CLINGMAN'S DOME

And then we turned round, and saw the tops of clouds for the first time. They’re a grey wool-like fog that move ghostly around and through mountains and over the paved path we just walked. They’re cool and tasted of dew, smelt clean and fresh and new like that of another planet, like only 6,000 feet could. We looked out as far as the clouds let us, and weren’t unhappy where they didn’t.

Clingman’s Dome is a over a mile (6,643 feet) above sea level and over a sea of grey and green deciduous trees and conifers. Just before reaching this height, we crossed the Appalachian Trail where I picked a granite stone souvenir. The paved trail ends at an elevated, spiraled walkway that leads to a circled lookout platform---unchanged from the day it was made, constructed of brown- and tan-pebbled cement. Spruce-fir forest covers the mountains peaking and rolling through clouds panoramically, offering us sky views of Tennessee and North Carolina at cloud level. We took our time.

WATERFALLS

Waterfalls. Every thousand yards gushed a waterfall; brooks, falls, rapids, steep mountain sides sliding clear water towards the Mississippi. Water rushed over and around rocks---stones to gigantic boulders (smooth and round the old rocks, rigid and square the young). Tiered stone steps climbed up under and beside each falls, making it easy for novice hikers to get close. The cool mist must have been refreshing to the Cherokee or hiker before me who breathed hard up to see these falls.

The Laurel Falls is one of the Great Smoky Mountains’ most popular attractions. About a mile of well-travelled, slope-sided dirt path winds to the falls. Its condition reminded me of many high-traffic trails found in urban metro parks. Tree trunks and rocks were graffitied with initials, hearts, dates, and scratches of claiming rights to experiences--- articulations of unsophisticated and extroverted behavior, or some insecurity. Nevertheless, the falls rushed loud and fast when we reached a small wood bridge that crossed the fallen water. The temperature dropped when we walked up and we were hit again by mist. The falls fell at least a hundred tiered feet at twenty-five feet wide. You can climb some rocks down a ways to get a better shot. There were several hikers there one week before the high season began in May. Get there the earlier, the better.

BLACK BEARS

Some 1500 black bears live in the Smoky Mountains. We saw none. Some guy leaning on a barbed wire fence looking at wild horses at Cade’s Cove told us that a momma bear and cubs were sighted just around the bend; supposedly, when we got there, the ranger drove them off with a stick. A volunteer passerby on the Laurel Falls path warned us to be careful, that there’d been bear sightings all day. We saw crawling paths up and down cliffs, and even a fake paw print in the mud—a curled palm and four thumb prints—but no bears. I looked so hard I began to see bears: I took a large, dead black tree stump under a thicket of Rhododendrons to be a feeding male. Bears were sighted on the four-mile horseback trail according to our Wellington-booted, sleeveless Tennessee guide—but nothing. By the end of the week we began believe that warning out-of-towners of bear sightings was a running local joke, that it just couldn’t be helped, that they had to say it—because it was so easy.

SPUR:

Here's an excerpt from "Two Tramps in Mud Time" by Robert Frost which hangs in my toolbox at home and work:

          “BUT YIELD who will to their separation,
           My object in living is to unite
           My avocation and my vocation
           As my two eyes make one in sight.
           Only where love and need are one,
           And the work is play for mortal stakes,
           Is the deed ever really done
           For Heaven and the future’s sakes.”

                                                           1936

CHANGING ENGINE OIL:

Drain plug

      Underneath every car or truck is a big fat bolt sticking out of an oil pan connected to the engine bottom. Take two combination wrenches consecutive in size and insert the ring of one into the open end of the other to create a torque bar. Flick the drain bolt off quickly and let the used oil pour into a pan. Have a rag handy.

Two-wrench torque bar

            While the oil pan is draining, go for the oil filter. These are sometimes right there, on the side of the engine, atop, behind the wheel well or inside the engine with a cap. Try turning the filter first by hand. If it won’t budge, use a band wrench or Jap tool. If you have neither or these, then jam a flathead sideways and perpandicularly through the filter and turn it off that way. Be ready: the filter will spew oil immediately after a half turn. Check and make sure the rubber gasket is intact on the filter and then dump them both into the pan. Wipe the mounting base. Dip your finger in some new oil and lube the gasket on the new filter. Screw it hand tight with a ¼ turn past resistance.

Standard oil filter

            By now the oil pan should be down to a trickle. Flush the engine by droppng a ½ quart new oil through. Wait five minutes or for a one second drip and put the drain plug back in—¼ tight again. Clean up. Add one quart less than the fill capacity listed in the owner’s manual and start the engine. Make sure the oil pressure gage needle goes up or the oil pressure light goes out, and then while the engine is still running check for leaks underneath. Also, check the transmission fluid. Stop the engine. Check the engine oil level and add whatever necessary. On most vehicles the marked area at the end of the dipstick represents a quart; some are divided and cross-hatched into halves and quarters. Replace oil fill cap and repeat in 3,000 miles.

CHANGING GUITAR STRINGS AND INTONATION:

CHANGING STRINGS

            Get a string winder. Pluck the low E with your right hand and unwind with your left and hear the tuning flatten to a metal rattle. At this point there should be enough unravelled string to pull it up and off the tunning nut, where you can unwind and pull the string out. Then pull the bottom end of the string by the eye out of the body. Repeat five times.

            Once the old strings are off, clean and polish the neck and body and everything with lemon oil. Inspect the nut bridge, frets and saddle bridge for wear. Tighten any loose screws.

            Start restringing with the low E: Send the bare end of the string through the back of the saddle bridge and then through the eye of the nut. Pinch the string with the left hand after placing the string in the nut bridge and pull the string with the right index finger about three inches from the body. Then grab the string at the nut bridge with the right hand and bend the string 90° around the tuning nut with the left hand. Start cranking the tuning nut while keeping tension on the string with the right hand at the nut bridge. Turn it all the way up to a low E, pass it sharp and back, exercising the string. Repeat five times.

            Tune the guitar, push and pull the strings on the fret board as you would play them, and tune again—exercising the strings now lessens tuning during play.

INTONATION

            There should be a slight concave curve in the neck. Look down the top of the neck from the bridge like a sighting a rifle to see if it curves. If you have a feeler calipers handy, 4/64” (1.6mm) is the standard distance between the 12^th fret and the strings. Adjust to your playing style if need be.

            The 12^th fret is one octave higher than open tuning. Intonation is the open note in tune with the 12^th fret octave note. If sharp, turn the saddle screw counterclockwise, moving the saddle toward the neck. If flat, turn it clockwise. Repeat for all six then strum a chord high up on the neck. It shouldn’t wobble.  

TO BEGIN:

Welcome to my introspective blog on experiences and self-reliance. Here, I am posting stories and reviews of places that I’ve been and instructions on practical things I’ve been doing for a long time. The former will mostly be an exhibition of my writing on camping, hiking, fishing, and all things outdoors, while the latter will cover small, DIY electro-mechanical and carpentry projects such as changing guitar strings, motor oil, electronics restoration, and furniture. All my writings here will be an exposition of a compiled work which I intend to name The Bootstrap Field Guide.