Chemiker's 2010 Yosemite Trip

Some friends and I went on a Yosemite camping adventure this last weekend. We did our research and mapped it such that we hit one awesome motorcycle road after another (for the most part). Here is a map: Yosemite Adventure

Day 1

Lefty was with us for the first day, to point E on the map. Again, really fun riding with him, John is a great guy and a great rider.



Overlooking the bay area from Mount Hamilton. You can see the valley is covered in fog. The first several miles of our trip were wet and foggy, but then when we gained altitude, we found ourselves above it all, dry and warm, with great roads ahead of us.



Stopping to take a drink and get our bearings on HWY 130



Lefty's bike during a stop after The Little Dragon



Day 2

We stayed at my in-laws' cabin near point E on the map. This is us packing up for the next leg and camping in Yosemite.



The very first road we took, Ward's Ferry, was originally just a way to get from the cabin to our first planned road, but it turned out to be an unexpected gem! Very nice for a goat trail, all but deserted, fun, and amazing views. There is a bridge in the middle with this view.







Apparently the bridge is a party spot. I felt a bond with a fellow Suicidal Tendencies fan who had been here.



After some great roads, we ate lunch here at Cherry Lake, point G on the map

On to Yosemite. We made our way to Glacier Point, where you can see much of Yosemite Valley. It never ceases to impress me how enormous this place is.



Half Dome



Splurged on a tent cabin, so no, we weren't "really" camping...



Day 3 - cut short due to technical difficulties Our wives and kids drove up and stayed at the cabin this whole time. Van issues caused us to skip our planned Sunday jaunt and head back to take care of business.

Day 4

More great roads on the way home. Here are a couple of Mines Road. Didn't take many pictures of roads, but a large percentage of the roads we rode this trip looked like this. Just spectacular.

Here is a video montage I made. These roads were amazing! Curve after glorious curve!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsU3b7G1LYg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsU3b7G1LYg[/ame]

Nice pics! Glad you enjoyed the trip

Nice report, Travis. Looks like great weather and little traffic.

I'm curious, where did you find out about the route between points "F" and "H"? I will try to hit that up next year on our next adventure.

Nice photo album/video. I was tempted to get a desk fan to breeze my face while watching the video (well, not really, but...). No CHP shot?

Thanks for the ride report and pic/video Travis. :thumbup: As always, I had a great ride with you and your two friends. I was pretty bummed however that I had to head home after the Little Dragon and couldn't have shared the rest of the spectacular riding with you, Yves and Brent. Maybe next year we can get Cali rider, Wavex and some of the SoCal boys to come up to do a repeat of your ride. :rockon:

Great ride report. Looks like a blast! Thanks for sharing. :thumbup:

Lefty said:

Thanks for the ride report and pic/video Travis. :thumbup: As always, I had a great ride with you and your two friends. I was pretty bummed however that I had to head home after the Little Dragon and couldn't have shared the rest of the spectacular riding with you, Yves and Brent. Maybe next year we can get Cali rider, Wavex and some of the SoCal boys to come up to do a repeat of your ride. :rockon:

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Great idea for a ride! I'm ready....
Thanks Travis, for the ride report. My brother is hiking Half Dome today and I haven't visited Yosemite yet.

Great pictures and video!

Edit! Hey check out Lefty keeping up our Robot tradition in the first photo! Hahaha! :rockon:

love the panoramas :thumbup:

Looks like a great trip Travis, thanks for sharing the story and the photos.

Excellent trip report:thumbup:, just what I want to do after I retire

Jerry

Thanks for sharing the ride report! Great pictures.

Cali rider said:

I'm curious, where did you find out about the route between points "F" and "H"? I will try to hit that up next year on our next adventure.

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You should! I'll go with you - these are great roads. I found out about points F thru H on pashnit.com; it's an excellent forum on touring, with an interactive map and member-written articles. You have to be a member to read the articles and get the interactive map, but it's WELL worth the $20/year.

Tailgate said:

No CHP shot?

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Not this time. We were good boys :innocent:

Lefty said:

Thanks for the ride report and pic/video Travis. :thumbup: As always, I had a great ride with you and your two friends. I was pretty bummed however that I had to head home after the Little Dragon and couldn't have shared the rest of the spectacular riding with you, Yves and Brent. Maybe next year we can get Cali rider, Wavex and some of the SoCal boys to come up to do a repeat of your ride. :rockon:

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Thanks John! Since it was a family-based thing and we already had the campsite for 3 reserved, we kept it to our small group this time, but I would love to get a larger group together next year.

Thanks John! Since it was a family-based thing and we already had the campsite for 3 reserved, we kept it to our small group this time, but I would love to get a larger group together next year.[/QUOTE]

No worries dude, I actually had quite an enjoyable ride back on the way home. Even chatted it up about bikes with a LEO at the *bucks in Oakdale.

...No CHP pic 'cause we were good boys... :rof:

CHEMIKER said:

Since it was a family-based thing and we already had the campsite for 3 reserved, we kept it to our small group this time, but I would love to get a larger group together next year.

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Dude...I was getting all butt hurt because you didn't invite me. Sounds like a good trip. :thumbup: I was on a Mendocino NF / Lassen NF dual sport (knobby tire) ride from Thursday through Sunday. Great weather this time of year.

Lefty said:

No worries dude, I actually had quite an enjoyable ride back on the way home. Even chatted it up about bikes with a LEO at the *bucks in Oakdale.

...No CHP pic 'cause we were good boys... :rof:

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Glad you had a good time! Let's start planning the trip for next year.

Oh, did I say good??? I meant lucky :BLAA:

DefyInertia said:

Dude...I was getting all butt hurt because you didn't invite me. Sounds like a good trip. :thumbup: I was on a Mendocino NF / Lassen NF dual sport (knobby tire) ride from Thursday through Sunday. Great weather this time of year.

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Yeah, it was a good trip. Hope we can set something up for next year that involves more saddle time and real camping!

CHEMIKER said:

You should! I'll go with you - these are great roads. I found out about points F thru H on pashnit.com; it's an excellent forum on touring, with an interactive map and member-written articles. You have to be a member to read the articles and get the interactive map, but it's WELL worth the $20/year.

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Travis and John, I rode F to H in June (camped at Cherry Lake). It's moderately goaty...which I love...but maybe not be everyone's favorite. Rear brake is your friend on a road like this. How did you find the conditions, Travis? Did you notice that some of the sealer they had recently put down was much more slippery than normal sealer?

On another note, I think I found my new favorite road on Sunday. I think its better than 36 and 3 by just a hair. It was raining at times, I was on a loaded dual sport, and I was running full knobby tires so I'll need to get back there ASAP on the FZ6. The road is south of Lassen and runs for about 70 miles.

On yet another note, I'm heading to Yosemite this weekend to spend sometime there for the first time. My wife has never been there and I've only ridden through quickly one time. We'll be hiking half dome. This thread has me excited to go.

Freaking beautiful! Looks like a great time! Thanks for sharing.