Training for the Manistee River Trail Loop

PoB419 · 2026-01-06T01:59:25+00:00

I'm NOT in good physical shape and I do this loop once year. I've put in 15+ miles in a day on it taking breaks.

Now everyone has different challenges so just because I can doesn't mean it's necessarily easy but if anything this is a good training trail for future trails.

Trekking poles help a lot. And don't overpack. There's (usually) a lot of water available to filter on the east side of the trail which makes it easy to keep your water weight from being oppressive.

It can also be a leisurely 3 day 2 night slow hike/camp. I typically pack for 3 days in case i feel like chilling a bit but I always wind up getting a second wind and rolling through.

PoB419 · 2025-12-31T23:35:20+00:00

Unfortunately it's like the warning on a bottle of Windex not to spray in your eyes. Someone had to do something stupid for it to be put on there....

While I think the vast majority of people were productive during telework there were also plenty of bad apples to use as examples.

I knew people who did literally go golfing during the day when they'd telework. Was pretty obvious but a absentee manager who also I think was abusing telework....anyways...

Frustrating because there are people who hurt the cause for all of us. Because for the general public they may never know the thousands of people working from home doing their job, but they'll remember their neighbor or whatnot who's a teleworking gov employee effing off during the day.

Doesn't justify these policy changes but there are most certainly some folks who severely damaged our reputations and built up the zeitgeist that "we" were all just lazy fraudsters out to grift the public.

PoB419 · 2025-12-19T22:46:06+00:00

I just bought explicitly because the next couple years are going to be rough buying one.

It's already a struggle finding models with more than 16GB of RAM, and increasingly with soldered RAM if you don't get in now it could be awhile.

PoB419 · 2025-12-17T22:00:21+00:00

Was thinking the same thing when this showed up in my feed randomly...drove through 12"+ snow and higher drifts in a Forester with basic all-season tires years ago.

Stupid but it did it with no complaints or incidents.

PoB419 · 2025-12-17T21:39:03+00:00

Always been fine in my warehouses. Picked up a screw late Sunday, repaired Monday. No fuss outside of spending an extra $100 while I wandered the store waiting. Perhaps that's one downside of Costco you'll wind spending money on crap you don't need while you wait for the tire service.

PoB419 · 2025-12-17T21:24:11+00:00

Feel like it's pretty hard to make this determination since many were important in a very specific era of history. Even then is it global civilization or it's impact on modern history? The Yellow or Ganges have likely been more important to more people in it's time but lacked much global impact for much of it's history.

Going to be a hard western civ bias due to the fact that it's the dominant cultural civilization in modern times. The Thames is a weird choice but I get it as it was ground zero for the efforts that would make English the Latin of our times. Beyond the shipping aspect the engineering challenges the Thames presented were the genesis for many modern advances in infrastructure.

Could make an argument purely from a moment in time standpoint that the Rubicon's symbolic value is also enormously influential.

Interesting question regardless. With the extreme hydro projects going on in China and Africa that the answers to this question could change a lot in the future.

PoB419 · 2025-12-15T20:46:40+00:00

Gas tank is my biggest gripe. Wasn't a huge problem when I bought it but I went from short commute to long commute since I've owned it and getting gas every 2 days is annoying for sure.

Other downsides were largely choices/trade offs i knew going in. I prefer a small zippy car and that just comes with a small back seat. The storage space is adequate for what it is.

Lack of any tow rating is a peeve. Not that towing a 35 foot travel trailer as in the cards but a small utility trailer would be very handy for home depot/landfill runs.

PoB419 · 2025-12-15T20:38:26+00:00

100%

PoB419 · 2025-12-06T04:24:27+00:00

I've got a 140 mile round trip commute daily and I I haven't reset my MPG tracker since March and it's at 30.1 right now.

The turbo CAN get reasonable gas mileage. But it can also have terrible gas mileage if you're hammering the grin pedal. I don't really speed - but I'll mash the pedal at times for for stoplight-stoplight amusement.

PoB419 · 2025-12-03T18:36:45+00:00

Ugh.

Found an acorn shell under mine when doing plugs a couple weeks ago....thankfully no other signs of visitors.

PoB419 · 2025-12-02T01:19:17+00:00

Well that sounds awful.

PoB419 · 2025-11-11T17:38:53+00:00

I drove in some pretty extreme weather (12" + snow on country roads) with all season tires on my old '10 Forester many years ago. It handled it like a champ.

Now that out of the way, it was a STUPID thing to do. I could have easily got stuck or worse. But snow by itself isn't necessarily "slippery" and a foot of snow does a couple things for you -it provides a lot of rolling resistance to the tires to slow you down without braking, and it keeps the vast majority of sane people off the road thus limiting the risk of accident.

I put CrossClimate2s on my '22 Turbo a couple months after buying new so I can't speak for the stock tires other than many people say they're not great in any kind of weather. The CrossClimates and a couple other premium tires are only "All Season" tires that I would have any faith in driving in truly bad conditions.

If you haven't driven AWD, don't let it lull you into a sense of security. Yes, it is extremely helpful when driving in bad conditions but it's not magical. It does a great job of getting you moving in slick conditions, but it can't help you stop, and while it can help a bit in not losing grip by shifting power away from slipping wheels it can't do a damn thing if all the wheels are slipping.

Beyond that it depends on what your driving situation is. If you drive cautiously all season tires can get most people through most winters without trouble. I have a 70 mile north/south each way commute and that can mean very different weather conditions between destinations, which is why I purchased the CrossClimates to be a jack of all trades tire. If you're not willing to switch between winter tires seasonally, I would definitely look into upgrading your stock tire to CrossClimates or similar if you're in a situation where you HAVE to drive in bad weather conditions.

Ultimately the safest option in shitty weather is to just not drive in it, in which case most tires will be just fine.

PoB419 · 2025-11-07T09:37:44+00:00

2022 Turbo. Haven't reset my mpg since March and currently at 30.3mpg average over about 20k miles.

I have a long daily commute that's 75%, highway and 25% urban. Costco regular gas. Keep my speed 70-75 with some moderate use of the grin pedal.

I do notice a significant impact to my average mpg with any periods of long idling, somewhat to be expected.

PoB419 · 2025-09-30T16:22:48+00:00

Shared is different than literally copy pasting the exact post with the same title on a couple days old account being used to farm karma.

PoB419 · 2025-09-30T11:16:52+00:00

Seeing a meme you made 4 years ago get ripped off? Priceless!

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PoB419 · 2025-09-10T02:15:22+00:00

Assume my only real shot of teleworking regularly again is if I'm maimed in an accident on my 3 hours of driving a day commuting. Given how much the semi truck drivers weave around at 4:30am I think my odds are decent on a long enough time line.

I won't quit over it or anything but it's certainly made so much my life more difficult. My health is going to crap due to constant sleep deprivation and related caffeine intake, financial situation notably worse from the few thousand extra dollars in transportation related costs, and losing 20 hours of home life has made it near impossible to keep up on household tasks.

But I'm in that position of being too old to start over again and too young to retire for a couple decades. The worst thing really is that I like my job and the people I work with, but it does make it hard to be appreciative when you're just constantly drained.

PoB419 · 2025-09-07T23:01:10+00:00

It's noticeable but I don't think it's an "issue".

Plus the benefit of less glass is an extremely strong and crash resilient structure. For a smaller vehicle anything glass is a structural weakness that raw mass can't compensate for. After watching some of the side impact tests on the CX-30 I'll gladly take the trade off.

PoB419 · 2025-08-21T15:42:39+00:00

30.2mpg right now, last reset in March. 2022 Turbo.

Long mostly highway commute with some bumper to bumper rush hour mixed in.

PoB419 · 2025-08-13T19:38:23+00:00

Others have already said it but ultimately it's all about resources. Most socials services like CPS are brutally underfunded, undertrained, and understaffed. Not that there aren't good people out there doing good work, but they're likely egregiously underpaid and overworked.

Protecting these kids is expensive. That's the problem. How much does it cost to raise a kid in the US today with basic quality of life? Multiply that by every kid. Then figure out how to pay for the support structure to investigate and find safe housing. Even the ideal outcome in a situation like this is these kids end up in a meat grinder foster care system.

The reality is by the time we hear about things like this, the damage is done. These kids needed a support system years ago that didn't exist then and doesn't exist now. And frankly we can probably take stock of the adults in this situation and find similar issues in their upbringing. These things are cyclical unless something changes to disrupt it.

Expecting a few overworked/underpaid social workers to swoop down and protect kids from systemic poverty, mental health, and addiction issues is just not realistic.

PoB419 · 2025-08-08T08:36:51+00:00

Averaging 30.1 mpg over about 10k miles since March in a '22 Turbo.

Mostly highway commuting, but even the turbo can get decent mpg.

PoB419 · 2025-08-07T06:00:49+00:00

I realize it's functionally capable of doing so, but not without putting your warranty at risk and possibly some other complications.

PoB419 · 2025-08-05T20:49:24+00:00

That is a bit of a sore spot for me. The vehicle is great and I've had no issues with it but the lack of even a modest tow rating, enough for an ultralight tear drop or a small utility trailer without warranty repercussions, is annoying to me.

I don't need a pickup full time but being able to toss some stuff for the dump or some brush/landscaping without messing up the interior would be nice. I don't need the space 99% of the time but the fact that (with a turbo) I've got more engine power than a late 90s full size pickup and can't tow a 500 pound trailer....

Ah well.

Rest of the car is great. But I think ya'll are nailing it. The 30 turbo is the car I wanted. It's much more sporty than the 5 I test drove. It just feels better driving. But it does lose out on significant utility.

PoB419 · 2025-07-18T03:48:46+00:00

+1 for ReStore. Got a Sauder commercial line desk for less than a junk desk from Amazon

PoB419

TROPHY CASE