Man, I’m beat.
Been a mad dash for a month to get this beast purchased, roadworthy, and tested before the July excursion. Basically, have three weeks to go.
Ran into a few minor issues with the lift- all due to my obsessive nature. I keep finding bits that while perfectly serviceable, don’t meet my standards for safety.
When I say safety, I’m talking about overkill in most cases. Remember, I’ll be solo and off the grid for the bulk of the trip during a pandemic and the hottest, driest, most fire prone season in recent history.
Im certain most of you find some of the stuff I’m doing on this project a little silly, but I learned the hard way many times it’s better to be a bit paranoid and overprepared.
All the springs are dry, so I’m not going to get much worm hunting done (my main area of research), but the pandemic and weather ensure the fossil hunting and rock hounding will be epic.
Biggest issue right now though is fuel.
I think of come up with a way to carry the 80 liters I’ll need, but have to fab the mounts and test them.
Weight has become an issue, so I’ve made the hard decision to strip down everything non essential.
I’m not talking the chowbox/kitchen/lab bench or my dc fridge. Cut groceries in half and replaced them with MREs. Increased water capacity by 40 Liters, and scrapping most science equipment for packing materials. I’ll just have to make stops in a town every few days to ship stuff back to my labs in Nebraska.
Having trouble getting ammo. I rarely take firearms with me, but may little Savage 64F takedown has proven useful and comforting when alone in the more remote stretches! But without the proper ammo, it’s pretty much useless.
goal right now is to get max load weight down to 700lbs including me.
