45 Days on a Gen3 Hayabusa - 2023 Pashnit Touring

[pashnit]

Super fun day of riding twisty mountain roads, but staying below the snow line. The passes over the Sierra were not even open yet. We normally base this tour on the eastern side of the Sierra Range (the Nevada side) but there's been so much snow I was worried we wouldn't get over the passes to reach our destination.
Played it safe and booked our base for Sonora, a small gold rush town but the center of that region for sure. As we starting talking to locals, they told us the passes had opened that day. What luck.

I admit I didn't know what a tomahawk steak was.
Everyone else seemed to know but me, plus someone said you can get these at Costco. I need to get out more.

 

[LC4CARL]

Great stuff!

 

[pashnit]

The group was quite excited to confirm the news. I certainly was.

The Sierra Nevada mountain passes had opened that day. We would be the first ones to get over the mountains. And see the huge amounts of snow we had been reading about for months.

 

[pashnit]

 

[pashnit]

Highway 4, Alpine County | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit

Ride Ebbetts Pass across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California Motorcycle Ride

www.pashnit.com

If you've been following this thread from the beginning, this is the same spot as the above pic.

We took this shot back in February a few months ago.

 

[pashnit]

Highway 4, Alpine County | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit

Ride Ebbetts Pass across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California Motorcycle Ride

www.pashnit.com

 

[pashnit]

 

[pashnit]

Highway 4 Ebbetts Pass is famous for this 23-mile no-center-line section at the top.

Elevations hover around 8000 ft.

 

[pashnit]

 

[pashnit]

This much snow is not normal.

Last time I've seen this much snow up here was 2010. Been awhile.

 

[pashnit]

 

[pashnit]

This pass has two summits, Pacific Grade is the first. So much snow we could stand on top of the sign.

 

[pashnit]

There's a little tiny lake at the Pacific Grade Summit known as Mosquito Lake where we always stop to check out the lake. Cool place.

Instead we discovered this. Same place. And I'm walking across the lake instead.

 

[pashnit]

There's several cabins across the lake. Normally it looks like this.
The tiny cabins date to the 1920s when several Angels Camp residents traveled here and built summer cabins.

However, today I found myself walking across the top of the lake to check out the cabins up close. Never done that before.

 

[pashnit]

 

[pashnit]

 

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[pashnit]

 

[pashnit]

 

[pashnit]