DISCLAIMER: I can yank shots if someone is writing up a Trails article and wants to use them. Todd will see them as submissions for content regardless of what happens.
That was fun! The driving not so much. I left Salem about 11am Friday and ran into a bad wreck on Hwy 97 north of Klamath Falls. Sat for 3 hours which put my time into camp really late. Somewhere before Susanville the sky got dark and I started dodging a LOT of deer and got freaked out with adrenaline and trying not to have a wreck, so I headed up into the woods to get some elevation and cool air to sleep. After an hour or two of sleep and tossing about, I left camp at 2am and drove through to the event camp. It was pretty sweet zipping through towns and Reno with no traffic.
The earth was kind and rotated timely to perfection as I started up the east side of Hwy 4. By the top of the first pass it was light enough to see plenty of detail. That highway is amazing! It is up near the top of some of the prettiest drives in the West I've been on (and have been on a fair share the past few years). The highway was also up and down and curving around, and a great road to squirt torque through the go pedal and see where the wagon/tire limits were at.
No traffic at 5am so it was win win for everyone involved.
I got into camp around 7am without waking anyone (Toyota overhead cam diesels, smooooth), so I crept around and took shots of the sun breaking over the tree tops and through the trees in camp. Then I went to the river and practiced shooting the early light on the river with a series of ND filters in front of the lens. You can judge the results for yourself.. I think I need more practice.
Then people woke up and it felt like I was at an event or something. Lots of tshirts and things raffled, casual friendly camping, making new friends, seeing old ones. Good times.
We were pretty near the Rim fire by Yosemite, so I tried to get some effects of morning light with the smoke, and also illustrate the amount of smoke in the area. You could barely smell any difference down in camp even though the sky was pretty heavy with smoke at times.
more smoke shots, but lets be honest.. I like my new camp LEDs
nice bloody sunrise at 5:30 or so.. all those sleeping slackers in the valley below missed it
this is almost down to the river and the trailhead, trying to give an idea of smoke and the neat profiles that poke through. my camera is probably 3 years old now and I'm still impressed it gets subtle stuff like this. I certainly have nothing to do with it!
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