Demoni
Well-known member
Preface
To get the hell out of Dodge. I have been camping with my family since I was 2yo and boy scouts for a few years. I realized that I had never been solo camping even though I am a bit of a loner. I decided my motorcycle would be the perfect instrument to make this trip a reality. Having successfully done a 700 mile 4 day camping trip with 4 friends a few months prior I was confident that with a little planning I could make the trip a success.
But where to go? I was trying to think of places that were reasonable close. Looking on Google maps one day I said "hey I have never been to the grand canyon". After talking that over with a few people I decided that the Grand Canyon was a bit to touristy for my taste. Everyone mentioned both Zion NP and Bryce Canyon NP as alternatives. Doing a little research both places looked promising. The next task was to get my route setup. The original route would have taken me up through Lake Tahoe and then across Nevada to Great basin NP. Then I would shoot down into Utah to hit Bryce and Zion. Then it was homeward bound with a night in Death Valley NP and possibly swinging up through Yosemite for a night. The total distance of the route was 1700 miles.
I set about getting all the required gear for my trip. I had just purchased a new sleeping bag prior to my last camping trip. I still needed a tent , pad, stove and a lot of other small assorted camping gear. I picked up an Alps Extreme 2 person tent and it performed very well through out the whole trip. The issue I was facing was the limited amount of space I had to work with (50L saddle bags, my tank bag and a dry sack that would be mounted to my passenger seat). I wanted to be as reliant on the supplies I brought with me as possible. This meant I needed to pack 6 breakfasts snack food for lunch and 6 dinners (even though I was going to be gone for 9 nights). I figured that that was about all the food I could carry and I could pick up more supplies when my saddle bags started to look a little thin. I decided on both freeze dried camping food and military MRE's for my dinners. I picked up 4 MRE's on eBay and opened one up the night I received them.
Who ever figured those things out is a king in my book. It had a entree (cheese raviolis in meat sauce) the heater for the entree, a slice of wheat break and some cheese spread, a bag of shoe string potatoes a brownie for desert and a package of grape drink mix. Nothing spectacular but it tasted alright and would serve me well in the wilderness.
The weather for the week prior to my trip was perfect. Then everything went to shit, it started snowing in Tahoe, the Tioga pass through Yosemite closed and it looking like it was going to rain along the coast Friday night.
I spent the remainder of the week prior to my trip planning and re-planning the trip around the ever changing weather predictions. As Thursday approached I had about 5 different scenarios that would hopefully keep me dry. The final route was From SF to Death Valley (500 miles) the first night, camp there 1 more night then head to Zion NP. I would be there one more night and then I would head over to Bryce, after another night I would turn around and head home. Not exactly the loop I was originally planning, but it kept me out of the higher elevations and should keep me dry. My one worry was the first leg of my trip; 500 miles in one daywas more that I has ever pushed in one day. I had done a test the month before where I drove to Yosemite and back (400 miles exactly) to make sure I could do that many miles if need be. The thing that had my worried was after those 400 miles I was exhausted and figured after 500 miles I would be useless.
Throwing caution to the wind I set off Saturday morning around 10am. I would head across the bay bridge till I hit I-5 then take that all the way down through Bakersfield. My bags were packed the night before with very little space left for anything else. Everything was strapped down to the bike nice and tight. Being a Saturday I was worried what kind of traffic I would run into, the answer was none. I stopped for lunch somewhere along the I-5 and headed back out with my next stop being Bakersfield. I quickly realized that having to stop for gas every 125 miles was going to really slow me down. I worked on trying to make the stops as quick as possible per some advice I read on the Iron Butt Association's web page. This really helped my moving average speed and allowed me to pack in the miles. I did stop once to take a few pictures, I think my butt was telling me it was time to walk around a bit. I had brought as much photography gear with me as possible all of it jammed into my tank bag and my tripod onto my dry bag attached to my seat.
Photo gear:
Nikon D70
Gitzo carbon tripod
RRS BH-55 ball head
Tokina 12-24 f/4
Tokina 28-80 f/2.8
Nikon 70-300 f/4
Circular polarizing filter
Extra battery & memory card
It is really a pain in the ass to pull my Nikon body out of my bag grab a lens and put it all together just to take a snapshot. For my next trip I will be buying a 5mp point and shoot camera in addition to my photo gear. That way I would always have a camera close at hand. Due to this I have minimal side of the road photos to share and next to no photos from the days I put in 400+ miles.
I finally reached Bakersfield and headed towards Death Valley via HW178. There was a sign at the beginning of the road stating "Over 200 dead since 1968 drive carefully". Well shit, talk about your friendly advertisements, I wonder how many of those deaths have been recently, after only 3 miles I had seen 2 crosses decorated by flowers. The road was well paved and situated 20 feet above a quickly moving river. On either side the walls of the canyon jutted up 2-3k feet at steep angles. The canyon was also a boulder garden. Rocks of every size from VW bugs to 2 story houses, impressive to say the least. Scenery and Signage aside these were the first twisties I had seen in over 300 miles. There was no way I was not going to have a little fun. After about 8 miles the road opened up and continued on as a divided 2 lane highway through the hills.
When I hit the 395 the world flattened out the road straightened out and everything got warmer. I was back at sea level and in the desert. During my next stop for gas a guy on a GSXR pulled up to another pump. Neil was also in the middle of a 500 mile trip on his 99 Suzuki. We spend a few moments swapping stories for went our separate ways. Neil has just come from Death Valley and mentioned a few speed traps he encountered along the way, Thanks Neil.
I finally saw a sign stating that Death Valley was close (25 miles out). I was again greeted by twisties. This time with the road cut into the rock wall with a sizable drop off to one side. With the sun setting in my mirrors I took the time to enjoyed the view. The sun was getting low as the elevation also fell. As I descended the road changed from twisties to straight but with dips. Hello roller coaster, I twisted the throttle and held on for the ride. There were a few places where it felt like my suspension was fully expanded and grasping for tarmac, what fun!
I pulled into Stovepipe Wells at around 6pm just as the clouds were picking up the red from the setting sun. The rangers station was closed and it turns out the camp ground did not open till Monday the 15th (it was Saturday the 13th). The next camp ground was 30 miles out and the sun was setting fast. I wanted no part of setting up camp in the dark. I decided to see if there was room available in the Lodge at Stovepipe. Turns out there was, 1 room left and it was 70 a night. What the hell I deserve to sleep in a bed after that many miles. I grabbed I quick dinner and headed over to the Saloon for a beer. I heard a pair of Harleys pull up and not long after two men in leathers came in followed by two women in matching attire. I sparked up a conversation with them. Turns out there were looking for a place to stay and the lodge was out of rooms. After a beer they all headed out to find a place to crash. I went back to my room and set my alarm for 5:45, I wanted to get up to make the 3 mile drive to the sand dunes for sunrise.
I woke up early and had a quick cup of coffee loaded my photo gear into my messenger bag. Throwing a leg over my Ducati I thumbed the starter and put an end to the calm quiet of the desert, I pulled out to wait for the sun.
I got back to the lodge around 8:30 and decided to check out the breakfast buffet, nothing special there. Loading up my gear in the heat of the sun took a lot out of me, but I got it finished. I set off for my first camp ground 30 miles up the road. Before leaving wail I was filling up my gas tank at stovepipe 2 BMW motorcycle pulled up. They parked across the road from where I was and took a few photos. They were mounting up just as I was getting my gloves on. We rode together for the first few miles before they pulled off on a side road. I made a decision to follow them to see where they were going. I quickly decided that I needed to instead get my butt to where I was planned to set up camp. I pulled a U turn and headed on my way alone.
To get the hell out of Dodge. I have been camping with my family since I was 2yo and boy scouts for a few years. I realized that I had never been solo camping even though I am a bit of a loner. I decided my motorcycle would be the perfect instrument to make this trip a reality. Having successfully done a 700 mile 4 day camping trip with 4 friends a few months prior I was confident that with a little planning I could make the trip a success.
But where to go? I was trying to think of places that were reasonable close. Looking on Google maps one day I said "hey I have never been to the grand canyon". After talking that over with a few people I decided that the Grand Canyon was a bit to touristy for my taste. Everyone mentioned both Zion NP and Bryce Canyon NP as alternatives. Doing a little research both places looked promising. The next task was to get my route setup. The original route would have taken me up through Lake Tahoe and then across Nevada to Great basin NP. Then I would shoot down into Utah to hit Bryce and Zion. Then it was homeward bound with a night in Death Valley NP and possibly swinging up through Yosemite for a night. The total distance of the route was 1700 miles.
I set about getting all the required gear for my trip. I had just purchased a new sleeping bag prior to my last camping trip. I still needed a tent , pad, stove and a lot of other small assorted camping gear. I picked up an Alps Extreme 2 person tent and it performed very well through out the whole trip. The issue I was facing was the limited amount of space I had to work with (50L saddle bags, my tank bag and a dry sack that would be mounted to my passenger seat). I wanted to be as reliant on the supplies I brought with me as possible. This meant I needed to pack 6 breakfasts snack food for lunch and 6 dinners (even though I was going to be gone for 9 nights). I figured that that was about all the food I could carry and I could pick up more supplies when my saddle bags started to look a little thin. I decided on both freeze dried camping food and military MRE's for my dinners. I picked up 4 MRE's on eBay and opened one up the night I received them.
Who ever figured those things out is a king in my book. It had a entree (cheese raviolis in meat sauce) the heater for the entree, a slice of wheat break and some cheese spread, a bag of shoe string potatoes a brownie for desert and a package of grape drink mix. Nothing spectacular but it tasted alright and would serve me well in the wilderness.
The weather for the week prior to my trip was perfect. Then everything went to shit, it started snowing in Tahoe, the Tioga pass through Yosemite closed and it looking like it was going to rain along the coast Friday night.
I spent the remainder of the week prior to my trip planning and re-planning the trip around the ever changing weather predictions. As Thursday approached I had about 5 different scenarios that would hopefully keep me dry. The final route was From SF to Death Valley (500 miles) the first night, camp there 1 more night then head to Zion NP. I would be there one more night and then I would head over to Bryce, after another night I would turn around and head home. Not exactly the loop I was originally planning, but it kept me out of the higher elevations and should keep me dry. My one worry was the first leg of my trip; 500 miles in one daywas more that I has ever pushed in one day. I had done a test the month before where I drove to Yosemite and back (400 miles exactly) to make sure I could do that many miles if need be. The thing that had my worried was after those 400 miles I was exhausted and figured after 500 miles I would be useless.
Throwing caution to the wind I set off Saturday morning around 10am. I would head across the bay bridge till I hit I-5 then take that all the way down through Bakersfield. My bags were packed the night before with very little space left for anything else. Everything was strapped down to the bike nice and tight. Being a Saturday I was worried what kind of traffic I would run into, the answer was none. I stopped for lunch somewhere along the I-5 and headed back out with my next stop being Bakersfield. I quickly realized that having to stop for gas every 125 miles was going to really slow me down. I worked on trying to make the stops as quick as possible per some advice I read on the Iron Butt Association's web page. This really helped my moving average speed and allowed me to pack in the miles. I did stop once to take a few pictures, I think my butt was telling me it was time to walk around a bit. I had brought as much photography gear with me as possible all of it jammed into my tank bag and my tripod onto my dry bag attached to my seat.
Photo gear:
Nikon D70
Gitzo carbon tripod
RRS BH-55 ball head
Tokina 12-24 f/4
Tokina 28-80 f/2.8
Nikon 70-300 f/4
Circular polarizing filter
Extra battery & memory card
It is really a pain in the ass to pull my Nikon body out of my bag grab a lens and put it all together just to take a snapshot. For my next trip I will be buying a 5mp point and shoot camera in addition to my photo gear. That way I would always have a camera close at hand. Due to this I have minimal side of the road photos to share and next to no photos from the days I put in 400+ miles.
I finally reached Bakersfield and headed towards Death Valley via HW178. There was a sign at the beginning of the road stating "Over 200 dead since 1968 drive carefully". Well shit, talk about your friendly advertisements, I wonder how many of those deaths have been recently, after only 3 miles I had seen 2 crosses decorated by flowers. The road was well paved and situated 20 feet above a quickly moving river. On either side the walls of the canyon jutted up 2-3k feet at steep angles. The canyon was also a boulder garden. Rocks of every size from VW bugs to 2 story houses, impressive to say the least. Scenery and Signage aside these were the first twisties I had seen in over 300 miles. There was no way I was not going to have a little fun. After about 8 miles the road opened up and continued on as a divided 2 lane highway through the hills.
When I hit the 395 the world flattened out the road straightened out and everything got warmer. I was back at sea level and in the desert. During my next stop for gas a guy on a GSXR pulled up to another pump. Neil was also in the middle of a 500 mile trip on his 99 Suzuki. We spend a few moments swapping stories for went our separate ways. Neil has just come from Death Valley and mentioned a few speed traps he encountered along the way, Thanks Neil.
I finally saw a sign stating that Death Valley was close (25 miles out). I was again greeted by twisties. This time with the road cut into the rock wall with a sizable drop off to one side. With the sun setting in my mirrors I took the time to enjoyed the view. The sun was getting low as the elevation also fell. As I descended the road changed from twisties to straight but with dips. Hello roller coaster, I twisted the throttle and held on for the ride. There were a few places where it felt like my suspension was fully expanded and grasping for tarmac, what fun!
I pulled into Stovepipe Wells at around 6pm just as the clouds were picking up the red from the setting sun. The rangers station was closed and it turns out the camp ground did not open till Monday the 15th (it was Saturday the 13th). The next camp ground was 30 miles out and the sun was setting fast. I wanted no part of setting up camp in the dark. I decided to see if there was room available in the Lodge at Stovepipe. Turns out there was, 1 room left and it was 70 a night. What the hell I deserve to sleep in a bed after that many miles. I grabbed I quick dinner and headed over to the Saloon for a beer. I heard a pair of Harleys pull up and not long after two men in leathers came in followed by two women in matching attire. I sparked up a conversation with them. Turns out there were looking for a place to stay and the lodge was out of rooms. After a beer they all headed out to find a place to crash. I went back to my room and set my alarm for 5:45, I wanted to get up to make the 3 mile drive to the sand dunes for sunrise.
I woke up early and had a quick cup of coffee loaded my photo gear into my messenger bag. Throwing a leg over my Ducati I thumbed the starter and put an end to the calm quiet of the desert, I pulled out to wait for the sun.
I got back to the lodge around 8:30 and decided to check out the breakfast buffet, nothing special there. Loading up my gear in the heat of the sun took a lot out of me, but I got it finished. I set off for my first camp ground 30 miles up the road. Before leaving wail I was filling up my gas tank at stovepipe 2 BMW motorcycle pulled up. They parked across the road from where I was and took a few photos. They were mounting up just as I was getting my gloves on. We rode together for the first few miles before they pulled off on a side road. I made a decision to follow them to see where they were going. I quickly decided that I needed to instead get my butt to where I was planned to set up camp. I pulled a U turn and headed on my way alone.