Welcome to Dave’s Information Site!

This site has information on a variety of topics that may be useful to you. I add blog entries on interesting things, such as new ham radio stuff, cool places to visit in the Colorado San Juan high country around here, wildflowers, and more.

Key now to the site are three important pages. The first is an index to all the roads around here I’ve traveled on my motorcycle—they take you way into the high country. I include GPS maps and instructions for finding these places. You can find it from any page in the blog by clicking on the red text in the right hand column that says “Where’s a good place to ride dirt? Click here for Road Index.”

Next is my ham radio home page, which lists gobs of useful info, concentrating on the Colorado Western Slope. A subset of that, important in its own right, is my ham radio training page, which tells you where to find the self-study book, and provides a video introduction to each section. I put the latter up because around here there aren’t many people, let alone hams, so the videos provide a half-way point between in-class study and self-study. You can get to this set of pages from any page on this site by clicking on the green text in the right hand column that says “How can I get my ham radio Technician license? Click here for the training material.”

I’ve been on motorcycles for years (and, yes, they are indeed dangerous—I have the scars to prove it) and in 2009 purchased a Yamaha XT-250 “dual sport” bike (meaning street legal dirt bike). It’s a tiny thing, you say. Indeed! But my requirement was simple: if it falls over at 12,000 feet elevation, I need to pick it up by myself! What I’ve found from my motorcycling is that there really aren’t good maps showing the “single track” trails.

So my goal here is to collect GPS tracks from my rides and create (reasonably) accurate trail maps. Where does one ride in and about here? The answer: nearly everywhere! Street legal dirt bikes are legal on gravel roads, jeep roads, so-called “double track” trails (made for ATVs), and many “single track” trails. The usual caveats apply: rules, rules, rules. I’ll try to capture them here, but rely on official sources rather than me because rules change.

To see my publishing site, check out www.mtsneffelspress.com. The site sells my own fantasy books plus an outstanding book written by the staff of the local Ridgway Railroad Museum, plus others. I also have a standing offer to Western Slope writers: Give me a couple copies of your book and I’ll do web fulfillment.

Ah, yes, the blog. If you’d like to see my blog, be aware I’m opinionated. If you don’t like my opinions, then stick with the Subject Pages. If you think I’m wrong, post a comment! (Don’t e-mail me or call me or buttonhole me at church or throw a brick through my window!) If I think your comment is interesting, I’ll accept it on the blog, though I will probably reply. Rules: no flaming, no personalities, just stick to the subject. Included blog subjects: family, politics, religion, just about anything. But, to be accepted, your comment must pertain directly to the subject of my post. I reserve the right to edit comments to remove spelling and grammar errors and inappropriate content.

I’m using the 2010 theme from WordPress, a nice default template that came out in 2010. They now have a 2011 theme, but I don’t like it. Further, I made quite a few modifications to 2010 using a “child theme,” which took me quite awhile to figure out. All page addresses are “permalinks,” meaning the URL won’t change, so feel free to reference these pages by URL.