jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Aug 20, 2016 8:36:48 GMT -5
Thru white sand country. Hoop d dos in road from vehicular traffic makes for fun ride. Best with long shocks. 3000 acre Hopkin's Prairie dried down to less than 40 acres of water at sink holes. Condensed fishing, almost cheating as fish vulnerable. Gates closed for fish's sake. Me snuck in back trails and did not fish. Every other critter is condensed in these sink holes too. No swimming signs for reason. Chased home by afternoon storms, the norm. Saw not a single soul. www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/sets/72157671515141310Typical illegal and unnumbered trail. Forestry service leaves the east side of forest alone. Rarely patrols it. good This trip was to a sink hole found using Google maps on cell phone. ATV needed to cool as I left too late in day and engine overheats at +95F and soft sand loading engine. Took boots off and walked out to keep feet dry. Hiked around till engine cooled. Sink hole found, temporary and shallow. Dead Dog Fennel stalks telling that it had completely dried last year. No fish in this one. Some sinks really deep. Also a clay pit which had no rocks or fossils darn it. www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/sets/72157669582181704Shallow sink. Only water for several miles. Desert conditions here. Herons had eaten all fish. Blue ocean sky that day. Saphire sky, HOT day. Road paved with a lot of fossiliferous chert from quarry.
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Post by orrum on Aug 20, 2016 19:10:09 GMT -5
Wow James what if you break down out there?
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Aug 21, 2016 6:42:42 GMT -5
Wow James what if you break down out there? Just got to hike back Bill. Rescue of my junker 3 wheeler would be main concern ha. Most of the not numbered trails are only passable by ATV's, so it would take another ATV to rescue my ATV. My friend Chris used to start at the south end and do a 4 day to the north end w/his family using water cooled ATV's. 65 miles one way. Ocala is big horse country as you well know. Never ever seen a horse out in that forest. Great trails, no horses, no horse tracks. Native man was very concentrated, at the springs near the lake. Miles of scrub desert, only a tiny amount of that area is inhabitable, near water. The 300,000 acre sand forest is recharge for the few springs along the river at low altitude. Basically a 300,000 acre unpopulated sand filter for all precipitation which drains east to the St Johns. Estimates say it takes thousands of years for the water to get to artesian outlets. So water is super clean. One day that water may become very important as a source of clean water. Salt intrusion is making fresh water a commodity in large coastal Florida cities. Marion County has fought of a few cities wanting to pipe the water. My little neighborhood is peppered with artesian wells. They let them flow. To keep the canals clean ha. At 50-400 gallons per minute per well. Feast and famine. Drinking flowing water is addictive. No pipe taste, just very fresh water.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 21, 2016 17:44:05 GMT -5
Wow that would be a wonderful area for horseback riding. I'll bet wildlife abounds there too....Mel
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Post by Jugglerguy on Aug 21, 2016 18:56:51 GMT -5
What's that in the sink hole?
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Aug 23, 2016 14:52:24 GMT -5
What's that in the sink hole? that is my ATV. I am cooling the engine. runs hot in Florida, soft deep sand makes it work hard.
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Post by rockpickerforever on Aug 23, 2016 16:22:30 GMT -5
Using my keenly honed powers of observation, I see that jamesp has reached a milestone - 20,000 post on RTH! What an accomplishment, he is in uncharted territory. Congrats, James!
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Post by Jugglerguy on Aug 23, 2016 16:50:29 GMT -5
What's that in the sink hole? that is my ATV. I am cooling the engine. runs hot in Florida, soft deep sand makes it work hard. Oh, I see it now. I had to zoom in. I need a pile of cheaters like you have, I guess.
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Post by captbob on Aug 23, 2016 18:08:17 GMT -5
Using my keenly honed powers of observation, I see that jamesp has reached a milestone - 20,000 post on RTH! What an accomplishment, he is in uncharted territory. Congrats, James!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Aug 23, 2016 19:18:52 GMT -5
Hope to be here till 40,000. May God have mercy on you guys.
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Post by captbob on Aug 24, 2016 10:22:02 GMT -5
That should be another week or so. The quality of your typical post makes the quantity a pleasure to read. nicely done
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Post by greig on Aug 24, 2016 11:13:17 GMT -5
Cooling an ATV in a puddle is a new one for me - - You must get some kind of hot down there. My problems are more often the wet brakes freezing solid overnight in Nov. I enjoyed the post.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Aug 25, 2016 7:53:47 GMT -5
Cooling an ATV in a puddle is a new one for me - - You must get some kind of hot down there. My problems are more often the wet brakes freezing solid overnight in Nov. I enjoyed the post. It is hot. But the problem is the super soft sand. Like walking up a steep sand dune, takes a lot of horsepower. Most guys run water cooled engines or have aftermarket oil coolers. 1987 3 wheeler, so a bit old, 250 engine is on the hot side in terms of hp output. No brakes on that one, terrain too flat Once off the forestry roads paved with clay you see the natural soil. Sinking sugar sand, requires ATV to plow constantly. The locals run paddle wheels. Sometimes all metal welded tall wheels. Throws sand like crazy. In hilly areas the sandy banked turns can be 12 feet high and 50-60 degrees slant, where you must maintain speed or else fall over. A roller coaster ride.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Aug 25, 2016 7:54:53 GMT -5
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Aug 25, 2016 8:11:59 GMT -5
Wow that would be a wonderful area for horseback riding. I'll bet wildlife abounds there too....Mel You would be angry if you saw the way the forestry service grows a monoculture of hybrid sand pines for monetary gain. The least they could do is leave 20% in native hardwood/pine mix. Crops of pine timber very lucrative here due to fast growth. Govt. making big money on our Nat Forest. Crooks The land near lakes and waterways is left natural. It is those forests that support dense wildlife populations. Note clay base under sand in this clay pit. It is the clay that makes fast timber growth. Typical of Ocala area.
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Post by mohs on Aug 25, 2016 8:25:11 GMT -5
your pretty incredible james let me park my only ride in a sink hole and go off hiking in the middle of nowhere what? there could only be a mosquito or two
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Aug 25, 2016 12:27:08 GMT -5
your pretty incredible james let me park my only ride in a sink hole and go off hiking in the middle of nowhere what? there could only be a mosquito or two That sink is at least 2 miles from any other water Ed. Some of them have a ton of wildlife living off of them. Darn animals know this one dries out and it had very few tracks. No fish. No nothing. Sterile. I don't know that till I go look at it with my own two eyes. The permanent ones can be 100 feet deep and full of fish. And other animals needing a water supply. It is dry in this forest. Water controls animal movement here. Many have filled with sand from timbering operations causing erosion. This one may have been a real oasis 1000 years ago. Could have had serious Native man artifacts. No artifacts. Conclusion is that it was a wet weather spring for a long time. Otherwise chert flakes would have been present. Lots of info can be derived from artifacts. I could see you and I with a couple of hot Native gals partying at this sink hole....
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Post by rockpickerforever on Aug 25, 2016 17:49:23 GMT -5
What's that in the sink hole? that is my ATV. I am cooling the engine. runs hot in Florida, soft deep sand makes it work hard.
James, you are an engineer. You know what effect water has on a hot motor. You are not afraid of cracking it? Blocks and heads have been cracked by adding water to an overheated engine. Would imagine submerging would have the same effect?
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Aug 26, 2016 5:37:16 GMT -5
I see your reasoning rockpickerforever. Lots of engines in the water around here and rarely do they crack. Beats me ?? Jeeps and ATV's with snorkel air intakes are common and they all go completely submerged. Odd, if you add cold water to a hot engine's radiator when it is turned off, then cranked, a good chance of cracking the block. Cold water running close to the cylinders and head where the metal is very hot will sure crack the head, sometimes the block. Aluminum air cooled engines seem immune to cracking under any conditions. I can pull a mower with those 3 wheels for about 2 hours and after that they start to run rough as the engine heats up. And will eventually stop running. So I shut them down and cool them with the garden hose about every 1.5 hours. Have two 3 wheelers, so I just switch them out while one is being cooled. Was always a bit paranoid about cooling them like that. Been doing it 25 years, call it faith. Nothing is functional on those 3 wheelers Just the engine and transmission. They are just go machines with 15,000+ hard hours on them. Even the starter solenoid has been bypassed on them; they are started with a 50 amp industrial switch directly on the starter circuit. I have 4 3 wheelers. Two of them are junkers because moisture got in the rear end and destroyed the differential. Honda has no more differentials, so I buy junkers and steal the differentials. All of the engines in them run fine. Even with the abuse of the water and the overheating. Go figure. That old Honda 250 engine has good power and is about indestructible. For me to drive them 'legally' in the Nat Forest they are supposed to have running lights and be registered street legal vehicles. Not. So if a puke green forestry vehicle is spotted way up the road it is time to turn off a pig trail and hide. They are fun to play cat and mouse with. They may stop the truck and walk the narrow trail, following your tracks easily. Once they have walked a good distance from their truck it is time to crank up and go a quick mile and then shut off again. They usually give up, they are govt workers.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2016 10:31:59 GMT -5
Haha
Go a quick mile and stop again.
Yeah, like that lily white ass gov employee is gonna walk another mile. Actually 2 for the round trip.
Plus, he is asking to be a victim alone in the big wilderness.
Both too smart in this case.
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