires and old televisions, ya know, the usual. 

The basin is fed by two beautiful creeks. I wanted to play in them but with it being 5 degrees I figured I shouldnt push my luck so much. 

Iron water. 

Like usual, I like to get around all of it. So I made it around the full circumference of the watering hole. Two creeks poured into it however I wanted to see the creek leaving it. I know theres more to it. 

On my way to find the exit creek I stumbled up a modern juvenile art gallery. 

I ended up at the waters edge. As I neared the ice I could feel the ground shift and heard a loud grumble. Then a creak. Then other odd noises. I quickly verified I was still standing on dirt. The water level wasnt consistent due to the two creeks pouring into it, thus the shifting of the ice. Pretty nifty. Scared me at first.  

On second thought, maybe the rumors are true. It was a 75 foot sheer drop from here. I love abandoned vehicles. I didnt frolic around it too much as it was in a precarious position. Definitely old and definitely a big oops moment. 

Now Im getting somewhere. I knew there was more!

The exit creek. If it was summer Id walk through the water to get to the other side. I may have to return. 

The creek ran down a large man made staircase. A drainage pipe branched off, possibly for irrigation Im not sure. There was a whining noise in the distance. 

Okay I had to find out. Looks like its powering a small generator. At this point it was getting pretty cold and I didnt want to push my luck much farther as I had reason to believe this was private land. Time to make my way back. 

Whoa. Some old quad tracks ripped through this area. The mud and water were frozen in time, stuck in middle of a splash.  How cold does it have to be to form this?

Absolutely amazing. It looked like it belonged under the sea in a reef system. As soon as the temperature rises to 32 degrees itll fade away, to never been seen again in that exact form. 

So just stop. Seriously. STOP. Enjoy things while you can cause some things will be gone forever once they leave. 

I will never see this again. Maybe something similar but not exactly this. This is purely unique. Things like this exist everywhere and Id be willing to bet majority goes unseen before they fade away. The frozen octopus began to melt in my hand so I set it down and continued on my merry way. Satisfied. Yet again. 

It was just an idea

Just an idea, that bloomed. When I bought my house it was clear that the previous residents were a bit...trashy. They attempted to bury children's outdoor toys. Scattered tires throughout the woods. 150 feet of well pipe tossed into the bushes. A bed liner in the creek bed. Do I understand it? Nope. Took a good weekend to pick it all up.

I was watching an endurocross race and the light bulb clicked. I want my own mini-endurocross track and some of this garbage left behind could be used for it. Recycling in my own kind of way. Riding the same trails on a few acres can get boring pretty quick so I was looking to spice it up with obstacles, thus my mini-endurocross was born.

First off, the weapon of choice. 1988 KX80. Yeah, a "kids" dirt bike. Its amazing how snappy these little things are, perfectly suitable for an adult screwing around.

First obstacle, balance log. I took this tree down awhile ago as it had a lot of rotten widow makers waiting to kill me when I'm weed wacking. I got lazy and never chopped it up. Lets just say this balance log was difficult to navigate. There was much bleeding.

2nd obstacle. The creekbed bedliner. Up and over. Its a slow speed obstacle, just don't stall. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Third obstacle. Tire whoops. Brief lesson. Stay on the throttle and lean back. These too were a blast to rip through. Made me want to find more tires on my land. As if 21 weren't enough.

Fourth obstacle, S-turn. After spring rain it got pretty gnarly.

Fifth obstacle. Logs that aren't perpindicular to the flow of the track. Best thing to do is loft the front wheel over them as the front wheel naturally wants to jerk to the right and throw you off when it hits the logs. I found it pretty amusing.

Sixth obstacle, Muddy rock garden. Everyday I walked down to the woods I'd grab a few rocks from the creek bed and take them down with me, slowly making my rock garden grow.

Seventh obstacle. Log stack. As long as you had momentum it wasn't a problem. The mud only got worse, meaning it got "better".

Eighth obstacle. This one was an experiment. I chopped up all the well pipe I found in the bushes. I thought maybe it'd make a good material to make it difficult to ride through. I thought right. It was almost impossible to not go down. The pipe would find its way into the spokes and lock up the wheel. When they pipe is sideways it acted like riding over wet tree roots, meaning the back tire shoots out to the side resulting in a nice casual lay down. Needless to say I removed this obstacle.

Not really an obstacle, just a sharp turn to go back up the hill to the beginning.

The final obstacle. A suspended log. This one provided the most entertainment. You had to wheelie over it otherwise the front tire would just push the log, making it swing higher and higher until it lodged itself between the front fender and front tire against the forks. Stopping you instantly. When you did ride over it with the back tire it'd make the log shoot out the back and if you weren't quick the log would swing back and mess you up. I went over the bars a few times. All in good fun of course.

I eventually sold the dirt bike and removed the garbage finally. Like I said, it was just an idea. It was fun while it lasted and I'd definitely like to build a full blown endurocross course somedays. The slower speed and technical nature of it is attractive to me. Challenging and although you wreck often, its generally minor.

Don't make it like they used to

I'm sure theres a good reason why some things are not made the way they used to be. Give way to cheaper production, cheaper materials and cheaper labor. Metal turns into plastic. Character is lost. Awhile back I worked as an electrician apprentice and it offered opportunities to see some pretty cool places. And then do work at these cool places. The most notable was an old castle/church/reformed camp for city kids. It was way out of my jurisdiction but in the winter, you go where the work is.

I got excited just rolling up to this place. The building has seen many uses, the most recent is a job corp. What's a job corp? It's a last ditch attempt to save the youth from the city. And by youth I mean black kids. I saw only one white kid there. In a way, its a secured location. Far from civilization. There was no barbed wire fence but the remote wilderness was enough to scare away the city kids. They had no idea how to survive or navigate the woods. They were like a pack of animals. As I did work there, I'd casually observe their behavior. Rude. Disrespectful. A modern feral dog had more class. I didn't let that ruin the architecture though. There was a 1902 stamp on the foundation somewheres. No, it's really not that old. Theres plenty of farm houses back home that date into the 1800s.

Very cool. I found myself wandering a bit when I was going back and forth getting supplies. It was such a contradiction seeing this wonderfully constructed piece of masonry that was infected with the shittiest youth that destroys everything in sight. Certainly this building did not deserve this punishment. The work involved crawl spaces. Crawl spaces with a steam leak. There was a thick fog rolling across the floor and the temperature hovered around 130 degrees. Toss in 100% humidity and it made for a great work environment.

The age defintely showed. Everything was peeling, cracking and crumbling. A building like this should be preserved. I'd love to own something like it someday. Obviously its a horrible investment.

Never seen Gym spelled this way. Its plausible though. Short for Gymnasium. I suspect it was from the World War 2 era. It was written in nazi style. Electrical nightmare. The fact that things worked was pretty amazing. Realstically its a pretty simple system, a simple system waiting to blow up.

A new HVAC system was going in, to supplement the original boilers. Speaking of boilers.

Not the best shots. Not the best place to talk either, considering how loud this room was. I did have an affinity for catwalks and pipe mazes. I needed to reach a junction box that was facing away from the catwalk. It required me to balance myself on the guardrail and suspend myself above the boiler to reach the face of the junction box. This type of work is statistically dangerous, I do miss it at times. Its a different kind of thrill.

Hallway of doom. All the piping above is not original. Over the years the ceiling height kept getting lower with new conduit, water pipes and heating ducts put in. Now the ceiling rested slightly above my head level. Just look at the doorway at the end of the hall in comparison to the height of the pipes. Although nowhere near modern, its clear an attempt has been made to continual update the place.

A lot of my work took place here. Not sure what you're looking at? I'm above a hanging ceiling. This is in the main chapel. At some point a hanging grid ceiling was put in place, possibly to cut down on the heating bill. The chapel was converted into a game room of sorts. Everything had a chain and lock on it. Really? City kids steal stuff? The hanging ceiling was going to be removed so the lighting needed to be removed. Up above was more great work, giant wood beams and arches. The true makings of what used to be a church. All this was hidden from the ground level. At the end of the chapel was a walled off portion. I made entry out of curiosity and found myself in the head of the chapel. A beautiful alter, made of marble that has been partially dismantled. Above the alter was a ceiling of biblical paintings, like what you would see in chapels that are truly old.

All of this, tucked away to not be seen. It just felt wrong. This is the kind of moving forward I dont like. Is this really progressing? Or is it simply making the best of an aging situation?

Regardless, I enjoyed working here simply for the fact that I could explore a bit and get more than just a paycheck.

Cover Your Ass

Its utterly disgusting how dishonest of a society we live in.

I'm no stranger to wrecking motorcycles. In fact I'd say I'm pretty good at it. However it's pretty rare to have a street wreck that's not my fault. As always it happens when you least expect it. Allow the picture to set the scene.

I just tore out of my driveway on my WR450F. There's multiple nice turns on my way out of the homestead. Above is a picture of just prior of the incident location. Take note of the dirt shoulder on the right side. I came around the first bend and was heading into the next bend in the picture. A white car was coming towards me. As I approached the turn the car started drifting over the double yellow. In all honesty it happens all the time so I didn't think much of it. Theres no sense in getting pissed at drivers anymore, it's not like I'd win in a collission.

The driver didn't stop drifting over the double yellow. Before I knew it the whole car was now in my lane, coming at me head on. I could see the driver clear as day, an elderly woman. She was looking right at me but made no effort to adjust her position. I had a split second to choose my fate. I was already hugging the shoulder to give her stupid ass room around the turn. Naturally I went for the shoulder. But then things got freaky. As I swung onto the shoulder so did she, as if she was mirroring my movements. So this is what murder feels like. A final moment gave me an opportunity to choose once more. I could shoot off into the yard and end up in the tree line. From my experience trees don't move and they hurt. Or swing back onto the road and hope she doesnt suddenly realize whats happening and meets me head-on anyways. I chose the road and almost made it. Her car was already off onto the shoulder and angled so when I got back on the pavement I made contact with the rear quarter panel area of the car. It made a resounding thud. I was now past the car however my bike was sideways. Wreck mode initiate. Go limp and take a ride.

The left skid is my front tire and the right skid is my rear tire just to give you an idea of the orientation of my bike. I held on until the last second then released. Tumbled a few times and ultimately landed ontop of my bike in the bushes.

Final resting point. I quickly assessed my limbs and felt good enough. Pulled myself out of the bushes and got up to the road. My bike was still running, how nice. The old lady was now parked on the shoulder, which as I came to find out was her intentions. Parking on the outside of a blind turn facing traffic is not only illegal, its dumb. Purely. She looked sorry. And I made her feel sorry with some select words. As I was yelling I approached her and realized I was limping. Adrenaline is a beautiful thing.

Impact zone. Turns out most of the damage was done by my right foot/leg that was sandwiched between my bike and her car. Hence the limp. After a few minutes I could feel something was wrong with my foot. After some personal assessment I concluded I'd be fine as there was no open wounds or major swelling. I politely informed the lady about who she just hit.

A police report was made, she was appropriately ticketed and I yanked my bike out of the bushes. I rode home to assess the bike damage. I took some pictures but I'm not going to post them cause it really was that minimal. Another reason why I love supermoto. If I was on my CBR it would've blown up in a huge fireball and killed a kitten somewheres. My foot took awhile to heal, per usual Nate behavir I never got it professional checked. I've broken that foot twice already and quite familiar with the sensation. It wasn't broken but it definitely took some damage. It still doesn't feel quite right but then again a lot of my body parts don't feel quite right anymore. I might be a really sore 50 year old man someday.

Now onto my ass and covering it. See the pictures above? I had to submit them to fight an insurance case. I didn't make a claim for the damage to my bike cause really it was maybe $25 worth of parts, I didnt really care. I got a surprise phone call from my insurance agent saying she needed to talk to me about the incident because the old lady's insurance company is charging mine with the damage to her vehicle, specifically stating there was no police report and no one was ticketed. Forgive me insurance agent for yelling "the FUCK there wasnt!". I explained to her everything that I pretty much wrote here. I gave her the case number since I've already looked at a copy of the accident report. I told her specifically what the lady was ticketed for. I told her exactly what happened which she then requested that I tell her again so she can record it. Afterwards I told her I even took pictures which she said she would need.

After some review my agent called me and told me she has no idea what the other party is thinking as its more than obvious who is at fault and why they would lie about there being no report and no tickets being issued was beyond her. Unbelievable.

Moral of the story is, no matter how minor the incident may be, have a police report filed. I've seen first hand multiple incidents where minor fender benders turn into he said/she said battles between insurance companies. NY doesn't require a police report for damages under $1000 so often people skip out on it cause they dont want to deal with it. People are dishonest, you give them an inch they take a mile. Some people wonder why I'm so wary and not trusting of people. I don't live in a happy little bubble in make believe land. 

Supermoto fo' lyfe

To put it simply, I've had a lot of motorcycles in my young life. For awhile it seemed like I bought a new one each year. So I've had a pretty broad taste of what is out there. For a couple of years I lusted over a specific style, being "supermoto". Most people don't know what it is nor will they understand. It's a crossbreed of a dirt bike and street bike. Dual sport? No. Enduro? No. I'm not going to bother explaining it. Point is I lusted over one for years. Finally it was time...

I decided to build one. That bike above is not a supermoto. That is what is considered a dualsport. The basic concept is the wheels. For all intents and purposes a supermoto is a dirt bike that is slightly altered to be superior on the street. I picked this bike up with intentions to "build" one. Never happened. I sold off the dirt rims and started saving for the very expensive supermoto rims. I then decided to give it up considering how old the bike was. In the long run it wouldn't be worth it as the suspension stunk and the bike overall was pretty beat. So I sold the bike without it's wheels. It made it a little odd to sell but after some typical lowballers I found someone that understood how good of a deal it was. Now I was really irritated, the supermoto lust was stronger than ever.

Okay still no supermoto. I had this bike (2008 Z1000) at the same time I picked up the DRZ above. Without a doubt it was a sexy machine. Too sexy. I put 22,000 miles on it in a very short period of time and it still didn't tickle my fancy. Great bike but wasn't for me. I didn't like how clean it was, how "perfect" it was. Polished aluminum rims were annoying to keep clean. Unfortunately it was a difficult bike to sell for two reasons.20,000 miles on a motorcycle is the same as 100,000 on a car. When you pass that mark people get scared and consider it "high mileage". Even though 20,000 on a bike is really nothing. Fact is most bikes are totaled or stolen before they can reach 20,000. The second reason that made it a hard sell was that its a rare bike. A lot of people werent familiar with it and the naked styling doesn't appeal to the American masses. It's huge in other countries but here in America not so much. So I was trying to sell an undesireable bike that had scary mileage. I never sold it. I actually traded it straight up for the bike I wanted. In terms of book value to book value, I lost money on the deal but I didn't care. Its about what I wanted.

2008 DRZ supermoto model. This is what the blue bike should've been. It was pretty well decked out too. Didn't require anything. I was so happy to finally be on what I've wanted for years. But then came a time where I needed a bike that could carry a passenger. Damn it. I made a sacrafice, regrettably. Sold off the DRZ and quickly picked up a plain jane all factory CBR600RR in bumblebee yellow. Gross.

I absolutely hated it. I've been off bikes with "clip-on" style bars for awhile. Felt like a monkey humping a football. Didn't help the color was bumblebee yellow. I wasn't too fond of the sacrafice I had made.

It didn't take me long to strip it down and make it into something I'd be happy with. I was so giddy to be back on a bike that I didn't have to keep clean. I was really happy with the results. It wasnt the first time I've done this to a bike so it was a pretty quick process. My lust for supermoto didn't recede though. I tasted it with the DRZ400SM. However now I found myself wanting to step it up. There were a few issues I had with the DRZ. Electric start only. It's a little heavy and underpowered without dumping a lot of money into modifications.

This is the bike I should've had all along. Lightweight, great power, kickstart/electric, fairly reliable and downright awesome. Granted it didn't quite come this way. The bike itself is not street legal in NY. I had to find one from another state that was converted to street legal status. Fortunately I didn't have to travel too far. Unfortunately the previous owner was a bit of a dolt. Upon initial inspection of the bike it wasn't too bad. The factory blue plastics were sticker bombed. If you look at all the bikes I've owned they are de-stickered as much as possible. It wasn't until I got it home did I start seeing how many things were halfassed. A lot of stripped bolts. Rust inside the throttle body (bike was submerged at some point), jetting was way off, rear rim adjustment was cockeyed to keep the chain off the rear tire as he used the wrong size rear tire. There was more but in the end I was still happy with the bike.

That leaves me to where I am now. I'll forever be buying, selling and trading bikes. They break. They get old. They lose some of their flare. But I do know for sure that a supermoto will be somewheres in my garage. Its made to be ridden, not sitting at bike night to be gawked at. They can be dropped with nothing but a scratch. They aren't too attractive to thieves. They are quite agile and operate well on just one wheel. Like everything there are cons. Limited distance due to gas tank size. Not exactly comfortable at long distances at higher speeds. Its within my happy medium though.

There have been other bikes in the mix, some didn't make the cut or weren't worth mentioning.