2024 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa

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Calaveras Big Trees protects a collection of giant sierra redwoods discovered by hunter A.T. Dowd in 1852. The discovery of the world's largest living thing in turn put the area on the international map.

Adjacent to the parking area is a tree stump so massive, it was used as a dance floor in the late 1850s. A bowling alley was built on top of the body of the fallen tree. This tree was so large, there wasn’t a saw big enough at the time to cut through it.

Early loggers used mining equipment known as a pump auger and drilled a layer of holes through the base of the tree to fell it where it still stands today.

 

[pashnit]

Sierra Redwoods are so large, they contain enough wood to build 40 five-room homes. While not the tallest like the coast redwoods, these trees are as tall as the Statue of Liberty and weigh 4000 tons.

How to imagine 4000 tons? Well, 4000 Tons works out to 8,000,000 loaves of bread, 1700 pickup trucks, 55 Space Shuttles, or 900,000 cats.

Young trees can grow 6-10 feet per year for trees less than 150 years old. The oldest known giant sequoia has been measured at 3,300 years of age. At the base, the trees can grow to 30 feet thick and 94 feet around the circumference. The folks back east could not believe such a thing existed. After all, a tree that was 30 feet thick was pure invention.

Conservationists of the time packed their bags to view these giants in person, promoters of the time saw dollar signs.

People that discovered these trees used various methods to show the folks back home how big the trees really were. They drove their cars up on the trees and had their pictures taken. Holes were cut into the bases, and you could drive through them, which you can still do today in nearby Sequoia National Park. or at the Chandelier Tree in Leggett.

The grand irony to loggers is the wood, unlike coast redwoods, from Sequoia trees is largely unusable in commercial uses. Wood from the giant sequoia is surprisingly brittle, and of poor use in manufacturing. The wood from these massive trees was used for matchsticks, pencils, and fence boards. The logging industry eventually abandoned efforts to cut down the massive trees due to poor profits and the growing conservation movement to save these trees. However, it’s been estimated 34 percent of the giant sequoias were cut down.

 

[pashnit]

There were 92 giant sequoias in the valley outside Arnold in 1852. The two largest became the focus of much attention. The Discovery Tree was cut down and used as a dance floor. The second largest was the Mother of the Forest, discovered to be 2,520 years old, 328 feet high and 94 feet in girth. The bark at the base was 18 inches thick. The bark that was stripped from the sequoia for the traveling exhibit & just the bark weighed 60 tons. The bark was eventually lost in a fire.

 

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As soon as we get near the summit, Highway 4 - Ebbetts Pass narrows to single lane, It's pure delight up here.

It goes like this for 23 miles.

 

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Seven miles to the east of Alpine Lake, one of the most picturesque lakes in the Sierra. Mosquito Lake at 8,040’ is tiny, shallow, fit only for kayaks and canoes, and drains into two watersheds- the western side into the North Fork Stanislaus River, the eastern into Pacific Creek and then into the North Fork Mokelumne River from its position at the very crest of the Sierra.

Highway 4 was cut right at the edge of this small body of water. In the middle of Mosquito Lake is a small summer cabin that’s been photographed by every traveler that comes this way. The cabins date to the 1920s when several Angels Camp residents traveled here and built summer cabins. The pond was dammed, and the water level raised to resemble a small lake. Mosquito Lake is the mid-point of this ride, and often one of the best stopping points for a quick break.

Portions of the ride are very steep with a 24% grade in several locations with two different sets of multiple hairpins on the eastern side of the range.

 

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Other vehicles are rare, but we move way over when we see them coming at us. Proper lane position is essential when headed into hairpins and blind corners.

 

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There are 22 Sierra Nevada Mountain Passes.

And most of we local riders are familiar with the main ones in the center of the Sierra Range. Which behooves the question I get asked alot… Do you have a favorite mountain pass? For me, it’s Highway 4 - Ebbetts Pass. We all love the twisty twisty. That’s a given.

But what if it was a no-center-line 25-mile-wide plateau at the 8000 ft level that wiggles with impunity climbing up, then falling back down into Hermit Valley creating two summits, Ebbetts & Pacific Grade on the same road. The benefit to the rider is two accents, two steep descents, and two summits. Twice the fun.

If you could bottle joy and sell happiness, you would come here to collect it.

 

[pashnit]

Highway 4 actually has two summits with a bowl in the middle. First climbing up to Ebbetts Pass, descending, then climbing back up several thousand feet to Pacific Grade Summit at 8050 ft.

Pacific Grade Summit when we rode it last year in June.

 

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Descending through the bright yellow aspen trees and then back up Monitor Pass - our fourth Sierra mountain pass of the day.

Leviathan Peak up ahead - I rode up to the summit a year ago on the Hayabusa to the fire lookout up there.

 

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Summit on 8314 ft Monitor Pass

Highway 89 | Monitor Pass | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit

Alpine County Motorcycle Rides - Montor Pass

www.pashnit.com

 

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This pullout on Monitor Pass is the perfect photo spot.

It's tradition to stop here and snap a shot of the bike - 20 years running.

 

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Then it's all downhill

 

[CBXRider]

The walk thru the north grove of old growth Sequoias is a real treat inside the Big Trees park. I walked thru it twice with people that had never seen such trees. What an experience! You mention lane position being important up there. No foolin! I had a really close call heading east right in those narrow one lane downhill twisties. A sheriff’s SUV heading west was right in the middle coming around a blind uphill corner. If I hadn’t been to the far right we might have collided, it was a double swerve and juuuuust a tad too close.

 

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on the bike at first light and headed up Highway 395

Reaching the tiny mountain town of Walker, then remembering the Antelope Valley has two sides.

Highway 395 runs up the west side of this long narrow mountain valley with Walker & Coleville as two tiny towns in this valley.

But on the east side, there’s another road, easily missed, and it’s been recently repaved. Eastside Rd might qualify for the middle of nowhere. Since it parallels the main highway, you won’t see any other traffic, and you’ll have the road entirely to yourself.

Perfect place to watch the sun come up over the range.

 

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Discovering the first couple of miles of Eastside Rd are repaved - smooth! Been a few years since I've ridden this road.

Early morning long shadows

 

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Eastside Rd has several long-long straights.

Not a soul out here, just perfect stillness.

 

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High desert riding - elevation of this valley is 5400 ft.

The rain shadow of the Sierra Range over there creates the high desert climate.

 

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More new pavement - sweet.

You can't see it from this vantage point but that's Highway 395 on the other side of the valley at the base of the range.

Highway 395 starts at the Mexican border and runs north-south all the way to Canada.

 

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