2022 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa

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That's a lot of shingles.

The bridge is supported entirely by two trusses based off the design in the Howe patent. It's built of timber and iron rods and an Auxiliary Burr Arch which is bolted to the trusses and connects to the face of the abutments. All the weight of the bridge rests on these abutments. The wood is Douglas fir and the 27,000 shingles are made of sugar pine.

 

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Climbing out of the canyon, Pleasant Valley Rd goes single lane twisties.

 

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Highway 49 - Yuba Pass

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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After arriving in San Francisco in June 1849, Major William Downie, a Scottish explorer and prospector, led an expedition of one Irish sailor and seven African American sailors into the northern Sierra Nevada gold fields. Arriving at the confluence of two rivers in September 1849, 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 the requisite number of saloons.

Mark Twain once wrote for the town paper under his real name, Samuel Clemmons, while hiding out from Nevada authorities. The story goes, he accepted a duel after dueling had been outlawed and had to quickly leave town, escaping to Downieville. In present day, Downieville is a tiny mountain town and the perfect stopping point.

Downieville in present day is a tiny mountain town full of gingerbread Victorian homes, and is also a haven for bicyclists, as vans will haul you up the mountain, and you can coast down.

Highway 49 Yuba Pass, Nevada County | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit

How long do you think this will last?

 

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Downieville, CA

 

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Headed up Yuba Pass - Highway 49

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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This High Sierra area is known as the Lakes Basin, a collection of 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. 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.

Sierra Buttes

 

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More I stare at this KTM, damn that's a nice looking bike. Sexy. Aggressive.

Holds 9 gallons of fuel, and that's not even the big tank.

 

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Gold Lakes Dr

On the other side of the Sierra Range is the tiny retirement community of Graeagle at 4300 ft, centered around their golf course.

 

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Most golf courses have good restaurants with amazing views.

Nearby is another mountain pass, LaPorte Rd

 

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Headed into the burn scar of the 2021 Dixie Fire, the largest wildfire in California history at nearly a 1,000,000 acres, burning an area larger than the state of Rhode Island.

 

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LaPorte Rd is pure joy

This mountain pass was dirt a few years ago, but it was graded and paved about 20 years ago, zero people on this road.

 

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Playground

 

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Near the summit, still a bit of snow