Boodocking near Deadman Road, camera disaster averted!

 A near disaster of a day, but was saved by a pair of Good Samaritans!

Thursday, August 17

We left the campsite at the West Lake Campground near Red Feather Lakes Village a bit after 9AM and by 1030 we'd found a nice boondocking spot less than 15 miles away and 1600 ft higher in elevation.

We're now camping off of Larimer County Rd 86 aka Deadman Road.  Just 4.3 miles from the fire tower I'd visited yesterday.

No cell signal at this campsite so I went exploring for the closest point to check in with the kids.  I had to ride Yagi the 4.3 miles to the Fire Tower and got signal there.  I then rode back towards camp, kept going towards Red Feather Lakes to see if there was a closer cell signal point.  Coincidentally, it was 4.3 miles from camp at a curve on the road!

Oh well, so I rode back and shortly after getting back to camp, I realized I didn't have my camera bag with me!  Some panic'ed searching of the VRRV and the campsite yielded nothing.  I feared I had put the camera case on the cargo rack prior to donning my helmet and had then ridden off searching for Internet signal!  Dammit.

The next few hours were spent by Martha and I, searching the campsite and me also back tracking all the way back to the Fire Tower and back, twice!  Nothing.  

Not willing to believe that a loose camera case could have stayed with the motorcycle for long as I rode the packed dirt county road...I nevertheless rode the full distance; but paying extra attention by walking the road for the first mile.

Of course, I didn't find the case.  Ironically, I did find an Internet cell signal just a quarter mile from camp while I was walking along searching along the road side!

At the end of the third back track, I stopped at the nearby cell signal point and saw I had a voicemail!  The caller had left a message saying they'd found the camera case and to call them.

I called and talked with the caller's Dad.  He told me they were camping near the North Fork of the Poudre NF campground and we arranged to meet at the entrance.

I stopped at the camp to let Martha know and she sent me forth with a bottle of wine and some reward money.

I met Jacob, and his dad James, shortly afterwards.  They initially refused my offer of a cash reward, saying to just "pay it forward".  As we talked, I managed to convince James to accept the bottle of wine at least.  Some more talking and I finally convinced Jacob to take the reward money, with his Dad's consent.  Such honest and forthright behavior must be encouraged!

My sincere thanks, James and Jacob!  You've gone a long way towards restoring my faith in humanity!!!

Oh, and here's the pics of the tower from Wednesday:

A Whoopsie Kind of Day....

 Both Martha and I would make mistakes today that resulted in whoopsies.

We'd set off on our two-wheeled steeds, seeking a picture of Babe, the Blue Ox.  Babe is the companion to the legendary Paul Bunyan.   In Minnesota, Paul Bunyan and Babe are seemingly everywhere in the form of large sculptures of fiberglass and whatever other materials suit such projects.

We got a bit lost trying to find Paul Bunyan Land, an amusement park which featured Babe the Blue Ox at the entrance parking lot.  As we pulled over to a driveway (we were on MN 210 at the time), Martha's scooter Stewie slid on some loose gravel and down Martha went!

I of course rushed to her and while I was trying to figure out how she was hurt, about 4 other cars stopped and their drivers rushed over to help!  One guy righted Stewie, and we helped Martha to her feet.   

In another confirmation to the benefits of wearing good riding gear, the only abrasions she suffered were to her right knee.  Her riding jacket and helmet prevent other abrasions!  The pants were just regular pants, so they tore immediately on ground contact.  There were large areas of her riding jacker's right shoulder that were covered in dirt marks, and some scratches on her helmet's visor.

Still, she's OK.  No further injuries besides the skin abrasions a.k.a. road rash.  

Folks, she was a real trooper!  After assuring everyone who'd stopped that she was OK, I made sure Stewie was fine and we rode on!  After we had ridden to a nearby shopping center to get some first aid supplies, we then rode to Paul Bunyan Land and got the picture!

Next, Martha wanted to ride over to a local city park located near the Mississippi River for a picture of Stewie and her by the river.

First though, we stopped near a bakery for some pie to enjoy at the park.

Got to the park, took pictures and then we decided to head on back to the camper.  Sadly, that's when I made my one whoopsie of the day and left my camera sitting on a park bench!  Yep, I didn't realize it was gone till we were back in the campground.  

I rushed back by myself and it was too late, someone had found it and taken it.  Though the camera did have my phone number stenciled on it, I've no doubt that whomever found it, will keep it or pawn it.  

So, those are our whoopsies for today.  The camera doesn't matter, I'm just happy that Martha is fine and all she is dealing with is some soreness and of course the skin abrasions on her right knee.

So, I guess I'll drive on with just the camera in my Pixel4a phone from this point on, I'm obviously too careless to get another replacement camera!

Found: GoPro 4 Session Camera

If you're feeling like a bit of a helpful Samaritan, please spread the word:

Recently, I found, near the junction of FR811.B and FR123 in the Pike National Forest, a GoPro Hero 4 Session camera.

Camera will not power on, I think it's toast.

It was underwater and apparently has been that way since September 3, 2017....the date of the newest file.  The red arrow in the screen capture above shows where it was found.

Here's what I believe is the camera's serial number in case someone can use it to trace the owner:

I checked the videos and here's some Snip App captures of whom I think is the owner and his GMC Pickup Truck's license plate, that might help identify the owner:

Colorado Plate

506-IQD? or 506-IOD?

If you're the owner, contact me at info@pmdnetworks.com for retrieval of the camera and 64GB MicroSD card.  I'll put the camera away until the end of the year at least.  I repeat, the camera is toast...tried charging it and it did warm up a bit but couldn't get it to power on.  The 64GB MicroSD card is viable however and contains videos.

More Trail Riding with Yagi

Sunday, July 12

As I waited for the weekend crowds to go on back home and for the rolling RV and Boat Show on US 285 to reverse direction, I thought I'd do some more trail riding.  This time, I went north of Kenosha Pass via US285 (traffic was heavy) to explore these trails:

Martha clued me in a while ago about this app, very handy to find trails that allow motorcycles and finding your way around as it uses the phone's GPS to geo-locate you when you're not sure where you are.

I would end up riding all of FR811, most of FR123 and parts of FR810 as well.  These forest roads were accessed via Park County Roads 58 and 60.  Yagi could barely maintain 45 mph on the steep highway portions leading to/from Kenosha Pass, luckily traffic wasn't too heavy the times I was on the highway, mostly.

CR58 allowed access to FR811 from which I then turned onto FR811.A.  When exploring I always tend to make continuous right turns to try and cover most areas.  Eventually I turned right onto FR811.B, a narrow trail rutted deeply in spots which allowed me lots of practice at keeping the motorcycle going straight while riding on the side of a sloping trail!

Eventually, FR811.B meets up with FR123:

The pond I found feeds into nearby Lininger Lake

A bit further on, the road was submerged under water that came up to my knees.  How do I know that?  Because I decided not to proceed to where 811.B junctions with FR123 as I was riding alone.  I didn't want to drown the motorcycle you see.

I did take off my boots and put on my water/hiking shoes and then waded across, boy the water was cold!  After ascertaining the water was indeed right at knee level with a loose sandy/gravel bottom, I definitely decided not to chance it.  

As I walked through the water obstacle, I spotted this GoPro Hero camera underwater:

As you can see, it's been in the water a while, the lens is all scratched up and the casing is beat up.  I did recover a Micro SD card from it and soon as I can read it, I'll see if I can ID the owner who lost it probably doing a water crossing that didn't go well.

So I retraced my way back along FR811.B until I reached FR811.A, I turned right where it junctioned with FR810 which took me all the way back to the US 285 highway.  I wanted to check out FR123 regardless so I got on the slab and went further north until I could exit on CR60.

Took CR60 to this junction with FR123.

Before I turned off onto FR123, I had proceeded onwards for a few miles until I got to the entrance to Red Cone Pass Road.  Yagi hit reserve on its gas tank at this point and a combination of that and warning signs saying Red Cone Pass was for "experienced 4x4 drivers"; I decided to put off Red Cone Pass till I had done some more research.  Here's a video that shows the road pretty well:  Video Link

So, returning once again to the sign in the above pic, I rode the initially very technical FR123 (lots of big rocks and ruts) until finally reaching an area full of Jeeps and the drivers.  I continued onwards and eventually came to the portion where FR123 and FR811.B meet up.

By this point I had decided I'd walk Yagi across the submerged 50 ft or so of roadway.  I went to don my water/hiking shoes and one was missing!  Dammit!  I had placed both under the cargo netting behind me on the seat and apparently one worked itself free.

Losing the shoe wasn't a big deal, but the orthopedic insert inside was not inexpensive!

So, barefoot, I ferried my riding gear over first, then came back across (damn but the water was cold) and proceeded to push Yagi over to the other side.  About halfway there, my feet were hurting and I was getting tired as the loose sand/gravel on the bottom caused quite the drag on Yagi.

Looking down, I could see the water level not very close to the airbox so I fired up Yagi (had to pull the choke lever for some reason (engine got too cold perhaps?) but she finally caught and we slowly made our way to the other side.

I dried off and waited for feeling to return to my legs from the freezing water.  Then donned my riding gear and started retracing the route back to US285 that I'd done earlier, but this time much slower to be able to scan and look for the missing shoe!

No luck, got all the way to US 285 with no sign of the shoe.  I had to return to the campsite to get more gasoline for Yagi by this point.  So I delayed retracing the CR60 portion of the riding till after getting gasoline.

It started raining, off and on, as I rode back to camp.  Most of the campers were gone by the time I got to the URRV at 12:30PM.  So that was good news.  Got Yagi fueled up and rode back out.  I got off US 285 at the exit for CR60 and less than three miles later there it was!

17.4 miles from the campsite, there was my missing shoe!

As you can see, the skies weren't looking that great  so I turned around and rushed back to the campsite.  It started raining harder and the wind started blowing quite hard as I worked my way slowly on US 285 crawling up to the summit of Kenosha Pass and barely able to hold 50 mph on the way down due to the strong winds.

Finally turned off onto CR56 and away from the cager traffic.  The rest of the way was just rain, slick spots that looked dry but didn't offer the same traction as before.  Made it back to camp safely, oiled Yagi's chain due to all the water exposure today, and used the rest of the afternoon to recuperate.

The weather did improve once the storm clouds moved onwards.  By 4PM it was nice and sunny again with temperatures in the mid to high 60s!