2021 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa
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We use 20 mule Borax at my work in NZ , great and interesting learning the history, cheers for this
On with the show for Pashnit Tour #4 for the season
Some minor changes to the Hayabusa. Bought a set of Hyper-Lites so the guys can see me while leading the rides.
Some minor changes to the Hayabusa. Bought a set of Hyper-Lites so the guys can see me while leading the rides.
Sierra Pacific Pashnit Motorcycle Tour...
www.pashnittours.com
Fifteen years ago, I designed & ran a 4-day tour through the northern Sierra Nevada range, across the Trinity & Marble Wilderness regions near the Oregon border and on over to the Pacific Coastline returning back south along the ocean. We did this tour a single time and I had long since forgotten about this route as it was nearly two decades ago. Tour groups were small & cozy back then, six bikes. Not like it is today where twice that is our average tour group size and new tours sell out in a single day.
Why haven’t we run this tour again, I’m not sure, things got busy with other activities in Pashnit Land. But it was time to add this ride to the roster again.
This tour met in Nevada City, California. A small town filled with Victorian gingerbread houses and steeped in Argonaut history. Nevada City is surrounded in Gold Mines. To the south, Empire Mine in Grass Valley is said to have pulled almost $11 Billion (with a B) in gold (in today’s dollars) from up to a mile down beneath the earth’s surface. To the north, Malakoff Diggins miners washed away entire mountains to get to the gold in turn creating one of the worst ecological disasters in modern history.
Victorian Houses in Nevada City
Sierra Pacific | Pashnit Motorcycle Tour
Ride from the Sierra Nevada Range to the Pacific Ocean
www.pashnittours.com
Fifteen years ago, I designed & ran a 4-day tour through the northern Sierra Nevada range, across the Trinity & Marble Wilderness regions near the Oregon border and on over to the Pacific Coastline returning back south along the ocean. We did this tour a single time and I had long since forgotten about this route as it was nearly two decades ago. Tour groups were small & cozy back then, six bikes. Not like it is today where twice that is our average tour group size and new tours sell out in a single day.
Why haven’t we run this tour again, I’m not sure, things got busy with other activities in Pashnit Land. But it was time to add this ride to the roster again.
This tour met in Nevada City, California. A small town filled with Victorian gingerbread houses and steeped in Argonaut history. Nevada City is surrounded in Gold Mines. To the south, Empire Mine in Grass Valley is said to have pulled almost $11 Billion (with a B) in gold (in today’s dollars) from up to a mile down beneath the earth’s surface. To the north, Malakoff Diggins miners washed away entire mountains to get to the gold in turn creating one of the worst ecological disasters in modern history.
Victorian Houses in Nevada City
Oregon Creek Covered Bridge
In 1883, the English Dam failed near present-day Jackson Meadows Reservoir and sent a flood of water downstream. The deluge washed the bridge 150 feet downstream off its moorings and spun it 180 degrees around. The way it was built is the opposite of the way it sits today. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and was refurbished in 2018. The 1860 construction makes it one of the oldest covered bridges in the western United States still in daily use.
www.pashnit.com
In 1883, the English Dam failed near present-day Jackson Meadows Reservoir and sent a flood of water downstream. The deluge washed the bridge 150 feet downstream off its moorings and spun it 180 degrees around. The way it was built is the opposite of the way it sits today. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and was refurbished in 2018. The 1860 construction makes it one of the oldest covered bridges in the western United States still in daily use.
Highway 49 Yuba Pass, Nevada County | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit
Ride Yuba Pass across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California Motorcycle Ride
www.pashnit.com
Hauling along Highway 49 - super fun motorcycle ride
www.pashnit.com
Highway 49 Yuba Pass, Nevada County | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit
Ride Yuba Pass across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California Motorcycle Ride
www.pashnit.com
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Highway 49 Yuba Pass
www.pashnit.com
The 1885 gallows were built to be portable, presumably for future use when needed. Disassembled and put away for a later date, the gallows were forgotten until discovered in the attic of the courthouse in 1927 and promptly reassembled.
James O’Neill wasn’t the first hanging in Downieville, rather the story goes a young Mexican woman named Juanita was found guilty of murder, and promptly hanged that same day from a beam of the bridge over the Yuba River.
Highway 49 Yuba Pass, Nevada County | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit
Ride Yuba Pass across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California Motorcycle Ride
www.pashnit.com
The 1885 gallows were built to be portable, presumably for future use when needed. Disassembled and put away for a later date, the gallows were forgotten until discovered in the attic of the courthouse in 1927 and promptly reassembled.
James O’Neill wasn’t the first hanging in Downieville, rather the story goes a young Mexican woman named Juanita was found guilty of murder, and promptly hanged that same day from a beam of the bridge over the Yuba River.
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Downieville
Originally known as ‘The Forks’, referring to the confluence of the Downie River and the North Fork of the Yuba River, the two rivers combine here. Named after Major William Downie, a Scottish explorer and prospector. After arriving in San Francisco in June 1849, Downie led an expedition of one Irish sailor and seven African American sailors into the northern gold fields. Arriving at the confluence of these two rivers in September 1849, it was said that they found gold so plentiful on the banks of the river, a shovel was not required. A community quickly sprang up as the Downie Expedition built a cabin and waited out the winter of 1849. By the following year of 1850, there were 15 hotels, 4 bakeries, 4 butcher shops, and a requisite number of saloons.
Town lore also states Downieville was in the running to be the state capital, along with 15 other California cities in 1853 to replace Vallejo. Downieville was California’s 5th largest city by the mid-1850s, but the honor for the capital eventually went to Sacramento. The Downieville population quickly declined by 1865 but has remained as the present-day county seat of Sierra County. Today the population of Victorian-era gingerbread houses sits around 325.
Originally known as ‘The Forks’, referring to the confluence of the Downie River and the North Fork of the Yuba River, the two rivers combine here. Named after Major William Downie, a Scottish explorer and prospector. After arriving in San Francisco in June 1849, Downie led an expedition of one Irish sailor and seven African American sailors into the northern gold fields. Arriving at the confluence of these two rivers in September 1849, it was said that they found gold so plentiful on the banks of the river, a shovel was not required. A community quickly sprang up as the Downie Expedition built a cabin and waited out the winter of 1849. By the following year of 1850, there were 15 hotels, 4 bakeries, 4 butcher shops, and a requisite number of saloons.
Town lore also states Downieville was in the running to be the state capital, along with 15 other California cities in 1853 to replace Vallejo. Downieville was California’s 5th largest city by the mid-1850s, but the honor for the capital eventually went to Sacramento. The Downieville population quickly declined by 1865 but has remained as the present-day county seat of Sierra County. Today the population of Victorian-era gingerbread houses sits around 325.
Sierra City, another gold mining town
Sierra City sits at the base of the 8587 ft. Sierra Buttes. These mountain peaks are 1.6 miles from the town to the north. There is a dirt jeep trail that is carved up the mountainside all the way to the summit.
As prospectors followed the placer gold upstream along the banks of the North Yuba River, the easy placer gold stopped at Sierra City and a camp began to grow. An avalanche of snow in the 1852-53 winter destroyed the town burying whatever buildings there were, but Sierra City was later rebuilt at a lower elevation a few years later with a peak population around 3000 by 1860.
Several hard rock mines were established at the foot of the Sierra Buttes on both sides of the Yuba river. The Sierra Buttes Mine stayed active for 80 years offering steady employment with as many as 290 men working at the mine by 1873. By 1852, several mines were pushing tunnels into the Sierra Buttes.
Several very large gold nuggets have been found around Sierra City. In 1869, the Monumental Nugget at over 1,800 troy ounces was found here. That's a gold nugget weighing 106 lb. Miners were stepping right over the nugget while walking to work. After a heavy rain exposed the nugget in 1869, miners looked down and saw the glint of gold in the dirt along their path to work. One might assume the gold has all played out, but a gold nugget weighing over 1,500 troy ounces was found in the Monumental Mine in 1960. That’s a 103 lb. gold nugget discovered 60 years ago.
Sierra City sits at the base of the 8587 ft. Sierra Buttes. These mountain peaks are 1.6 miles from the town to the north. There is a dirt jeep trail that is carved up the mountainside all the way to the summit.
As prospectors followed the placer gold upstream along the banks of the North Yuba River, the easy placer gold stopped at Sierra City and a camp began to grow. An avalanche of snow in the 1852-53 winter destroyed the town burying whatever buildings there were, but Sierra City was later rebuilt at a lower elevation a few years later with a peak population around 3000 by 1860.
Several hard rock mines were established at the foot of the Sierra Buttes on both sides of the Yuba river. The Sierra Buttes Mine stayed active for 80 years offering steady employment with as many as 290 men working at the mine by 1873. By 1852, several mines were pushing tunnels into the Sierra Buttes.
Several very large gold nuggets have been found around Sierra City. In 1869, the Monumental Nugget at over 1,800 troy ounces was found here. That's a gold nugget weighing 106 lb. Miners were stepping right over the nugget while walking to work. After a heavy rain exposed the nugget in 1869, miners looked down and saw the glint of gold in the dirt along their path to work. One might assume the gold has all played out, but a gold nugget weighing over 1,500 troy ounces was found in the Monumental Mine in 1960. That’s a 103 lb. gold nugget discovered 60 years ago.
Highway 49 comes up this valley
Gold Lakes Highway
Five miles east of Sierra City is Gold Lakes Hwy at Bassetts. This has to be one of the most scenic and easily missed roads up and over the Sierra Nevada past a series of mountain lakes. I have to admit that in my early forays into the Sierra Nevada several decades ago, I had no idea Gold Lake Hwy was there and blithely stuck to the main highway.
This High Sierra area is known as the "Lakes Basin," a collection of some fifty lakes to the northeast of the towering Sierra Buttes. The largest of them, was named in 1850 when a miner, Thomas Stoddard, claimed he had found a mountain lake whose shores were studded with gold nuggets. The usual rush ensued; more than a thousand hopeful prospectors would set out on an expedition for this lake of gold, and repeated expeditions followed, swelled by rumor and hope. Entire towns emptied as Argonauts rushed into the mountains above Downieville. No gold was ever found on those shores. The name, however, Gold Lakes, remains to this day.
Despite thousands of gold prospectors swarming over the Gold Lakes region, no permanent settlements were ever established, as no gold was ever found.
Gold Lakes Drive and a view of the Sierra Buttes
There's a Fire Lookout up here you can hike to for a 100-mile view
Gold Lakes Highway
Five miles east of Sierra City is Gold Lakes Hwy at Bassetts. This has to be one of the most scenic and easily missed roads up and over the Sierra Nevada past a series of mountain lakes. I have to admit that in my early forays into the Sierra Nevada several decades ago, I had no idea Gold Lake Hwy was there and blithely stuck to the main highway.
This High Sierra area is known as the "Lakes Basin," a collection of some fifty lakes to the northeast of the towering Sierra Buttes. The largest of them, was named in 1850 when a miner, Thomas Stoddard, claimed he had found a mountain lake whose shores were studded with gold nuggets. The usual rush ensued; more than a thousand hopeful prospectors would set out on an expedition for this lake of gold, and repeated expeditions followed, swelled by rumor and hope. Entire towns emptied as Argonauts rushed into the mountains above Downieville. No gold was ever found on those shores. The name, however, Gold Lakes, remains to this day.
Despite thousands of gold prospectors swarming over the Gold Lakes region, no permanent settlements were ever established, as no gold was ever found.
Gold Lakes Drive and a view of the Sierra Buttes
There's a Fire Lookout up here you can hike to for a 100-mile view
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