thoughts.bjsintay.com

This past week I visited Pilot Mountain State Park in the hopes of making a longer, more secluded hike.  I decided to try out an improvised 4-trail loop at a distance of 7 miles or more.  I started at the visitor’s center near the entrance and headed off down the Grassy Ridge Trail (1.5 miles, moderate).  This trail was basically an SUV road and provided enough level ground and width for riding a horse.  I found this trail lazy and slow.  I then connected to the bottom side of the Mountain Trail (2.5 miles, strenuous) at the parking lot on S.R. 2061.  I would not call this trail strenuous, but it is a long walk on a much narrower trail.  This trail terminated at the Ledge Spring Trail (2.0 miles, strenuous).  About 1/10th of a mile down this trail the Grindstone Trail (2.0 miles, moderate) splits off toward the camping area.  I liked this trail once the gravel walkway ended.  It was an easy walk to the middle of the campgrounds.  From there I road-walked back to the visitors center (maybe a mile or less) on a mostly downhill grade.  The entire loop took just over 2 hours to complete at a moderate pace.  A storm had just soaked the forest on the previous day, so hiking up much of the trail felt like splashing up a stream.  There are few, if any, water runoff formations on the trail, so the water flows straight down 50% of the trail.  Consider that before you go after a rainstorm.  (I must be spoiled from the Appalachian Trail)  I am going to write the park and suggest that they make a small connector trail from the campground terminus of the Grindstone Trail to the visitor center.  I think a lot of people would use this trail in the same loop I made if they constructed it.  I am pleased that I now have a pleasant 7-mile loop so close to home.  I would recommend trying this hike out some time.

This past summer I started doing some serious backpacking along the Appalachian Trail and found myself in need of a solo tent.  I read various websites that outlined different styles of lightweight shelters including tarps, bivy sacks, hammocks, and our old friend - the tent.  After carefully considering all of my options, I chose the tent based on its ability to keep me and a lot of my stuff dry at the same time, ease in setup, cost efficiency, weight efficiency, and durability.  I was extremely selective on weight, which is why I ended up with the Eureka! Solitaire.  This tent weighs less than 3 pounds!  I’ve outlined the weight of this tent based on my own measurements at home on a good scale.

Weight breakdown:

• Tent Fabric - 958 grams (or 33.8 oz = 2.11 lbs)
• Fiberglass Poles - 226 grams (or 8 oz = 0.5 lbs)
• 8 (Aluminum) Stakes, Cords, etc. - 194 grams (or 6.8 oz = 0.43 lbs)

This tent is single-walled, meaning the “fly” (the fabric layer of protection from the elements including water) is the wall of the tent.  It has a screen which runs the length of the tent allowing you to open up the fly and have a screened-in tent area to escape the bugs.  That feature is nice, provided you have the time to sit around and do this.

I am 6′7″ so length is something that is very important to me.  I found this tent to be just barely long enough for me.  I never slept in it during a bad rainstorm, but I would guess if I had, my feet would have got wet from my sleeping bag touching the end of the tent (a problem with single-walled tents).  A simple fix is to put a trash bag over the end of the sleeping bag.

The floor of the tent is made of lightweight ripstop nylon, so I brought along a plastic tarp to place under the tent.  I know this is bad for weight, but I didn’t want to go poking a hole through my new tent.  I have not tried it without the tarp yet, but it should have similar results as other tents which use this type of fabric.  Many people opt for a ground cloth of some type.

The poles on this tent are awful.  They are made out of fiberglass, not aluminum, which actually makes them heavier by my calculations.  Most importantly, it makes them unreliable.  I used my poles to setup the tent maybe 15 times, then the smallest pole began to split.  I halfway expected it to happen, but it still makes me upset.  This could be fixed by replacing with all aluminum.  One problem you would have, however, is that the pole bends 180 degrees in about a 3 foot diameter.  You would have to shape the aluminum with a slight bend to get it to make that kind of turn.

Bent aluminum poles can be seen in Eureka!’s newest solo tent which is very similar to this tent.  The new design also has a plastic window in the head of the tent, which I do not prefer.  They’ve also made changes to the guyline configurations which are supposed to help condensation.  No word on that yet since I do not own one of these tents.

I really liked this tent when I used it.  The main drawbacks are the height (not enough to sit up in or even kneel in), condensation problems from poor ventilation, a bit of a clumsy setup, not free-standing, and the terrible poles.  To solve all of these problems I have since got the Eureka! Zeus 1LE which is free-standing, has aluminum poles, is tall enough to sit up in, has improved vents, and even includes really nice vestibule areas on both sides of the tent.  This tent is also much easier to get into.  I’ll include more info in another review once I get a chance to use it outdoors for awhile.

I give this tent 3 out of 5 stars for almost being something really good.  The weight and size are awesome, the poles were just a big screw-up.  They took the life of this tent LONG before it was time.  My Solitaire went from a tent that would carry me a few years to a tent that lasted a few weeks.  It’s a real shame that simple poles are the problem.

Santa delivered a curious package under the tree that I wasn’t expecting this year. It was the JBL On Stage, a 4-speaker dock for my 4th gen 20GB iPod. The device is small enough to fit on a tiny nightstand or in the corner of my desk without taking up hoards of surface area. It offers rich sound for the size and charges my iPod all at the same time. If you like, you can connect the dock to your iPod firewire or USB cable for transfering songs. It also has a 1/4″ jack for other non-iPod audio players or incompatible types such as the iPod Shuffle sans the charging ability. Good thinking JBL.

I am impressed with the overall quality of sound and equalization that are built in. I really like the small, circular waveguide in the inner edge of the “ring” which allows some marginal bass frequencies to be produced. I was unsure how much this guide contributed to the frequencies of the system, so I covered the port hole (about the size of a dime) and could instantly hear a loss in the low frequencies. I’m not sure what frequency this guide is tuned to, but it makes a big difference. It also makes a difference if you have the On Stage sitting on a box-like structure that can vibrate. You will notice a big difference in frequency bandwidth.

The only things I dislike about the On Stage are the value for the price-point and the “touch” volume buttons. The MSRP is right at $160, steep for what you actually get. I’m sure a big chunk of that is Apple’s, so I do understand that licensing “iPod” brings the price up. The device is very well engineered which helps with the sticker shock. The “touch” volume buttons allow you to change the volume (or mute) without actually depressing a button. Simply putting your finger on (or pretty much near) the button pad changes the volume. The problem is your iPod is pretty close to these buttons, so often I find after selecting a new song or CD that the volume has been cranked way up from using my hand to stablize it while pressing the click wheel. The dock is simply not substancial enough to mess with the iPod without bracing it with your hand. The touch technology is cool, but a bad spot for it. I also have never minded actually depressing a button. I kind of like the idea of knowing how many clicks up or down I’ve taken the volume.

Overall, I give this device 5 out of 5 stars for quality engineering.

Product webpage at jbl.com

As an avid hiker, I enjoy escaping the busy town atmosphere every now and again for some time with nature.  The closest place for me to do this in the NC triad area is at Pilot Mountain State Park just north of Winston-Salem, NC.  The park offers easy hiking for families, horseback riding, climbing, canoeing, fishing, and camping.  On the weekends it is teaming with people from all different walks of life including many bicyclers climbing the mountain on a long, stiff incline up about 1,400 feet from the base of the mountain.

Recently, I took Roxie, my active Miniature Pinscher, on a hike at Pilot Mountain.  I packed a lunch from Jersey Mike’s and set off for some altitude.  At the parking area (2,400+ ft) I could see in nearly all directions since the winter had stripped the leaves from the trees.  There was an overabundance of people - everywhere.  I found myself a bit closed in on the Overlook (0.1 miles, easy) trail, so I set off down the Sassafras Trail (0.5 miles, moderate) since it looked like no one was going that direction.  This small loop offered a bit more solitude and excellent views of Pilot Mountain from a couple rocky outcrops.  It was at one of these outcrops that I jumped the fence (yes, the trail has fences on it) and hiked a couple hundred feet out of sight.  Lunch was served here with an unobstructed view of Pilot, Sauratown, and Hanging Rock Mountains.

After lunch I hiked on the crowded Jomeokee Trail (0.8 miles, moderate) around Pilot Mountain.  Hoping for more solitude, I darted on to the Ledge Spring Trail (2.0 miles, strenuous) from there only to find it jam packed with other hikers and countless climbers every hundred yards or so.  Climbers were scattered all over the trail forcing hikers to bypass in the nearby brush.  Once I arrived at the start of the Mountain Trail (2.5 miles, strenuous) I jumped out of the crowd and headed down the mountain.  At about 1,600 feet on the altimeter I stepped off of the trail path and over a ridge to secure a secluded spot from the crowds all over the park trails, especially the shorter ones.  There I was able to lay out on my tarp and relax with a good book (see my review on A Walk in the Woods).

I recommend the trails at Pilot Mountain State Park for all types of people, especially those not concerned with the big crowds or lack of a secluded nature experience.  There are opportunities for more serious hikers on the longer trails such as the Grindstone, Mountain, Grassy Ridge, and Corridor Trails.  I will most likely stick to these trails in the future.

Ever wade through thousands of files and folders trying to figure out what you’ve backed up and what needs to be updated in your backups?  Do you manage multiple desktops, laptops, and other portable devices but want one backup location?

My search for backup utilities a few years ago turned up Microsoft’s SyncToy, available for free download from the Microsoft website.  SyncToy is a very simple utility that manages a “left” and “right” folder where you can set the rules about what should be copied or mirrored to between left and right.  I first was interested in this sort of utility after receiving a laptop computer from Wake Forest University’s Medical School.  It became an integral part of my coursework and research, so backing up that data was crucial to me.

SyncToy allows me to open up my laptop at home, literally click one button, then have the info on my laptop backed up through the wireless network to the RAID 1 (mirroring) array on my home office desktop computer.  As a second line of defense for all of my data, I make quarterly SyncToy-managed backups of the RAID array to an external drive.  SyncToy makes it all happen.

This program is able to determine what files should be updated or removed on the backup drive, then makes all changes automatically.  The folder pair can either synchronize, echo, subscribe, contribute, or combine depending on your preferences.  It also allows folders to be network paths (such as \\Machine\Folder).

After using SyncToy for the past few years, I would say that I am very happy with this tool.  It is very easy to use, doesn’t suffer from feature creep, and best of all, it’s free.  What do you use for backups/synchronization?

SyncToy Page at Microsoft.com