Trip Date: March 29, 2021
Find this SpotWith two great trips already under our belt in 2021, we were excited to go again. I knew April was going to be busy with Jordan’s birthday, Beth’s birthday, and my trip to the Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument, so we wanted to squeeze in another before all that.
We initially talked about heading up Monday thru Friday, but I already don’t recall why we waited until Tuesday to go. I had a load of insulation for the trailer skirt, 1×8 rough paneling for the cabin, concrete piers for Bob’s cabin, and the mattress and headboard for the bed. As usual, packing up a load of materials and every tool and screw and nail I have “just in case”, took some time and effort, but Kristen had me loaded up with food and water and I was blasting up 80 by 5:00am.
I was heading North on 395 by the time to sun came up so I avoided the brightness blazing into my eyeballs. I didn’t get hassled by the Feds at the border crossing, and was getting gas in Standish when it was still early morning. I was pulled over to take a leak and began to hear a growing level of squawking and cackling. It continued to grow until I could make out the distinct sound of Cranes and then see the massive lines or formations coming right over me. I was stoked and took it as a good sign. I was unlocking the gate by 9:00 with all parts intact. The road was much better, i.e. drier, as was the top around the trailer and cabin. I was barely done poking around to say hello to everything when Mike pulled up and there was much rejoicing.
Mike told me he had to leave Thursday so I was already a little anxious about our to-do list, even though it was cold and working was not what I wanted to do. By the time we were all unpacked I was ready for a nap, but we settled for a snack and a rest and some catching up. Mike got the trailer open, and the pop-out extended and the solar panel perking up the batteries. All was good.
We had three main jobs this trip; trailer skirting, deck foundation, and lay out the location of the new loop road. I wanted to address the skirt first. We had agreed to do a plywood skirt with foam board attached to the inside. Fortunately, we had enough plywood in the boneyard and with the panels of insulation I brought up and liquid nails, etc. etc., we should have had all the materials we needed.
As I began to explain to Mike all the gaps in the plywood we would have, around the wheels, around the stabilizers, around all the plumbing, he began to understand the limitations of this approach. We had talked about other options, including the really expensive and fairly flimsy kits that can be purchased, but it was only now sinking in. Mike wasn’t sold on this approach, and I wasn’t into pushing forward on making this happen without a consensus, so we quickly scrapped the skirting. I hope that the gods will eventually send us a directive that we can understand and the skirting issue will be resolved.
In the meantime, we knew we had to tackle the deck foundation this trip, so we started to stare intently at the space where it will eventually exist. After our powers of psychokinesis and telekinesis failed us miserably, we had to begin to use our backs. This was not entirely surprising as the Hart’s are known for strong backs and hard heads. We placed the piers about where we thought they would go and dug out the ground to get them level. Then we began to work with the various lengths of 4×6 we had for the beams. We started in front of the cabin and got the beams level and 7” below the door threshold so that the 2×6 joists and 1.5” of 2×6 decking would come right up to it. Then we got the opposite beam level with the first one up against the cabin. By early afternoon, we were pretty spent, and it was getting cold as we weren’t able to work in the sun anymore.
We knocked off with the heavy work and futzed around with the new solar panel for the cabin and the new lines for the propane tanks at the trailer. We talked about the other things we wanted to do while we were up here, and as usual, had way too much on the list. At long last, it was quitting time. When I went into my cabin to change, it was like a sauna in there. It was so warm from having the sun shining through the windows all day. It was perfect nap conditions. I got changed and headed over to the trailer for cocktails and to heat up the chicken casserole K made for us.
It was sweet to get in the warm trailer, put the heat on, fire up the stove, heat up the casserole in the oven, sit at a table, etc. We are slowly supplying the kitchen with utensils, cups, mugs, plates, bowls, napkins, cleaning supplies, etc. We still need pots and pans and a good indoor broom and little vacuum. We are doing better keeping the outside stuff outside and only bringing inside stuff in. The dust and fine dirt is tough to keep out, especially with the wind/steady breeze, but it is really coming together.
The enchiladas or whatever they were were very good, and hot, and a few cocktails made bed bed time come early. I was excited to try out the mattress for the first time and had made a killer bed with sheets and blankets galore. I tried to make my laptop understand my phone hotspot but they were not playing well with each other, so I read a little and crashed. It wasn’t long before my stomach started growling and then cramping, then threatening to combust. I did not resist much because I knew pretty quickly I would suffer immensely if I did not heed the call.
Despite the cold, I was in the outhouse in moments, and seconds later I had expelled the demons. I was instantly cured. My return trip was much more leisurely and I could enjoy the moonlight and the sky and the quiet and the calm, internally and externally. I was back in bed before the cold penetrated my epidermis, and although I didn’t sleep much, I was super comfy and relaxed until the break of dawn.
I was up early and so was Mike. I had prepared the coffee the night before and he already had it going along with some hot water for washing. I swear it was colder in the trailer than outside, certainly in the sun, even with the breeze already blowing. One thing about the Spring trips is the breeze never seems to stop; in the summer, it seems to come up in the afternoon and dies back down after dinner and that is pretty much it, other than the occasional times it is different.
After coffee and Mike trying to get me to eat one of his nasty Jimmy Deane sausage like sandwiches, we ambled outside and began staring intently at the work site. In the early morning, the sun was on the North side of the trailer so it was warm, but obviously not warm enough to make the beams move into place by themselves. We picked up where we left off and set a few mid piers and began to set the beams from the corner of the cabin out along the trailer. We kept leveling and lowering and leveling and lowering until we decided we needed another approach.
We decided we needed to get the beams set under the trailer door first before trying to connect them so that we would have the correct height under each door, then work out how they connected in the corner where it would get the least amount of traffic and use. This was a good idea. We set the beam under the trailer door and then got into the corner where they had to come together at some reasonable angle close to level, without taking the deck too far out of level under the door thresholds.
We realized we should not have fooled with the outer beam across from the cabin or the intermediate piers under the midpoints of the beams until we got the inside beams set at either end, so we soon discarded them from our attention. We focused solely on setting the inside beams against the cabin and trailer, starting from under each door threshold and sort of working towards the middle, where they would meet near the future steps down between the trailer and cabin. Despite the laser like focus, this too became a mind bender.
We came to realize also that although within probably a couple inches of being on a level plane, those couple inches difference between the elevation of the cabin door and the trailer door were tough to get rid of in a gradual sort of way. We also realized, after cutting the beam of course, that we probably would have been better off running the deck boards the entire length of the cabin, rather than the entire length of the trailer plus the distance from trailer to cabin.
In between our short spurts of brain power output, we diverted our attention by removing the shade canopy and supports that were right at deck level. This went surprisingly easily and was a huge boost to the overall look of things and to our confidence. We went back to leveling and unleveling to gradually eliminate the elevation difference. We built 2 more 4×6 beams out of the 2×6’s we had on hand and began working with those. We double checked the working condition of our levels and used different levels, but we just couldn’t resolve the 1.5”’s where the deck boards would come together in the corner.
Suddenly, Mike had a counter proposal. Rather than leveling the deck, what about raising the trailer. It seemed like we were always 1.5” off. If we went around the trailer and placed another 2×8 piece under each block currently supporting it, we could be in business. I just about lost my shit. I did not want to start on an entirely new approach, that was not simple nor easily achieved, and I was not convinced that it would solve or even reduce any of the work with leveling and piers and such we were trying to do just with dealing with deck heights. We discussed this new approach for quite a while, and eventually agreed not to pursue it.
It may have been the brief distraction we needed. With a new resolve and re-energized commitment, we all of a sudden seemed to have the inside beams along the trailer and cabin set; very good at each threshold and good enough at the corner in between. Praise Allah. Sometimes, hopefully, at some point, it all just comes together. We then got the outside beam set roughly parallel and level with the inside beams and where they met at that corner was reasonably level. Mike made a sample joist and deck piece and used that to approximate the location of the deck to the stripes on the trailer and making sure the trailer door cleared and threshold height etc. over and over. It all seemed good.
It was quitting time to be sure. We were both physically and mentally thrashed, but it was early; just late afternoon and the sun was warm out of the breeze. My sauna room was so toasty I could easily have sat for 3 minutes and been sound asleep. But this was Mike’s last night and we wanted to BBQ steaks and hang out, so we did. With our spirits buoyed by the accomplishments of the day, some clean clothes, not staring at beams, and opening up to the beauty and sweetness of the property, we had ourselves a celebratory cocktail and got the fire started.
I cut up Brussels sprouts and turkey bacon and got that going in the cast iron. Mike still couldn’t get his magic radio to work up there, but it was OK. The talk of the day, the smells, the sounds, the good vibes carried the evening. Mike retired shortly after dinner and I dumped the coals into the fire pit and got a rager going. The fire felt great. I couldn’t last until the fire died down, so I doused it and put the lid over it. I slept well for the first time in the new bed with the nice headboard. No middle of the night poopy and many good dreams.
Morning again came early. Our coffee pot was dirty from the day before so Mike went up to the kitchen to clean it. It couldn’t wait, so I made cowboy coffee on the stove by just pouring the grounds into the pot and stirring. I swear, this makes the best coffee, and it was ready just about as Mike got back. Mike dispensed with the high risk Jimmy Deane and we got to work on the road layout. Our prior surveying paid huge dividends and we had it set out in less than hour, way less than I expected. We had a good location and angle to return to the main road, above the outhouse, although it ran straight through the boneyard. All of that would need to be moved, but it could happen.
With the road location flagged and measured, I walked the main road to estimate how much rock fill we might need. This is the information we needed to give to Big Mike so he could place the cinder order. Mike gathered up his stuff and began to load up. With a little time left, we decided to try to pump the water out of the cabin tank to the kitchen tank because it had to be moved for the deck.
I inserted the suction hose and tried to pull that water up the 3 feet or so, but it just wouldn’t quite get over the hump. We then had to move a pier and beams to attach a hose to the valve, but for some reason water wasn’t coming out of the hose. Mike removed the hose and blew through it and water sprayed out, but maybe just a couple inches of elevation was too much for the pressure of the water to overcome, even from several hundred gallons? That didn’t seem right, but when we brought the hose down by the trailer, the water did come out. I was really surprised that the weight of the water did not create more force.
We decided the trickle of water was too slow, or we too impatient, so I attached my pump, but we couldn’t get that primed. I couldn’t even suck water through the hose to get a flow. It was really strange. So we just said fuck it and opened the valve and flooded the whole area. Of course, now there was way too much water, so we re-attached the hose to direct it down past the trailer, and that seemed to work, slowly, but steadily. With that, we were just about out of small jobs, and it was getting close to noon. Mike helped me load all the materials we had brought up from the boneyard for the skirting back into the truck and we brought it all back. With that done, Mike closed up the trailer, finished packing, and headed on down the hill.
I talked to Kristen and she said my other brother Dennis was coming into town to see Haley and Brett’s new place and wanted to stop by our place on the way. It was a big deal for me for them to come by the house so I didn’t want to get home late Friday night and have them arrive early Saturday morning and we also were going to Haley and Brett’s that afternoon, so rather than stay a night to leave early the next day, I decided to also head out. I gathered my gear and somewhat packed so I was pretty close to ready to go. But first…three things.
I grabbed the peeler posts and cut them to length with the sawzall because I couldn’t get the stupid chain saw to start even though I used it the day before. So frustrating! I laid them out on the ground spaced about 2 feet apart so that we could have a step or 2 down to more deck, or like an old wooden sidewalk to the back of the trailer. Eventually, we hope to place a shower platform at the back of the trailer for the outside shower and it will all connect with the decking.
By the time that was done, the water tank was empty and I was able to rotate it so the valve was accessible and pointed towards the trailer so it could eventually connect to the trailer or to the big water tank. Finally, the main event. The deck will be about 5 feet wide in front of the trailer and 4 feet wide in front of the cabin. Most of the 2×6 we had were more than 8’ long so I estimated the number of joists we needed of each length and cut enough joists so that when Bob comes up for the inspection and for the actual assembly of the deck, we should have all the materials ready to go. This went really smoothly and I was done in no time.
I gathered the last of my gear, covered up all the materials we were leaving behind, closed up the kitchen, loaded all my tools, locked up the cabin, and loaded the rig with liquids and snacks. It was now about 4:30 as I locked the gate and called Kristen to tell her I was on my way. I blasted down 395 into Reno and then 80 and was just about in Colfax for gas and Macadonado before it was dark. It was another great trip and will have to last until May for the next time we will be up.
Hart Hill March 29, 2021 Photo Gallery
