Motorcycle Tarp Camping in the Gentle Rain

Hello .

Good morning .

What a beautiful place to wake up here next to the reservoir .

Here , I slept in my Hammock last night and it was just so comfortable .

You can hear the sounds of the birds this morning and somebody off in the distance cutting wood with a chainsaw , but it's a peaceful place to wake up .

Get my morning coffee .

I suppose .

Today we continue our ride through the Sierra Nevada mountains here , we'll make it to the other side to the western slope and then we'll turn around and cut back across them once again .

So we get a double dose of some mountain riding .

Today is day number six on the road and I'm getting into my routine .

Now , everything is working out pretty good with the bike and the camping gear , sleeping , cooking all of that kind of stuff .

Hopefully showing you guys a few tricks and tips and techniques along the way about what I do for motorcycle camping .

Last night , I slept in the Hammock for the first time and I do love sleeping in my Hammock .

It's so comfortable , but there are times when I would carry a tent and sleep in that as well .

So I have both on this trip and of course , the mono pod is working out great .

I used that last night for illuminating my campsite .

I had my little lantern hanging up there .

Yeah , that's it .

Life on the road .

We're still on the west side of the Sierras and it's hot and it's dry .

But we're going to turn east and go back into the mountains for this afternoon and we've got a couple of really good passes to go over .

So we'll get back in the high elevation .

We should see some snow on the side of the road and some lovely alpine scenery and granite rock spires .

Looking forward to our second day of riding through the Sierra Nevadas .

So this is where we begin our climb back into the Sierra Nevada Mountains .

We're starting at about 600 ft of elevation and we could potentially see upwards of 10,000 ft .

We'll find out I at the Burt Memorial overlook and that's the Bear River Reservoir down there .

Travel pretty slow , pretty careful , gentle .

I'm not out here going on high speed , busting through these curves more , just admiring the scenery and trying to make a little art along the way .

I don't know what lies up ahead , but I'm hoping that we get some good views , some big views , maybe some granite rocks .

I see some water up ahead on the right on the GPS .

So that's why I've got the go pros rolling right now .

Just to see what we can see , there's a lot of spontaneity on a trip like this in terms of knowing what to shoot and when to shoot , being prepared , it is really helpful .

Also , knowing what to expect is helpful .

And then there just comes a lot of serendipity as well .

GPS shows that we're going to be going through a town called Kit Carson , lots of other bikes on the road today .

That was a big wave .

We are in the Eldorado National Forest .

I ended up taking a different route back across the Sierra Nevadas than I was in .

There were a couple of really highly rated motorcycling roads that I missed .

But it's just kind of funny how those things happen .

You get going down a road and you don't even necessarily realize if it's the one you wanted to take or not .

Sometimes there's a beautiful tree off to the right , coming into Markleville just started to rain south of Lake Tahoe and I'm going to go see about getting some groceries and supplies for this evening .

It's two o'clock .

If I could get to a nice campsite early , I'd love to have a relaxing afternoon .

Have something really good to eat .

Let's stop at the grocery store here and find something good .

So , what a great day of riding through the Sierra Nevada Mountains .

Once again , I had a great afternoon of it and then found this place to camp , I would say an hour or so south of Lake Tahoe .

And I was just looking on the map for some BLM or National Forest land and this looks like a good spot .

There's a river right here .

It's always good to have a fresh source of water when you're out motorcycle camping because you can jump in and cool off .

You can take the water out of the stream here and do your laundry .

If you have a water filter , you can fill up your water jugs and you can use the water appropriately up in the hills here to do your dishes .

I always try to find a place to camp next to the water and I'd say about half the time I can do it .

And there is a rock pile here where somebody had a fire pit , but there were very clear , no fire signs as they came down into this area pretty much everywhere you go in the summer time , you can't build campfires anymore .

There was obviously a fire here .

Not too long ago .

These trees are all burned .

They're still alive , but you can see the charred bottoms on the trunks where there was , you know , a fire that came through here .

So no cooking on the fire box stove or campfires .

Yet , I suspect that will change as I get further up into the northwest and whole different environment , it's a lot wetter up there , but I'm prepared .

I've got my camp stove , I can cook dinner and make coffee and we'll get by .

So I pulled in right as it was starting to get really dark and ominous .

And so I set up my rain fly , thinking that if indeed we get a good rain dump , I'll be nice and dry .

It can just kick back and enjoy an afternoon thunderstorm in the mountains .

You hear that ?

I got my tarp set up just in time for an afternoon rain shower perhaps .

And it would be kind of enjoyable to sit under it and listen to the thunder and watch the rain come down .

I brought this tarp along for a couple of reasons .

One , I just want to get better at using it .

There's so many different configurations that you can use a tarp for and I want to get some experience .

And so I'm totally a novice at this .

I mean , this is not probably the finest tarp set up in the world by a long shot if you're an expert tarp person , apologies because this is what it is and I'm learning , but I did bring it because I want to get better at using it .

And I know as I travel up into the northwest , it's going to be a lot wetter and it would be really nice to have some kind of shelter to sit under , to camp under , to cook under , maybe get myself and my bike underneath it or the Hammock or whatever .

I just feel like it would be really nice to be able to hang out under a tarp .

If you set it up properly , you're sheltered from the rain , but you still have a really nice view of the environment around as opposed to like sitting inside of your tent all cooped up in a rainstorm .

Well , now we're getting just the slightest little bit of rain and it's really , is kind of pleasant to be just sitting here under the tarp protected from just this little rain out there in the distance .

Listen to that .

How peaceful , so much for the rain .

I think that was it getting sunny out again ?

I feel pretty good about this so far .

My beginning tarp making career , see , I always like to take my extra dry bags , kind of put them in the back here .

That way if I want some kind of a resting point to sort of sit up while I'm in my pants , I can handle a little , a little bit of a back rest sort of here .

That way I can just lay here with my head up , read a book or work on the computer .

Works out pretty good .

Oh , the camera bag is heavy .

You now , I'm gonna start the evening out with some cold pear cider .

Hm .

That's a Hawaiian bowl with rice and pineapple .

And then I added some canned pineapple to it as well .

Just to make it a little extra better .

It's always nice when you can hit a proper grocery store or a little market , a little bit of fresh produce and some nice , easy to prepare meals .

It goes a long way .

That's it .

For me today .

I'm going to call it a night .

I'm well fed .

I've got my camp set up and I'm going to get up tomorrow and start day number seven .

I hope that you've really enjoyed this episode .

We've got lots more adventures to come .

You never know what's going to happen on the road .

But I'll do my best to bring you along and show you all the great roads along the way and the camping spots that I find probably a few good meals to cook and whatever else happens .

All right .

Take care of you guys .

We'll see you next time .