45 Days on a Gen3 Hayabusa - 2023 Pashnit Touring

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First time riding Breckenridge Rd on the Gen1 Busa

Breckenridge Rd | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit

Best Central California Motorcycle Rides - Breckenridge Rd

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Mind blown. What an awesome road.

 

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The more I climbed up Breckenridge Rd, the better the view became

I was down there in the valley looking up just a moment ago

 

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Single lane goaty road over the pass, it's a very dry area.

It's normally very dry around here & brown, brown, brown

 

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I rode my TL1000R over Breckenridge Rd one time. Not happy.

The Busa is so big, it just floats over the bumpy stuff, but the TL1000R is like a track bike on a goat road. It was not happy, and I won't do that again.

 

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But guess what happens during a super bloom? It's like sensory overload. So green!

 

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No plans to head up to the top of the pass and play in the snow. So what goes up must come back down.

Our trek running around the Southern Sierra Nevada Range. This is Porterville to Bakersfield.

 

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China Peak - Pashnit Motorcycle Tour

China Peak was a motorcycle tour I originally designed for the 2014 tour season. The route focused on the mountainous region between Yosemite NP & Sequoia NP, two national parks that are not far apart & the goal was to visit both parks in the same weekend plus ride all the twisty bits in-between. China Peak is an actual mountain btw,

That first year, we rode into Yosemite Valley, had lunch and rode out of the park. Then the next day we rode through Sequoia NP and checked out the largest trees in the world. It was a small, cozy group, just six of us. I was on my Z1000, a street fighter style motorcycle with zero fairings & wide bars, just a 1000cc motor & wheels. Loved this bike.

I got hit head on by a truck on this bike, and it was totaled. I was so annoyed that some kid in a truck totaled my super-awesome bike, I bought another Z1000 with the insurance money, I found the exact same bike in MN and shipped it to myself sight unseen, as if that would somehow restore balance to the cosmic universe & continue the journey right where left off.

Sequoia NP has a couple of big trees.

Trees so big, you can ride through them.

Yup. I squeezed a 200 on there.

 

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The balance in the universe looked something like this.

The China Peak tour has evolved through the years to various routes and highlighted regions, shifting south to the mountainous Mammoth Pool region in between Yosemite & Sequoia NPs, as Yosemite made it much harder to just ride in and out of the park (reservation required) plus tripled their entry fee. The ride region shifted to the Huntington/Shaver Lake region. For several years, we even based up in the mountains at Huntington Lake Resort in cabins at 7000 ft. The riders called them the Unabomber cabins. They were so old, you could drop a marble, and it would go shooting across the floor. (I'm told they’ve since been renovated)

The Unabomber Cabins with my new TL1000R

Beasore Rd, Mammoth Pool Loop on a borrowed Hayabusa

 

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Bass Lake Resort was a particular favorite of the riders as our base for this tour & we’ve been back there many times over to Bass Lake which is outside Oakhurst at 3400 ft, but above the snow line. Over 50 tour alumni have cycled through the China Peak Tour through the years, and it was finally retired. But after many hours with the mapping program, I re-designed it as a foothill tour for 2023 staying between 1000-3000 ft (i.e. below the snow line- it's April) and brought it back for the 20th anniversary 2023 season.

Bass Lake Resort is where they filmed the John Candy movie, The Great Outdoors

 

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Contrary to the tiny group of six that first year in 2014, 20 riders signed up for 2023, and we got a veteran group of 15 alumni that made the ride. These guys all know each other and the tours are like a reunion. Plus, we were blessed with perfect weather – again. It rained two days after the ride, that missed us, but our weekend in the Sierra Nevada Foothills was 60-70 degree temps for the whole weekend and the endless green of the California Super Bloom taking place right now.

 

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Stoney Creek Rd

Stony Creek Rd, Calaveras County | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit

Quick 10 mile blast in the Sierra Nevada Foothills

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Stoney Creek Rd is delightful

 

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Reaching Pardee Reservoir, it's completely full. We don't see this very often, the lake full like this.

 

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Realizing I have no good photos of the new bike. I'm going to have to work on that.

 

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This guy. Danny keeps coming back. He was pretty overwhelmed on his first day last year on his first tour, trying to tour on a Kawasaki Z400. Then he swapped that out for a Triumph Speed Triple. Also, not a good fit.

Of all the bike choices, he ended up with a Ducati, and now slowly setting his Ducati SuperSport 950s up for touring.

Love these. Danny had leathers made in a camo pattern. Who does that? This guy does.

 

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Coming down from the Pardee Reservoir overlook, looking across the Central Valley, that thin line in the distance is the Coast Range & other side of that is the Pacific Ocean.

Water pouring over the spillway from Pardee Reservoir into the Mokelumne River. Very rare sight to see.

Single lane ride over the Pardee Dam

 

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Always an urge to stop on the dam and peek over the edge, we're 345 feet over the canyon

Never even seen water flowing over the spillway at Pardee Dam

 

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Single lane foothill roads, Paloma Rd is wiggly fun

 

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