Christmas Carols - Not So Been There, Done That

What do you do when you've already got the T-shirt? Been there–done that is how the younger generation puts it. What about Christmas carols? We've all heard them so much and for so long — who hasn't got them memorized… well pretty much?

Take a look/listen to these TEN carols that I've found on the web – on TEN different instruments – in TEN different arrangements. All of them take an original Christmas carol and make it fresh and new for the season… with or without the snow! Yo, ho ho!

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Ultimate Offroad: Santa

If either you or your children occasionally watch the NASA channel (and who doesn't) you undoutedly have seen the giant electronic map, taking up one whole wall in the Mission Control room, which displays the earth, the Space Shuttle orbits and the current position of the Space Shuttle and Space Station at any given time. In short… a huge "Google Earth" trail map!

And you probably know that on Christmas and Thanksgiving the little symbol's representing the Space Shuttle and Station are substituted for icons of Santa's sleigh and a Turkey respectively. Radar and Satellite tracking data are fed into NASA computers and the exact positions of any satellite can be displayed to the second! Better than most of our GPS units we take along to track our rides.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to actually follow along the Shuttle's path over the earth? Or better yet – even be able to track and plot the track the "Old Guy" takes Christmas Eve? Is anyone tracking him? Does he show up on radar… or whatever? Do we still have any records of his flights?

Well, yes, Virginia… the answer is YES to all of those questions. [In fact, this is a post where I'd appreciate it if you would make an effort to forward this link to families you know who could use the information. Copy and paste this link into an email   --> http://OffroadingHome.com <--   the post will be left here through christmas so you can link to it.]

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Trail 1: Gold Butte Backcountry Byway and Mine

Despite a couple of rain and show storms, the 2010-11 Winter riding season is underway around Mesquite Nevada. Offroading Home accompanied the Kokopelli ATV club on its second ride this season (didn't want to brave their first ride in the snow).

There were several 'new' members along to make taking one of the "old standard rides" – the Gold Butte Backcountry Byway – very interesting and enjoyable, even when a sticky automatic-choke valve requred towing and cut the ride a tiny bit short.   [A free Google Earth file of this route is available at: Trail 1: Byway/Treasure Hawk.]

Whitney Junction

Even though we had eight or nine trailers, we were able to swing around the newly environmentalist-inflicted, railroad-tie fenced, control-those-nasty-offroaders parking lot they've landscaped the desert with now at Whitney Junction and still all fit in. That was most assuredly because we all arrived fairly close together and had the same goal as we swung around and parked properly. Surprised that the environmentalist scheme to landscape didn't fit in with what the area is actually used for? I'm not. Who's gonna break it to the campers that their spot is actually supposed to be a parking lot?

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It's Finally Open - Bridge at Hoover Dam

Because the mountains were full to the foothills with the almost irrational desert snowstorm, Gordon and I took a ride to see what Bass Pro had on their shelves this Yuletide season which was different from last year – not, much. At least from what we could see.

That's not to say that what they had wasn't incredible – just not new. In fact they are stocked to the rafters as the Las Vegas Valley's premiere "everything sports" store. A good visit, especially for Gordon who found some things that he couldn't get up in the mountains of Wyoming.

With a half day still on the clock, we decided to go check the rumor that the hapless bridge over Black Canyon at Hoover Dam was actually completed – finally, after being knocked down at least once during construction by the canyon's fairly common "breezes," which can pull the enamel off your teeth.

Ever since 9-11, and the fact that it was discovered that Hoover Dam was on some kind of "target" list, the drive from Boulder City over the dam has been something out of Nightmare on Elm Street. The auto equivalent of pat-downs both coming and going, coupled with the ever-present brain-dead looky-loo's and heavy equipment, brought traffic over the dam to a stand-still. Any time of the day or night!

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Gold Butte Trail Monitoring

Offroading Home met with an intrepid group of offroaders who have just quietly and behind the scenes been going about the business of monitoring trail usage in the Bunkerville/Gold Butte riding area.

Probably few of us know that the BLM recruits cooperation from clubs and individuals who can ride the trails taking GPS readings and noting things like wash-outs, land-slides and other trail damage as well as noting usage.

A few members of the Trails and Dunes club from Las Vegas rode the West Bunkerville Flats area today monitoring trails along Nickle Creek Ravine and into the Old Mine area being trained on how to use the BLMs GPS units and what types of forms are necessary to document "hazards and incidents" for the BLM.

Why on earth would an offroad club want to monitor trails for the BLM? Well, there are many reasons.

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Maps To Go Offroad By

"Don't leave home without one" is a great idea – especially if you are talking about a map. I've even had a person tell me that he wasn't lost, he just wasn't on the map for a few hours.

Offroading Home has posted previously about the where's and why-fore's of mapping, in fact several times. You may remember that not too long ago, I completed an entire "101" series on the subject:

• GPS Maps 101: The number systems – Degrees, minutes, seconds, latitude and longitude.
• GPS Maps 102: Coordinate Systems – Conversions between systems and accuracy.
• GPS Maps 103: Measuring Lat and Lon – Calculating lat and lon, stars, chronometers, sextants and history.
• GPS Maps 104: Datums – Satellites, spheres and converting degrees to distance.
• GPS Maps 105: Projections and UTM – Mercator projection, UTM conventions, Northing and Easting.
• GPS Maps 106: Reading a TOPO Map – Understanding a TOPO map for use in the field.

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GEO-tography: Minimalism

If you spend any time at all navigating around the web you will undoubtedly see that it is highly graphically oriented. And unless I miss my guess you will, on occasion, stumble onto a photograph which impresses you as being exceedingly fine. You may bookmark it so you can look at it again, or you may even get an idea how to take one like it of your own for your favorite offroad spot.

Sometimes, it's sort of like watching a movie – you may not be able to write a screenplay or know how to direct a film but you do know what a good film looks like and what plots seem hokey, even if you can't put it into words. Such is the case with the set of GEO-tographs that I've included below. Of course they are in focus, have good color and interesting content; but, they also have something else – lack of other things to go wrong!

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Moab 4WD Backroads: Central - Part 4

Even though Moab isn't in either of its surrounding "national areas," it takes next to zero amount of "make-up" to change this area of the desert into a Disney-worthy spectacular extravaganza. They don't call this Canyonlands for nothing!

And even though it doesn't take much to turn the area from a peaceful ride into a life-threatening challange (think rain, flash floods and landslides) more and more of the "get-away-from-it-all" population is landing in this Coppola-esq city – some, even in the blistering summer.

As Offroading Home readers know, we have begun digitizing the trails found in Charles Wells' book "Moab, Ut Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails" and this is the fourth and final post about those ATV and SUV trails in the central area whose base-camp is the town of Moab. Two other riding areas remain for digitizing into maps; but, we thought that you would rather see them as each area is finished rather than waiting until the whole map is done.   [A free Google Earth file of this route is available at: Offroading Home on the Utah tab under the file name: "UtahMoabTrailsystem.kmz".]

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Moab 4WD Backroads: Central - Part 3

If you've been following along with these series of posts about the new "Moab Trail System" maps, you've got to be tired of exclaiming "wow!" There is some incredible country "down south."

And the most interesting thing is that many "tourist types" [you know – see the world from your car window] drive right by most of it not having a clue that there's anything there. In all fairness, when you look at the land from road level it does look kinda flat and non-descript. But that's because the much of the terrain is: under ground (i.e. below surface level.)

And that's precisely where many of the offroaders in the area have their most fun – finding a way down to the river along the ridges in the cliffs and down the washes. Erosion is what has made the Moab area, not tectonics like in much of the rest of the country.

Of the twenty trails mentioned in the book "Moab, Ut Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails" by Charles Wells" as being in the Central riding area, a full 14 are rated "difficult" and require modified vehicles.   [A free Google Earth file of this route is available at: Offroading Home under the "Utah" tab and in the file "UtahMoabTrailsystem.kmz".]

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Moab 4WD Backroads: Central - Part 2

This is the second of four posts describing the trails in the central riding area described in the book "Moab, UT Backroads and 4-Wheel Drive Trails" by Charles A. Wells. Like the majority of riders into the Moab area – Wells is merely a "visitor"; but, he's done it a lot!

Offroading Home is digitizing GPS tracks for the trails he describes in the book. The fifteen trails in the Northwest area were published previously and now we are working on the 20 trails in the Central area, the majority of which are considered "difficult." Wells rode the trails in his Jeep (and therefore "street legal") but many should be rideable in an ATV with a bit of pre-planning.

  [The portion of the map for the "Central" riding area of the system is complete and ready for download over at the Offroading Home web site, under the Utah tab and entitled, of all things: "UtahMoabTrailSystem.kmz".]

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Mo-vember

This year at the rodeo we heard all about the "tough enough to wear pink" campaign which supported women's breast cancer awareness month in October. It's only now that I've learned about MOvember – too late to participate in the growing, but not to to late to publish about.

The term "Mo" is the slang word around the english speaking world, especially Australia (and perhaps elsewhere as well), for moustache; and November is, well, November.   Put the two together and you've got: MO-vember, the month where there is a growing world-wide initiative to generate similar awareness for a plight of men: Prostate Cancer.   A manly approach to publicizing a manly problem using a "stache" instead of a froofy ribbon.

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Moab 4WD Backroads: Central - Part 1

Three previous posts explained that we are digitizing trails in the Moab Utah area into a master map which will serve as a companion to the book: Moab, UT Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails. The Northwest and Arches section was completed and received heavy amounts of downloads in its first week of offering.

Now, the portion of the map for the "Central" riding area of the system is complete and ready for download over at the Offroading Home web site, under the Utah tab and entitled, of all things: "UtahMoabTrailSystem.kmz". As usual, it's a Google Earth file and requires the program in order to be utilized. You may want to run on over there and load the file while we explain some of the trails – I'll wait.

There are twenty trails in this central riding area, immediately adjacent to Moab, which will be covered in four posts. If the Northeast section was predominantly "easy" trails, then the trails in this area are mostly for the experienced rider and modified rigs – most are really "hard"!

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"Surfing" Around Utah

Having lived in several areas of California, I am well acquainted with the vagaries of "riding the waves" or "surfing" as they call it.   It's a bit too similar to snow skiing for me—basically throwing yourself off of something in one long (hopefully controlled) fall to a point far below you.

Surfing is called "volitional" (a 'choice') by most people; but, I swear that the very last actual "choice" you make is to flop yourself down on the board and start paddling toward Hawaii.   From that point on much more happens "TO" you than "BECAUSE OF" you until your deluged body spews out sodden and trembling (or frozen and stiff) upon the turf.

My experiences with skiing and surfing are indistinguishably congruent—except for the sole proviso that skiing doesn't start at sea level.   They used to call it "Snow surfing" you know; so, I wasn't much surprised to find that the activities, required skills and outcomes were pretty much identical.   AND, after this past week, I now also know much better why they call purusing the Internet – SURFING THE NET!

"Surfing" Utah - A Tribute

The odyssey began simply enough with me "Googling" – Utah, merely to see if anyone else had written a blog about the state recently.   There were 90 MILLION one hundred thousand results.   So large that Google had to add the disclaimer "about."   For grins, I thought I'd like to see the last item on the list, but as it turns out Google won't do that.   There is no "last" button, and when you try to do it manually, by clicking from page to page, it stops at about 700.

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GEO-tography: Mountains

Black, white, red, blue, brown, rocky, smokey or superstitious – the one thing they all have in common is: they're mountains!

Continuing our series of posts about GEOtography, today we have a collection of photographs that we found on the web about mountains of all sizes, shapes and colors.

Despite their ubiquity around the globe, these photos pretty much tell the tale that: mountains are usually, really off-road.
[Remember, like always, these are full photographs so be patient while they load.]

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Moab 4WD Backroads: Northwest - Part 3

My guess is that these posts about the Moab Trail System Map which Offroading Home has produced will go on to become one of the all-time most downloaded before this is done.   From the looks of my "site analytics" either Google has finally found us OR there are an awfully lot of you who are planning a trip to Moab Utah in the next few weeks!

This is the third (of three) posts about the fifteen trails in the Northwest Moab area of those listed in "Moab, UT Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails" by Charles Wells and includes those around the Secret Spire and Mineral Point section.   There are three other areas listed in the book which are under construction; but, this one being done, I felt like y'all would like to see it now and from the looks of things it was fairly timely.   [A free Google Earth file of this route is available at: Offroading Home on the "Utah" tab.]

You should be aware that Wells prepared his book of trails from the back of an SUV and a Jeep so they might not be directly transferable to ATV rides as they stand.   Looking at the satellite image however, there are definitely alternate trailheads for these trails which avoid paved roads.   Check with local shops for better details when you get down there – then please let us know if we need to change anything.   AND please turn on your GPS so you can send us your track which will allow us to verify the map.

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