I have posted on the site about taking a motorcycle camping trip with my son. Well we finally did it and it was as great as I had hoped. It started on the wrong foot when two weeks before my trip when I was riding my bike up to Tahoe (where we were taking off from), I noticed a knocking in the engine. I pulled over and listened to it and it was definitely coming from the engine (I was hoping something was loose). I drove the 5 miles to the cabin (fortunately I was close) and had a local mechanic take a look. He listened to it and his first reaction was “chit, that is not good”. Had the bike towed back to Bay Area to a local mechanic and found out that the lifter failed (Jim’s stock lifter). It torpedoed the whole bottom end – flywheel, cam, cam plate, oil pump etc.. But, this is not about my bike and its soon to be expensive fix but rather about the trip with my kid. So, I rented a bagger at Reno Harley and off we went.
Anyway, trip was awesome. We headed down 89 to 395 across 120 through Yosemite and up to 88 toward Kirkwood and back around to the North Shore of Lake Tahoe. We only covered a couple hundred miles per day but that just seemed to be the pace we were on. The first day we stopped at a ton of places and camped at a campsite on a river just south of Walker. The second day we spent much of the day at Bodie checking out the oldest Western ghost town in America. None of the campsites we stayed at had showers so we would stop at rivers and wash ourselves during the day and meander through towns stopping a lot.
Some of the highlights include:
My son never seemed to get tired of getting on and off the bike and riding which was great. He is only 10 and I was curious if he would get tired.
He met some cool people and he really liked talking to them and got a kick out of all the other Harley riders we met who thought it was pretty cool he was on a motorcycle trip with his dad.
We slept really well (good tent, sleeping bag and most importantly a good sleeping pad) and picked some great camp sites.
Tried to fish but didn’t catch anything
Most importanty, we had some great conversations and he really got to pick what he wanted to do and see. He loved Bodie. He loved stopping at a couple hot springs we passed and he loved setting up the tent site at night and then exploring the campsite area.
It was a great experience and I am planning to do some one night camping trips with my son again and my daughter next year who will be 9 yrs old.
Here are some pics.
First Camp Site
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Topic: Motorcycle Camping Trip with Son (Read 4841 times)