Franktown Loop

March 8, 2013

Here in Northern Nevada we've been blessed with some very warm, sunshine drenched days during this winter.  We also have a lot of places to ride your bicycle and this is a very nice training loop.

Between Carson City and Reno is the Washoe Valley.  This valley is on the map of the old T.V. show 'Bonanza' and recently the I580 Fwy was completed through the middle of the valley.  That leaves the old 395 and the roads along the edge of the valley pretty much traffic free.  To find this ride, get off and head for Bowers Mansion which is a state park with a huge parking lot.  From the parking lot, head south on old
395 to Franktown Rd.  This road curves around at the base of the Carson range of mountains and then rejoins old 395.  Here's a couple of pictures taken on this road:

I had stopped here as this is a fairly steep hill that will likely leave your heart pounding and your lungs gasping for air.  Beautiful scenery up here in the pine trees.  The road has a series of hills and downgrades, just enough to work you a bit.  Here's another view from a bit farther along the loop, this time looking up at the Carson range:

And then the road rejoins the old 395 and you head north back to Bowers Mansion with again great views of the Carson range:

I don't have a 'puter on the bike, but from what I hear the loop is about 10 miles from start to finish and is a great training ride with very little traffic.  Try it some bright, sunny day!

Truckee River Trail

There's been some beautiful ridiing days here in the Carson Reno area lately. Recently, I had a chance to head down the Truckee River trail which goes from Idylwild Park in downtown Reno to Sparks. My son, along with a friend and myself caught the trail off Spice Island Drive in Sparks and headed to Reno. Here's a view of the trail off Spice Island drive:

This trail is interesting as most of the path does not seem to have been a rail road at one time.  There's lots of little hills, tight little turns, underpasses to shoot through and this bridge which has brand new decking:

And at the end of the trail in Reno, you have Idyllwild Park and downtown Reno to visit for lunch:

This is a bikepath that I know I'll be back to ride again!

Still in the Sagebrush

Gosh, I got busy and time got away from me. It's been over a year since I posted anything to this blog. Been a busy year. Found (maybe refound) an old hobby called Archery. I grew up with a 45 lb. green stickbow in hand and actually managed to hit a few ground squirrels with it.

A young man living with us had brought his bow out to show me and that got me to thinking about those far off days. I'd gotten married and moved to SoCal. Pretty hard to find much of a place to shoot down there surrounded by the city. And so, the skills languished until this youngters bow was brought out. Woudln't you know it, before too long I managed to find an old PSE compound in really good shape at the pawn shop. A '92 PSE Carrol Marauder/Hunter, with sixty pound limbs and a 27 inch draw it pulls an actual wt. of 56 lbs. Came with a stab., 5 pin Nighthawk sights, Limbsilencer system---pretty much everything needed to hunt or target shoot.

It's been fun regaining the old skills. This compound is easier to shoot than the old stick bow. Within a couple of months I was hitting consistently at 40 yards. I even bought my son, CJ, an old Indian bow with a draw wt. of 25 lbs. He learns quick as well as he's hitting tight groups at 10 yards with that little Indian bow.

I'm turning 50 this year and one of my goals will be to go out hunting with that bow. I'd like to take down on the big Mulies that run around on the desert mountains behind my place. I want to take my son with me too, and if we don't see any deer, well, that's all right. Maybe we'll find some bunnies, or some scared stumps to put some arrows in.....down here in the Sagebrush.

I know it's coming...

Life sure does go by fast. I can't believe it's been almost three weeks since the last post. Went for a very short, overnight camping trip with my son last week. Had to come back for a department meeting at work and then I just had to have a nap. After the nap, my daughter showed me her guniea pig whose head was listing hard to starborad and was acting rather limp and sick. So, the trip was canceled and off to the vet. we went the next morning.

The next week was fun with a new chainsaw attachement from Baileys, the logging outfitters. The new tool is a 'chainsaw buddy' that allows you to pick up and cut very small limbs without burying the chain in the dirt. I'll review that in the next post.

What I got to thinking about over the last week was 'I know it's coming' and it's time to get busy! What's coming? Winter! How do I know winter is coming on a beautiful day with temps in the 90's? Well, lots of ways:

I've lived for almost 50 years on this earth, and I know that summer eases into fall, and then winter comes around followed again by spring. I know this because I've experienced it.

I know it because I can see the shadows lengthening on the ground. The angle of the suns' rays change during the year, and as fall/winter draws on, the shadows lengthen.

I work nights, and in June, dawn would break at 5 a.m., but now in August, dawn doesn't break until about 6:30. The long nights of winter are drawing closer.

The squirrels are shifting their nut gathering activities into high gear. The pine seeds are ripening. The little scamps are chewing up cones and hiding the seeds right and left.

And me? I just placed a call to find another cord of soft, pinewood to go with my Pinyon pine firewood for the winter. I've got to get more wood in, as this may be a very cold winter. There's been almost no sunspot activity and historical records show that when that happens, the winter is cold and long.

I also need to lay in about 5 gallons of Kerosene for the portable heaters and to fuel the lanterns. I'm buying a couple of the Petromax lanterns this year, as I'm tired of paying so much out in electricity. The word is that fuel costs are going to be much higher this winter. I've also locked in a set rate for my propane heating fuel.

I can see that the financial hard times are far from over. There's lots of toxic debt out there owned by the banks, and I have some myself. Pay this debt off, and keep from going further into debt. Lay in a bit of a food reserve, just in case the income isn't there or just in case of an emergency.

I know that winters' coming, just as I know that hard times might not be far away...and I know from experience and watching the signs around me. Are you watching what's going on around you?

So this is Swine Flu?

Yep, I caught the dreaded bug that is certain to kill half the known world in record time....if you believe the drivel coming from the major news networks. I'm a health care provider and was exposed to a child who was very sick from this flu. Five days later, I'm starting to feel achy and my lungs are rattling junk around in them, so I head over to Occ.Med. to get tested. Sure enough, the rapid test comes back 'Influenzae A', and two days later the slow test comes back H1N1.

So, how does this flu make you feel? About like any other flu. You ache, you might have a temp.; you feel like crud for about five days; some people might develop pneumonia from this flu, as the kid did that I was exposed too. Like most flu, the folks most likely to get dangerously sick are the very old, the very young and those with a chronic medical conditions.

As for the rest of us, this is a pretty easy bug to catch. The numbers of cases is rapidly increasing in my area, and this in spite of 100 degree temps, when the rest of the flu viruses have gone dormant until the fall. Anyway, if you catch this bug, go home and hibernate for a week. Rest, drink lots of fluids, and take Tamiflu if the docs. catch the infection in the early stages.

What bothers me about this flu is the hoopla being given to it. For three years now, the press, the World Health Orgainization and the CDC/FDA have done their living best to scare the hell out of everybody worldwide about a flu pandemic. First, there was the Avian Flu, and the slaughtering of millions of birds to prevent a resevoir that could allow the flu to mutate and jump into the general population. That didn't happen.

Now you have the Swine Flu, and it's once again 'the end of the world as we know it'. This, in spite of the very low death rate of approx. 700 worldwide. The regular flu varities kill approx. 36,000 every year. So why all of the fuss?

Simple, money and control. The vaccine makers are making a fortune off these vaccines, especially if the governments force people to take the vaccines. Control is the second reason as declaring a 'Public Health Emergency' allows our government to do all sorts of things to you. They can quarantine you; they can force you to take vaccinations; they can declare curfews to try to curb the spread of the vaccine....to name just a few options. You can call this 'tin foil hat' thinking, but the Obama administration is all about control over all aspects of our lives. If I had to guess, I would guess that we are going to see lots of emergency measures and fear mongering this fall when the infection rate from this flu continues to climb.

Just remember, it's the flu and it's not as bad as some of the regular varities that hit us every year! It's not the time to panic.

So this is Swine Flu?

So this is Swine Flu?