Back to the Birds

I have neglected my bird photography for awhile.  I will try to make up for it and get more feathered friend pictures.  Starting today!

I took a trip this summer and saw a bunch of birds.  Most of them are probably common birds, but since I don't even have an official list, they are all basically new to me.  Even if they are common, it is still fun to practice my identification skills and then read more about them in my bird book.  Of course, I would have a much harder time identifying birds without the help of web sites like WhatBird.com with their interactive wizard that narrows down the list of possible birds to a manageable number. 

Take this guy for instance.  I spotted him when I was walking around Mono Lake in CA.  WhatBird helped me to narrow down the list which leads me to think he is a Violet-green Swallow.  Let me know if you think that is a correct ID or not.  If you would like, I would be happy to provide more details on location and environment to help confirm this id. 

Day 7 - Sweet (hot) home, Arizona

I got a pretty good nights sleep after a nice swim and shower. Woke up a few times, but I think a big part of that was just my body getting used to a very soft bed instead of the hard ground.

I had a nice breakfast at the hotel before packing up the motorcycle and hitting the road. It was already over 90* F so I knew I was in for a hot ride. Sure enough, the heat didn't let up until I was safely in my house with the air conditioner blowing on. One sign I saw coming through Phoenix said it was 115 *F. That is hot even when you are in a car with A/C. On a motorcycle, it is brutal. I stopped every 20-30 minutes for a drink of water and to pour some water down my shirt to cool myself off.

I took a slightly different route which added about another hour or so, bypassing Hoover Dam and it's frequent traffic jams. It was a nice road other than a bit rough in some spots and it was nice to keep one of my Dad's Travel Rules:

Thou shalt not travel the same way more than once until all other practical alternate routes have been taken.

Other than the heat, I only had one other experience that was a bit scary. I have a tank bag that uses magnets to stay in place. I have had it for over 6 years and I have never had it even shift while riding, even when zipped open to it's bigger size and packed full. I was North of Wickenburg when I came around a curve and got hit by a gust of wind that knocked my tank bag loose. Fortunately, it stayed put in-between my arms and the magnets reattached. Very fortunate, since my camera and netbook were in that bag.

When I got the bike unloaded, I realized how much stuff I had managed to fit on such a small bike and was pretty impressed. Just a phone-cam shot, but you should be able to see how much stuff I crammed in 2 saddlebags, a tank bag and strapped to my passenger seat.



Well, that wraps up my week of adventure. I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures.

I am sure that some of you are asking, "So, are you going to do it again?" to which I say "YES!" Maybe not camping. Maybe not go through Death Valley in July. Maybe shorter distances with more picture stops (as if that is even possible). Maybe longer distances to explore new parts of the country. But definitely, another epic motorcycle trip is going to happen.

Day 6 - Dehydration ?

So I decided to hit the road again today. I could have stayed for another day and made it home in 2 days, but I decided to take a different way home and make it a 3 day trip. I broke camp and packed the motorcycle and headed out at about 7 am.

It was a great morning, a bit chilly, but it felt great to be on the road just rolling through the hills. Nothing really jumped out at me from a picture perspective. Lots of great views, just nothing I thought would look great hanging on a wall in 16x20.

I missed a turn and ended up looking for a city that would not be coming where I was planning on getting gas. Not a big deal until you realize that with a less than 3 gallon tank, my motorcycle only has a best-case cruising limit of 140-150 miles. Looking for a town that didn't exist on the road I was on meant I didn't stop for gas when I should have and I ran out of gas in the middle of the Nevada desert right about high-noon.

Fortunately, I had renewed my AAA membership before starting this trip. Even better, I did have cell phone coverage in the particular middle-of-nowhere I found myself. The bad news is that it took over 2 hours for the gas delivery guy to get to me. In that time, a grand total of 2 people stopped to see if I needed anything. The first ones to stop didn't have any gas or water. The next one to stop gave me water and gatorade and then tossed me a towel to cover my head. I swear that dropped the temperature by 15-20 *F.

They AAA guy showed up and filled up my tank and even had more water for me. Soon enough, I was on the road again, a bit more tan, and maybe a few pounds leaner, but rolling again.

It was a bit warm the rest of the day, but I felt a ton better after jumping in the pool for a few laps and then taking a shower. A nice steak dinner with a few beers topped off the evening nicely. I am sure tomorrow will be better.

Sorry, no pictures today. If you really want to, you can check my FaceBook profile for a picture from my stranded location. Except for the 100+ *F temperature, it was very beautiful location.

Day 5 - Ghosts

I woke up about 2am and heard some interesting sounds. At first I thought it was a bear in the campground, rummaging around. I peeked in the direction of the sound and didn't see anything. It continued for awhile but didn't seem to be moving around and a couple times it sounded like human voices. I finally decided it must be a fellow camper snoring. I was talking with another camper today and he said he heard it too. He thinks it might have been deer, as he has heard them make similar sounds when they are rooting around for some snacks. The campground hosts said they haven't seen or heard a bear in the campground since about April.

When the sun woke me up, I laid in the tent for awhile till the sun was high enough up to start warming things up. Then I spread my still damp jeans over my motorcycle and propped my boots facing the sun in hopes they would dry a bit more before I put them on.

The jeans dried pretty quick, but I stayed in camp till after 9 by which time I either needed some air-conditioning or a cold beer. Luckily, the boots were dry and I headed out to find a ghost town called Bodie I had heard about.

It was a nice ride through some mountains to get there. Well, nice until I got to the last several miles which were unpaved. I don't mind dirt roads, but loose dirt, sand and gravel are not what my bike was built for and it handles somewhat like trying to hold on to a greased pig.

It was a picture-perfect day. Clear skies with big white fluffy clouds. I thought this was the schoolhouse with the bell on top, but this was actually the fire station.


Since there are no concessions for food or drinks there, and I was getting hungry, I decided to head out after looking around for about an hour or so. I knew it would take awhile to get back anyway, so when I saw there was a different route back, I decided to take it. This way had closer to 10 miles of dirt road, but there were areas of packed dirt which was easier to navigate, but still took me a while to get back to a paved road. I did stop a few times for pictures. One stop I made was a different view of Mono Lake than most that you can see. Such are the rewards for taking the road less traveled.

There are these neat white flowers that bloom everywhere along the side of the road. Did I mention the weather was great today?

Well, after lunch, I stopped to do a load of laundry and by the time that was done, the cloud bank I saw yesterday was starting to form again so I decided to stay close to camp. The rain almost completely missed me this time and I was able to light my fire and enjoy it without trying to dry my clothes out.

The sun is down and mosquitoes are starting to get annoying, so when I get the fire put out, it is off to bed. Another day is done.

Day 4 – Yosemite

I'm speechless. This place is incredible. I was hoping to compare it to Yellowstone, but there is no way to compare. I have seen more wildlife on my trips through Yellowstone, and there are some incredible views as well, but Yosemite has a much more dramatic landscape (to me anyway). Before today, I said to myself, this was a good trip even if I had to pack up and head for home today. Now I can say it was a GREAT trip even if I had to head home today.

Heading up the hill to Tioga Pass was a fun ride and I had to stop a few times for pictures and to just soak in the scenery. I saw what I am pretty sure was a Bald Eagle swooping in with his talons outstretched, but by the time I stopped and grabbed my camera, he was behind some trees. I waited awhile, but didn't see him take to the air and he was on the other side of a river, so I couldn't go searching.

Less than an hour later, I saw a brightly colored bird swoop in front of me and perch on a tree. From what I could see, he was mostly yellow with a stripe of red on his head. He was still there when I walked back there, but moving to quickly to get the camera a chance to focus so once again, I was left pictureless.

This is a great road to ride on the motorcycle. Lots of twisty sections that require active riding instead of just cruising. The downside is that you can't spend more than a second or so looking at the scenery so I found myself stopping several times an hour. Usually to take the camera out and take a few shots, but sometimes just to sit in awe of this place.

I think it was about 2pm or so when I finally made it to Glacier Point. Let me tell you that the view is worth the traffic and parking hassle once you get here. WOW! I will be posting more from this trip in my other galleries with higher resolution, but as a teaser this is one of the many times on road to Glacier Point that I had to stop.



I was going to do some hiking once I got here, but after I finished eating a sandwich, I decided the clouds were starting to look like the forecast 20% chance of thunderstorms was a greater chance of rain than when the Arizona forecasters say 20% chance of rain and decided to head for home. I figured I had enough good pictures from the day and I can always come back on Wednesday or Thursday if I felt like more (I hadn't made it into Yellowstone Valley yet) so I would keep the photo stops to a minimum.

That resolution changed when a couple cars stopped in the middle of the road and were all hanging out the passenger side of their cars with cameras. That reminded me of some advice: Look where the people are pointing their cameras, it is probably worth taking a picture of. Sure enough, there was a bear not 50 feet from the road just ambling along.



After that excitement and with the ever-darkening ominous clouds overhead, I redoubled my efforts to not stop for every picturesque view. Sure enough, partway back, I saw a few drops hit my visor so I quickly pulled over and threw my rain liner on under my jacket and proceeded, albeit a bit slower. Sprinkling rain turned into heavy rain and heavy rain turned into hail. I kept going for the lighter hail, but when it came down heavy enough to blanket the road like snow, I pulled over. There was nowhere to go, no trees for shelter or overhanging rocks, so I just killed the engine and sat there for a few minutes.

The sun had been bright enough, so the road was hot and quickly melted the worst of it and when a caravan passed me going pretty slowly (trike, motorcycle and a van), I pulled out behind them. They were taking it easy and it was nice to have someone to follow through the hills.

By the time we got to Tioga Pass, the rain had completely stopped and the wind was starting to dry some parts of my clothes. But my fingers were frozen stiff and I was happy to get some hot coffee before heading back to my campground for some dry clothes and a little fire.

Still not sure what I will do the rest of my time before I leave. There is a ghost town named Bodie I have been hearing about and the hot springs near Mammoth both sound nice. Stay tuned to find out.

p.s. I was too cold and tired to post this last night in case you were looking for this post yesterday and wondered what I was doing.

Day 3 - No more hotel beds

After finishing supper last night, I went back to the jacuzzi, hoping some of the young kids that were splashing and making noise had left. They had, but it was pretty crowded with grownups. They made room for me, but the kids playing seemed to have taken its toll on the jacuzzi. The water was not very warm and was about 6-8 inches too low so I couldn't get any jets with pressure on my back. I sat in there for awhile and everyone left and I was able to move around and get my leg muscles to relax a bit.

I decided to sleep in today and didn't get out of bed till 7. An hour later, after breakfast and packing, I gassed up and headed out. The climb just outside of town quickly brought me to 7000 feet, a far cry from below sea level yesterday. It was also very cool and I came close to thinking about putting on another layer of clothes. I knew it would pass as soon as the sun climbed a little more. It did warm up a bit, but it warmed up to a perfect riding temperature.

I found my campground, checked in and set up my tent before heading out in search of lunch. As you can see, the area around my campground is beautiful.





After lunch, I'm looking for a bird sanctuary that should have some birds willing to pose and add to my small collection of bird photos. Stay tuned till tomorrow.

Day 2 - Theme song

Happy Fourth of July!!! I hope you enjoyed celebrating the many freedoms this great country provides us.

I realized that the song I mentioned yesterday was not the best song for the conditions. For me, Roll Me Away has a cold feeling to it. A better song for yesterday would be Rodney Atkins "If you're going through hell". It fits the weather better for sure. And it was good advice yesterday, since it was blistering hot and I just kept on going. I did stop a few times for water and pictures, but otherwise, I just kept going. I finally ended up in Pahrump Nevada for the night.

I vowed to get an early start the next morning since I would be going through parts of Death Valley. I did get going pretty early, but missed one turn leaving Pahrump and ended up taking a different route. I took a longer route to get back to the originally planned route. That added a few miles, but got me on the road I wanted to see.



One of the scenic detours I took was the road to Dante's View. The view from high above the floor of Death Valley was just incredible.



Even better (in my humble opinion) was the ride up there. Narrow roads, twisty and winding turns required 100% of my attention to keep from leaving the road. It seemed like I was leaning the bike hard one way and then immediately after that curve, throwing it hard the other way. I think I had to work harder on that 11 mile ride than I did in the next several hundred miles, but it was so much fun, it was worth it.

Made it to Bishop CA before I stopped for lunch. Found a hotel with a pool, picked up a pair of swim trunks and relaxed in the pool for a while. I am fighting a little bit of a headache. I think it is mostly a touch of dehydration and a good nights sleep and plenty of water will take care of it.

Day 1 - The epic voyage begins

I didn't get as early of a start as I planned to. It just took longer to get everything arranged on the bike. I also needed to do some relentless culling to get everything I needed, albeit at the expense of some of the things I wanted to bring with. HAM radio made the cut, but the charger didn't. As long as I don't play too much, the battery should last till I get home in case I need it for an emergency call. Mp3 player made it, but the charger didn't. Sandals didn't make it and neither did some of the extra clothes I was going to bring.

I passed a guy on a recumbent bike with a bunch of stuff strapped on about a mile before I got to Wickenburg. He came in to the gas station to buy some sports drink and I heard him talking with another customer and mentioned he has lived on the bike for 10 years. Among other things he had, I noticed a guitar. I guess that would never need recharging if you are living on the road. I was snacking on a bagel when he came out and I gave him one and he was really grateful. Seemed like a nice guy.

Even with the later start, I still made it out of the Phoenix heat before it was too hot. By the time I got to Kingman though, I was pretty warm. I stopped at Denny's and had some breakfast for lunch and started looking at the maps for the next leg of my journey.

The electric signs warned about traffic delays over Hoover Dam due to holiday travel. That along with no real desire to spend any time in Las Vegas made me decide to alter my route a bit and I headed out towards Laughlin and then West towards California. My campground spot won't be ready until at least Monday and maybe not till Tuesday, so I am in no real hurry. I will probably make it to somewhere around Death Valley later this afternoon and then I can get an early start and make it though before the sun has a chance to heat things up too much. Even if I stop for pictures (like that's not gonna happen) I will still probably make it to my campground by mid afternoon and see if they have a spot open for me and if not, still plenty of time to find another campground or cheap hotel.

Speaking of pictures, I didn't feel like stopping too close to home to take pictures that I can take on any given weekend, so I have only taken a few. They pretty much summarize the open road to me. Like Bob Segar's song that goes something like “I could go east, I could go west. It was all up to me to decide” That kind of sums things up for me right now.

From Yosemite_trip

From Yosemite_trip

Even with this heat, I've seen a ton of motorcycles. I realize how much I enjoy “the wave” when passing other bikes on the road. It makes me smile a bit every time I get a wave from a fellow rider. If you aren't a motorcycle person, I'll ramble in more detail about “the wave” in a future blog.

More tales from the road tomorrow.

All my bags are packed...

I'm ready to go.

I'm taking off early in the morning on a week-long motorcycle trip. I'll have my camera and am hoping to make some great picture opportunities. I hope to post at least a short blog every day with one or two shots from my trip, so check back soon and let me know what you think.

Soggy Triathlon Photos

It is not very often that an event in Arizona gets rained on. I had heard about a chance of rain for this weekend so I checked the forecast on Saturday to see if the race we were scheduled to shoot would be wet. Late on Saturday, the forecast was for 30% chance of showers overnight ending by 7 Sunday morning. I figured that was Arizona forecasters hoping for a bit more rain.

Well, it poured most of the night and was still drizzling pretty steadily when we left the house a bit before 6 in the morning. I kept expecting things to start drying out, but the windshield wipers kept on going all the way to the race.

When I got there, the rest of my photo team were there and although they wished it would be drier, were ready to take care of business. We took care of business by talking about the race plan and headed off to our jobs.

Right away, things changed. These races usually start with the kids race and after they finish, the adult race start. Today though, just before the start, I found out they were starting with the adult race and would have the kids races later in the morning after the adult race. That was a bit of a surprise as we usually regroup after the kids race and tweak our plan before the busier and longer adult race. This is especially handy when we are shooting at a new location (3rd time here for Flowing Desert) or when we are shooting with a new shooter (we had a new team member today).

Everyone adjusted fine to the new schedule and with the exception of the rain that never quite stopped, we all managed to carry on. Now the rest of the team has resumed their normal lives and I have started the fun, but sometimes long, process of reviewing the pictures and adding the keywords so that all today's racers can quickly and easily find their pictures.

I love pictures from the finish line and I usually start my review with those pictures. The smiles on many faces and the visible effort on others shows their pride at their accomplishments. I am most of the way through with the finish pictures and so far the "Flying Finisher" is my favorite photo of this race.

Talk about celebrating your finish!  So what do you think?  Have you tried the flying finish in a race or are you a "clock-watcher" at the finish line?

New Year, New Challenge

It is good to start the year with a new challenge.  Picacho Peak is a nice hike with some rolling hills to start with.  I have tried to make it all the way to the top a few times now.

That is about 3.1 miles according to the trail map.  It starts getting steep at about 2 miles and I have made it about that far several times.  They have steps in some places, but it is still quite a workout.

It was a great day for a hike and I was able to talk my youngest son and my Dad into joining me.  It was nice and sunny but with a breeze that kept it from getting too warm.  It is a bit bleak in the desert with little vegetation save some the cactus.   I can't wait to go back there again later in the spring after we have gotten some rain and there are some flowers blooming.

Well, we tried, but we only made it about 2.1 miles before we decided to turn back.  The altitude where we turned around was over 600 feet higher than where we parked, but there was a lot more up and down which left us pretty wiped out.   We decided to try it again in a couple months and get an earlier start to see if we can make it all the way to the top.

So how did you start out 2010?  Any New Years Resolutions?