March 26 was probably the best riding day of the seven Okeechobee Rotary Club LOST Rides I’ve been on. The temperature was just about perfect and the winds weren’t bad. I wish I had put on sunscreen about mid-morning, though.
If you took the time to look around, there were gators and wading birds galore. This was taken at Nubbin Slough. The black dots in the water are alligators. This is where a boy had his arm ripped off in 2008.
Video instead of stills
I normally put up a large number of still photos in a gallery. This year I concentrated on trying to capture the spirit of the event in a video shot with one camera looking forward and the other aft. (By the way, that annoying “click-click-click” noise is the carabiner attached to the video camera’s safety lanyard. I’m going to have to find a solution that is quick to release, but doesn’t make noise picked up by the mike.)
The “flow” was different this year, too. Usually I shoot the group start, which puts me at the end of the pack. I can usually work my way through about a third of the group of slower riders by about the 15-mile mark, at which time a lot of the faster riders are on their way back.
This year there seemed to be fewer “slow” riders and the faster riders were more scattered.
Henry Creek rest area
Ice-cold water, grapes and other goodies were welcome as the sun started beating down. Rumors that Henry Creek would be a beer stop were unfounded. (Or, maybe I just didn’t know the password.)
Folks along the trail were friendly
With very few exceptions, everybody on the LOST – bikers, joggers, dog walkers, volunteers – smiled, waved or spoke as we passed each other.
Nubbin Slough 10-mile point
Nubbin Slough was at the 10-mile marker. A 20-mile out-and-back trip was enough of a challenge for some riders. Others, like this biker, did the full 54.7 miles to Port Mayca and back to the start.
I hope the riders doing the Loop the Lake for Literacy this weekend have weather as good as we had.
Great job Ken! I appreciate more what you bike riders endure!! Thank you for sharing your ride while I waited back at the starting point:)
I’m not sure that I’d use the word “endure.” I’d rather think in terms of “enjoy.”
I told some of my newbie friends that even on those days when you have a flat at mosquito o’clock or you’re riding into a cold, rainy headwind, you’re accumulating war stories to be shared.
Now, jogging, THAT’S something that looks like it has to be endured.
Nice shots and the noise in the video didn’t bother me one bit. Gave real a feel for the ride.
I hate odd noises on a long ride. You get familiar with what your bike sounds like, so anything out of the ordinary causes excessive, obsessive investigation.
I once put a camera lens filter in a case that was just large enough that it would rattle around when I put it in my handlebar bag. Tracking that down just about drove me crazy.
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Woah! Those hills (there were two weren’t there?)looked brutal!
Beautiful trail and a great bunch of riders. Sunshine as usual; a lot like Tucson, except for those hills.
Ken,
I like the way that you have edited the film together with front facing and rear facing shots. A nice job all-in-all, but you left out your mug this year. No one got to see you, or your bike all laden with video equipment. Tho’ I live in Okeechobee, I didn’t take my trike out on this ride, as I thought the price to participate had gotten a little higher than I could afford. I did make the exact same ride today (April 3) by my self on my Catrike.
Hope to see you on the trail again soon…
Tom in Okeechobee
Nice job on the video of the LOST ride. How about some still shots of your camera setup. How did you get such steady shots and how did you switch to the rear facing view? Nice coverage of the event.
Thanks for the compliment. My video setup is still a work in progress.
Here’s what the front mount looks like.
When I got tired of filming biker butts, I added a rear-facing mount. It was intended to be temporary, so I made it so it could be removed easily. As it turned out, I leave it on all the time.
Because you have to move your handlebars to maintain balance, particularly at slows speeds, the rear facing camera is much more stable.
Here’s another video where I used a mixture of front and rear cameras (I picked up a second camera at a good price, so I don’t have to keep swapping the one body).
I’m starting to get the hang of how to shoot video, capture audio and edit a little tighter. It’s still a major challenge when you’re learning on the fly.
One other observation about the Rotary ride video. It was about three times as long as it should have been, but I wanted to try to get as many riders in it as possible.
If I was putting together for a non-participant audience, I’d have cut it a lot tighter.
The Atlanta riders on their way to Key West is a better example of the direction I’d like to head.
The Atlanta riders video was nice. You did a really nice job on it. It is tough getting a tight video edited. Most people’s attention span is no more than a couple of minutes or so. Your LOST video has some nice transitions from passing to the rear camera. Really gives a nice continuity to the video. It’s nice to tell a story like you do with video. Nice but VERY time consuming. That is why I appreciate your videos. I know what it takes to end up with a nice tight story. Thanks. Nice work.