GSequoia
Active Member
Let me start out by saying that I know this isn't really a day trip but it sure as hell isn't an epic. Now without any further prepare to be bored by my many words and pictures!
I've been meaning to post this ride report since July. I keep almost doing it then get busy at work and blow it off. Now is the time.
So rewind to this past summer. Now I'm your typical boring guy with a full time job, a wife, and two kids. Subsequently I hardly ever get a chance to ride my motorcycle to places that aren't work and home, pretty much the only guaranteed time I can do that is the annual Death Valley Noobs Rally. But this year something magical happened. I had a week to myself. Mid-July, both kids in a week-long residence camp, wife in the middle of hectic budget season at work with no chance to get out. Hell yes I'm dating my motorcycle that week!
I learned about this week back in February. Start making soft plans. Maybe end up with a buddy or two and ride up to taste the Oregon BDR. Nah that's a lot of commitment when I'm only clear Sunday through Friday. Same buddy and explore the Sierras? Yeah that might work. We deiced to roll with that idea over some beers around a campfire in Death Valley in March.
Noobs Rally is over (bummer), time to go back to work (more bummer). Get busy with work. Time flies on. Coming up on the time to start coordinating this trip. Oh crap what's going on with the construction project in DC? Next phase where I have to be there is coming in mid-July. Fack. Oh BTW here's NYC ready to screw you, too. It starts looking pretty damn certain that I'd have to burn this trip due to work travel. Summer is a tough time, my wife is in the middle of her budgets and can't have me traveling since she works late every night. This is the only week of freedom inside of eight weeks and now I'm going to have to burn that for work. Man they're going to pay for this.
Two weeks out from that magical week I close up any risk of NYC getting in the way. I push them to late July after Holly's first round of budgets. Now I just have DC hanging over my head but boy is it still looking like it's going to screw me. The Sierra trip with David is dead but I start planning a solo alternate trip. See there's this awesome campsite I stayed one night at back in 1995 or so in Arizona. I want to go find it. I decide a week in the Arizona mountains bouncing around the Mogollon Rim will suffice. I start gathering up needed supplies at the last minute but I'm not really optimistic about this since it look like about a 10% chance of happening so I don't really commit.
Thursday before the freedom week. Holly mentions that she's got a couple clear days the week after my magical week. That means I can travel then but DC is still coming up next week so I remain screwed.
Friday about 10am. 26 hours before my would-be freedom starts. I get word that DC has slipped. The lobby won't be ready for me to connect equipment until the following week. It fits exactly into the timeline of Holly's work gap. Holy shit I'm back in the game! Book flights, book hotels for DC.
Gleefully finish the day not really paying attention to work. Think about this trip that I haven't in any way prepared for. How soon can I hit the road? How much do I have to do? Find some target areas and set routes. Crap I never did order the tank bag for my camera, Amazon to the rescue with overnight delivery.
Saturday morning drop kids off at the camp bus. Go home and start tearing into shit. I'm really, really unprepared. No planning for food, gotta go on a supply run, no real thought to gear. It takes time to convert the tank bag into a camera bag, take care of some maintenance tasks, buy farkles and put them on. Saturday leads into Sunday with me working like mad but making it a point to sleep a full eight hours. I have a lot of riding to do at some point, after all.
Finally about 7:00 pm Sunday I'm taking a break from packing and sitting at my desk. I've just got this kinda bad feeling. Mostly caused by realizing where the rim was and that I'd have to ride to and through Phoenix to get to it. In July. I had thought I could take a different route in but it's not going to work out. Lots of distance to do in a night with little planning. Where am I going to sleep once I get out of the low lands in Arizona? Hmmm...
I start to think about this camping trip in the Sequoia National Forest with family coming up in September. Return to a site we haven't been to in ten years next to a lovely creek. I really should take a look at that site to make sure my sister-in-law's car can make it up the road (backcountry dispersed site near the Kern River). Why not do it now? Maybe swing through on the way back from Arizona. Look at route options to do a night run across the desert and run up and over the Southern Sierra range via Sherman Pass. Lots of miles not much time, though. What if I just went there instead?
Yup. Last minute complete change of location. Out come the Arizona maps from my crash bar pannier, in go Sequoia NF and other forests in the same area since I'm running this trip fast and loose. Lose two hours to downloading imagery for the entire region to GaiaGPS. I've got Sunday through Friday to play with and I only know where I"m going to been night. No worries, I got this.
At about 10PM I put on my monkey suit and climb onboard the SuperPig. I've got I don't know how many pounds of gear in the luggage and strapped to the bike, a full tank of gas, an empty bladder, and tunes on my phone coming through my Sena. Let's get this trip that was going.
I've been meaning to post this ride report since July. I keep almost doing it then get busy at work and blow it off. Now is the time.
So rewind to this past summer. Now I'm your typical boring guy with a full time job, a wife, and two kids. Subsequently I hardly ever get a chance to ride my motorcycle to places that aren't work and home, pretty much the only guaranteed time I can do that is the annual Death Valley Noobs Rally. But this year something magical happened. I had a week to myself. Mid-July, both kids in a week-long residence camp, wife in the middle of hectic budget season at work with no chance to get out. Hell yes I'm dating my motorcycle that week!
I learned about this week back in February. Start making soft plans. Maybe end up with a buddy or two and ride up to taste the Oregon BDR. Nah that's a lot of commitment when I'm only clear Sunday through Friday. Same buddy and explore the Sierras? Yeah that might work. We deiced to roll with that idea over some beers around a campfire in Death Valley in March.
Noobs Rally is over (bummer), time to go back to work (more bummer). Get busy with work. Time flies on. Coming up on the time to start coordinating this trip. Oh crap what's going on with the construction project in DC? Next phase where I have to be there is coming in mid-July. Fack. Oh BTW here's NYC ready to screw you, too. It starts looking pretty damn certain that I'd have to burn this trip due to work travel. Summer is a tough time, my wife is in the middle of her budgets and can't have me traveling since she works late every night. This is the only week of freedom inside of eight weeks and now I'm going to have to burn that for work. Man they're going to pay for this.
Two weeks out from that magical week I close up any risk of NYC getting in the way. I push them to late July after Holly's first round of budgets. Now I just have DC hanging over my head but boy is it still looking like it's going to screw me. The Sierra trip with David is dead but I start planning a solo alternate trip. See there's this awesome campsite I stayed one night at back in 1995 or so in Arizona. I want to go find it. I decide a week in the Arizona mountains bouncing around the Mogollon Rim will suffice. I start gathering up needed supplies at the last minute but I'm not really optimistic about this since it look like about a 10% chance of happening so I don't really commit.
Thursday before the freedom week. Holly mentions that she's got a couple clear days the week after my magical week. That means I can travel then but DC is still coming up next week so I remain screwed.
Friday about 10am. 26 hours before my would-be freedom starts. I get word that DC has slipped. The lobby won't be ready for me to connect equipment until the following week. It fits exactly into the timeline of Holly's work gap. Holy shit I'm back in the game! Book flights, book hotels for DC.
Gleefully finish the day not really paying attention to work. Think about this trip that I haven't in any way prepared for. How soon can I hit the road? How much do I have to do? Find some target areas and set routes. Crap I never did order the tank bag for my camera, Amazon to the rescue with overnight delivery.
Saturday morning drop kids off at the camp bus. Go home and start tearing into shit. I'm really, really unprepared. No planning for food, gotta go on a supply run, no real thought to gear. It takes time to convert the tank bag into a camera bag, take care of some maintenance tasks, buy farkles and put them on. Saturday leads into Sunday with me working like mad but making it a point to sleep a full eight hours. I have a lot of riding to do at some point, after all.
Finally about 7:00 pm Sunday I'm taking a break from packing and sitting at my desk. I've just got this kinda bad feeling. Mostly caused by realizing where the rim was and that I'd have to ride to and through Phoenix to get to it. In July. I had thought I could take a different route in but it's not going to work out. Lots of distance to do in a night with little planning. Where am I going to sleep once I get out of the low lands in Arizona? Hmmm...
I start to think about this camping trip in the Sequoia National Forest with family coming up in September. Return to a site we haven't been to in ten years next to a lovely creek. I really should take a look at that site to make sure my sister-in-law's car can make it up the road (backcountry dispersed site near the Kern River). Why not do it now? Maybe swing through on the way back from Arizona. Look at route options to do a night run across the desert and run up and over the Southern Sierra range via Sherman Pass. Lots of miles not much time, though. What if I just went there instead?
Yup. Last minute complete change of location. Out come the Arizona maps from my crash bar pannier, in go Sequoia NF and other forests in the same area since I'm running this trip fast and loose. Lose two hours to downloading imagery for the entire region to GaiaGPS. I've got Sunday through Friday to play with and I only know where I"m going to been night. No worries, I got this.
At about 10PM I put on my monkey suit and climb onboard the SuperPig. I've got I don't know how many pounds of gear in the luggage and strapped to the bike, a full tank of gas, an empty bladder, and tunes on my phone coming through my Sena. Let's get this trip that was going.
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