2010 July 5th:
Mark:
This morning we got off to a bumpy start. The hotel manager couldn’t find the camera bag and the lady doing the cleaning didn’t work the previous day, so she didn’t know what was going on at all. The bottom line was that we don’t have the extra battery anymore for the video camera and we lost one of the media cards. It isn’t tragic, just not what we wanted.
We packed up and got on the road only to encounter several bad drivers. One lady in particular almost ran someone off the road right in front of us. When I went around her she was texting on her phone.
We were on our way to Yosemite and I think that we made a mistake going up there on a holiday. There were literally thousands of people and every site to stop was so packed that there wasn’t enough parking. We stopped at one place to check out the falls and there was a line of at least 40 people to use the single restroom. We had to park in a “No Parking” zone, being on bikes we can get away with that. People were completely disregarding all of the warnings about climbing on the rock around the falls. Niko and I just kept telling ourselves that it is just “Attrition”.
We weren’t exactly having a very enjoyable time so we just stayed on the bikes and rode on through the park. We only stopped occasionally for a picture. The roads were all under construction so traffic was even slower than normal with lots of gravel section to navigate.
Once we were out of the park, we stopped for fuel and paid the most I have even seen for gas at $3.99 per gallon. Thank goodness the bikes don’t hold much. We continued on and came to a turn off and stopped for a snack and to check the map. Some other bikers came by and told us that this road was great and that we should check it out. That was all that I needed.
The road was indeed wonderful and went down to a single lane. There wasn’t any traffic and the views were excellent. We were in the high Sierra Nevada Mountains. We came to another crossroad and we took the turn away from the flow and the road got really tight and twisted. The GPS told me that the next turn was 75 miles and since it was getting late, I told Niko that we should just find a place to camp.
We road another 15 miles or so and right at the sign telling us that we were at 8000 ft elevation, there was a dirt track that headed to a clearing. We decided to ride down and found this wonderful place to just unload and camp. Rogue camping isn’t always the best way, but this was great. We were right next to a creek and far enough from the road that we could barely hear the occasional car. Once we stopped, I seriously doubt that more than 10 cars went by the rest of the night. There was a great fireplace already put together and there was wood all over.
We got to use my new water filter and check out how well that worked. We heated up the filtered water and boiled it for a few minutes and then used it for the freeze dried meal that we had with us. We had plenty to eat and when the sun went down the sky was the real benefit.
We were able to see more stars than I had seen ever before. The sky was black but there were so many stars it lit up the area so we could still see to walk around. Niko and I were up really late taking pictures with the camera until the battery died. Timed exposures really tax the battery. We went to bed after that happened.
The day started out a little crappy, but we were really enjoying things by the end of it. It is amazing how that happens sometimes. It is really late so Good Night.

Niko:
Our day started poorly with the hotel manager doing the absolute bare minimum to help us, and the maid who might have seen our camera case wasn’t working today. Needless to say, we are short one battery, and one media card.
When we got on the road to try and move on, we were greeted with idiotic drivers who paid little attention to the road and more attention to phones glued to their hands. I can only hope they don’t take out someone else when they kill themselves by it.
When we finally got to Yosemite National park, it was full to the brim with hundreds of cars. When we stopped for a bathroom break, the single service restroom had a line 100 yards long, so we decided against that idea. When walking along the path, hundreds of people had walked off, over the fence, and into the stream. And everywhere along the path were signs reading “Do not enter stream! Extremely strong current and slick rocks. Potentially fatal area.”
Whatever. They’ll hurt or kill themselves and the family will play dumb. But, just desserts are coming for them.
We hurried out of Yosemite to get rid of the crowd and keep from sleeping behind a slow vehicle. While interesting scenery was abound, we didn’t stop much, to reduce chances of slow cars getting in our way.
After getting out, a sharp decline in elevation from 10,000 feet to 2,700 feet brought a warm wall of air. We stopped for gas in Lee Vining and saw a Yamaha V-Max. We rode for several miles in the direction of Carson City on a straight, hot road.
The GPS took us on a pointless diversion that led back to the road we were on, and then shortly after, we stopped at a corner for a snack. We actually took the offshoot road we stopped on and wound up some good twists.
After several miles, dad said we should camp, and a few minutes later we found a great site off the road about 200 feet, near a sign that said “ELV 8,000 FT”.
We saw the greatest night sky of my life and could faintly see the Milky Way dust belt. The big dipper was sharply contrasted from the rest of the stars and they alone produced enough light to see by.
We had a fire prepared and built up to keep us warm for the drop in temperature as soon as the sun went down. When the fire died down to coals, we could see quite well. We brushed our teeth and spat far from our site to keep bear attraction down, then settled in for the night. It’s late now, and I bid thee goodnight.