After a night of mental debate, I woke early and headed out the door at 6:40AM (really 7:40AM but we gained an hour overnight due to daylight saving time. It was not too dark and not too cold, as I headed out on Yoshie, my 2006 Suzuki DL1000/Dauntless Sidecar Rig. I wanted to "make time" you see, and she's the sidecar for real highway speeds.
I made GREAT time on Yoshie, she eating up the miles and inclined spaced of US285 with very little effort and plenty of power. It is amazing how having more than double the horsepower of the Ural can enable one to not only keep up with highway traffic but pass it at will! I'd forgotten how intoxicating that can be.
In less than two hours, I was at the town of Como, CO and heading at "good speed" down the dirt road that leads one 10 miles later to the summit of Boreas Pass. I did have to throttle down Yoshie's speed on the narrow portion of the road, it's quite narrow you see, not much room for error and empty space and a long fall awaits the careless.
Reaching the point where Darrell and I had first stopped for pictures, and where he'd taken the lead, I started slowly moving along the right edge of the road, scanning for my GoPro camera in its protective case.
Alas, there was no luck, as I slowly but surely made it to the site of the summit sign where I had photographed Valencia and not noticed the camera was gone. I turned Yoshie around and this time hugging the left side of the road as I headed south, scanned once more as I slowly moved at just above idle speed down the road.
Again, no luck, I spotted nothing but the occasional bit of garbage, beer can, piece of hoses....etc. Now it was time to head north once again on Boreas Pass Road, this time hugging the left side of the road. Lucky for me, there was little to no traffic you see, still I moved with the hazard lights flashing on Yoshie, just in case.
Not even a half mile down the road, I came to a bend in the road where things narrow a bit and damn if the GoPro camera wasn't lying on the road right in front of me! I'd spent so much time and effort scanning the right side edge of the road that I apparently missed it on the way up!
There it was, amazingly, no one ran it over.
The protective case did its job and protected the GoPro
Heck, the lens portion wasn't even scratched!
Above and below pictures show where I found the camera.
Once I secured the camera into the camera case, I proceeded north on Boreas Pass Road and went past the summit sign. In my joy at finding the camera, I'd remembered some scenic views of the mountain peaks visible from Boreas Pass Road. Yesterday however, when I saw those views, I was bumming about the loss of the GoPro of course and had not stopped for pictures. Not to mention, we'd wasted so much time looking for the camera then, and Darrell and I had to get back to Denver before 5:00PM.
So I give you the views one can enjoy when riding on Boreas Pass Road, north of the summit sign:
Yoshie sure looks good against those mountain peaks backgrounds eh? Then again, I imagine any motorcycle would look good with backgrounds like that.
Pictures done, I turned Yoshie southwards and made my way "with elan" down the dirt road, leaving behind me a large column of dust. I made it back to Como in good order and time and soon enough I was motoring northbound on US285 heading back towards Jefferson.
I refueled in Jefferson and from there it was smooth and speedy sidecaring all the way back to the Denver Metro area and home. To Boreas Pass Summit and back, with about 30 minutes of searching thrown in, in under 5 hours, not bad at all! I fear that it would have taken a bit more time with Valencia but she had already gotten her exercise yesterday.
The motorcycling gods must truly have been smiling upon me today, found the camera, had a great ride on Yoshie, the weather was not too cold and traffic was light.
Oh, and as you can see below, the GoPro survived along with the video I shot yesterday as Darrell and I descended from the summit of Georgia Pass:
18 comments:
No video of the camera flying off of its mount. I was kind of wondering if the Vstrom was getting any miles but I guess it really is an entirely different rig. For highway cruising....
2nd attempt...
I was hoping that there would be video of the camera flying off the tripod. I was wondering if the vstrom was getting any miles put on it. And, as you described, they are really different rigs by design.
Dom:
You are sooooo lucky. Lucky that no one drove over it, or found it, or was damaged as it fell. I also can't believe that someone after you didn't find it
I dropped a metric bolt in my carport, heard it bounce and still can't find it
Isn't it nice to have a spare Hack ?
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
My Flickr // My YouTube
Yep, definitely different beasts, my rigs....it was fun having all the power Yoshie gives....kind of glad now that no one bought her.
Yep, lucky indeed, though real luck would mean the camera not coming off in the first place? :)
Actually I am to blame, I dummy cord it when mounting it on the nose of the tub but failed to do so when on the tripod. Ironically, I had dummy corded the tripod!
When my next work gig required highway commuting speeds, Yoshie will be ready.
Great news that you got out and enjoyed the time with Yoshie. Congratulations on finding the GoPro. We never found ours on the road when it came off of Oilburner's. :(
Yes, I suppose the best luck would have been it not coming loose in the first place, but where would the joy of finding been in that! Wonderful story and great photos!
~k
You haven't done this on purpose just to get to justify going up there with Yoshie, have you?
I am really happy you found the camera undamaged. You are one lucky son of a gun.
They call that Good Clean Living to go back and find the GoPro. Happy it turned out that way, but I also had thoughts like SonjaM.
How cool to find that camera and those are fantastic pictures! That road on the video (or something like it) is certainly something I would like to try someday, perhaps on a mountain bike.
Maybe I missed a previous description, but I am real curious how you mounted that camera for the video. That's a great viewpoint.
Jimbo
Beemergirl, sorry re your gopro loss otoh you can review the new model!
Circle blue, thanks
Sonja, yes I am, after all I got Martha to marry me didn't I? :)
AZ HD dude, thanks for the visit but really, it was Yoshie's turn for riding and what a joy to ride....as she reminded me.
Jimbo, in previous posting you can see the camera tripod mounted on Valecias spare tire. Thanks for your comments
Hubby probably won't approve this comment...but I'll give it a try. wifey here with "the rest of the story..."
My theory as to why he had such luck in finding it? His attitude was totally relaxed and 'well, if I find it, great, if I don't, well,I still had a good ride on Yoshi'.
The Things are not so happy about their dad's good fortune. You see, he told them that with this lost camera, they'd get a 'free pass' (no nagging/scolding/guilt-tripping) when they lose an electronic device.
And yep, I too am glad nobody bought Yoshi. Different situations call for different rigs.
Great that you found the camera unharmed. I love the photos. I have never been on that road, but I sure want to travel it next time I am in the area.
an update on the camera, its now showing objects beyond 2ft as out of focus...I'm slightly bummed, specially after I found out from GoPro that they don't offer a repair service. Though they did send me a 20% discount for a new camera....now deciding whether I even want to shoot video anymore.
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