Itinerant Sisyphus

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Amskeptic
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Itinerant Sisyphus

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Aug 07, 2014 7:56 am

Went up Hells Canyon or something like that, on my way to Missoula MT from Boise ID. Gorgeous soft rumpled brown siamese-cat-fur-looking hills in the evening smoke-palled light, as the BobD's alternator yowled like one. Saw a pretty little road near the top with a view I cannot describe, the moonlight was just beginning to take on the set sun's remaining glow, and the hills, with the smoke pall, were all soft soft soft.

A little dirt path to my left dropped down severely alongside the road and curved out into the grasses. Perfect, thinks I. Halfway down, I recognize two things in quick succession. One, the path is rocky and throwing the car way too violently for 5 mph. Two, the hill is steeper than I thought. Three, I have nowhere to turn around (four, my math is off).

Tried to back up. Ah no. We are getting trapped way too easily between boulders, and the clutch is not happy. Shut it down. Noted that the right tires were four inches from the drop-off edge. Took a moonlit stagger through the brambles to see if there was any sort of turn around possibility. Nope. See photo. In the night it looked worse. I tried to move that boulder in the middle:

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Got tripped by these stupid rocks, what is with these rocks? They were all freshly sharp, crisply cut, wth? Hoped that they did not rain down from above just willy-nilly every time a car passed. That would bash the BobD in a whole new way, and my guilt is already pegged as it is. It was so gorgeous, though. Hells Canyon is a mighty natural sight. That Snake River has cut a deeper gorge than even the Grand Canyon.

Slept pretty well with the sliding door latched open, bathed in smoky moonlight and warm breezes, crammed against the middle passenger footwells due to the slope, wondering about the morrow's clutch-killing tire-eating blind back up. Woke up:

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You can't see the steep drop-off right out the sliding door. Good thing I didn't need a break in the middle of the night YAAAAAAAAAAAAA:

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This is the distance I did manage to back up until the clutch and I agreed that the rocks were too big:

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Millions of these stupid things hiding in the grass . . . :

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. . . . and I de-rocked the entire path back up to the main road:

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. . . with a good 50% failure rate as they just slid back down. I had a pretty fair stone wall by the time I was done, but the path was a whole lot more negotiable:

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The clutch had enough to worry about backing up this hill:

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The beauty of the surroundings was at odds with my new career.
"So, what do you do professionally?"
"Rock road, rock hill, rock road, rock hill, rock fall, rock hill again."
"Ohh, that sounds fascinating."

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Three of my observers were, I am sure, wondering if the clutch might get damaged from this slow negotiation creep backwards up the hill:

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The BobD with its yowling alternator (bearing? electrical sound? don't know) was appreciative of the newly smoothed path, however, and backed up just fine, to this view which the camera once again missed:

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(to be cont. must get to WORK)
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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glasseye
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Re: Itinerant Sisyphus

Post by glasseye » Thu Aug 07, 2014 8:34 am

Pix #4 (tiny BobD, narrow road, Hell's Canyon) is destined for The Book. :cheers:
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SlowLane
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Re: Itinerant Sisyphus

Post by SlowLane » Thu Aug 07, 2014 10:10 am

Er, wouldn't if have made more sense to toss the rocks to the other side of the path (ie. the downslope side)?
Remember, entropy always wins.
'81 Canadian Westfalia (2.0L, manual), now Californiated

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Re: Itinerant Sisyphus

Post by Jivermo » Thu Aug 07, 2014 11:04 am

Perhaps he threw 50% of them the other way.

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Re: Itinerant Sisyphus

Post by asiab3 » Thu Aug 07, 2014 1:04 pm

Jivermo wrote:Perhaps he threw 50% of them the other way.
Gotta keep rptaing mass balanced, and the earth is a big rotating mass, you know :blackeye:
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
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SlowLane
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Re: Itinerant Sisyphus

Post by SlowLane » Thu Aug 07, 2014 2:51 pm

Jivermo wrote:Perhaps he threw 50% of them the other way.
If so, he's been working on boxer engines for far too long.
I can picture it now, adhering to the firing order: "toss left, toss left, toss right, toss right, toss left ... oops, damn, there's a smudge on the hubcap <polish, polish, polish>, toss left, ... hmm, that shock absorber has leaked a little fluid <clean clean clean, wax wax wax>, phew, better take some photos " :blackeye:
Amazing journey, Colin. =D>
'81 Canadian Westfalia (2.0L, manual), now Californiated

"They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance."
- Terry Pratchett

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airkooledchris
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Re: Itinerant Sisyphus

Post by airkooledchris » Thu Aug 07, 2014 3:45 pm

that's one way to break in new tires.
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jcbrock
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Re: Itinerant Sisyphus

Post by jcbrock » Thu Aug 07, 2014 7:40 pm

The snakes will like them stacked like that. Is that an antelope in the last picture? It doesn't look quite right for a deer.
'76 Type II Station Wagon - in the family since new!
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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Sisyphus

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Aug 08, 2014 9:37 pm

jcbrock wrote:The snakes will like them stacked like that. Is that an antelope in the last picture? It doesn't look quite right for a deer.
Deer! Turned.

Rocks on the grass will damage the mower blades. The mower blades which probably never have and never will grace that hillside, but I am well-programmed to never throw rocks towards the grass . . . even if they would roll a full mile down the slope.
:salute:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Re: Itinerant Sisyphus

Post by Boxcar » Fri Aug 15, 2014 6:18 pm

Nice accounting of how foxy bus drivers put in to the adhoc sleeping arrangement du soir.
And undo said foxyness :-)
1975 003 Auto Westy L90D

repair!!!!aug2015
Jan/16 Bumped mixture a few notches richer. finally developing HP.


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