m3dragon

Disclaimer:
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This a pay your own way event. This means even me the organizer pays my own way to attend. Organizing drives is my hobby and I enjoy putting the events on. I also pay for the website and store system out of my own pocket to make sharing information and registering easier on everyone.
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Register here for the weekend:

Mammoth, Devils Postpile, Yosemite Road Trip – September 20-21 2014

The Mammoth Road Trip is a fun, two-day event that will start with a drive through the Sierra Nevada Mountains along some of the best roads in Northern California. Be ready for a lot of twists and turns and some breath taking scenery. Your car will get quite the workout, as we will be at altitude for the entire drive to the overnight stop.

The trip will start with a fun morning of twists and turns. We will stop at the Mono Lake Visitor Center to have lunch, which will be provided. After lunch, there will be a short scenic drive around Grant, Silver, and June Lakes as we make our way to the Devils Postpile. Here people will be able to hike and take pictures of one of the great geological formations of the area.

Day two will take the group through Yosemite for some valley hikes and images of one of the great national parks of North America. The afternoon will conclude with a drive to the Yosemite Sugar Pine Railway where people can ride the steam train or just hang out with other participants. The end of the road trip will be in Merced where participants can then make their way home.

Fees schedule

Included in the cost are the hotel, continental breakfast, decals, one boxed lunch, event insurance, and shipping. You can add another boxed lunch for $15. Additional fees not included are Devils Postpile, Yosemite, and rail road stop.

Option 1: King bed - $231

Option 2: Dual Queens - $231

I advise if you don't have one, to get the year National Park Pass, as it can save you some money. We are seeing two National Parks this trip and if you do the Epic South West next year you will need this. Cost is $80 for a year.
http://store.usgs.gov/pass/index.html

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Day 1: Meeting Location

Date: September 20th 2014
Address: Starbucks - 4311 Town Center Boulevard, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
Time: 8:00am
Depart: 8:30am – Trip begins.

Activity: Registration and assist with decal application

There will be two major check points on the first leg of the drive for the group to get back together as well as take images of all the cars participating.

Lunch stop will be at the Mono Lake Visitor Center (box lunch to be provided)

Address: 336 Visitor Center Dr, Lee Vining, CA
Time: ~12:30pm arrive with a 30 or so minute lunch stop

After lunch, there will be a short scenic drive around Grant, Silver, and June Lakes on our way to the Devils Postpile.

Address: Devils Postpile - Pacific Crest Trail, Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546
Time: ~1:30pm till you are ready to go to the hotel.

Hotel for the road trip is – Quality Inn and Suites.
- Includes continental breakfast
Address: 3537 Main Street, Mammoth Lakes, CA 9354
Time: ~ 6:00pm

Dinner at: Slocums Grill & Bar - 3221 Main Street, Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546
Time: 6:30pm till you are tired or the bar closes


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Day 2: Yosemite Valley and a Steam Train

This day will be focused on making stops at several overlooks on the road into the Yosemite Valley. Once the group reaches the Yosemite Valley, we will make the loop around the Valley with stops to see the major attractions. We will leave from the hotel at 8:30am on the DOT!!!

Stops on the drive in will include views of:
- Half Dome
- Yosemite Valley
- Sierra Nevada Mountain rage
- El Capitan
- Yosemite Falls

Lunch stop will be at the Yosemite Village, which has several food options.
Time: ~ 12:30 – 1:30 for Lunch

After lunch, we will make our way to the Sugar Pine Railway for a ride on a steam train or to hang out one last time before we all make our way home.

Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad
Address: 56001 California 41, Fish Camp, CA 93623
Time: 2:30pm 3:30PM

After the train stop, participants are welcome to make their way home as they see fit. For those heading back to the Bay Area and Sacramento, the drive will head toward Merced where they can jump on HWY 99 to head north. Those heading back to Southern California can take HWY 41 to Fresno to make their way south on HWY 99.


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If you have any questions, please email me, as I don't always get notified that a post happened.
norcal.drivers@gmail.com

Register here for the weekend:

Grzldvt1

Sorry but I have to say something, normally I could care less about these cruises, but being an almost weekly visitor to the areas you are promoting from May through October and have an intimate knowledge of the areas you are going into, I have to jump in for the safety of others.
I am really curious as to how you are going to give your car a "workout" without endangering lives of the participants, those on the road and animal life, especially in Yosemite, where stupid driving from the thousands of tourists is the norm. Yes, September is somewhat quieter, but they are still out there, and trust me even in October I have seen some unbelievable driving from tourists on Tioga Road and the Valley.
You seem to be promoting fast driving that should be left for the track, not the streets, especially those areas loaded with tourists that stop for no reason on Tioga Road because they THINK they saw a bear or a deer.
Would be really interesting to see a whole caravan pulled over at Olmsted Point by the hidden radar Park Police for race car driving, or a whole caravan crashing into each other because you are giving your cars a "workout" and have to avoid someone stopped taking pics of Mt Clark Range on Tioga road.
Trust me I have seen it.

Plus as an organizer promoting giving your caravan a workout are you ready/insured to take on the liability of those actions?

m3dragon

Grzldvt1 - thank you for your concerns but I wish to mention a few points.

1. "Your car will get quite the workout, as we will be at altitude" - as noted in the post. I do not assume any liability as I am telling the truth as cars as we all know do not perform well at altitude.

2. We are not a bunch of hooligans out to terrorize the roads. This is a road trip to have fun. There are some roads I know we can have fun on while others we just need to sit back and enjoy the sights.

I do not tolerate crazy driving and in the 12 years I have done drives I have only had to kick out 2 people that were driving like idiots. From your post you are not interested which is fine, but I am not promoting street racing or being stupid.

TitaniumZ51

I would like to chime in also. Before nailing someone to the proverbial cross, be an adult and email the organizer with questions before tooting your horn with out all the facts. I emailed the organizer, asked my questions and made a fact based choice. I also know these roads. Grew up and have been back many times in all kinds of vehicles. This run is nothing more than similar to our Rainbow Run that the Syndicate puts on each year. Also on this run are cars that cost way more $$$ than a Corvette. I do not think individuals are going to risk thousands in damage to there cars. Unlike Corvettes obtainable by 24 year olds and drive it drunk because they do not know the capability or power of the car they have purchased for 20k. With that being said, please fellow Corvette drivers, email and ask. The organizer is very quick to respond and you can make a factual informed choice. My .02

Grzldvt1

Seriously!!!! cars have not altitude issues since the late 70's, so I read this as a pushing the limits of the road in an area loaded with ignorant tourists as many will also.
As far as PM'ing not going to be sorry I have put on 15+ organized Yosemite/Death Valley runs for the Forum and pushed/emphasized the fact that this is not a time to push your car through twisties. In fact I emphasized on my runs we will be doing lower than the speed limit due to the danger of tourists stopping on the road and the possibility of crashes. It is extremely dangerous. People that have not been there need to know, henceforth the public post.
Hopefully the OP has huge Liabillty insurance, or a disclaimer, which is sketchy at best, which is why I stopped my organizing my runs.
After I crashed my car on a Death Valley Run, I checked with a lawyer as to my liability as the leader of a cruise, and in this state where lawsuits prevail or stupidity and I stopped my organizing runs/cruises.

TitaniumZ51

The Euro cars do. My vette does not do optimum performance in high altitude. From my understanding you have had quite a few crashes with vettes.

Let people make their own choices and do not be so closed minded. People are responsible for themselves and consequences of their actions good or bad.

Who made you the end all to interpret this cruise anyway??

Ttt for Adam.....

Grzldvt1

Really, multiple crashes Name them and show the posts
People are absolutely NOT responsible for their actions. Really what world do you live in, we live in one of the most litigious states on planet.

m3dragon

Just so you know, this is posted not just on this forum but others. I make a general text and post the same way on each forum. While modern cars only loose about 10-15% of their power at altitude, some of the older cars that do come along lose more. Example being the Opel Gt, and E-type Jag guys that come along. Those cars suffer a lot at altitude.

As I said I have been doing drives for over a decade. I have talked, checked, double, and triple, checked all the details about liability and yada yada. While I do not need to share this you do not need to worry, I am not a idiot as you so think.

Also you said that you used to orginize drives, so as someone who has put in the time for people I would assume there would be some more respect in the effort involved.

Lastly the title says Road Trip. This is meant that we do some driving but also see sights. If you want to do a drive drive, then come one of my day drives. This is meant to be a social and fun event, not the terrorize a beautiful national park as you keep saying we will.

If you wish to be a Debbie downer on this post more go for it. I have nothing further to discuss as mentioned this is not the only forum this is on and you are obviously never going to join any of these drives. I wish you the best in any event if you ever plan one again and safe travels on the road.

TitaniumZ51

Nicely put!

tuxnharley

Well, unless a car has a super charger or turbo charger, altitude IS going to effect its power output, whether its a 1967 Corvette or a 2014.

While the specific result depends on other variables such as temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure, a general rule of thumb is that an internal combustion engine looses 3% of its power for every 1000 feet of elevation gain.

Thus, if we're talking about driving over Tioga pass at almost 10,000 feet (9960 actually), a naturally aspirated car will be down about 30% on power. A 400 HP car will be netting out at 280 HP there.

The thing is that modern cars generally have so much power that the average driver won't notice the loss when driving moderately!

TitaniumZ51

Yup. I agree!!

SacVette

Is this a Corvette's only cruise or a mixed bag? We're in El Dorado Hills and would love to join our first cruise in our new baby. If this isn't a Corvettes only cruise are there any coming up?

m3dragon

The drives I do are for any motor enthusiast. Mostly Euro car attend with a mix of other domestic brands. There is one Z06 owner that comes to almost every drive. He has a C6 Z06 in a rare blue, sorry don't know the name.

As long as you like cars and want to enjoy a road trip any and all are welcome.

Images from the Redwoods road trip we did in April
http://www.raddrives.com/drives/albu...Roadtrip_2014/

Grzldvt1

Said what I had to say. I strongly advise taking the terms windy and twisty out of your posts as this can be interpreted by the courts as a pushing the car to the limits on a street surface and in a National Park like Yosemite, man you are ripe. I know of a situation where there was a crash and the organizer got sucked into the law suit. There were lots of innuendo's about speed and the "windy twisty roads where we can maximize our cars handling." Not this group but he lost his A$$
It is why I stopped doing them and I had all the same disclaimers a lawyer told me to have that he had. M3 You really need to put in your posts that this is a sane cruise, not a tire test and we will be driving the speed limits. If you want to go faster you do so at your own risk and not as a part of my cruise.
Will never head up another cruise, as I stated people are not responsible for themselves and some are looking for an excuse.

Tuxnharley, not so sure about those numbers, which I also found on the Net. I took a PT Cruiser(which let's face it pretty pathetic in performance) up over Mt Hamilton with 3 people with no noticeable difference, then 5 days later over Tioga Pass with 3 people, full backpacks equal to the weight a 4th person, full tank of gas, a two large, very full coolers, and the Cruiser had no trouble at all climbing up Lee Vining Canyon(a 7% grade for 6-7 miles, as far as I was concerned a very small difference in performance. In fact I was all over the cars in front of me and yes I was geared down but no way was I high on RPM's or losing 30% horsepower, geez I would have never been able to make it up the 7% grade with a 30% loss of power on a PT Cruiser. The poor thing only has 150 HP and weighs 2 tons
According to my BIL, who was Chief Engineer for Ford's ECM, it figures out what is going and and adjusts for altitude. I wlll go with the guy that was part of the ECM design of what the ECM is supposed to do.

Titanium, you did not answer my question about the crashes, so where and when. I am calling you out on that. Don't give me that elementary school 6th grade made up rumors crap, what cruises I organized have had crashes? Sorry but you don't make a statement like that and walk, or you own up to the fact you made it up.

TitaniumZ51

Steve you crashed your blue one around 2007 and then you mention your own crash on a Yosemite trip. Look back over your posts. They tell a story.

Quit trying to be the all God of Corvette drivers. You said your piece and others have said theirs. I am very picky who I cruise with and who drives in front and behind me. I trust few drivers. The ones I do know who they are.

I surely have and would not cruise with your crowd again.

If ya don't like it, lump it as my parents used to say.

The forum has heard your rants. Now don't you have a business to run???

xlr8rvette

grzldvt1, thank you for speaking up. I was under the same impression you were when I read the original post. Sounds like a stupid run to me...No thanks !

m3dragon

TitaniumZ51, thanks for the support on the thread. I am used to the bashing over the years and it comes with organizing a event that is open to all.

I post to this forum for those individuals who have a open mind and want to have a fun road trip and do not so hung up on the semantics of the post.

People like Grzldvt1 would never come on my drive as I am a unknown person as well as I invite other car types. No offense to you Grzldvt1.

If one or no cars from this forum come that is what it is. I will continue to put the invite out to anyone who wants to come.

tbirdsps

I hardly ever look at the Northern Ca. posts but I'm pretty much at the crossroads of north and south. When I read the post my immediate thought was what a fun event this will be. In my mind was lots of right and left turns, up and down the mountains through a few of the most beautiful areas of California if not the country. I've been to all those places. Not once did I interpret "workout" as high speed driving.

I've always wanted to make a trip like this.

I think the over-reaction commitee is working overtime here.

TitaniumZ51

Thank you M3 and tbird. We are all adults here!

Grzldvt1

Sorry, Yes I do have a very successful business to run, henceforth my absence. I have been spending my time preparing cars for Monterey week. My customer list would make most detailers, and outside observers(this forum) wet their pants.

My crash and fully admitted on this forum... was the ultimate in stupidity, henceforth my more than justified rant.
Uh 2007, not even close, so that tells me you are completely clueless, I will give you a hint happened in my C5, not my C6. Get your facts correct, or geez even come close.... This certainly gives me a clue you have no idea what you are talking about.

I have the experience that most don't have. Not trying to be the God of all Corvette drivers, but based where this cruise is going and the fact that I spend more time on the same identical roads than anyone in this forum, I have a very vested interest, not only from the organizer perspective, a liability perspective, the participants and their safety perspective, and the fact that visitors that are clueless, and don't obey the rules of the road, it seems we need to get a grip on reality.

Go into a National Park with the precursor of pushing the windy's and twisty's due to altitude, really , is the ultimate in stupidity and no clue what is really going to happen, IMO.

If you look at my cruise posts, I am very specific, and backed by the participants that in no way shape or form do we push the limits. I clearly state that my runs are not a tire test, or stress the limits of your car in Yosemite. I am the absolute opposite, we will be dealing with tourists that have no idea how to drive mountain roads and patience will be the ultimate test. If you are expecting to push your car to the limits, this is NOT the run for you, it will in fact be quite the opposite.

Did I make a mistake in Death Valley with .05% of the population and stupidity of Yosemite, you bet, and a lesson to be learned by others. But Yosemite and its boundary roads are a whole different situation, and from my postings, pushed the fact that we were NOT going to be pushing the limits. I was quite the opposite and set an expectation. Something you need to do when you venture into Yosemite at any time of the year.

Chose who who want to cruise with but you would not be welcome in one of mine were I of the mentality to put one together again. The fact that you think pushing the windy's and twisty's due to altitude is OK. Totally Clueless, IMO......

Sorry but as I stated the consulting with a lawyer that has specialty in car cruises, the liability is just too great to do again.

I totally get where the OP is coming from and truly lust doing the Yosemite runs once again as my route was the ultimate in seeing the best of the best of the park, but knowing what i know at this point,,, not going to happen.