2024 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa

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Highway 190 has a couple really cool viewpoints from the 7000 ft level. This region is the very southern edges of the Sierra Nevada Range.
Back with my second Gen 2

This is the Kern River Valley far below, and the range in the distance is Sherman Pass which bumps up to 9200 ft

 

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There are some granite domes to check out and also granite spires nearby

It's a half mile of sand to get to the Dome Rock. You'll be fine.

View was worth it. Then it started snowing.

 

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Granite Spires in the distance. There used to be a fire lookout atop one of these

Snowing, I should probably get off this mountain top

 

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Coming down off the mountain

 

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Notice how sandy it is?

 

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Mike has about 4 or 5 bikes in the garage plus a track only bike. He took his Yamaha Tenere 700 on this ride.

The T7 is a bike that does all things well.

 

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Why this road is famous - it's remote and only small mountain towns along the road, means few people and one of the twistiest rides in the state

Highway 190 | Western Divide Highway | Pashnit.com

Best Central California Motorcycle Rides

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Not gonna lie - it's as fun as it looks. Super twisty mountain curves for about 25 miles.

 

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Highway 190 - and this is just half of the twisty stuff from Camp Nelson to the summit

Fun ride!

 

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Coming down off the mountain

all for water

The kids did well and got ice cream

 

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Randy recently retired & we think he's just letting himself go. He says he's growing it out so he can have a pony tail. Sure, Randy.

We've got one more leg to go for the day, but we're at the base of the range & in the heat now.
Temps around 100. Making sure everyone had their ice cream, plenty of fluids, and dousing the cool vests.
Most of us were air vests, the only thing no one tells you about an air vest is they make you even hotter. Zero air flow.

 

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The premise of this tour is the Sequoia groves and we're based right outside of Sequoia NP.

Gotta have those Clearwaters, Paul recently traded in his Ducati Hypermotard for a KTM SMT and first mod was more lights.

Tim is based in Central Oregon in Bend and rode down to Cali for this ride.
He said he's getting annoyed with Oregon winters and was considering moving back to CA to be able to ride year-round.
He's been a Veterinarian for 40 years and seems to have no plans to retire, ever.
We've been riding together on these tours for nearly 20 years.

Mike used to be the CEO of Guess (yes, that guess), recently retired but has been taking consulting gigs for startups and says he's working more retired than when he was the CEO of Guess (much to the chagrin of his wife). He and the wife have have been running around the world doing organized tours. He's ridden a month in Vietnam, got back from Brazil and recently did a trip to Antarctica. Antarctica sounded interesting.

 

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My goal was to get to that dome rock in the distance

First though, we've got to get through the gate guard to get into Sequoia NP.

Anyone with a pass goes first. The parks keep raising their fees. It used to be 10 bucks to get into these parks a few years ago, now it's $35 to get into Sequoia or Yosemite (both are close to each other). I've got a military pass so I get in for free.

Twisty climb into Sequoia NP

 

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S-curves

Just a suggestion

This is the road we're on when you're at the top looking down on it. This is the climb into Sequoia NP for the south entrance.

 

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We made it

Bikes everywhere

 

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Little tree can grow to be 3000 years old & the seed is about the size of an egg and can grow to be the largest living thing on earth.

 

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Yours truly visiting Sequoia NP many moons ago, likely 25 years ago. Been back many times. Cool place.

 

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There's something special about Sequoia. Cool place. This national park has two dimensions, both giant sequoias and a 5000-ft deep canyon

 

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We're headed down there next - twisty, twisty

 

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Headed down into Kings Canyon, this is the deepest canyon in the United States

 

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