GoPro 9 at Big Bear Lake in the dark

You know that wonderful feeling when you discover a new bike path? I came close to that last night. Tropical Storm Kay has broken our ten day heatwave. Yes, this is the first day this September that hasn't been well over 100F at work. It was "only" 85F with 100% humidity and light rain.

I headed over to Big Bear Lake which is at 7,000' and tolerably cool once the sun has set. I have a new GoPro Hero 9 and I wanted to see how it performs in low light. But more about that later.

I started at the Cougar Crest trail head because there's a parking lot without gates so the forest service can't lock me in. I followed the pedal path to the end of the recent extension in Big Bear city, then kept on riding and stumbled upon a signed scenic bike route. It's on super quiet roads and rolls past million dollar "log cabins".

Nice bike route

The temperature dropped to the high 50s but my super reflective jack was still a little too warm which surprised me. I had a about 30 minutes of very light rain, more like mist really, and 20 mph winds when I came out from behind the trees. It was a seriously wonderful ride.

I took the opportunity to test the GoPro Hero 9 in low light situations and it didn't perform as well as I had hoped. I've Googled the problem and I think I can improve it with some different settings. Let's hope so because I plan on using it to create a video of the PCH Randos Winter Solstice 200k in late December. The entire ride takes place in the dark.

Here's two videos I shot. They were both recorded in Max Lens Mode (whatever that is). The first is shortly after sunset and is a lot darker than it appeared to my eyes at the time.

Here's a video shot under almost complete darkness. The camera picked up more than the rear screen showed, but much less than I could see with my eyes.

I'm going to try reducing the fps and some other tweaks and try again later.