2022 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa

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Nuts.

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A few feet away is this huge amphitheater. You would never know it was there if you weren't looking for it.

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Cushing Memorial Amphitheater isn’t visible from Ridgecrest Blvd, but it’s located a short walking distance from Ridgecrest Blvd and Pantoll Rd main parking lot. Originally built in 1933 as a 4000-seat amphitheater by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the amphitheater was constructed by the corps using massive blocks of serpentine rock. Mount Tam has been subsequently hosting theatrical performances since 1913 and has hosted the Grateful Dead & Jefferson Airplane along with many other bands.

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With the road closed, the only option was to head the opposite direction towards the summit of Mount Tamalpais and wait for the road to open up

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At the summit is the Gardner Fire Lookout built in 1934. The fire lookout looks down on the entire SF Bay Area and the ocean

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There used to be some huge buildings up here. But they've all been removed. The walking path around the summit in the below pic still exists though. It has quite a view for a day without fog. At the summit is the Gardner Fire Lookout built in 1934.

The parking lot at the left still exists.

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This ride is short, a mere 11 miles back down to the ocean, but there's a lot to see and check out, so I never want to be in a hurry when I'm up here. Yes, it's super twisty, but not about draggin' knees, rather the opposite - here to smell the roses and the Hayabusa is just as happy to burble along and hand on hip, take it all in.

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This ride flows along the very top of the ridge and then drops to the ocean.

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Up above the Marine layer fog at the top of the peak

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Mount Tamalpais actually has three peaks, the fire lookout is just the tallest. But while rolling along, I see this dome. What is that?

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Originally known as Mill Valley Air Force Station and built in 1951, this radar dish was part of a network of posts that were perched atop peaks surrounding the Bay Area. The facility was a USAF general surveillance radar station during the Cold War. These radar sites in the 1950s served as an unbroken warning system against a surprise atomic punch by air. Fighter Jets were kept ready to take off around the clock 10-miles away at nearby Hamilton Field in San Rafael in case the need arose from the early warning system atop Mount Tamalpais. During the 1950s, there were 28 of these radar stations spread out along the West Coast until the 1980s. Most of these mountaintop bases were decommissioned as new technologies such as early-warning satellites made the need for these Cold War-era radar sites obsolete.

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The FAA currently operates an Air Route Surveillance Radar at the site which is visible today.

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The large white dome atop the west peak collects not only the aircraft position detected by the radio wave, but also the altitude or beacon code by sending and receiving signals. The current radar has a range of 290 miles extending out over the ocean.

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The Mill Valley Air Force Station stayed active until 1983 when the site was turned over to the park service. The barracks for air force personnel atop the peak were finally demolished in 1996, but the foundations remain to this day.

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My killing time atop Mount Tamalpais worked, the gate was open when I backtracked and the thick marine layer was fading.

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Many years ago, my wife worked on Saturdays. We were newly married and for a short time, Saturdays were all mine. I was in-between bikes after selling my much-loved ’93 Kawasaki ZX-11D & began the task of saving up for my dream bike, the all-new Hayabusa which had just come out in 1999.

But I had bought an EX500 for my new wife, who had recently gotten her motorcycle permit. She hated riding on the back, and wanted her own bike. She went to the local community college and took the MSF Course in their parking lot.

The Ninja 500 was small, nimble and peppy. But no one was impressed by the Baby Ninja, it was unassuming and even had pink pin striping. However, it ran like a sewing machine, and the 16-inch rims made it very nimble on backroads. Each Saturday, while my wife worked her weekend day shift, I would head out and explore a new set of roads with the EX500. The rule was I had to be back before she was home from work, which meant a little over 8-hour day-ride. Four hours out, four hours back created a 4-hour radius from home base.

Back in the olden days, there were no resources online that talked about motorcycle roads, you looked for squiggly lines on a paper map, or you had to buy a book at the local book store. And books about roads in California, I had quite a few of those. And my latest new book, Scenic Driving California, had an alluring photo on the cover.

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I came to learn this photo was a shot of Bolinas Ridge north of San Francisco, better known as Ridgecrest Blvd. This cover photo of a curvaceous road atop grass covered rolling hills and a mountainous background was too alluring to ignore. I had to go find this road and set out on the baby Ninja one Saturday to ride it. That started the love affair with Bolinas Ridge, one of my favorite spots in the state.

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First ride ever on this road with a 35mm camera, coolest shot ever

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It's starting to get late in the ride season and despite the constant fog, there's no rain up here for months at a time, the hillsides are all golden brown.

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Nobody up here but me. Not one other vehicle went by.

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I was on top of that ridge looking down.

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Now I'm at the bottom, looking back up.

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Rolling along Bolinas Lagoon out to Bolinas, which is a tiny ocean town off the main highway that no one even knows is there. No reason to go out here.

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