John Muir Trail - Introduction

    I moved out to California about 4.5 years ago and in the past 2 years have really taken an interest into backpacking.  In those two years I've almost went on one 3-day trip a month which I think is pretty good considering my limited vacation plan at work.  The problem with short trips is that one can never really get away from the general population and so I settled on the idea of a longer hike, the John Muir Trail (JMT).  While quite popular I hope it'll give me this solitude, it also helps that I'll be going solo North-South (SOBO).

    As of  Feb 4, 2013 I have my work vacation approved as well as my permit out of Yosemite!  I really can't be more excited and I'm sure this is the peak of February :-)  Now I just need to plan my arrival/departure and food resupply strategy but those are the easy parts.

    The JMT will essentially be my trial-run/testbed for doing one of the longer hikes such as the PCT, AT, CDT.  Well, probably not the CDT...haha.  I hope to keep this blog up-to-date with my planning as if this were a long distance thru-hike of the above trails.  If nothing else it'll be a good account of what not to do for anyone out there also planning such a hike :-)

As far as some stats go:

• Length 215 miles according to johnmuirtrail.org
• Accumulated ascent of 34,620 ft.
• Accumulated descent of 45,029 ft.
• Highest point is Mt. Whitney at 14,476 ft.
• Passes through Yosemite, Ansel Adams Wilderness, Sequoia National Park, King's Canyon National Park
• Planning on covering 15mi/day on average which comes out to 14 days.  Throw in a few rest days (zero days) as well as some days which are 6-8 miles and I plan to be out there for 18 days total.

Rock Sliders

 

    This is my first project post so I'll start out by saying that I'll mostly be linking to Instructables.  When appropriate I'll use this blog to elaborate on a given project whether it be technical details, background information that would bloat the Instructables post and/or afterthoughts.

    So here we go.  First up are a pair of rock sliders for my Jeep Cherokee.  This will be a bit unique as I really didn't take enough pictures to make a nice presentation on Instructables so I'll just walk ya through my process.

    First up is to buy the steel.  I've found Alan Steel in Redwood City to have the best selection and prices for the bay area.  Very nice, reasonable, and fast.  Oh, and did I mention they only charge $2 a cut :-)  I bought some 2x3x3/16 sq. tube for the main slider, 1.5x2x1/8 for the extension that would be bolted/welded to the body and some 1x1x1.8 angle iron to mate it up with the pinch seam.  All-in-all it came out to about $80 if I recall correctly.

Here's a pic of the stock prior to cutting and what would be my outside work around for tack welding.

    Time to start measuring and cutting.  Taking the 2x3x3/16 I used a horizontal band-saw to cut the ends at 45 degree and welded some plate to the ends.  Finishing up with the grinder to make a nice radius.  Not the best picture but you get the idea.

 













 
   With the sliders being rather heavy and not having someone else to hold it in place while measuring out the extensions I came up with this setup which worked quite well for getting the exact fit that I wanted.  Now I see why I always held the flashlight for Dad as a kid :-)  Underneath, you can see where the mount plate will be bolted on to the frame.  Midway through the project I decided to weld them on instead and don't have any images to show that so just picture the extensions without the mating plate.  So my process was to basically:

• Hold the slider in place with a jack
• Mark and Cut extensions to fit
• Mark a series of holes in the angle iron that would be used to bolt to the pinch seam.
• Drill holes for 1/4-20 bolt
• Mount angle on pinch seam and drill into seam(s)
• Do the fitment a 2nd time to ensure everything is good.
• Tack weld everything together while performing yoga
• Remove the slider from position and finish welding indoors away from the wind.

    Here's a shot of the workspace area I have at the Techshop which suits most needs I'd say.  Next up is to get everything finished and painted.  This is something I could've done a much better job at.  For the most part I did two coats but that appears to not be enough as I can see rust on them.  Maybe a good clear coat would've been a good idea.

    Overall I'm pretty happy with them.  Pretty soon I'll probably be re-painting them and updating them with an upper tube rail kind of like the poison spyder sliders seen on JK's today.  Here's a shot of the finished product.