Descending Tioga Pass (and Hiatus 2024)

This is the last video for a while. I am going on hiatus. A bunch of reasons, but a lot of it has to do with me being burned out of social media and its abuse. We are constantly being pounded each day with a lot of the same images and videos combined with ads. A lot of the artistic ideas and fun has been taken out of the creation process because of this. I have mentioned this over and over again in the past years. I did again at the beginning blogs of this year. 

Every time I log into something I feel like saying, "Just back off a little." This is this the reason I like to space stuff I do out over weeks. But that is me, and not others. The other part is I want to do other things than what I have been doing. That takes time and money. So you might see a few blog entries this year, but in the big picture of things I am taking some time off to find other things I can do in the long term for this blog and videos that I find fun.

This video is on the day I flew the drone at Saddlebag and Tioga Lakes. The sound was really loud, bad, and noisy. I added music, but you might want to just turn it off or listen to the radio or wherever you get music. I hope you enjoy:

Flying Over Saddlebag

 This is the last of this series I will be doing for a while. It is also the one I think I had the best conditions for this flight. Originally, I wanted to takeoff from a spot closer to the lake near just past the trailhead. However, when I got there I saw a sign that said "No Drone Zone." I knew something was not right about that since I know the rules of flying in areas like this. I had done my homework ahead of time. Yet, the reason I did not take off from there was I did not want a bunch of people asking me if I had seen the sign or worse calling someone on me. Basically, the sign refers to flying over the boundaries of a wilderness area. At this time, the wilderness area starts on the other side of the lake. I'll get back to this, but I had already checked my drone apps on flying in all the areas I had done so I knew I was legal. 

This is Saddlebag Lake. I have shown a bunch from this area before. The conditions for this were amazing on a sunny day. About a month before this the area was covered with snow. In fact, I do not think the people connected with Saddlebag Lake ever officially opened because of the how long the winter was in 2023. So, the lake was really full. I have been here in the past (some past blog I showed early on) where the lake was really low and those times make it really sad around here.

The color of the lake was really beautiful. 

Just past the end of the lake is Greenstone Lake. I have lots of good memories here. My dad, cousins, and friends have all fished this lake. If I remember correctly there is a least one big rock under the water that the water gives a green look to.

I had forgotten Mt. Conness was the one on the upper left. I thought it was the one front and just above the middle of the picture (North Peak). In any case, this was about my limit on the flight because the wilderness area boundary is right near Greenstone Lake. There was a little more I would have like to have done around this lake, but I did not want to take more chances of doing something stupid here. 

If you watch the video you will see that I came back here again for a second look. The first time I took a bunch of pictures and just wanted to fly with the video uninterrupted the second time around. 

On the way back, I wanted to get a few shots of Mt. Dana in the background. In the video, you can see someone hiking in the snow on the right side.

This is about half-way back.

The dam. 

I was so excited about the conditions here that I told my brother we need to come back and hike the areas the following week. The next week we came back and the area was starting a major storm at the trailhead! I was so disappointed as we got closer to the trailhead. We just turned around. As I always say, nature does not play by rules! 

This will be the last of the drone flights for a while. I had a few others, but maybe some other time down the road or I will redo them in different conditions. 

Flying Over Saddlebag (Youtube Video)