Fat Tire Musings

Following up on an earlier test ride of a friend's fat tire bike, I've done some looking around at these weird beasts of burden.  With no real mountain biking nearby but plenty of bikeable beaches, one might make sense.  First question: 4.8" wide tires, or will 3.8" tires suffice?  It took a few searches, but this forum discussion at Mountain Bike Review sums it up nicely: you can get by with 4", but when the tide's in and you can't ride down on the hard damp sand, something in the 5" range is the way to go.  

Next up, can I get by with a cheap big-box store-grade bike for $500, or do I have to shell out 5x bucks for the real deal?  I mean, sure, for something I'm going to ride all the time it's a no-brainer.  On the other hand, if it's  something I'm going to take on the beach a half-dozen times a year, maybe cheap is the way to go.  Hopefully "cheap but serviceable" and not "cheap disposable junk."  Here's a video comparison close to what would be my options.  Unfortunately they've both gone up about 25% in price since that video was made, but that is the way things go these days.

Other significant considerations are how much would I actually use the thing, and do I already have a bike that can do the job well enough?  Looking around, I was able to identify eight nearby areas where a fat bike would be useful, of which perhaps half are terrain where nothing else will serve.  So maybe that's justification enough.  Maybe.  Frankly, I need to do some exploring when the weather cools.

And finally, where to keep the thing?  I live upstairs in a fairly small place, and hauling 35 lbs+ of steel each way while tripping over an idle bike when it's not in use, well, it's just not all that appealing.  But it could be, given good enough reason.

Will mull on this one some more, and with data from some exploratory trips once the weather cools.  Not a decision to be made lightly.  Still though, the idea of doing some more beach-centric yet still hardcore biking has a lot going for it.

The View Up 6th Street

Just a nice sunset afterglow, seen from near the foot of the main pier at The Hole.

And yeah, the colors really were that vivid.

Short day on the Gulf today.  The snappers were small-ish but legal, caught 3/4 of limit before winds picked up.  Lots of long, moderately low swells off of TS Bertha, in the 3' range.  Here's the view from a data buoy somewhat to the SE of where we fished.  Taken at sunset this evening, you can still see the effects of the long slow swells which have subsided down to 2'.

The discontinuities between the images are caused by the swells.  You ought to see this view in a hurricane; in a Cat 5 it begins to resemble a Weierstrauss function.

With that, I Am Tired.  Good night!

"Strategic Visioning" Meeting Results

Last month I sat on a 20-ish citizen panel to hammer out directions Apalachicola should be taking.  Results were presented at this Tuesday's City Commission meeting, and are also included in the agenda packet – a 24 MB beast, perhaps not to be downloaded lightly.  Anyway, results start on page 4.  If you dare.

Overall a success, but with a meeting name like that it sounds like there'd be psychedelics in the coffee pot.  Now that would have been interesting.  (not that I'm advocating...)  Who names these things?

3rd of July Fire & Fireworks

First, a fire at The Hole.  Details at The Times, plus one picture:

Then later in the evening, something a bit more fun, a bit more controlled:

Yeah, we do the fireworks on the 3rd here, with other towns in the area doing them on other days.  It spreads the fun around.  I think tonight is St. George Island's turn.

Ma & Pa Osprey say "Hi!"

Osprey nest at the Hole, taken from a passing car on the river bridge.  Cool pic, not much after that.

Our Counter-Cyclical Ways

Article at The Times: Local tourism defies state decline

It's not long, so no TLDR needed.

It's always been a thing here, and I have it on good authority that bucking widespread economic trends goes back at least to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Hurricane Season Kick-Off Recap

And today's event (mentioned previously) went pretty well.  Perfect weather, blue skies, and an enthusiastic crew putting it on all made it come together.  At the radio tent, we had HF & VHF/UHF radios, field-worthy antennas, and solar power.  Here are some pics:

Yaesu FT-450D HF & FT-7250D VHF/UHF radios, along with solar controller and a few other do-dads

leftmost: VHF/UHF vertical; two other poles: HF W3EDP antenna

60 watt solar panel; easy up, easy down

As usual, there was a good bit more interest in the solar than in the radios.  That's OK, emergency preparedness info got passed along in all ways at hand.

Hurricane Season Kick-Off

Details on poster below.  For more info, check at the Franklin County Emergency Management site.

Hey!  That's it's Saturday!  If you're going, don't forget!

Last Friday's Historical Cemetery Tour

Lightly attended, but it was a good test-run for future events.  In a repeat of a tour two years ago, I stood at my great-grandfather's grave and told his story.  Here's a pic a friend snapped of me after it was over, while I was walking home in a very light rain.  As usual, embiggen for full effect.

And yes, I edited out the glaring red gas station sign as well as the two safety yellow crosswalk signs.  Unneeded distractions.

Blogging's been light of late, but not a lot worth mentioning going on.  Re-reading the X-15 engineering test flights portion of Always Another Dawn, and enjoying the fine cool spring weather.

Thursday Movie at the Library Night: Ulee's Gold

Tonight!  Don't forget!

Gap Point & Catfaces

Hiked the Gap Point Trail again today (see 2021 & 2022).  Nothing really new, though I did talk with a nice couple from Thomasville who are staying in Apalach.

Anyway, on to today's pics.  While discussing a recent talk by Kermit Brown hosted by the Apalachicola Area Historical Society at the Rainey House (no links; search engine use left as an exercise for the reader) with a friend, the topic of catfaces came up.  These are scars left on pine trees decades ago by the turpentine industry, the idea being to drain off some of the tree's sap without killing the tree.  Anyway, my friend had no idea what I was talking about, so here are some pictures.

A tree with a catface.

Closeup of the same catface, showing a metal gutter to guide sap into a Herty cup.  The nail to hang the cup is still there too, just below the gutter.

In fact, here's an entire documentary from the 1940's showing how it was done.  Looks like incredibly hard work.  These days, I understand that turpentine and rosin are by-products of the paper industry, and of course petrochemical products have replaced many of the former uses for pine-sap products.  BTW, turpentine from St. George Island was particularly prized for its clarity.  It reportedly didn't affect light paint colors as much as other turpentines.

Finally, on the way out, here's a shot of East Slough.  You can see where the main creek winds through by the change in the color of the reeds and needle grass.

I'm tired now.  Going to hit 'post' and hit the rack.

Owl Cafe Sold

Article at The Times.  Key quote:

"The locals are the backbone of a restaurant like this,” Carruth said. “Yes, it’s a heavy tourist market, but it has to start taking care of locals first. This is the only restaurant (of ours) that is literally entrenched in a community as the Owl is. It’s heavily dependent on the trust and support of locals here."

Seems very likely a change for the better, in many ways.

And Then Life Resumed

Not a lot to discuss or report about today, but at least I'm doing a fair job of digging out of small tasks left over from the past two weeks.  Guess that's something.

Oh, Oyster Cook-Off tomorrow.  Sounds worthwhile, especially since it's just around the block.  Yep, definitely going.  Going to go read some more on Project Hail Mary now though.

A Few Days in the Woods

Missing person found dead in Franklin County, news & video at WMBB's site.

Franklin County Emergency Management was on scene, both searching and providing logistics support.

FWIW, what worked for communications over the 3-ish mile radius we searched in (where cell phone coverage was spotty) was searchers radioing back to the drop-off trucks via FRS (quarter-mile range), which then relayed to the FCEM mobile trailer via 2m ham radio (5+ mile range).  

On one hand, I often go into the woods just to hike for fun and play radio.  On the other hand, this time wasn't for the fun of it.  Anyway, the guy was recovered and FCEM & associated volunteers got a good work-out.  And no, it wasn't any of our FCEM people who actually found the guy, so there is that small consolation.

Back Open on a Limited Basis

Apalachicola Bay oystering re-opens on a trial basis: Article at the Times.

Hey, I'll take any good news I can get these days.

A Coded Message for Christmas

At The Times, The coded message in our newspaper

And with that, I sincerely hope that you're having a very merry Christmas.  And I also hope that you're not in jail.

Hoo Boy

Legislators push for state takeover of Apalach water at The Times.

Presented for general information with no further comment on this platform.

More Grant Blight

 Waveland to Open Bids for Pier Repairs; article at the Sea Coast Echo

Five years after Hurricane Zeta... and Waveland's just getting around to fixing up the municipal pier.  See an earlier post for the definition of grant blight.

Think of all the tweenagers and teenagers who missed out on good times fishing there.  Those five-plus years are now mostly lost to a fog of video games, cheap beer, and worse.  If you neglect these amenities, the kids will find something else to do.  Getting these hang-outs back up and running after a storm should be a high priority, not something left to DC's mañana-go-round.

The ugly reality of grant blight.

Meanwhile, Down Home at the Apalachicola Airport...

 The Forgotten Coast Freedom Festival Air Show was held today.  Pretty fun!  Here's the schedule:

And here's one of the highlights, a fly-over by two F-35's out of Tyndall AFB:

Lots, lots more going on there.  Two of the major performances involved T-6 Texan trainers.  The main air show part ran from just before 1pm to 3pm, but there was plenty to do from gate opening at 10am to close at 4pm.  Short and sweet.  Also... the weather was perfect!  So, yeah, again next year.

The Oystering Rules Announced

 Article in The Times.  I'll need a little time to re-re-read this.  That is all.