[dave6253]

Highway 190 through the Sequoia National Monument was probably the most perfect motorcycle road of the entire trip. The sharp curves were almost non-stop with very little straights between. I forgot I had ridden over 700 miles today already. I began riding aggressively driving hard out of each corner and braking hard just before the turn. I was really hard on the front tire. This would come back to haunt me. There was some light traffic, but each car would immediately use a turnout to let me pass.









I kicked back here for a few minutes to rest with a cold drink.



Once I put the camera away, I never saw the Mini again.



I reach the golden hills of California in the valley west of the mountains.





I saw several campgrounds near this lake. They looked pretty full, but maybe I should've tried to stay there. It's getting late when I arrive at the Sequoia National Park. I camped here with the family about 3 years ago. I figured I would enter the park and find a camping spot. When I got to the gate I saw a sign indicating all the campgrounds were full except for 2 on the far north side of the park.









The sun starts to go down while in the park. It starts getting dark earlier in the tall trees. I put the camera away and try to get out of the park. I figure if I have to drive to the far side of the park for a camp site I might as well run down the mountain to Fresno.



I really wanted better photos of the Giant Sequoias, but it's getting dark.





The ride through the park was much longer than I remembered it would be from my last visit. It was difficult to make time behind long lines of slow moving cars. It became completely dark when I was about halfway done. The ride down into Fresno was also much longer than I remembered. I make it into Fresno at about 10:30 pm. I'm really tired now. I don't plan to stay in motels so must make it to the KOA north of town. After several frustrating navigation errors I make it to the KOA just before midnight. Deep sand in the KOA roads made finding a camp site an adventure. I managed to keep the bike upright.



944 miles and 22 hours from home to first camp

This was my longest day ever on a bike. I would have been happy to stop after 700-800 miles, but misjudged the distance and time it would take to the KOA. I really don't care about trying to ride alot of miles just to say I did. If I really wanted to ride this many miles there are much easier roads to make time on.

Day 2 is next.