Navajo Canyon

Woke up to some rain this morning, and it stayed with us about half way to Page. Made a quick stop at the Page Walmart to pick up a few groceries. While Rosanne shopped, I started prepping the boat a little bit to launch. The Glen Canyon Bridge had some construction going on, down to one lane, so we waited a few minutes until our turn to cross. Met Alain with DeJa La, another C-Dory 25, at the Stateline Auxiliary ramp parking lot, and finished prepping our boats to launch. Along with Rosanne, we helped each other get launched. So much easier with two people, especially on a somewhat shallow ramp. Although I don’t think I had to back as far in this time as I did in April. Water is about 14 feet lower, but the ramp must have a bit more slope at this level. Right after I launched C-Traveler, and pulled the truck up out of the way, it was at this point my day started to not go so well. Come to find one of the main bolts that hold the two outer trailer main frames to the pole tongue, had lost its nut and the bolt had backed out far enough for the left side of the trailer frame to sag down. With Alain helping, I was able to get the frame back where it belonged and pushed the bolt back through. I always do a trailer walk around each evening and morning, and any time I stop. I think I would have noticed this, this morning before leaving our night parking lot, but I did not check again at Walmart. Remember how rough I’ve said the interstate roads are! I will be doing a thorough check of all the trailer hardware when I get back home. (I did do a quick look at all the main trailer bolts!) Issue two. Then after Alain and I parked our truck and trailers up in the parking lot, he was telling me about a blowout he had, and I decided to check my pickup tires a little closer. Now I do occasionally check the tread, especially when I rotate the tires, every other oil change. Well, while I did change oil before leaving home, I did not rotate the tires, and I guess I should have been paying closer attention to the tires before this long trip. (Normally I would have.) Unfortunately, the left rare tire was pretty close to bald all around the center of the tire, and in one spot, was bald. The other rear tire had a little more tread, but still well below the wear bars. The front tires were just barely above the wear bars. I don’t feel safe driving the next 1800 miles home, so I have an appointment at the local Ford dealer in Page to get new tires before we leave. Final issue, and I took care of it already. DAMN BRAKES! Yeah, still battling the trailer brakes. While my fabrication of replacing the rubber slider pin boots with bronze seems to be holding up quite well, I’ve now had two brake pads come off the backing plate. The first one was on our trip to the Erie Canal. I do have two spare calipers with me, but I just added some new pads to my spare parts, so was able to just replace the one pad. In regards to the trailer frame bolt, I’m still missing a nut, and plan to buy a new one when we leave. In the mean time I have a heavy duty ratchet strap, (yeah, I carry those too…lol) holding the frame tightly together, and I’ll zip tie the bolt in there for the 5 miles into Page from Wahweap. We found a nice small beach area here in Navajo Canyon to stop for the night. Before leaving Wahweap, Rosanne and I enjoyed nice showers at the marina. Got a late start on the water with all my maintenance stuff, but did go in and out of Antelope Canyon, before turning into Navajo Canyon.Baca selengkapnya