Easter Sunday – it’s become one of my favorite motorcycle traditions here in the Bay Area. Easter has come late this year, April 20th to be exact. That means the sun gets up extra early, which means we’ve got to follow suit as time goes quickly. Every year, I tell myself I must be in bed by 8 o’clock – but that never happens. I tell myself it’s like jet lag – but that never really works. I remind myself of the details:

• I need to be up at 03:30 a.m.
• So that I can hop on the bike at 04:30 a.m.
• So that I can be at the staging area by 05:30 a.m.
• To catch the sun at 06:30 22 a.m.

Eventually, I was asleep by 10 o’clock, which I consider a win. Many of my fellow riders got less sleep than I did. Morning came early, but I was doing okay with five good hours of sleep.

Now that I was confident that my new suit fit, it was time to figure out how to stay warm. Temperatures were in the low 50s. Some years were considerably colder. The low 50s weren’t warm, but I could work with it. Since I didn’t have much room to work with between my body and the suit, I put my long underwear against my skin for my upper body and a heavy T-shirt. On my lower body, I just wore jeans. I was instantly getting hot inside the house, so I quickly made haste, rolled the bike out of the garage, and hit the road at 04:32 a.m.

The roads were quiet all around me. From freeway to freeway, I was mostly enveloped in darkness. Even going through the Caldecott tunnel, no cars were around me. I could see the city lights far off in the distance, but it was an eerie feeling not being amongst aggressive traffic during the commute or throughout the busy Bay Area day. It wasn’t until I got down to Interstate 80 that I was amongst people.

Crossing the Richmond–San Rafael bridge, I had yet to see another motorcycle. Every year, I can spot motorcycles joining this Bay Area tradition. Not this year. I flew solo until the meet-up at Tam Junction. Arriving at the Tam Junction gas station, the concrete pad was full of motorcycles. Each year I go, I pick up a few new friends. This year was no different. At this point, however, I reached quorum in my social capital. I felt like I knew enough people throughout this community, especially the F early motorcycle riders, and I enjoyed the conversation before we kicked off to climb the mountain.

I don’t normally ride this ride during the day, much less at night. There’s always a little bit of trepidation for me wandering through the dark of night with a bunch of riders I’m not used to riding with on a regular basis. However, seeing the squiggle of headlights and taillights climb the mountain this early in the morning never gets old.

As we start climbing the mountain earnestly, we get into a massive fog belt. Temperatures instantly plummeted from the mid 50s to the low 40s. Not only did we lose 10 degrees, but it also got damp air all around us. The heavy mist made the chill area feel colder, and riding through the redwoods had a gentle set of raindrops dripping off the trees in the dark of night. I hoped this was a thin fog belt we would climb through rather than a massive low-lying cloud that would abscond any semblance of a sunrise. After about 10 to 15 minutes of cold riding, we poked through the clouds like an airplane on its ascent.

Once we were out of the fog, warm air circled us. We gained back those 10 degrees and then some. But once we came around the next turn, I could see the fog extend below us as far as the eye could see. Not only could I see the mist, but I could also see the rich color of the impending sunrise. Dark blues and purples owned the retreating night sky with deep reds and burgeoning oranges on the horizon. The fog magnified the colors and extended their reach as far as the eye could see. Seeing so many things come together was a stunning moment in my motorcycling career.

I arrived at Mount Tamilpias East Peak a few minutes after six. Sunrise was at 6:22 AM. Usually, I like to climb the mile to the fire tower, but I didn’t want to miss the sunrise this morning. I walked out to the Bay overlook with a number of my fellow travelers. The rich color display continued as the sun rose above the horizon.

I always like to explore what people ride in the parking lot. There is always a mixture of adventure bikes, a couple of sport bikes, a few touring bikes, a cadre of minibikes, Harleys here and there, and a sprinkling of barely legal dirt bikes.

Since I had the SLR camera, I wanted to do a little photo project. 2024 has been a hell of a year for KTM. Since orange was the day’s color, I wanted to pay homage to KTM and photograph their bikes in the parking lot. Dealing with an impending bankruptcy and particular insolvency, the company’s future is certainly unknown. My local dealer has decided to divest from carrying their vehicles.

As I wrapped up taking pictures of bikes at rest, I walked down to the end of the parking lot to take a few pictures of bikes in motion. Motorcyclists are always a fun bunch, and I’m learning to push myself as a photographer to take more “street photos” rather than landscape or assembled portrait shots. Since I was taking photos pointed east on a sunrise ride, the background instantly became a problem.

Shooting photographs with the sky as the primary background was problematic at best. I found the most success photographing at a 45-degree angle, keeping the camera out of the sun and using the foliage as the backdrop.

As I went further down the hill, the sky became a problem again, but the sunlight wasn’t nearly as direct, and I could use a linear gradient to darken the sky and a different linear gradient in Lightroom to lighten the pavement. I then used a circular gradient to toss extra light on the rider and their motorcycle to keep things balanced.

It was good because I was the second-to-last bike to leave that day. In the many years I’ve done this ride, the environment has never come together as dramatically as it did this morning: sun, sky, fog, landscape! I could hear chatter across the community, remarking on how beautiful the day was for all of us.

Happy Easter, everyone!