https://riomcmahon.me/ Recent content in Home on Rio McMahon Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us © Rio McMahon Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/recipes/texascaviar/ Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/recipes/texascaviar/ Another recipe from Mom that makes great afternoon snack dip on river/at a music festival. Ingredients 4oz Pimento Pepper 6oz pinto beans 12oz blackeyed peas 12oz white corn 1c green bell peppers (chopped) 1c celery (chopped) 1 small yellow onion (finely chopped) Sauce 1 tsp salt 1⁄2 tsp pepper 1 tbsp water 3/4c apple cider vinegar 1/2c vegetable oil 1c white sugar (consider reducing by half; you can add more to sauce) Recipe Mix sauce ingredients in sauce pan, boil and let cool Mix can/veggie ingredients in bowl Mix with cooled sauce and let sit for >24hrs Serve cold with pita or tortilla chips. https://riomcmahon.me/content/2025-02-26/ Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2025-02-26/ Another year, another non-tax deductible charity donation to the federal government; aka 🎉 Permit Application Season 🎉 📝 Permit Lottery Background For the uninitiated most multi-day river trips in the US require a permit to float them. This is due to a variety of reasons, the primary ones being the popularity of these natural resources, and the environmental impacts associated with humans in these delicate ecosystems. In order to reduce the human impact, the federal government has instituted a variety of permit lotteries for the different rivers. https://riomcmahon.me/content/2023-11-11/ Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2023-11-11/ New Whip, New Me 2023 was a breakout season for me and the newly minted ‘ol lady. I also kayaked a ton and stepped it up on a couple of runs - this was a mixed bag but is leaving me extremely motivated for future seasons. Total Days on the River: 85 Total Overnight Days: 36 Overnight Trips: Salt River (5 days) Yampa (5 days) Cataract Canyon (3 days) Westwater (x2 - 4 days total) Gates of Lodore (5 days) Middle Fork (7 days) Main Salmon (7 days) This information is available in the “View Data” section of https://riomcmahon.me/content/2023-01-11/ Wed, 11 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2023-01-11/ In mid-January 2023 I had an opportunity to do some skiing in the Selkirk Mountain Range near Rogers Pass, Canada. It was an amazing, humbling, educational experience that not only reinforced my love of the mountains but also my respect for them. It was some of the best skiing conditions I’ve ever had in my life while also some of the touchiest avalanche conditions I’ve ever had to navigate. I cannot wait to get back. https://riomcmahon.me/content/2022-09-04/ Sun, 04 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2022-09-04/ Had the opportunity to cap summer off with a lovely float down the Main Salmon in Idaho; it was very smoky due to the Moose Fire. I haven’t been down this river for probably ~15 years and was a teenager my last time. As a family we rafted this several times as I grew up so this trip was highly nostalgic for me. It was pretty cool coming back and kayaking all the rapids that seemed so massive to me as a kid. https://riomcmahon.me/content/2022-04-03/ Sun, 03 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2022-04-03/ I had the absolute pleasure of paddling the Grand Canyon for most of April 2022. This trip was extremely special in so many ways; two specific highlights: Got engaged to the love of my life, the beautiful Kansas Peacock Got to experience the canyon with not only my parents, but also my little brother It is hard to put into words what a Grand Canyon trip is like. The duration of the trip creates an environment that is difficult to describe. https://riomcmahon.me/content/2022-01-22/ Sat, 22 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2022-01-22/ In January 2022 I left my job at Unidata as part of my #millennial obligation to take part in the #GreatResignation and start as a data scientist at Evolve. I had a little over a week between jobs and naturally wanted to make the most of it so I set down my avocado toast and $13 latte took a road trip to ski! Driving North towards Ouray, CO from Red Mountain Pass https://riomcmahon.me/content/2021-09-04/ Sat, 04 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2021-09-04/ Spent Labor Day back packing near Bailey, CO on a small section of the Colorado trail. Some areas were fairly lush with TONS of really cool fungi Cooking at sunset after a long day Some well deserved car beers https://riomcmahon.me/content/2021-07-03/ Sat, 03 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2021-07-03/ Spent the 4th of July weekend backpacking in the Horn Fork Basin to climb Mt. Harvard/Mt. Columbia. It was a pretty big day taking ~8.5 hours round trip from our camp near the “fork” between the Harvard/Columbia trails. The approach up Harvard was fairly chill. The traverse between the two was strenuous with a lot of navigating lose rock and route finding. The hike down Columbia was pretty steep but the bottom half of the trail was really well built. https://riomcmahon.me/content/2021-06-14/ Mon, 14 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2021-06-14/ I am feeling truly blessed to have gotten to go down the Middle Fork of the Salmon river for the fourth time. This canyon is a truly majestic place and I have a huge respect for the band of Shoshone called the Tukudeka (Sheepeaters) that originally inhabited this canyon. It is complex to recreate in such a beautiful place and enjoy the pristine wilderness knowing that my enjoyment comes at the expense of the indigenous people that once made their homes here. https://riomcmahon.me/content/2021-05-08/ Sat, 08 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2021-05-08/ After successfully defending my MS thesis I went kayaking for a week in Idaho with an awesome group of people. All told we paddled 6 days straight on the following rivers: Main Payette South Fork of the Payette (Canyon/Staircase runs) Lochsa It was a great start to the season and I am ready for a great 2021 paddling season in general. Warm up run on the main https://riomcmahon.me/content/2021-04-10/ Sat, 10 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2021-04-10/ The Cristo Couloir is the first bigger CO spring line that I’ve skiied. It was a great day with great people with just the right amount of pucker. Beginning the descent We camped in the parking lot and were skinning by 5:40am. We had clear conditions overnight with a solid refreeze. Avy conditions were “Low” with no predicted wet activity with a persistent slab problem on northern aspects. https://riomcmahon.me/content/yolo-scraper/ Wed, 27 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/yolo-scraper/ TL;DR I made a python Reddit scraper that crawls r/WallStreetBets posts using praw and the pushshift.io api (via psaw). The Github repo is located here. r/WallStreetBets is going totally nuts over $GME. Fundamentals have been thrown out the window and the masses are out for Gabriel Plotkin’s blood. The financial media are losing their minds. Not one to want to miss out on the feeding frenzy but also not one to (totally) blindly hop on the gambling bandwagon, I wanted to collect some data about r/WSB first. https://riomcmahon.me/content/backcountryradio/ Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/backcountryradio/ TL;DR The Baofeng UV-5R radios are seemingly affordable radios that are apparently possible to program via CHIRP. They could feasibly be used by a licensed radio operator for backcountry communication. Usage of the radio is up to the discretion of the user and this post is for information purposes only (see disclaimer here). An example of an illegal programming configuration is provided here for demonstrative/educational purposes only (aka what NOT to do). https://riomcmahon.me/recipes/macncheese/ Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/recipes/macncheese/ Ingredients 1lb penne pasta 4c milk (can substitute 1c w/ unsweetened condensed milk) 4tbs unsalted butter 6tbs unbleached, all-purpose flour 1tsp paprika 12oz Gruyère cheese (grated) (Cheddar, mozz, or Jarlsberg can be substituted or included) Recipe Boil water. Cook penne, rinse and set aside. Preheat oven 350˚F Bring milk to “barely a boil” in heavy sauce pan While warming milk, melt butter in additional heavy sauce pan. https://riomcmahon.me/recipes/carrotcake/ Thu, 24 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/recipes/carrotcake/ Ingredients CAKE 1.5c vegetable oil 2c sugar 3 eggs 2c flour 2tsp cinnamon 2tsp baking powder 2tsp salt 2tsp vanilla 2c shredded carrots 2c nuts (walnuts, usually bash their brains out with rolling pin first. Or buy pre-bashed). 7oz shredded coconut 1 small can crushed pineapple FROSTING 8oz cream cheese (Philadelphia brand) 0.5c butter 3c powdered sugar 1tsp vanilla extract water Recipe Preheat oven to 350 degrees Cream oil, sugar, eggs sift together flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. https://riomcmahon.me/recipes/cheesecake/ Thu, 24 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/recipes/cheesecake/ Ingredients Crust 1c graham cracker crumbs 3tbs sugar 3tbs butter Filling x3 8oz philadelphia cream cheese (SOFTENED!) 0.75C granulated sugar 1tsp vanilla 3 eggs x1 1oz square of chocolate (I use more usually, get the fancy baking kind) Recipe Crust Combine crumbs, sugar, and margarine into bottom of springform pan. Bake at 350deg for 10min Filling Combine softened cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. https://riomcmahon.me/recipes/pizzacrust/ Thu, 24 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/recipes/pizzacrust/ When I was growing up, it was a tradition for my dad to make pizza every Friday night from September-April (it was too hot to use the oven during the other months). In college, I decided I wanted to carry on the tradition. I asked him for his recipe, expecting to be handed some sort of old, handwritten, intergenerational piece of McMahon family lore. Instead he emailed me this link. https://riomcmahon.me/content/2020-09-19/ Sat, 19 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2020-09-19/ First time down Gore and probably the hardest whitewater I’ve ever run. My first season kayaking in CO is tough to describe but has only served to reinforce my love of the water. +1 pucker factor Flows were relatively low (~790cfs) so stuff was bony but not pushy. I had mild nerves throughout the day but nothing that impacted boating performance. I walked Gore rapid but ran Tunnel (and swam in the pool below). https://riomcmahon.me/content/2020-08-19/ Wed, 19 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2020-08-19/ Lovely trip with lovely people https://riomcmahon.me/content/elvira4/ Wed, 22 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/elvira4/ Elvira Write-up Navigation Previous: Object Detection Elvira uses an online Q-learning algorithm to make decisions based on the state space input received from the object detection pipeline. This post describes the reinforcement learning approach used, experimental setup, and discussion of the results. Experiment Overview Problem Formulation Q-Learning Implementation Results/Discussion Q-Learning in Action Experiment Overview Colored discs are placed in the frame of Elvira’s camera. Elvira reacts autonomously based on the position of the colored discs and explores the state space with a goal of maximizing reward. https://riomcmahon.me/content/elvira3/ Tue, 21 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/elvira3/ Elvira Write-up Navigation Previous: Motor Driver Next: Reinforcement Learning Elvira uses object detection to characterize the world around her and make decisions based on current state. This post details the computer vision object detection pipeline. Overview Algorithm Results/Discussion Blob detection in action Overview Elvira uses an RGB feed to detect pixels within a certain color range. It then groups these pixels based on their relative location to other groups of pixels. https://riomcmahon.me/content/beervision/ Thu, 09 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/beervision/ I like beer, probability, and computer vision. This is a little toy project I put together that attempts to quantify the emission rate of bubbles when you pour a glass of beer. I’m using Julia and Upslope Citra Pale Ale. Github repo can be found here. Image Processing Finding a Distribution Approximating the Exponential Discussion Appendix: Frame Rate Notes Image Processing We begin by creating a gif by stacking all the images into a 3D array (2D images with a 3rd dimension representing time). https://riomcmahon.me/content/2020-03-28/ Sun, 29 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2020-03-28/ Trip Report Got out to do a little tour-a-rooney that had some highs and lows. I ended up backing off the first line due to the wind slab problem from all the wind we’d been getting in the front range. Turned out to be a good idea because it ended up sliding: I estimate about a D1.5, R1.5 The chute to lookers left was less wind effected and ended up being some killer skiing. https://riomcmahon.me/content/elvira2/ Fri, 28 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/elvira2/ Elvira Write-up Navigation Previous: Introduction Next: Object Detection Elvira uses I2C to communicate between the Arduino and a PCA9685 controller chip to address the 12 servo motors that control her motion. Elvira’s motor driver code consists of several levels of abstraction from the low level serial communication (level of abstraction indicated by parenthesis) Motor Control (Low) Limb Control Motion Control (High) The motor and limb control layers of abstraction exist in the MotorDriver/src/Elvira. https://riomcmahon.me/content/fourteeners/ Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/fourteeners/ ul { list-style: none; /* Remove default bullets */ indent: none; margin: 1px; } List of 14ers in CO that I’ve climbed. I have no aspiration to climb them all at this point - I just like lists. The list is ordered high to low via elevation (from 14ers.com). Mt. Elbert - 14,433’ Mt. Massive - 14,421’ Mt. Harvard - 14,420’ (4th of July 2021) Blanca Peak - 14,345’ https://riomcmahon.me/content/elvira1/ Sat, 21 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/elvira1/ Elvira Write-up Navigation Next: Motor Driver Introduction When I was living in California before grad school I rented this big ‘ol house with lots of “character”. Among its many quirks, it had what we’ll refer to as a “mild” spider infestation. Like any average, totally normal 20-somethings, my roommates and I would collect black widows to keep as pets and display on our mantle in a pickle jar. They were generationally referred to as “Elvira I-IV”. https://riomcmahon.me/content/tipsybot6/ Sat, 21 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/tipsybot6/ Tipsy Write-up Navigation Previous: Control Overall, Tipsy is capable of some balance although she is not ready to be taken “off-leash” yet due to falling concerns. This project has been hugely educational and helped me get comfortable with embedded C and developing/debugging embedded systems. I’ve provided flow charts that summarize project functionality below. Code and a project report with documentation can be found on the project github page. https://riomcmahon.me/content/tipsybot5/ Fri, 20 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/tipsybot5/ Tipsy Write-up Navigation Previous: State Estimation Next: Outcomes/Summary NOTE: The majority of the theory for the state estimate and PID controller was inspired by and heavily adapted from Brian Dwyer’s excellent write up on the subject. You can read about it here. Control I implemented an empirically tuned PID controller to handle the control for Tipsy. I’ve gotten a lot of mixed input from all the research I’ve done online in terms of which terms are needed; generally people just use PD controllers. https://riomcmahon.me/content/tipsybot4/ Thu, 19 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/tipsybot4/ Tipsy Write-up Navigation Previous: IMU Next: Control NOTE: The majority of the theory for the state estimate and PID controller was inspired by and heavily adapted from Brian Dwyer’s excellent write up on the subject. You can read about it here. State Estimation State estimation for Tipsy was conducted using a complementary filter which is a simplified sensor fusion schema that fuses noisy accelerometer data with gyroscope data (which has a tendency to drift). https://riomcmahon.me/content/tipsybot3/ Wed, 18 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/tipsybot3/ Tipsy Write-up Navigation Previous: Motor Driver Next: State Estimation IMU Summary Getting an IMU up and running was the most challenging portion of the project, mostly due to poor hardware design on my part. The total IMU death toll was 3; one of which was definitely burned out from exposure to > 3.3V and two of which that probably were burned out but also may just not have worked (Turns out “absolute max voltages” in the electrical characteristic sections of datasheets are more than just suggestions). https://riomcmahon.me/content/bionicchess/ Sat, 07 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/bionicchess/ INTRODUCTION The world is on a collision course with a transhumanist singularity and I don’t plan to just sit back and see what happens. I’ve developed a cybernetic interface to compete for dominance with our ever approaching AI overlords… OVERVIEW I competed in my first ever hackathon at CU Local Hack Day 2019. I made a chess game where user input is handled with a barcode scanner and a sheet of barcodes that represent the chess board. https://riomcmahon.me/content/tipsybot2/ Wed, 13 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/tipsybot2/ Tipsy Write-up Navigation Previous: Introduction Next: IMU MOTOR DRIVER In order for tipsy to not fall over, I will be using two servo motors at the bottom to counteract any rotation when the controller detects a “falling motion” (aka a deviation from vertical). I will be driving them via the Sparkfun Dual TB6612FNG Motor Driver. The big picture way that I will drive the motors is by defining a function that uses a timer with an interrupt to control the PWM signal. https://riomcmahon.me/content/tipsybot1/ Sat, 02 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/tipsybot1/ Tipsy Write-up Navigation Next: Motor Driver MOTIVATION During the (current) Fall 2019 semester of my masters I am taking a class in embedded systems. Our class is working with the PIC18F87K22 microcontroller and doing a variety of low level things using mostly assembly code. For the class we have to come up with a final project involving an 8-bit PIC microcontroller. During the first midterm of my estimation course, we had an exercise involving modeling the dynamics of an inverted pendulum. https://riomcmahon.me/content/2019-06-23/ Sun, 23 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/2019-06-23/ Skiied Shasta - it was sweet https://riomcmahon.me/content/quadcopter/ Thu, 14 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/content/quadcopter/ I built a quadcopter using a Raspberry Pi 3 and a Navio+ flight controller from EMLID. It is constructed on top of the Flamewheel F450 chassis from DJI and uses Ardupilot for its autopilot and controller. Soldering the airframe Early version close up of onboard sensors Future plans include implementing some sort of computer vision/tracking algorithm using the onboard Raspberry Pi camera. https://riomcmahon.me/about/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://riomcmahon.me/about/