NOTE: This site's focus has shifted to Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy role-playing games, and fantasy fiction. If that sounds like your kind of thing, check out my D&D and gaming content or sign up for my free monthly newsletter for dungeon masters. The rest of this old content, motorcycling, aviation, and the like, is still here, just not browsable from the main navigation anymore.
Sunday was a riding day. The weather was perfect. Warm enough and dry. I took the Marmot route and saw a string of Mini Coopers coming the other way, at least a dozen of them out on a rally of some kind. I was in the zone and my cornering was better than usual. When I got home I had two thoughts: “I should do this again!” followed by “And I should film it!”
View Larger Map
I dug out my Oregon Scientific action camera and strapped it to my passenger foot-rest facing backward, then headed out again. Just before heading down the hill on Ten Eyke Road I started the camera rolling. Again, I was in the zone and added 5 mph to my average cornering speeds.
Marmot Road is somewhat bumpy in spots and after a few miles I began to notice the camera was twisting in its mount. It was mounted just behind my left foot and on straight stretches I was able to reach down and rotate it back to a level shooting angle. Once Marmot Road came to a T at Barlow Trail road, I pulled over to find a way to firm up the mount so it would stay level.
And that’s when I noticed the camera wasn’t even on! I turned it back on and used a piece of paper towel to wedge the camera in place. After a mile or so I glanced down to the LCD display on top of the camera and noticed it was shut off again. When I got to Lolo Pass road, the turn-around point, I pulled into a driveway and checked out the camera again. It wouldn’t turn on at all. Apparently the brand new batteries I put in it were old and wouldn’t fire it up at all.
All was not lost. Although I was unable to film the second run, I had some great riding experience and got some fantastic practice on my cornering.
