Sierra Nevada Adventure | Solo Motorcycle Road Trip | Documentary

In the heart of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where forests merge with the horizon and roads carve their path through the very essence of adventure. One twist of the throttle and you journey deeper into the heart of nature's masterpiece, where the call of the wind echoes through your very being. Sometimes solo motorcycle camping trips allow us a chance to gather our thoughts and gain perspective on our life and think about what the future has to hold. This is the Sierra Nevada Adventure. I went on a solo motorcycle camping trip to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. I wanted to explore some different campsites, motorcycle roads, and some of the sights and sounds that you don't normally see or hear when you think about California. We made our way through some twisty back roads up into the three highest passes in California. We went through Kaiser Pass, explored some of the sights, the lakes, and the hot springs in that area. We made our way down through Yosemite National Park and into Tioga Pass, where we got to check out the back side of the Sierras on 395. We got to check out an old abandoned ghost town. We made our way through Sonora Pass and then finally made our way home. So this was my first trip back in 14 months. Coming back from Sturgis last year, I got hit by a car and ended up breaking my leg, tearing ligaments in my knee, breaking my wrist, and having some problems in my back and neck. So I've had multiple surgeries. With all these major injuries, you know, I was going to physical therapy. I was working out every single day, trying to get myself back to where I could ride because for a while there, I didn't know if I'd ever be able to ride motorcycles again. I had to put my new luggage rack on the Versys because it had gotten bent during the accident. Change the fluids, change the oil, you know, get everything prepped, and then yeah, I was ready to hit the road. I wanted to talk about a few different sponsors on this trip. I reached out to Klim. I've ridden their Gore-Tex Latitude gear for the last five years or so in all different weather conditions. They sent me a brand new set of the new Latitude gear, and I'm super stoked on it. There's a few features I really like. The venting, the zippers work really well, so they made a few improvements over the gear I had five years ago, and I'm really happy to have their new set of gear and really thankful that they were able to hook me up with the Latitude gear to be a part of my future videos here on Shredvision. Another brand that I've worked with for about five years is Corsurf. I've been using their dry bags on the back of my bike to keep my camping gear and clothes dry for the last five years or so. I reached out to them and they sent me their new updated bag. It's got the stealth green color. It's really cool, fits all my camping gear, super rugged. I like it because I can just take it off the bike, set it up next to my tent, and I'm ready to go. And the other brand that I've been working with right now is iHood. They reached out to me and saw the Shredvision page and sent me this really cool heated jacket. I use a heated jacket when I ride on the bike, so this is a really neat one with a battery pack, three different heating modes, and I can use it when I'm off the bike at the campsites, in my tent, different situations when it gets really cold. I'm really excited to work with the iHood brand and, yeah, use their products on the upcoming adventures. Leaving the first day up above Pine Flat to the Upper Kings River, and I'm just going to camp somewhere up there and then make my way, showcase these different camp spots, different motorcycle roads, so it's going to be a great trip. Day one, I left Fresno, California, went by Pine Flat Lake, went up through Trimmer, and went along some really twisty roads to this beautiful camp spot along the Upper Kings River here. This is a really good spot to base your first day exploring in the Sierra Nevadas. Right now I'm just going to set up camp, make a little something to eat, and just enjoy a nice relaxing night. So, yeah, this is kind of my first solo trip in a while, so, yeah, I kind of decided to just come up here and showcase a couple of my favorite roads, a couple of my favorite camp spots up in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Yeah, just enjoying a nice camping night down by the river, having a brewski here, just filming, relaxing. Day two, I woke up early today. I woke up in the Upper Kings River area. I found a campsite that was really relaxing for the night, got a good night's sleep. Today I headed up through the treacherous roads of Black Rock. The roads on Black Rock are some of the most dangerous ones I've seen. They've got really steep drop-offs on each side. When you're riding around, there's cliffs on your right, there's rocks falling on the upper left. The Black Rock area is beautiful. There's lots of waterfalls that come down onto the black granite rocks. As you go through, you'll see the different rock sculptures. I made my way through Black Rock Reservoir, which is a really pretty lake that's got a nice dam overlooking the Upper Kings River. Hung out at Black Rock for the afternoon. Made my way up toward Wishon Reservoir and Courtright Reservoir. So the roads going up through there again are super bumpy. It's dirt roads with lots of potholes, lots of sand. So made my way up through there. It took me a couple hours to do about 30 miles. Went up to Courtright Reservoir. Hung out up there. Got to check out the really cool dam there. See the beautiful mountains in the background. I rode down on the long dam and kind of hung out there for a little bit. Made my way into Shaver Lake. Stopped and had some pizza. So Shaver Lake is kind of like the main town for our Kaiser Pass area. So anybody that needs camping supplies, food, gas, this is where you stop. Made my way through Big Creek, up the treacherous roads there, and now I'm here at Huntington Lake. So yeah, I'm going to hang out here for a bit and then start making my way up Kaiser Pass to find some wilderness camping up there. That was one of my favorite parts today, just riding around the backside of Huntington Lake, just enjoying the forest. I hadn't been back there since the fire damage a couple years ago. Rode up Kaiser Pass. Kaiser Pass is one of the highest passes here in California, but what's unique about it is it's one way in, one way out, so it doesn't go all the way through. The road is really treacherous. There's a bunch of cliffs, there's a bunch of rocks, there's a bunch of sand, so the road kind of keeps a lot of people out. And when you come up here, a lot of times you can get the whole place to yourself. Made it up to Florence Lake here, up on Kaiser Pass. And yeah, gonna go make my way, find a little wilderness camp spot, and then call it a night here. I got to my campsite here tonight, up in the Kaiser Wilderness. Yeah, staying up on the top of a rock here, just enjoying the sunset. Got a little something to eat here, some snacks. What I like really about the motorcycle and bringing all the camping equipment is the freedom. You know, I didn't have any plans. I kind of had the route planned out that I wanted to go, but basically, yeah, I was just going to scope out campsites the whole time and kind of see, you know, what I could find. So that's what I like about the motorcycle. I could stop anywhere I want, get into places that you can't really get into. Then also up here on Kaiser Pass, there's a bunch of cliffs overlooking the valley here, and then you can see the Eastern Sierra Mountains with Mammoth on the other side, so it's really a beautiful place. Went down and took a little dip in the hot springs. There's a bunch of hot springs around here, and I had them all to myself tonight, so that was nice. Rest my sore muscles and took back roads and windy dirt roads the whole entire way. It just took forever to get up here, but I finally did, and yeah, really, really worth it. I'm beat, but basically, yeah, on this trip, I kind of wanted to show some of my local area, my backyard, so to speak. Bunch of awesome lakes today that we touched, almost in the Eastern Sierra here, and I'm at the very top of where the San Joaquin River comes from Mammoth, so yeah, hard day. I'm just going to enjoy the rest of the night and just kind of chill out and get a good night's sleep and then see what and early. It was really cold. Made my way down Kaiser Pass to Shaver Lake, down to Aubury where Bass Lake all the way up into Yosemite National Park. It was nice today riding some really smooth roads. Made my way through Yosemite National Park. So yeah, we made our way through Yosemite Valley. Beautiful waterfalls. Some of the fall colors coming through. It was really pretty. Enjoyed some of the sights, the waterfalls, the rivers, and then I made my way through Tioga Pass which has always been one of my very favorite motorcycle roads. Tioga Pass I actually like better than Yosemite. I think there's more meadows, there's more diverse terrain, granite rocks, more lakes. We went by a bunch of different lakes today as well. Made my way through Tioga Pass. Now I'm on the 395 side, kind of by Mammoth. And yeah, I went up to the top of this mountaintop overlooking Mono Lake. And yeah, I went up to the top of this mountaintop. This is a really cool hidden spot that I like to go to. Beautiful spot overlooking Mono Lake. Had to take some really bumpy, rough trails to get up here. Took me about a half an hour or so but yeah, it was definitely worth it. This trip's been all about taking the cool Sierra Nevada Mountain backroads and finding cool camp spots along the way. Tough ride and I'm beat. Tomorrow I'm going through Sonora Pass on the way home. So really we're going through all three of the tallest passes in California. So we've gone through Kaiser Pass, gone through now Tioga Pass which is the highest. Tomorrow we go through Sonora Pass. I'm gonna make my way down right now. Probably get something to eat and then find a camp spot, most likely in the Mono Mills area. I made it down from the top of Mono Dome overlooking Mono Lake here behind me which is a salt lake. So it's just a really unique type of place and it's always been one of my favorites. Just enjoying the sunset over Mono Lake and I've always really liked this area a lot. It's a really weird texture. It's got a lot of like high desert vegetation. Went on a walk. There's a bunch of animal tracks around here. Tons of bear tracks and you know little critters and a bunch of stuff that I saw out there. So yeah I gotta be aware. Yeah I'm all by myself out here doing off-road tracks. I'm really out in the wilderness. There's no one around and I'm just gonna enjoy my last night in the wilderness here before I head home through Sonora Pass tomorrow. It's my last night camping here in Mono Mills. It's a really really cold night in the night. It's in the lower 30s. I thought this would be a perfect time to use the iHood heated jacket. I'm doing some night photography here and it's really cold outside so this has been helping keep the edge off. There's a bunch of wolves and coyotes howling. I can hear animals moving around outside my tent so yeah this will kind of bring me a little comfort. I've been kind of feeling a little spooked tonight. Day four here. I'm at Mono Mills. I didn't sleep too good last night. I was hearing a bunch of animals all night. Definitely got the true wilderness experience. Got these animals running around. Found some bear tracks. I kind of got nervous. Woke up today there was a hole dug not too too far from my bike so as you can hear the coyotes and wolves howling and running in the background. Gonna hit Sonora Pass today. Go through Bridgeport, Sonora Pass and back to Fresno. I decided to explore around the Mono Lakes area and check out all the stalagmites that they had and the different rock formations that are formed from the saltwater lake. Over here on the eastern Sierra side on the 395 there's tons of different spots. Too many to show even in this video. I went over to this geological hot spring area outside of Mammoth and wanted to check out these beautiful hot springs, the rivers, and the mountains in the background. This is an area of California that really looks like no other. after exploring this geological site I headed north and went to Bodie Ghost Town. Bodie Ghost Town was the biggest town on the west coast in the late 1800s. There's an abandoned gold mine here and there's a whole community that lived up here really in the middle of nowhere. I always like to check this old western town out. Check out some of the artifacts and see how people were living. How simple life was. How harsh life was. So this is one of my favorite spots to check out before I head to Sonora Pass and then head home. I made my way through Bridgeport and then yeah finally made it here through Sonora Pass. Beautiful this time of year. Yeah Sonora Pass is beautiful this time of year. Water's still running pretty good here in the creeks. I've been seeing different animal life. Still a little bit of snow. Beautiful motorcycle roads. The kind that you dream about. So this is definitely one of my favorite roads to ride This was my first solo trip in a while so I enjoyed kind of getting out there, being in nature, getting some time to do some photography and do some videography works. I'm just going to make my way through Sonora Pass back into the valley and then back home to Fresno. So yeah overall it was a really great trip. I had fun riding solo and solo camping all the way through the Sierra Nevadas. We did the treacherous roads of Black Rock. We did Kaiser Pass and explored the unique Mono area up there. We went through Yosemite National Park and went through Tioga Pass. Then spent a couple days on the eastern Sierra before heading home on Sonora Pass. Great motorcycle roads. Great camping. Saw a lot of wildlife on this trip. Good trip overall. Glad I could share this experience of a solo adventure through the Sierra Nevada mountains.