Ahrens Adventures

Check out this post concerning mis-behaving fuel pumps. And pay attention to the pumps in the future when you fill your tank. If you live in Oregon, you need to watch the attendant for the same issues…

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Fuel

Yesterday we went for a four mile bike ride on the Coal Mine Trail starting at Cle Elum and riding up to Roslyn. 300 Feet elevation gain in two miles. About a three percent grade on an old railroad grade that had soft gravel and hole punched in it by horse hooves. It was a fun ride all in all.

Today we took on a bigger challenge. Eleven miles up the John Wayne trail from Lake Easton to Keechelus Lake. Another 300 foot elevation gain, but not as steep and much better trail.

Taken from the place where we stopped for lunch. Snoqualmie Pass is toward the left side of the far end of the lake below between the mountains on the left and center.

On the way back we startled an owl. It flew a short distance, then perched on a branch near the trail.

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birds, Lake Easton, National Forests, North Cascades, Roslyn WA, Washington State Parks, Keechelus Lake, John Wayne Trail

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RVing

RV.Net blogger Lug_Nut posted on the possibilities of improving the fuel economy of motorhomes today. He asked for comments, so I suggested the following (This is a cut and paste of my comment):

Here’s my thought. Let’s look at using fuel cells. They’ve already done trials with fuel cells on city busses, so the size issue doesn’t exist here. Let’s take this to the ultimate. Put a fuel cell drive system on board, and a hydrogen generation system. Input is water (with a water filter, could use gray water). When you’re plugged into shore power, or with solar panels and/or wind turbine, whenever your producing more power than using, use the excess to generate hydrogen for the fuel cell. When dry camping the fuel cell could also provide power for the coach, when the solar panels don’t produce enough.

Seems like a winner, although it will take some more R&D expenditures, and the first vehicles won’t be cheap. But then most good ideas start at the high end and work down the value chain.

Maybe the RVIAA could put some research money into this type of effort to help jump-start it?

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Motorhomes, RVing, RVIAA, Fuel Cell

A few years ago I went on a hike with some of Nikki’s family along a trail that follows the shoreline of the Little Kachess Lake. We decided we wanted to make that trip again this morning, so we went driving around and didn’t find the campground where the trail starts.

We did find a group camp on the other side of the lake that we went to back in about 1988 as part of a Boeing Camping Club. We’d had a good time then, but for some reason never went out again.

After driving around, we came back to the motorhome and looked it up online, and finally located it. In my memory, the campground had been near the dam, but the reality was, it’s about 2/3 of the way up the lake where a point extends out almost cutting the lake in two.

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RVing, Kachess Lake, Hiking

Today we went up to Roslyn, WA for a bike ride. The trail is an old railroad grade, about 2+ miles uphill from Roslyn to the end. The rail line was used during the coal mining days of Roslyn. In case you’re wondering, Roslyn’s most famous recent action came during the run of the TV show, Northern Exposure, filmed in Roslyn.

After that, we went through Suncadia, a new development near Roslyn. We looked inside a $.2 million home. Very nice, and rode around on paved bike trails. The development caters to those with money (obviously) looking for a retirement or vacation home. The retirement types live here part time and travel south for the other half, as this is at about 2100 feet elevation in the eastern Cascades. There are also condominiums in the development. Studios start around $300,000 and one and two bedroom condos go for $500,000 up to about $1,000,000. a bit pricey for us, but it was fun to look. And we enjoyed the bike ride.

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Roslyn WA, Suncadia, Northern Exposure

The traveling to work part of this first week is over. I work from the motorhome tomorrow. Last evening we got our bikes out for the first time this trip and rode around the lake. Then stopped at the little store in Easton for ice cream cones. Yumm! My first ride on my new bike. Very nice.

The weather has been mostly fairly comfortable this trip. Hot when we arrived, but it’s cooled down to normal temperatures. Nikki had the AC on for a while today because it got stuffy inside.

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Lake Easton, Motorhomes, RVing

Arrived at Lake Easton Resort at about 12:30 pm. The temperature here’s about 100 degrees, depending on where you look. The AC is starting to get ahead and get it cooled down. We should have started the generator and ran the AC on the way up, but didn’t realize how hot it was. The dash air couldn’t even begin to keep the cockpit cool.

Update: Should have noted that I’ve consumed one can of Diet Coke, and am on my second glass of iced tea, so yes, I came in here dehydrated.

Update 6:32 PM: We walked down along the lake up to the swimming beach. The path along the lake is flooded, the lake is so high. Never seen that before. Been coming here since 1988.

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Lake Easton, Motorhomes, RVing

For Father’s Day (yes, it was last weekend, but we went out today to get it) I got a new bicycle. This one. We went to Bike Tech, first in Puyallup, then Tacoma. Finally ended up in their Lakewood store, where we found the bike with this little older lady (probably about our age) who had great character, and did a great job of helping us, and had the bike I needed.

Now i have this new bike that I won’t be able to ride until next weekend when we go up to Lake Easton again, because all our bike stuff is in the motorhome at the storage lot.

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bicycle, Trek bikes, Bike Tech

Came up to Lake Easton yesterday. The weather isn’t the best. Rained all day yesterday, and cold. About 52 degrees yesterday, more like 49 and breezy today.

The Admiral is still comfortable regardless, and I got quite a bit of work done here.

Update 8-June, 10:50 am: Had a plugged toilet. First time I’ve had that kind of problem in an RV toilet. Don’t know what happened there, but something got stopped up in the drain pipe. Used a stick to push it through into the holding tank. All clear now.

Update 4:07 pm: Just came back from about a seven mile bike ride. Went west on the John Wayne Trail a few miles, then came back down the south side of Lake Easton and through the town of Easton. Then back home.

Update June 14: 5:00 pm: Been a while. After the rediculously cold start, Tuesday was the first time in history that they had snowplows out on Snoqualmie Pass in June, we got pretty nice weather this weekend. Sunny all day today, and made it into the low 60’s. A group went bike riding today. Nikki went, but I stayed back so Matt could go. They had a good time. Also saw our latest great nephew. Well, sort of. His mother is the daughter of Nikki’s brother’s wife, so she’s not really part of the clan by marriage, but she does claim us.

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Lake Easton, Motorhomes, RVing