August 10th, 2025. This was an adventure ride was organized by Prashanth. There were several riders:
Akhil (KTM 890)
Jehaan (Husqvarna FE350)
Jigar (Beta 350RR)
Prashanth (KLX300)
Prathap (Aprilia Tuareg 660)
Suraj (KTM 890)
and me (Kawasaki Super Sherpa KL250G)
Suraj, Prathap and me were the only riders that rode their bikes all the way from the Bay Area to the park. Akhil and Jehaan were together in a truck, Jigar in another and the organizer Prashanth also in his truck.
We decided to meet at Rush Creek Lodge, where the trucks would stage. Before met up, I quickly rode to the park entrance and grabbed this picture. I love this entrance sign, and have taken a picture of many of my bikes there.
The ride started out mild, with tarmac for the first few miles along Hardin Flat Road. In a couple of miles, we made a left on Forest Rd 1S12, and slowly began our ascent to the lookout. There were several FS roads involved and Prashant was navigating. It was a hot day so we took several breaks.
We reached the Trumbull Peak Lookout after a couple of hours of riding. The elevation is about 5000 feet, but it was still very hot, in the low 90s. We hydrated along the way. We then made the short hike from the trail end to the actual lookout post. It was a short 10 minute walk, and the views were awesome. The lookout sits high above Highway 140 and offers great views of the valley below. We could see the El Portal entrance (Arch Rock Entrance) out in the distance.
Along the way Jigar lost his phone. It fell off when a zipper failed on his backpack. So Jehaan and he were lagging a bit, but they caught up. He did not find his phone that day, but had to go home and geo-locate it on another device. He was then able to go back in the next week to recover and successfully find his phone.
From the peak, we rode into the park (there is a sign at the entrance, and then descended partly into the valley through the towns of Buena Vista and Foresta, both of which are located inside Yosemite National Park. We got to Big Oak Flat Rd, made a right and stopped at the small overlook for some pictures.
From there, it was a slow and long ride back to the Bay Area. I had the oldest and slowest bike there, but I was able to ride all the way back, no problems. I was able to keep it at 70 or so, but the wind does get tiring. Anyway, I made it back in good time, proud of my little Sherpa.
This post was not created or edited by any AI model in any way. It is my own writing in my own voice.
Sujit Kirpekar 