2021 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa

[pashnit]

The ride north up Highway 1 Big Sur coastline, never know what you're going to get. I've ridden this 73-mile stretch of ocean in perfect sunny weather, in rain, and in heavy wet fog. Today was wet fog. Oh well. And it's so thick, you can't even see the ocean. When you pop out of a fog bank, it's amazing! But today was a fog day.

Big Sur is an amazing ride on a clear day.

Would love to have a crispy clear day, but we got this instead. The cool ocean air hits the hot inland air, and condenses into fog, a layer of white that sits over the ocean.

First stop is Ragged Point.

Ocean art

Walking along the edge of the promontory

There are stairs here, and you can walk all the way down the beach far below us.

Good knees required.

Mike & Monya taking it all in

 

[pashnit]

Same spot at Ragged Point without the fog: What's behind all the fog.

Stunning view here.

But I think the guys made the most of it. Same view as above.

The view at Ragged Point

 

[pashnit]

Ragged Point is this promontory jutting out into the ocean. Kinda touristy, but there's a hotel here where all the rooms overlook the ocean.

Our ride starts in Cambria and we're headed north to Monterey.

We came down Highway 25 to San Miguel for a big all-day loop.

I skipped the seals. Simply called Seal Beach - there are hundreds of them.

I also skipped Piedras Blancas. Cool lighthouse, but you can't get close to it without a decent telephoto lens.

We also skipped Hearst Castle. I've taken tour groups there before, but you have to plan half a day to see it.

If you see gold color anywhere, it's the real thing. Yup, standing on real gold. This was his pool room.

Hearst built his own wharf too.

Lot to see along this stretch. Really have to plan your stops ahead of time.

 

[WuzzaCBXRider]

Ragged Point is this promontory jutting out into the ocean. Kinda touristy, but there's a hotel here where all the rooms overlook the ocean.

View attachment 1639607

Our ride starts in Cambria and we're headed north to Monterey.
We came down Highway 25 to San Miguel for a big all-day loop.
View attachment 1639608

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Nice pics Tim. Did you notice you’re about to join the five figure club?

 

[pashnit]

We split the group up and Mark took half the group back to Watsonville, 100 miles to our north.

I took the other half of the group to work on drone shots with Tom.

But first we need some playful hazing. Tom is from Texas and loves to tell us about the cheap gas in Texas. So, we headed for Gorda, just up the road from Ragged Point, which is known for consistently having the most expensive gas in the USA on any given day. It's not really a town, a couple buildings at best. And there's no electricity, so there's a diesel generator out back to run the gas station and that surcharges the fuel to pay their operating costs.

And yes, that's $8.49 a gallon for premium. (it's about half that cost almost everywhere right now)

He needed a little over 2 gallons for almost $21. Ouch. Don't get gas here.

 

[pashnit]

Nice pics Tim. Did you notice you’re about to join the five figure club?View attachment 1639611

Wow. That took almost exactly 18 years, but I made it to 10,000 posts.

I bought my first Hayabusa in August 2003.

 

[pashnit]

Making our way north

Trying to find a hole in the fog. We finally got one. The drone shots came out amazing

 

[pashnit]

What's beneath the fog

 

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[pashnit]

Never gets old

 

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Ride a couple miles. Find a clear spot in the fog. Pull out the drone. See if we can get some good footage.

Ride a couple more miles, repeat.

 

[pashnit]

Tom really wanted to stop at the 1932 Bixby Bridge.

The view here is pretty cool!

The bridge in 1932

 

[pashnit]

We get there and still pretty foggy out, but doable

Drone shot across the bridge

 

[pashnit]

We also had to skip Nacimiento Rd near Lucia. The road is closed due to washout, but looked like we could sneak around the gate. The closed sign is really just a suggestion. But we'll have to save that for another day. Every group I bring here, we ride up to the top of the range, look down over the ocean, and then ride back down to Highway 1. One of those 'shouldn't be missed detours'.

Well worth running up the range on this single lane mountain road.

Nacimiento Rd

 

[pashnit]

Local roads

Highway 1 at Nacimiento Rd near Lucia

 

[pashnit]

Craziest thing that happened to me on this road was a freak snowstorm in April

Might recognize this guy, that's Raydog from the org

 

[pashnit]

Back in January, Highway 1 fell off into the ocean from winter rains. 150' hole appeared in the road.

I was planning this ride at the time back in January and thought well nuts, it'll be a year before they fix this.

Day 1

Next day

After the rains stopped

This was at Rat Creek just north of Lime Kiln SP

 

[pashnit]

Caltrans showed up. Filled in the hole and re-opened the road two months early by June.

Hot diggity! The ride is on!

Same spot, can hardly tell there was any slide at all.