Tuesday, June 30 - Day 14: Leaving Yosemite and Heading Towards Death Valley

I have a few more photos I took at Yosemite this morning on my ride out of the park. In the first photo, the large tree behind the motorcycle is as wide as my arm span is.  It may not be as large as some of the Giant Redwoods along the coast but still an impressive tree no less.

My plan for the day was to get close to Death Valley and get a hotel room due to the expected heat.  I stopped at Lone Pine.  Along the way, I got some more great views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Well, the heat is really start to build all over the west region. Temperatures are 15 - 25 degrees above average - I didn't plan for that.  I have been able to avoid it so far mostly by staying at higher altitudes.  Now I can no longer escape it.  I stopped and purchased a CamelBak which is a small backpack to store liquids in and a hose to drink from it.  This will enable me to drink and keep hydrated while riding rather than having to stop and drink which is when you get really hot!

The other benefit of getting a hotel today (beside the fact that camping in 100+ degrees just isn't fun) is that I can reevaluate the remaining part of my trip and determine the best way to start heading home.  I have already decided to skip Hoover Dam.  It is going to be 106 in Vegas tomorrow.  Basically my plan will be getting up early and riding each day as long as I can and then get a motel room, at least until I reach more moderate temperatures again. Now I just need to figure out the route.

I have one other piece of information I forgot to include during my equipment update.  I have a free app on my phone called Bubbler GPS Lite.  There is also a Pro version that costs about $10.  What this app does is basically checks you location every so often  (I have mine set to 30 minutes) and it uses the GPS location from the phone and sends it to a website.  If you don't have cell phone reception at that time, it will store the information and send it when you have service.  Followers can then look at the website to see where you are.  I set this up so Cathy has a better idea of where I am on these trips.  

This model is very similar to the SPOT devices you can buy and pay an annual fee for.  The difference is that the SPOT devices use satellites to send data so they work in more places.  With SPOT, you can also press a button to indicate an emergency and help will be dispatched.

Both the Bubbler GPS Lite app I have and the SPOT devices uses the website SPOTWALLA.com to set up the information and allow people to track your trips.  I have only shared with Cathy how to follow me on this trip as others don't need that much information.  Below is sample from the website.  You can see through Idaho and Oregon, the coverage was not very good, I am not sure why.  The large gap from Oregon to California was operator error (me).  I turned off my phone at night because I didn't have reception and thought I would save the battery.  What I forgot to do was start the app in the morning.  Now I am leaving my phone on all the time.

I am sharing this information as others may find a use for this technology as well.  Works pretty well for the price!

Here are a few other pieces of information:

• I have put on 6,137 miles so far.
• I am averaging 463 miles per day
• Yesterday going through Yosemite I only did 287 miles
• Today as I stopped before Death Valley, I did only 188 miles 
• Prior to the last 2 days, I averaged 503 miles per day