[Leica] Leica Adventures - Somewhat Long

[Tom Finnegan <tomf@piengr.com>]

After being off-list for various and assorted reasons the last two months, 
I thought I might share my latest Leica adventure. It began this last march 
when a buddy of mine talked me into signing up for a bike ride down in 
California (I'm in Seattle) that is officially called 'The Tour of the 
California Alps', but is more commonly known as 'The Markleeville Death 
Ride'. Among the California hard-core cyclist crowd it's considered to be 
the hard ride for weenies, as there are several rides that are considerably 
more difficult. Being a weenie myself, I figured it was the ride for me. It 
all seemed to make so much sense at the time.

The ride consists primarily of riding up and over several high mountain 
passes until you're pretty much exhausted. The ride is 129mi (208km) long 
and has 16,000 ft (4,878m) of climbing. I'm sure to an outsider the whole 
thing seems rather silly and pointless.

Now, what does all of this have to do with Leica cameras? Well, after many 
long days spent training in the cold and wet Seattle weather, and then 
driving 14 hours down to California, I figured I needed to document this 
little adventure. So, early on the morning of Saturday the 8th, I set off 
with a Leica IIIf and 50/3.5 Elmar in one jersey pocket, a Gossen Luna-Pro 
digital meter in another and a couple extra rolls of film in my saddle-bag. 
The IIIf and 50/3.5 combination isn't the lightest camera in the world, but 
it is suprisingly compact, and after a few minutes of riding I don't really 
notice the extra weight.

The light was pretty dim starting out, and since I had PanF+ loaded, the 
camera remained in my pocket until I reached the top of Monitor Pass. 
Almost immediately after pulling out the camera, a woman approached me and 
started asking me all sorts of questions about it. I chatted with her for a 
bit and let her play with the camera. She seemed fascinated with this funny 
looking old camera, but I'm not sure I made a convert out of her. I shot a 
few pictures as I refilled my water bottles and ate some food, then I set 
off again. I stopped shortly later, at the start of the descent of the 
backside of Monitor Pass, to put on my windbreaker and take a few shots of 
the spectacular views. I saw several more potential pictures on my way 
down, but I was having way too much fun on the high speed descent to come 
to a stop.

At the bottom food stop I took a few more pictures, but nothing was really 
popping out to me, so after a bit of food I started back up to the top of 
the pass again. On the upper part of the climb I again saw several photo 
opportunities, but with the sun now beating down and fatigue starting to 
set in, I was reluctant to stop and lose my rhythm. So, I continued on up 
to the summit food stop. I lingered at the top a bit, taking some more 
pictures before setting off for Ebbett's Pass. In contrast to the somewhat 
open and exposed feeling of Monitor Pass, Ebbett's was a small twisting 
road through pine forest.

Once again, on the upper part of the climb I was seeing numerous picture 
opportunities. However, this time they were more fleeting glimpses of the 
ebb and flow of cyclists around me. If I had stopped to try and get the 
picture, the picture would be gone. I briefly considered riding with the 
camera in my hand and trying to take pictures as I rode. However, my 
experiments in the past with that technique convinced me that I wouldn't be 
very successful in trying to frame, focus and shoot while maintaining 
balance and control on the steep climb. Maybe I just need to practice some 
more. Or maybe I should also carry along a little Olympus Stylus Epic for 
those one-handed on the fly shots.

At the summit food stop I finished off the roll of film, but I was 
struggling to make much sense out of the confusion of people and the mix of 
bright sun and deep shadows. So, I grabbed some food, filled my water 
bottles and set off for Hermit Valley on the back-side of Ebbett's Pass. 
The descent was steeper than I had anticipated, and I was not looking 
forward to having to turn around and climb back up. At the bottom food stop 
I changed the film in the camera and took a few pictures while I ate. I 
stalled for awhile before packing the camera back into my jersey and 
starting back up the climb. The six-mile climb back up to the top of 
Ebbett's Pass took me an hour in the hot afternoon sun.

At the top, the thought of pulling out the camera to take pictures was 
beginning to sound like too much of an effort. I had to force myself to 
pull it out and take a few pictures as I stumbled around the food stop. 
After a bit of delaying, I climbed back on the bike and set off again. I 
took the long winding descent down the front side of Ebbett's Pass fairly 
slowly as the thought of flying off the road in one of the hairpin turns in 
my tired state seemed a very real possibility. At the bottom of the 
descent, in the very last sharp turn, an ambulance crew lowered a stretcher 
down the embankment to a rider who had not been so lucky.

At the food stop I took few more pictures while I debated whether I should 
try and make it to the top of Carson Pass. After a bit of food I set off 
again. The two-mile climb back up past the starting area wasn't as bad as I 
feared and I was feeling somewhat ok by the time I made it back to our car 
parked at the side of the road. I stopped briefly and debated between 
stopping and taking a nap while I waited for my friends to finish or 
continuing on. A steady trickle of riders continuing on made me feel guilty 
for stopping, so I set off again. At Woodfords I stopped briefly to check 
the map and time. I had an hour to make it up the six-mile climb to 
Pickett's Junction before the cutoff time. Keeping a watchful eye on the 
bike computer, the climb went better than expected and I made it to the 
cutoff with 15 minutes to spare. I quickly filled my bottles and grabbed 
some food before setting for the final ten miles to the summit of Carson 
Pass.

As I struggled against a stiff head wind I could feel my body starting to 
shut down. The final ten miles took me 1.5 hours, but I finally reached the 
summit and pulled into the food stop. I stumbled around amongst the others, 
an ice cream bar in one hand, the IIIf in the other. After a welcome rest I 
put the camera away and set off for the final downhill run back to the 
finish area.

A few days later, back in Seattle, I develop the first roll of film. As I'm 
hanging the film up to dry, along with a roll taken the previous weekend, 
I'm noticing an odd shape that is appearing on the left edge of every 
frame. I quickly hang up the film then pull out the IIIf. I unscrew the 
lens, set the shutter to B, and hold down the release. Sure enough, there 
is a small chunk of film poking out. I carefully pull it out with some 
tweezers and just shake my head. Yet another stupid lesson learned the hard 
way: always check the cameras over carefully before going on a trip or s  
hooting an important roll of film.

I've posted a sampling of the pictures to the MSN Leica Users site for 
those that may be interested. The album is titled Random Shootings II, and 
should appear down at the very bottom of the page. Strangely, the MSN 
software loaded up the images in reverse alphabetical (and thus 
chronological) order, so the last picture should really be the first etc...

http://beta.content.communities.msn.com/Leicausers/PhotoAlbum

Tom Finnegan
Seattle