Bone Oak Forest * 23-Oct-06
At long last the time came to take on this challenge: A semi-challenging, maze-like road system that climbs up a local hillside with access to the bottom part just minutes from home, the upper sections offering a veritable paradise of opportunities to rampage....many offshoots circle back and re-connect to the main trunk, with lots of fun obstacles easily within the scope of bus operation, but fun nonetheless. The colors of autumn, the scent of the oncoming winter, golden afternoon sunlight slanting through the incredible blue skies really made the experience a swell one!Prior to this outing, I had only tried the first section, which was only really hard in one spot: A medium boulder placed "just-so" in the road .. impossible to move, and too high to straddle, I had to force the bus up onto it. But now, with taller tires, I can drive right over with no incident. Also, returning from a partial ascent last winter, I somehow missed seeing the large rock which rolled along the length of the bus and knocked off the oil filter mount, which was installed by a moron (me), but luckily the System1 filter was not damaged, and the hoses held it all together. Now, after all has been said, done, and videotaped, I gotta say that the whole of the ascent was a whole lot easier than I thought it would be, which is a little disappointing, but since it was still fun, and there are plenty of roads and obstacles to play on for later, I'm not complaining!
And the primary reason for doing this? Besides fun, that is ... of course! Firewood-getting! Oak, that is. Bone-oak. Pre-seasoned, mostly limbless, barkless, and easy to spot, these dead oak trees are a wonderful means of fleshing out the ol' woodpile, and surprisingly enough, there are plenty of them there for the taking. And they are easy to get, too. Cut one down, and sometimes you can drag the entire length back to the road; sometimes they have to be cut into sections. Also, out of the three saws I have (one monster, one normal, and one mini), I need only carry and use the mini, which is easier to deal with.
There are two versions of this file at the moment: One is shorter, made so by eliminating certain shots altogether and shortening the duration of others, and the other is twice as long, and somewhat self-indulgent as far as the editing goes. Choose according to how much time you have and the speed of your connection.