The theme for this trip may possibly be nothing is going to go as planned — or more appropriately “as hoped”. But there have also been unexpected surprises.
I didn’t know when I made plans to go, but the the Treasures of Yosemite rally was a first time event. It was extremely well planned and everything seemed to click along flawlessly. The highlight was having David Hough, who wrote Proficient Motorcycling and other books, sit next to me at the banquet Saturday night. It was a lot of fun having an extended opportunity to talk to him. His seminars at the rally were also very good.
It must have been very well publicized the falls were running a full capacity since the day we rode into the park to see them it appeared half the population of California had come up with the same idea. It ended up being about a 25 minute wait in line just to get into the park — and the rangers were really making an effort to get people through since they didn’t even want to see my annual pass and asked me to go on through.
There were long lines to get into the parking area for Bridal Veil Falls but we were able to find a small enough space for the three motorcycles. Bridal Veil was running so good I didn’t go up to the main viewing area for fear of ruining my DSLR camera — people were coming down completely drenched. Oddly, Yosemite Falls was running so lightly we decided to not fight traffic to try to see it. I definitely would like to get back to the park when there is a nice compromise between falls flow and crowd flow. I think I am spoiled by all the parks I visited last summer where there were no crowds.
I left Tenaya Lodge around 10:30 on Sunday thinking I had a nice little six hour ride to Fallon, NV. The road north was great at first with up and down sweepers but progressed to switch backs that kicked my butt since I was scared being in terrain like that alone and ended with congested traffic so it all took much longer than planned.
The road over the Sierras was also a little daunting to do alone. There were areas of pavement that were so bad I wasn’t sure where to ride and warnings of “Avalanche Area — absolutely no stopping” — and unfortunately these two events coincided. I did like that the road had regular turnouts and passing areas and the view from the top was spectacular at around 7800 feet.
Once I was into Nevada I picked up US50 “American’s Loneliest Highway” and headed to Fallon, NV for the night. I had read the Overland Hotel was a quaint old time place to stay. Probably not my most intelligent lodging choice of the trip and quaint would not be the descriptive word of my choice. The hotel is over a saloon so it was noisy until very late. Then neighbors who were up and very noisy at 4:00 AM. About all I can say for the Overland is that it was economical.
So I started the day out really tired and made an early start to try to get some miles in before the forecasted high winds kick in. Maybe “windy” should be the theme for this trip…
Leave a Reply