note: all of the thumbnails start here. You can click on a thumbnail to see the bigger picture, and then click on that to see the biggest picture. The thumbnails in the text below are selected from the bigger set of pictures, which were in turn selected from the larger set of originals.
About 3pm on Friday, 30 June, I took off across the valley using my Coral Hollow, Ripon, Knight's Ferry route to get to 108. The weather was surprisingly mild but of course warm. I took it easy with my loaded bike and somewhat aggressive dirt tire, stopping often for gas and hydration, but finally found the dirt road leading to Lake Leavitt a little after 6pm.
This dirt road is a bit technical and I would not attempt it under good circumstances with a family sedan. You want at least a truck and preferably four-wheel drive. Today, there is a lot of water and even snow on the road. In fact, the first water crossing was a challenge for me.
The bike had started missing on one cylinder but I thought this was because of the altitude. I was just below 9000' and climbing and I knew I needed to change the jets on my carburetors. I got to the water crossing and though it was not long, it was steep on both sides, the current was strong, and it seemed deep. So I decided to proceed slowly trusting to my dirt tire to get me through.
That didn't work so good. The stones on the bottom were round and slippery and I stalled out. I had to put my boots down and they were immediately soaked since the water was over my axles. Worse, I couldn't get any power out of the bike as one cylinder was absolutely not firing and the tire was slipping. Eventually, by rocking, I got the bike out of the water. As I had the bike at full throttle to get any power at all, I was startled when the other cylinder suddenly caught and now I was doing a hill climb over rocks until I got the bike back under control.
The rest of the road was all uphill, on mostly one cylinder, with lots of rocks, water, and even snow. Squeezing through a track in one snow bank, I scraped off snow on my cylinders.
At about 7pm, I came to a campground and the 2nd water crossing.
. There were several 4-wheelers camping
nearby and I talked with one of them about the crossing. It was
longer than the other one, but less steep and no deeper or stronger.
I was about to cross when the fellow pointed out that there was
a snow bank across the road about 100 feet further.
So I camped in a very pretty spot.
I ran
over a small snowbank with my bike 
and
used the track to refrigerate my milk and sake.
I was doing this campout to determine how much I needed to acclimate to altitude in preparation for climbing Mt. Whitney in September. I did indeed have a headache all night and in the morning. Morning coffee (made in my titanium coffee press, thank you) helped. In retrospect, I think I was actually dehydrated rather than bothered by the altitude.
In the morning, I took off my boots to wade across the water, and
then hiked up to the lake. Indeed the road was covered with snow 
but along the ridge 
the snow was melted and I could have
ridden my bike almost all the way to the lake. Unfortunately, just
before the lake, the snow became total. 
So it was good that I had stopped where I
did the previous evening.
My camp was at 9360' according to a GPS owned by one of the 4-wheel
campers. The hike up was easy but it was clear that I needed to train
more at altitude. This became more clear as I climbed higher. I saw
some kids glisading down a (lower) snowy slope while their parent
fished at the lake. 
I intended
to climb only to this lower slope, but ended up climbing to the
highest point in this picture, which I later estimated to be at least
10,000'.
The climb was very difficult because the slope was very steep and I had my choice of surfaces: snow or very loose scree. Had I crampons, the snow would have been the obvious choice: as it was, it was a toss-up and I did either one or the other. Snow was hard because of the effort of making steps and the scree was so loose that I could not avoid sliding backwards at every step.
Finally, I reached solid rock, after about an hour of difficult
scrambling. 
I could
start to see small lakes on the other side of this ridge 
and have a good view of Lake Leavitt
itself. 
It is clear that I could not have done this with a heavy
backpack. I didn't bring any food with me, I'm tired, and
I'm eating snow. It would be possible now to hike through the
low trees up to the next peak 
but
I decide I am too tired. Much further away, I can see
Mt. Leavitt. 
I took another look at the eastern Sonora pass 
and then I came down much faster than I
had come up, especially since I started glisading down the snowy
slopes, including one that was rather long and steep. Back down
at the lake, I walked around a bit admiring how the water was
gushing from the lake underneath the snow bridge I was crossing. 
I rested and walked around the rest of the day and replaced the 150 jets in my carbs with 130s. And discovered that a vacuum tube had come off of the right carb. No wonder I had only one cylinder! I started the bike up and it ran sweetly.
I left the next morning, Sunday. First I had coffee and
oatmeal. My gas canister was empty, so I built a cookfire and got my
pots a bit dirty. I started packing up my camp 
with its creekside foliage 
, took a last look at what I had hiked 
, and took off.
The road now had now snow on it. Too many 4-wheelers had been up and down it it and it was all mud and rocks. Clearly the road will be open up to the lake in a few weeks if not sooner. At the water crossing, I just gunned it. Those slipper rocks were still there and I had to get one boot wet, but made it through without stopping.
The bike ran very nicely now. I stopped for gas in Bridgeport,
stopped at Mono Lake for the views (and water) 
and then took off for Tioga Pass,
which was just gorgeous in the bright light and cool air.
I had to stop for the requisite photo at Olmsted Point 
showing the back side of Half Dome. And I
stopped for a few other shots as well.
I was headed to check out my favorite Yosemite campground: Yosemite Creek. The road there is bad so it is usually not filled. And there is a condemned bridge, easily crossed with a motorcycle, that leads to semi-abandoned campgrounds.
The road to the campground was closed with a gate. So I rode into
the valley. 
The valley
was beautiful in this weather 
and the
waterfalls were at full volume 
as were
the crowds. The road through the valley was packed with cars,
sometimes double parking to get photos. (It was easy to pull in
a motorcycle and get shots.)
At the visitor center, I found out that the road to Yosemite Creek was washed out. It might be open in August. It could be passable by a motorcycle, but first you'd have to get by the gate.
After lunch in valley, I took off to Groveland. Turned out there was a fire on Priest Grade, so I took that back way via Coulterville. It was extremely hot. I had to take off my leather pants and soak my water vest. I rode straight through Modesto and didn't stop until I needed gas in Tracy. There I rehydrated and enjoyed the cooler weather after the Altamont Pass. I made it home almost too cool and could relax and start cleaning everything.
I also noted that I got 6mpg more with the smaller jets (about 40mpg) and the bike ran great at the lower altitude. Yes, I know there is danger of running too lean, but I think I will leave the smaller jets in for a while as this means a significant increase in range.