2022 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa

[pashnit]

Headed up Monitor Pass, it's a low pass at 8300 ft. But it has a fire lookout tower on the peak adjacent to the main road. I've been staring at it for years.

I wonder how you get up there?

I keep thinking someday I'll ride the Hayabusa up there, but the dirt road up to the peak is pretty gnarly. I took my Z1000 up there and that was easy with the wide bars & bolt upright street fighter seating position.

Would you take a Hayabusa up this road?

So far, my answer has been nope.

 

[pashnit]

But the view at the <abandoned> fire lookout atop Leviathan Peak at 9000 ft !

Roof of the world. At least, in these parts.

 

[pashnit]

That little bump in the above pic, is the actual pass at 8300 ft.

A picture at the summit is tradition.

(my 3rd busa)

(my 2nd Busa)

(My 1st Busa)

Highway 89 | Monitor Pass | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit

Alpine County Motorcycle Rides - Montor Pass

www.pashnit.com

 

[pashnit]

So there I was running up Highway 88 headed for Carson Pass minding my own beeswax, when a road went zipping by. Hmm. Wonder where that goes? Never been up that road. That's how it starts. Should I have just kept going. Nah. Curiosity reigns supreme.

Where does this road go?

Let's go find out. Zipping across Horseshoe Meadows. Still a wee bit of snow at 8000 ft.

This is the top of the Sierra Range

 

[pashnit]

But the road was delightful.

Tamarack Lake, hmm, never heard of it. But there are a lot of mountain lakes up here.

 

[pashnit]

Blue Lake Rd

 

[pashnit]

But this road didn't actually go anywhere, Blue Lake Rd led to, wait for it, Blue Lake.

 

[pashnit]

But, the GPS showed a road that connected back to Highway 88 Carson Pass.

What GPS considers a road.

Blue Lake

How many times have I said, I don't think this is what Suzuki engineers had in mind when they designed this bike. Pretty country though.

 

[pashnit]

Very top of the Sierra Range

I made it to Upper Blue Lake, and the road was closed with a gate. That was probably a sign from God.
Turn around. Yes, God. So I did.

And backtracked. Cool road!

Note the Pacific Crest Trail, as in crest. And I rode by a mountain named 'The Nipple'. 14-year-old middle school me giggled at that.

 

[pashnit]

Backtracking

Blue Lakes Rd has some fast twisty bits and rapid elevation change

The top of the Sierra has a lot of expansive, flat alpine meadows. If you are into cross-country skiing, these meadows are heaven during winter. This one is Hope Valley.

 

[pashnit]

Up and over Highway 88 Carson Pass, this is Red Lake

Caples Lake

Merry Christmas Org!

 

[pashnit]

It's now July in our tour season. We spent June up in the Mountains at higher elevations. Now, it's crazy hot out.
95°+ daily is the norm. It's time to head for the ocean. Sorry kids, not a fan of super-hot weather, but not going to stop riding on account of the summer heat, rather we're going to ride where it's cool out.

Pre-dawn ride to meet the tour group in Napa, which is about 100 miles away from me.

Approaching the Napa Valley, which gets a lot of fog from the San Francisco Bay pushing up the valley. When the Bay Area fog tries to flow over the range, it meets warmer air and dissipates. Golden Hour photo.

 

[pashnit]

In 2013, I had an idea to create a motorcycle tour focused on the mountain range that borders the Pacific Coastline north of San Francisco. I called it the Coast Range Tour. It wasn’t the most popular idea at first. Just 5 people signed up in 2013. We started this ride from Napa and wiggled our way towards the Pacific Coast through Calistoga, over the super twisty Hopland Grade-Highway 175, and out to the ocean via Skaggs ending up in Point Arena. That first ride in 2013 with just six bikes, it was a small, fast, cozy group. Motorcycle tours generally have a shelf life of about 4-5 years then they are retired, and I design something else. When I let Mark know, I was considering retiring this ride, he got mad and said it was ‘The Perfect Tour’ and it should stay in the roster. I took his advice, and it has since become one of the most popular rides Pashnit Motorcycle Tours offers. Now, ten years later, 21 motorcyclists signed up and 14 made it. Interesting observation, over half of the tour participants in our group, 8 of the 14, were riding this motorcycle tour for the second consecutive year in a row.

Usual variety of bikes

Monya was thrilled to be here. She made the commute from Texas. She keeps a motorcycle here in California, stores it here, then flies back and forth from Houston to ride on all the tours.

Monya started riding at the age of 65.

Since I dented both my silver rims a few weeks back on a huge rock, I swapped them out to my spare black rims.

 

[pashnit]

Matching Triumph Speed Twins. This tour has a reputation of focusing on tight, twisty backroads.

My riders that have multiple bikes, like Mark & Xavier, will choose the one more suited for the tight stuff.

Pre-ride briefing

My wife likes the beard so much, she won't let me cut it off.

Tom is here from Colorado again, he's holding the GoPro. He likes to make videos of these rides. Every time he joins me, I get another super-cool video.

 

[pashnit]

Headed out of Napa away from the city up into the surrounding hills.

Mount Veeder Rd starts off this route, which wiggles back and forth across these low ranges.

Redwoods and wineries

 

[sixpack577]

Headed up Monitor Pass, it's a low pass at 8300 ft. But it has a fire lookout tower on the peak adjacent to the main road. You would never know it's there.

View attachment 1659225

I keep thinking someday I'll ride the Hayabusa up there, but the dirt road up to the peak is pretty gnarly. I took my Z1000 up there and that was easy with the wide bars & bolt upright street fighter seating position.

Would you take a Hayabusa up this road?

View attachment 1659226

So far, my answer has been nope.
View attachment 1659228

Yep, without a second thought.
I've ridden my Busa and many other sportbikes on worse.
If it has the ground clearance, I ride it.
If it fits it ships

 

[pashnit]

Yep, without a second thought.
I've ridden my Busa and many other sportbikes on worse.
If it has the ground clearance, I ride it.
If it fits it ships

Someday I'll ride up there again, you can't beat a view like this. Very few places you can just ride up to the top of a mountain, hang out with nobody bothering you & watch the world go by.

 

[pashnit]

Mount Veeder Rd is a loop and circles back to the main highway, but our goal is to crisscross back and forth across this low range. The trick is to avoid all the people/traffic around Napa, Calistoga & Sonoma. Spring Mountain Rd at Saint Helena gives us access to another mountain road that zips across to the other side of the range. Along the way, there's a forest of Petrified Redwood trees.

 

[pashnit]

Spring Mountain Rd is a twisty back road through a redwood forest.

 

[pashnit]

But after an hour of riding, we always stop to kick tires. Most of the riders on this tour know each other, or may be meeting for the first time. Everyone has bikes in common.