15 Minutes of Santos

Following up on the earlier Santos FTF post, here's a good video someguy edited out of his 5-ish hours.

That went by way faster than it did IRL!  BTW, the ambiguous arrow shows up at the 12:16 mark, 46 miles into the ride.  The video guy took the double black diamond route, where I stopped and sorted out that the easy trail was to the left.  Eh, six'a one, half'a dozen th' other.  (Just don't get on the hiker trail off to the right.)

Anyway, good video, good memories, good reason to go again next year.

Wright's Lake Trail, Spring 2024 Version

Took a hike at the Wright's Lake Trail today.  I'm working on checking off all of the local trails for the year – High Bluff, Garden of Eden, Wright's, and St. George.  Just one left to take in before the hot weather hits.  It's been written up before, but here are some pics from today.  As always, click to embiggen.

Recent control burn.  Looks messy, but it is very necessary.  If it looks like something out of Area X, that's because, well, it is.

Zooming in on a couple of the palmetto heads, you can see the green sprouting back out.  Beautiful, healthy, and a natural part of these woods.

One of the big slumps, aka nascent sinkholes.  Nicely burned, to the waterline.

Easy to see the path today.

Walking this bridge is a true leap of faith.  Here it is in dryer times.  About a foot deep over the top of the bridge at present.  The blue thing on the right is a trail marker blaze.

Little to no cell coverage of the area, so I simply put my phone on airplane mode.  Not out of touch though, I brought along my FT-70.  Talked to an acquaintance over in Live Oak just to make sure it was working well enough, and it was.

So overall another good day in the woods!  Shoes are in front of fan drying right now.

On This Fine Equinox

It seemed like time to go back to the Garden of Eden.  Well, at least the alleged one, the same one previously blogged about.  Nice day, peaking in the low 60's.  Probably not many of those left this spring, so we might as well make the best of them.  Lots of people out enjoying the trail, but it never seemed crowded.  The only picture I took (right, bright green in foreground) is of a small torreya tree, something unique to the area.  The trail is truly a small time capsule left over from the last ice age.  It's still Florida, but a very different Florida.

Cougar Attack in Washington State

Cougar attacks gravel biker, fought off for 45 minutes.  Caution, gross pictures.

Good thing they were in a group.  Definitely something to keep in mind when venturing into the wilds.

You're Probably Saying It Wrong

Irish names you're probably saying wrong and how to pronounce them at CNN.

Generally I'm a big fan of simplified phonetic spellings, and I find these entirely confusing.  There are historic reasons though, and these are not easily fought.  From the article:

Another reason is that "there were different stages of spelling normalization in the Irish language.  In the 1950s, they decided to modernize the alphabet."  That's when a lot of simplified, anglicized spellings took off. 

Finally, Ireland is an English-speaking country where only a small minority claims to speak its native language "very well."  So, says O Seghdha, "Another part of it is, yeah, people just having a go."

Eh, I'm not about to go around telling people how to spell their names, especially not today.  As long as they take with my befuddlement and occasional mispronunciations in stride, I'll accept their corrections gracefully, and we're all OK.

On this Pi Day...

Atlas Obscura has a few mathematically-minded things to say, probing the mysteries of:

• Why do we always seem to be solving for x?
• Oldest example of the symbol for zero.  I'm sorry, but it's still a big nothing.
• One scary-ass prime number.
• A mathematician proposes improved phonetics for numbers over radio.

I like that last one, though the article is from 2016 and this system has never caught on.  Here's a direct link to the mathematician in question's web site that gives all they why behind it, and here's the chart:

I kind of like these.  Better than saying "tree" or "fife" and sounding like a dork, and especially better than that jacked-up ITU system.  Wonder if it'll ever catch on?  It should.

ps: If you need more math humor, check out last weekend's Foxtrot.

Still Crimped

Legs are still feeling a little crimped after Saturday's 50 miler, so let's go over crimping wires today.

Huh.  You can learn something every day.  Wish I'd known this decades ago.

Santos Fat Tire Fest 2024

One more year, one more OMBA FTF!  Not as much in the tech details this year, more riding.  Here's a rundown on the proceedings presented as the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good

• Rolled in on Thursday with two leaky tubeless tires stuffed in on top of all the gear in my car trunk.  Whipped into Santos Bike Shop's trailhead shop, handed the leaky wheels to the mechanic.  Fifteen minutes later I was headed to the trailhead with two fixed tires and the tools & sealant for next time.  Score!
• No Thursday chow included in the FTF camper ticket, but the Fat Tiki food truck was in the expo area, so seared tuna & fried shrimp (see pic), yeah man.  Couldn't stay away from that place.
• On the subject of food, the FTF-provided meals were mostly very good (mostly, more in a minute).  The bbq on Saturday, after the 50 miler Epic ride, was outstanding and appreciated.
• Interesting camping this year.  Only one of the Biloxi crew showed up, but the neighbors were all cool.  Ended up with a chem e, electrical e, rocket scientist, and a physicist all in close proximity.  Nerd-tastic.  Honestly, I have no idea how that happened, we just gravitated to the same area.
• Speaking of nerd-tastic, I threw a slim jim up in a tree, texted the FCEM director to get on the EOC's ham radio, and we had a good chat on Friday afternoon.  Worked just as well as I could've hoped.  Pics below.
• The Anthem had somehow gotten a bubble in its rear brake line.  Squishy brakes are not good.  The Shimano booth mechanic bled both front and rear in record time, no charge.  Good folks.
• Speaking of the Anthem, it was a joy to ride the entire time.  Much more controllable on those trails than the 2013 Specialized, and much more forgiving on the drop-offs and in the rocks.
• The 50 mile Epic was, as usual and as advertised, epic.  All the fun I wanted and a little more.
• Got to the Epic's lunchtime turn-around point and realized I'd left my shin/knee guards back in camp.  Didn't matter, the rock garden was eight miles in the rear-view by then, only easy stuff ahead.  Glad I hadn't noticed this though, it would have put me off while picking through the rocks.
• Good bands all three nights: Souljam (Thursday & Saturday) and Propaganjah (Friday).
• The rains held off until after the Epic was finished, and only hit after everyone had turned in for the night.  Clear skies in the morning.
• Made a stop on the way down at the Cypress Inn restaurant on the way down, and at the Taste of Dixie diner on the way back, both in Cross City.  Excellent quick lunch food at each.

The Bad (but not very)

• Missed the second woods turn-in off the paved bike path 10 miles into the Epic.  A paceline line of roadies were zipping by, occluding the arrow sign, and I simply missed it.  Added about 3 miles  to the day's total.  My bad.
• Ambiguous arrow at the 46 mile mark -- easy trail to the left, or double black diamond drop to the right?  The choice was left to exhausted riders, so choose wisely.
• While trying to choose wisely (see previous), a guy rode up on a 2013 Specialized Epic just like my old one – with a blown rear shock, just like my old one last year.  Poor guy, his back was hurting too.
• Don't forget your Official Fat Tire Fest Coffee Mug at the breakfast line!  Or no coffee for you!
• Some of the FTF-provided meals were carbo-bombs.  Simple solution, see Fat Tiki food truck above.

The Ugly

• After 23 years of faithful service, the tent need some waterproofing, and brother did I find out when that front blew through on Saturday night.  It wasn't too bad considering the driving rain, but everything inside got a mist of dampness.  In the mid-60's weather this wasn't even uncomfortable, but had it been into the 30's it could have turned dangerous.  Warning received & heeded, Nikwax tent waterproofing on the way.

OK, here's the picture dump.  Onward.

Souljam on Thursday evening.

Ham hang time.  The dummy cord meant for tying to a pack can be handy with the slim jim antenna too.

Spot the antenna!  Still can't believe that I got the perfect hang on the first throw.

Awakened Saturday morning to a bike tarp covered with tiny flower petals.  Either this was a good sign, or a funeral-ish omen.

Guess it was a good sign.  Well, I finished anyway, and without incident.

No trip back would be complete without a stop at the Taste of Dixie Diner in Cross City.

And that's a wrap for the OMBA Santos FTF 2024.  Back next year?  Yes, planning on it.

Just Unreal

I promise, some pics and words on the Santos Fat Tire Fest later today... or tomorrow.  In the meantime, today's APOD is pretty stunning:

Deep Magic

permalink to xkcd 2904

I actually have an idea about Lagrangians that makes them comprehensible, after a fashion.  However, the ramifications are even worse than the usual "shut up and calculate" explanation.  More later?  More later.  In my experience, most physicists find the method both so incomprehensible and distasteful that they move on as soon as that particular semester is completed.

Just back from the Santos Fat Tire Fest.  It went well, but rained last night and now I have a living room full of tent parts and other camping gear drying out.  More posting, with pics, tomorrow.

Tattered Cover Update

While digging around for info for yesterday's post, I stumbled across Denver-based bookstore Tattered Cover's web site.  I was last out there in... '93?  So it has been a while.  I'm glad to see that they're doing OK – not great, but OK – and pulling out of bad times via a Chapter 11 reorganization.  Main site here, reorg details here, and (best of all!) staff picks here.

I wish them well, and look forward to getting out there again in the future.

Weekend Reading: Ringo's Zombie Anthology #4

United We Stand drops today.  You can see what it's about at the publisher's web site.

I have no idea, but I'm jumping in anyway!

More on John Ringo's zombie books here: main novels | anthologies | follow-on novels

50 Years of Blazing Saddles

Short article over at NPR.  Looking back in time, it's odd how much trouble this movie initially had from the critics.  Some people can't comprehend a joke.  If you've never seen it, now's the time.