Woke up late, after waking up at 2am and writing for a couple hours, feeling somewhat panicked that I’ve only come this far East so far. It’s just such beautiful country all the way up on Pacific Coast, the Redwoods, the Salt Flats, the High Country…absolutely stunning on a motor bike.
I had charged the new GoPro and settled down to getting it up and running. Right away I found it did not work with the wireless remote on my handlebars….hmmm. I’m pressed for time so I watched a quick tutorial and low and behold it will interface with the iPad mini mounted to the handlebars. There’s an entire interface on the GoPro App for all settings AND the iPad will sow you in realtime what the GoPro is seeing.
I should have bought the stock years ago.
I hit up a Starbucks for some decent WiFi as the Hotel 6 extra super Heep Big wifi was slower than smoke signals. I was going to shoot to Casper Wyoming, but a local elderly man said:
“There’s ain’t nothin in Casper, you need to go to God’s country, see them parks, then see Cody, beautiful town, real nice folks there”
That convinced me to head to Yellowstone and on to Cody as he suggested. I had GoPro app loaded and was off to Old Faithful.
Here’s the first road test footage.
GoPro YellowStone Test
https://vimeo.com/138577821
The ride was beautiful and well worth the forty bucks the beautiful guard in a wooden box charged me.
Along the way I made some Japanese friends. A high end tour bus had pulled over to view the Tetons. A curious bunch, not a lick of English. Our only communication was make shift sign language, reminding me of the movie The Tribe.
She was beautiful
He loved the bike.
Children at play are the same everywhere.
I would pass then on the road to Yellow Stone several times, and each time the whole bus would wave and I’d blow the air horn.
I was off to Old Faithful. It was more out of duty than interest at first. I’d seen it on TV ..didn’t seem all that interesting but another Japanese friend back in Los Angles was doing an effect for a film that would look like a geyser so at least I could get some reference footage that could be useful.
I had no idea how beautiful Old Faithful really was ….
https://vimeo.com/138623094
Sadly after seeing all that beauty, I have to transition to a terribly scary story.
So brace yourself.
The guards were kind enough to allow me to park the bike close by. Right before Old Faithful went off this giant black raven decided it was time to attack the Harley. I glanced over and witnessed it landing on the seat and violently pecking at the bags. There’s no food there, there never has been, this was a hate crime.
I ran to the bike and the thing wouldn’t stop or move, it had absolutely no fear of me. I actually had to take the back of my hand an give it a shove. The thing was as big as an eagle and tried to nip at my hand. I stood my ground and was ready to take a real swing at it, when it finally flew off.
I went back to the geyser viewing area and kept an eye on the bike. At some point though it swooped back in an left me a “gift”.
Right on my gloves! This thing has intelligence and purpose. There’s probably a crow contract out on me now. I’ll be checking the skies, checking them often.
..but that’s not even the scary story…
Little did I know that was a mere foreshadowing of far more dire animal contact.
Read on….
I left the park about an hour before sunset. I was going to try and make Cody Wyoming. The road narrowed as I rolled into country as beautiful that what I’d just left.
I pulled up on this lake and logged into Orbitz on the handlebar iPad. The connection was weak so I shot this pick while waiting for Orbitz to display the choices.
I got a place in Powell just north and east of Cody. It was going to be a dark ride through the woods. A good test for the new Haymaker LED headlights.
I decided to go with the scary skull death mask look. I never liked skulls on bikes but my indian friend told me, and Mr. Rocket my mechanic confirmed, that they are actually very good luck. Well on this night I just wanted to be the scariest thing on the road.
https://vimeo.com/138640881
Man it was dark. Really spooky, especially because I was the only traveler in the forrest. I had a couple hours so I settled in, keeping my eyes peeled for critters.
Lighting was flashing in the distance. One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three….The boom of thunder was welcome actually, I had not heard that for a long time being in the drought of California. Flash….one thousand one..one thousand two… It was getting closer.
I decided to keep moving until I found some sort of clearing where I could pull over. The narrow road barely had a shoulder.
I rounded a corner on a down slope and being careful not to scrape out on the sharp corner my mind traveled from my eyes to my pipes when..
Flash !!!
Looming dead ahead was the a giant elk. I grabbed a handful of front brake and stomped on the back brake. The anti-lock system kicked in and the bike pulsed like giant racing heart, skidding in pulses and releasing. Everything came to a scream in my mind.
I stopped three inches from the beast and managed to stay upright.
It didn’t move.
It just turned and looked at me, and holy crap I had the scary skull death mask on! I tried my best to remain calm, no fear here big guy…just lonely old scary biker mask.
The thing had a rack that could take my head off.
Slowly, very slowly is walked over to the side of the road. I swallowed the fear and got off the bike..easy.. easy… unsnapped the camera bag took the camera out, and took this pick.
It was actually pretty dark this is at 3600 ISO and boosted in post.
His one eye just kept looking at me but otherwise he seemed unfazed by my presence.
So naturally, I got closer. Like in the horror movie when the girl goes down into the basement to check out some freakish noise and the audience screams:
“Don’t open that door!”
I took this
I got closer. Then he raised up quickly and stared at me. You can see the motion blur on his snout and antler.
I stopped. Then he put his head back down and began grazing again.
I got closer
….and he snapped up with a vibe that screamed. FREEZE pal.
So I froze. I was about three feet from him.
Then, after all this time another motorist cruised up slowly. Providing me with some light
The guy rolled down his window and in a thick cowboy drawl he screamed:
“WAY TOO CLOSE BUD!” which scared the Elk off, and it ran into the woods.
I turned into his headlights and his wife was now screaming :
“AHHHH !! GO! GO! JUST GO!!”
He peeled out and the pickup swerved almost hitting my bike! He roared down the road. I turned to see if the Elk was charging or something…nothing….
Then it hit me
I HAD THE SCARY MASK ON, I WAS THE SCARIEST THING IN THE FORREST!
BOOAHHH !
I rolled on, hit my first rain of the trip right after getting the bike prepped and my rain gear and heated jacket on.
Cruised in comfort, rain all around.
King of the woods.