My little girl still likes "MogTruck." Today she says "You shouldn't take the Suburban to your work. You should take the Wagon, and we'll take the Suburban. YOU TRADE CARS!"
CK5
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The Great Smaug
- Thread starter campfire
- Start date
I've never seen this. My bucket list includes visiting the iron range museums, but I haven't been to iron mountain for over a decade. It's got to be an iron mine water pump, somewhere near Chapin mine or similar. I probably drove past this in the 90's before I was a MI mining history junkie and paid no attention. Are there any underground tours?
I'm also a little short on iron range museums. Despite driving past several of them repeatedly, this is our first visit to see the Cornish Pump. And yes, you correctly called it as being near Chapin. The pump was part of Chapin mine, and the museum is paired with the Glider Museum that tells the story of Henry Ford's factory. They're both small spaces (that shot shows the entire diagonal distance of the pump house), but taken together they're worth the stop.
We also toured Vulcan mine, which gives you a proper underground tour with a tram ride, two different stopes, and a few equipment demonstrations. And, of course, a full blackout experience.
We arrived just in time to join a large tour group (whoopsies 
), and they had an interesting policy requiring the one tour guide to be the last person leaving each chamber. So a volunteer had to lead the group from spot to spot. Of course I volunteered. I might have been the only one who brought a flashlight with me. They probably wouldn't have needed a volunteer with a more reasonable group size.There's another iron mining museum in Caspian, and the ones in Ishpeming and Negaunee. Those are still on the list of places to go. If you get up here this year we might be able to meet you at one of those.
Sounds cool, I've gotta do it. It's just hard to avoid the magnetic North pull UP there.
I did try the Ishpeming museum a couple of times (out of the many times I've cruised right past on the highway). Once they were closed and the other time there was a parade through town and it took me 1.5 hours just to escape the town. You know the size of that town, so you understand what I'm saying.
I did try the Ishpeming museum a couple of times (out of the many times I've cruised right past on the highway). Once they were closed and the other time there was a parade through town and it took me 1.5 hours just to escape the town. You know the size of that town, so you understand what I'm saying.
Hahaha! That must have been some parade!
The Lake Linden Museum is so exclusive they only let me in to muck out their flood-damaged artifacts. I still haven't managed to see the actual museum during normal visiting hours. Maybe someday the stars will line up...
This thread is falling out of date.
Short version: The truck got new front shocks, bump stops, and some little stuff. We successfully did 2 wheeling trips this month (7 days on the road), somewhere in excess of 1000 miles. The truck rides nicely, and the new shocks (Bilstein 5125) are worth every penny. During the second trip the starter ceased operation. Symptoms point to an arced solenoid disk. Again.
I continued on the trip, popping the clutch 10 or 12 times. Sometimes I left the truck idling for half an hour at a time, which tells me the new cooling system is working much better than the original one.
Otherwise the truck is more or less done for the season. It did quite well, and it graciously scheduled its one failure in such a way that I didn't miss the trip, nor did I need to use the tow truck. A much better track record than last year.
Short version: The truck got new front shocks, bump stops, and some little stuff. We successfully did 2 wheeling trips this month (7 days on the road), somewhere in excess of 1000 miles. The truck rides nicely, and the new shocks (Bilstein 5125) are worth every penny. During the second trip the starter ceased operation. Symptoms point to an arced solenoid disk. Again.
I continued on the trip, popping the clutch 10 or 12 times. Sometimes I left the truck idling for half an hour at a time, which tells me the new cooling system is working much better than the original one.Otherwise the truck is more or less done for the season. It did quite well, and it graciously scheduled its one failure in such a way that I didn't miss the trip, nor did I need to use the tow truck. A much better track record than last year.
Highlight from the trip: We ran through the truck-eating puddle again. 2 years ago this puddle swallowed my M1009 ArmyTruck. This year...the same puddle swallowed the MogTruck. Same. Puddle. And, of course, my truck was the only one from the group of 10 rigs that got stuck. And, of course, I got pulled out by the same guy who pulled me out last time. Sigh.
I do have a flimsy excuse. But the bottom line is that my attempt at redemption didn't go as well as I had hoped.
And, of course, my truck was the only one from the group of 10 rigs that got stuck. And, of course, I got pulled out by the same guy who pulled me out last time. Sigh.I do have a flimsy excuse. But the bottom line is that my attempt at redemption didn't go as well as I had hoped.
Otherwise the truck handled every obstacle on both trips. I did find its limits while doing a sandy hill climb, but the actual trail riding was no problem (puddles aside).
This truck is a whole lot more capable than the ArmyTruck was. Clumsy, but capable.
This truck is a whole lot more capable than the ArmyTruck was. Clumsy, but capable.
Pic’s
Martin
Martin
Hahahaha!
Martin would never write that. His grammatical standards were much too high to abuse an apostrophe like that. And there's no period at the end of the 1-word sentence!
I have some, and I'll sort through them eventually. Not as many as I would have liked. I didn't have a dedicated photographer this year. Plus, we spent a lot of time in the back of the dusty convoy, so a lot of picturesque moments were obscured.
I probably won't make you wait as long as I made Wade wait for his pictures...
Hahahaha!
Martin would never write that. His grammatical standards were much too high to abuse an apostrophe like that. And there's no period at the end of the 1-word sentence!
Lmao! So true! Epic fail on my part.
Lmao! So true! Epic fail on my part.
Thanks for the laugh. I do miss his concise humor.
Tunnel Ram?
Martin
Martin
Alright. Here are some pictures from our scouting trip through Paradise. I had mapped this out a couple years back, but hadn't run most of it (thanks to that whole "amphibious ArmyTruck" episode ). So Luke and I scouted around to see what was and wasn't possible.
We started out at a familiar campground, as it made for an easy meeting point.
This cool spring is the highlight of this campground.
Luke showed up and we discussed our routes.
Cool toy we spotted in Seney.
And then we hit our first trail North of Seney, heading East towards the Airport.
The trail got very close to the road we were seeking, but did not connect. We followed it a ways in the wrong direction (back South), and eventually gave up at this mud hole. One member of our party got across on foot, but the rest of us were sinking more than we preferred.
So we turned around and went back to easier routes. That is the purpose of scouting, eh?
I also picked up a pretty good crack in the windshield this summer.
We did make it to this cool scramble area, once we got back onto the "main" backroads.
We had a lot of trails on our agenda, and we weren't sure yet where we were camping. So we didn't linger nearly as long as we might have liked. Back to trees and lakes again. This one is SE of Grand Marais:
Some sections of road were actually pretty cushy. Mostly the ones leading to tourist attractions.
). So Luke and I scouted around to see what was and wasn't possible.We started out at a familiar campground, as it made for an easy meeting point.
This cool spring is the highlight of this campground.
Luke showed up and we discussed our routes.
Cool toy we spotted in Seney.
And then we hit our first trail North of Seney, heading East towards the Airport.
The trail got very close to the road we were seeking, but did not connect. We followed it a ways in the wrong direction (back South), and eventually gave up at this mud hole. One member of our party got across on foot, but the rest of us were sinking more than we preferred.
So we turned around and went back to easier routes. That is the purpose of scouting, eh?
I also picked up a pretty good crack in the windshield this summer.
We did make it to this cool scramble area, once we got back onto the "main" backroads.
We had a lot of trails on our agenda, and we weren't sure yet where we were camping. So we didn't linger nearly as long as we might have liked. Back to trees and lakes again. This one is SE of Grand Marais:
Some sections of road were actually pretty cushy. Mostly the ones leading to tourist attractions.
We wound out to the mouth of the Two-Hearted River. Formerly home to a Life Saving Station. Now it's a state park campground and a minor tourist trap. Complete with a grass airstrip.
It's also home to a cool suspension bridge.
Across the bridge there is a thin strip of land wedged between the river and Superior. And, of course, Superior never gets old.
After enjoying the water we kept heading toward the point. This region burned down 7 years ago in the Duck Lake Fire. The trees are growing back now, but it's still obvious where the burn zone begins and ends.
It's also home to a cool suspension bridge.
Across the bridge there is a thin strip of land wedged between the river and Superior. And, of course, Superior never gets old.
After enjoying the water we kept heading toward the point. This region burned down 7 years ago in the Duck Lake Fire. The trees are growing back now, but it's still obvious where the burn zone begins and ends.
We left the tourist zone behind and headed back into the (unburned) woods. Oncoming trail traffic can get tight in some spots, but thankfully traffic is sparse. Brown's Creek (and the accompanying swamp) cuts through this section of landscape, creating a significant obstacle. We looked up a number of older maps, and found some old trail options. Getting across looked like a long shot, but that's the goal of scouting, eh?
This particular trail kept getting narrower, heading into Brown's Swamp. But we encountered this guy coming out of the wet zone, so we stopped for a route meeting.
After a 3-way confab, it did not sound like there was a reasonable route through the swamp, so we headed back to the official bridge (adding several miles to the trail ride).
Having crossed via the official bridge, we then wound our way right back to where we had been before (but on the opposite bank). Here is where we find the series of puddles where I swamped my CUCV 2 years earlier. I specifically wanted revenge on these puddles, so checking them out was mandatory. Since we had turned around again, Luke reached the water first.
Who knows what lurks down there? We intend to find out.
View media item 37256
Luke made it across and then came back to our side.
Then we walked past the first puddle and to our original truck-swallowing puddle. The water level was a whole lot lower this time.
This puddle has a bypass (which we had used after we fished my CUCV out of the hole). This time it was dry instead of flooded.
And, like every low, sandy swamp in this area, we found blueberries here!
This particular trail kept getting narrower, heading into Brown's Swamp. But we encountered this guy coming out of the wet zone, so we stopped for a route meeting.
After a 3-way confab, it did not sound like there was a reasonable route through the swamp, so we headed back to the official bridge (adding several miles to the trail ride).
Having crossed via the official bridge, we then wound our way right back to where we had been before (but on the opposite bank). Here is where we find the series of puddles where I swamped my CUCV 2 years earlier. I specifically wanted revenge on these puddles, so checking them out was mandatory. Since we had turned around again, Luke reached the water first.
Who knows what lurks down there? We intend to find out.
View media item 37256
Luke made it across and then came back to our side.
Then we walked past the first puddle and to our original truck-swallowing puddle. The water level was a whole lot lower this time.
This puddle has a bypass (which we had used after we fished my CUCV out of the hole). This time it was dry instead of flooded.
And, like every low, sandy swamp in this area, we found blueberries here!
