Freezeout Saddle

During the first full week on October my lovely bride and I flew to Boston toured Boston for two days then drove north to tour New Hampshire and Vermont for some leaf peeping. We started the trip eating lobster on a bun in Boston and finished the trip by eating a whole lobster in Portland Maine, it was fantastic. And by now some of you may wonder what leaf peeping and and Freezeout Saddle have in common? Leaves and photography. On this trip to took my Canon EOS Rebel SL2 camera with a 18-135 lens.

We stopped near a covered bridge where I took this photo.



A scenic turn out.



We took a tram ride up Loon Mountain. I took this shot with the Canon EOS Rebel SL2.



For what every reason I took a similar shot shot with my Samsung Galaxy S22+ phone.



Later I compared the photos and I was shocked the Canon image was rubbish compared to the cellphone. How about that!?

Upon returning home with weather was perfect so I decided to ride to Freezeout Saddle and hopefully find some fall color and get in an end of season dual sport ride. Here is the route and elevation profile.





I rode this route counterclockwise so the ride along the St. Joe River was into the sun making photography difficult.

I got lucky here with the sunlight but there were power wires in the original photo but I managed to remove those.



St. Joe River



At a creek crossing. Fall colors so far have been elusive.



Somewhere along the way the GPS lost satellite signal and was out for about 5 miles despite rebooting the GPS and having a clear view of the sky, aka I was not in a canyon. In the future I will bring my spare GPS with me because maps won't cut it unless you know where you are and direction signs are missing and vandalized. I had my phone with me and downloaded maps to the phone but it is much easier to just plug in spare GPS.

I considered a Garmin Zumo XT2 but will pass. Garmin and I have a philosophical difference on how these things should work. Garmin wants you to use your phone to create a route on a Garmin app by plugging in a few places, then Garmin will decide how to get you there. I want follow a specific route and will plug in enough points to force the darn device to follow the route I want and I can't see doing that on my phone. Maybe on a large tablet but not a phone. Back to the photos.

The road.



At times the ride was challenging with loose gravel to large erosion ruts with rock. My skid plate came in handy today as did my off road boots as I felt and heard rock bouncing off the boots and skid plate. The loose gravel was like riding on marbles.

The huckleberry bushes provide fall color. Yeah! I like this ride with its expansive vista. Some rides are in logging areas or in a hall of trees where the views are limited or logged off hillsides.

More fall color and it is getting better.







I love this view!



So far all the photos were shot with my Canon S100 pocket camera. Remembering my photos from New England I stopped to strip a layer and take some shots with the Samsung Galaxy S22+ cellphone. The photos I shot with the cellphone have much more pop and vivid color than the Canon S100 camera. Wow what a difference.





The mighty DR650. Why is it mighty? Check out the reviews on YouTube about the new Honda Transalp 750 and the Yamaha T7. The DR650 is a better bike what I am doing than either of these bikes, plus I have better suspension, lower center of gravity and and less weight.







The higher quality cellphone photos are making me think how I can get better photos on the go in the future. I have all winter to consider this as dual sport season is likely over until next June.

Until next year and thanks for following along.