California Adventure Rider

[achesley]

Great pics and report. Thanks for sharing. Canon G12 is my go to for the last 2 years. Gotta have some sort of viewfinder for the bright sunny days or I don't want it.

[M1Jeep]

I forgot to bring the tether for my camera so I was not able to take pics on the fly. However, Ersin let me borrow his camera tether Saturday afternoon so I was able to get a few.

Day 1

We arrived around 11:30 PM Friday night. Setup the tents, had a beer and crashed out for the night. Woke up and our wonderful hosts Joel and Lori were preparing the morning's viddles.



Our first stop was the Bald Mountain Lookout Tower:


We stopped in Bridgeport for lunch. Delicious burgers!


After lunch we stopped in Bodie for a little exploration. Besides, the ride out there was great!


Leaving Bodie and heading toward Mono Lake:












We got back to camp and feasted on Lori and Joel's delicious carne asada tacos. Some of the best tasting asada ever! Thanks again Joel. With tacos there's beer and I ended up passing out at the camp fire. I failed to take any evening party pics. :roll:

-----------
Day 2 coming soon

[FYYFF]

Day 3

Sunday was the big day. WMRS gate was open and we could ride all the way to the station, over 12K feet high.
We had our breakfast (thanks again Lorie) and head over to Chidago Canyon.




Joel and Rich are admiring canyon carvings.


Hole in the wall.


We found some hieroglyphs from 4,000 BC


Right before we hit payment to Bishop to gas up for Silver Canyon.


We get gas at Bishop (but obviously it wasn't enough for Joel, we found it out later in the day ) and headed up to Silver Canyon


Canyon road was rocky as usual.


Joel on the run








And then at one right turn:


It was a steep uphill too,


Right after I let Joel ride away, I felt my front tire was acting weird. I stopped and check, it was flat. I tried to put some air in so I can go to the top of the hill to fix it. But after 2 more turns, it was flat again. So I stopped to change it.

But Rich and Joel were ahead of me and probably made it to the top already. There was no way to let them know what was going on. Sena intercom was useless in those mountains. After 15-20 mins I heard them coming down the road. They though I was down and waiting to be rescued. :)
This is the view where I got the flat.


Finally we made it to the top.


Rest of the ride was just fast and easy dirt roads.












And here is a rare picture. 3 GSA's in one picture on WMRS road. 2 more right around the corner as well.


Todd and Eric is following him




And finally WMRS. It was 32 miles from Bishop Shell station.


Rest of the day is coming next...

[FYYFF]

Day 3: (continues)

We made it to WMRS at 2:00pm. There were still plenty of cars and SUV's but no bikes.
12,431 ft. I believe this is the highest you can get on wheels in California.




Yep, no cookies or drinks. We didn't enjoy our hike but I enjoyed the portable toilets. :lol:


I don't know why but this picture looks like Photoshoped. :? As if Rich wasn't there and I placed his head and body on the background. :lol:


We took an hour break and enjoyed our pistachios.


Bye bye station until next year.




It was a little chilly on our way back. We had to put on wind breakers.










This time we didn't have any problems on Silver Canyon. Just a slow pace downhill. Hard on the breaks. I have a video me and Rich chasing Joel very closely on downhill. Almost walking pace. I'll post it later.
Once we got down to flat, it was play time. Lots of water crossings and jumps. It took us a while to find the right jump but we finally did it.






Joel went through a rainbow










My battery died at this point and couldn't take any more pictures. I have some nice videos though. I'll post them later.
Thank you Eric for the ride organization. Hope to do this again.
And thank you Lorie for the delicious dinner and breakfasts.

[tedder]

Originally Posted by FYYFF

Day 3: (continues)
I don't know why but this picture looks like Photoshoped. :? As if Rich wasn't there and I placed his head and body on the background. :lol:

Likely that the flash was on. Explains why the lighting doesn't match.

Fantastic ride. Jealous.

(edit) here's the EXIF info, which proves the flash was on.

$ exif /home/tedder/Desktop/IMGP2263-O.jpg 

EXIF tags in '/home/tedder/Desktop/IMGP2263-O.jpg' ('Intel' byte order):

--------------------+----------------------------------------------------------

Tag                 |Value

--------------------+----------------------------------------------------------

Manufacturer        |PENTAX

Model               |PENTAX Optio W90

Date and Time       |2012:09:05 00:57:16

Artist              |Picasa

Exposure Time       |1/1500 sec.

F-Number            |f/4.2

ISO Speed Ratings   |200

Maximum Aperture Val|3.60 EV (f/3.5)

Metering Mode       |Pattern

Flash               |Flash fired, compulsory flash mode

Focal Length        |5.0 mm

[NSFW]

ersin, never seen a ride report with me, me, me and me in there......sweeeeeet....

thanks.

i'll get my 2nd day out soon. over 400 pics to go through.

tune in.

[jnyrav]

Great report and pics, guys!

[bigtodd]

great pix Ersin ... how come your camera battery last so much longer than mine? Will be ordering some extra batteries for mine this week, no more excuses for the camera taking a crap.

[NSFW]

thanks to all for stopping by, please come back, there will be more good stuff.

Originally Posted by achesley

Great pics and report. Thanks for sharing. Canon G12 is my go to for the last 2 years. Gotta have some sort of viewfinder for the bright sunny days or I don't want it.

i use my pentax shooting while riding and in dusty or wet conditions.

+1, my other camera is the older g10. works all the time. yeah, having a viewfinder is a good feature.

Originally Posted by bigtodd

great pix Ersin ... how come your camera battery last so much longer than mine? Will be ordering some extra batteries for mine this week, no more excuses for the camera taking a crap.

todd, get yourself one of these too. awesome price for $13 at amazon. i paid $30 at graingers.

http://www.amazon.com/Key-Bak-Retrac...table+keychain

[FYYFF]

Originally Posted by tedder

Likely that the flash was on. Explains why the lighting doesn't match.

Fantastic ride. Jealous.

(edit) here's the EXIF info, which proves the flash was on.

$ exif /home/tedder/Desktop/IMGP2263-O.jpg 

EXIF tags in '/home/tedder/Desktop/IMGP2263-O.jpg' ('Intel' byte order):

--------------------+----------------------------------------------------------

Tag                 |Value

--------------------+----------------------------------------------------------

Manufacturer        |PENTAX

Model               |PENTAX Optio W90

Date and Time       |2012:09:05 00:57:16

Artist              |Picasa

Exposure Time       |1/1500 sec.

F-Number            |f/4.2

ISO Speed Ratings   |200

Maximum Aperture Val|3.60 EV (f/3.5)

Metering Mode       |Pattern

Flash               |Flash fired, compulsory flash mode

Focal Length        |5.0 mm

Thanks for the info Ted,

With point & shoot cameras it is hard to get good pictures if the object is in a shadow and background is sunny like this one. Flash makes it weird.

[FYYFF]

Originally Posted by bigtodd

great pix Ersin ... how come your camera battery last so much longer than mine? Will be ordering some extra batteries for mine this week, no more excuses for the camera taking a crap.

Thanks Todd,

I carry an extra and a charger this time. Rich has an adapter in his Jeep for 110V.
And yes, no more excuses for you anymore please.

[tedder]

Originally Posted by FYYFF

With point & shoot cameras it is hard to get good pictures if the object is in a shadow and background is sunny like this one. Flash makes it weird.

Oh definitely. And with an adventure ride you wouldn't carry a SLR. I was more curious what caused it, so I looked.

[NSFW]

only pic of the saturday night festivity; too busy cooking...



sunday morning temp inside the van; it was definitely colder outside @ 30F



sunday morning onto wmrs. yes, if you're driving 300 miles to mammoth, you gotta do wmrs.


chidalgo canyon



entering the canyon









there's more in this pic than the hole in the rock. see it?




short break at the petroglyphs





sign


















wmrs is in those mountains



between the first and second poles is silver canyon



tune in for more.

[1224R]

I love that trail.... I did that last year with Espi and Andreas on our 650's I was fresh off of 2 broken ribs about 2 months old.....I was so shit scared of falling off the bike........

Originally Posted by ziao858

Sunday is turn out to be the most challenging day for us. The plan is to access Lake Arrow Head from camp without asphalt. I have asked Joel the night before for the trail condition (3N34) and he told me that only small section of the trail with a “few” rocks… and get what we have to deal with the next day.

According to Joel. “ Its only a few rock”



Black Diamond rated trail 3N34


Entering to "The point of no return" zone.


Ed got stuck and here i come to help



Some more of the interesting moments

[NSFW]

Originally Posted by 1224R

I love that trail.... I did that last year with Espi and Andreas on our 650's I was fresh off of 2 broken ribs about 2 months old.....I was so shit scared of falling off the bike........

jim, you having the long legs comes handy (i mean leggy). couple of years, espi, andreas and others rode that too. espin was on the valdez and andreas on the xr650r. we took it slowly and of course i got some help from others.

crab flats is the shortest route from arrowhead to green valley. we on big bikes with luggages have to go around the long way.