Well I'm :angry: . I made a rookie mistake. I uploaded my FLIP camera to my computer and (I thought) backed up the original videos of the canyon runs and my run the next day at dawn from Squaw Valley to Sequoia National Park. Somehow I got distracted and later went back to the editing... short version is I lost all that video. But it gives me a reason to come back some day.
After my run through 20 and rte. 49 (including Angel's Camp and Sonora) as well as 41, I ended my day in Squaw Valley. I was a tired puppy. My stamina after the surgery is getting better, but I couldn't manage more than 400 miles a day and dark was coming on. In the canyons there was a group of about 40 sport bikes making runs up the tight twisties. Not knowing it was a group, the first one I came upon, I followed close for 10-12 turns, then started to run wide, ran onto the gravel shoulder that was about 3 feet wide -- above a very deep drop -- and almost shat my LD shorts!
Due to luck, ABS brakes and maybe a tiny bit of skill I stayed upright and pulled over as soon as I could with arm pump, humility and a quick assessment that the FJR is a 650+ pound pig with 75 or more pounds of gear on her and a fat rider. Not exactly smart to stay with a Gixxer -- certainly not with an average rider in the FJR saddle on a strange (to me) road. After that I slowed down and pulled aside for all the fast guys that overtook me. But what a great experience!
The next morning I was on the road with my headlight showing on the tarmac at a few minutes after daybreak. I was at a little under 3000 feet on Rte. 180 which leads to the entrance of Sequoia National Park. The weather was scheduled to turn cold, wet and nasty in the next 18 hours, with snow above 4000 feet expected along the Sierra Nevada. Instead of my original plan to find a pass such as 178, I decided to play it safe, have some fun running up to the park entrance, then backtrack and take 245 down to lower elevations and head South and East on 65 to 58 and 15.
I have 30 minutes of video on Rte. 245 that I boiled down into a montage . Elevation on 180 went from under 3000 feet at my starting point in Squaw Valley to 6000+ feet when I got above the snow line and signs in snow drifts taller than me warning of snow and ice. I made the run on 180 in a tad over 14 minutes. When I backtracked to 245, the snow was still on the side of the road, with wet (? black ice), and piles of visible sand drifting on the twisting blacktop. Needless to say, the steepest sections were taken gingerly. Here is a short video clip/montage of the 1 hour of hairpins; near the bottom it straightens out. At the bottom of 245 I shot some stills and listened to the pinging of the engine and smelt my brake pads. The brakes started squealing in protest a little after these two days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGh9SEppQpk
After Rte. 245 straightened, I stopped to take a shot or two of the still rising sun, and the road tamed:
