45 Days on a Gen3 Hayabusa - 2023 Pashnit Touring
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There's a couple of places to see giant Sequoias in the Sierra Nevada Range, Sequoia NP is the obvious destination, but the fees, the people, the crowds. Packed parking lots full of tourists. Imagine if there were a place to go check out giant sequoias with zero people. Just you, the wind in the treetops, and the sound of a nearby creek. I know a place. The giant sequoia is the world’s most massive tree and is regarded as the largest living organism on earth. While the coast redwood tree is taller ( 380 feet), the baobab tree can grow wider, and the Great Basin bristle cone pine is older (~5000 year old), sequoia trees can grow over 3200 years old and can have a circumference over 113 ft or more. The giant sequoia is among the tallest, widest, and longest-lived of all organisms on Earth. There only a few places to see them up close, most are parks like Big Trees SP near Arnold, CA, Sequoia NP of course, and there's actually six, just six!, of these trees along Mosquito Ridge Rd. The entire grove on Mosquito Ridge, six living sequoia trees and two fallen giants, exists on about two acres in the middle of a 160-acre recreation area of the Tahoe National Forest, a demonstration forest that is the northernmost grove of giant sequoias in the Sierra Nevada range. With the idea being to grow new sequoias, two backup plantations have recently been established near the grove. Propagated from cuttings at the USDA Forest Service's Chico Tree Improvement Center, 10 tiny sequoias are just now pushing their roots into Sierra Nevada soil. Imagine being excited to see just six sequoia tree across the millions of acres the Sierra Range encompasses. But, there's more. You can hike to another sequoia grove off Mountain Rd 50 known as the Starvation Creek Grove, or come with me & park within a few feet of the grove we're headed for. This grove contains approximately 125 giant sequoias greater than 10 feet in diameter and more than 700 giant sequoias less than 10 feet in diameter. The largest tree in this grove has a diameter of 20 feet and is 220 feet tall. Known as the Trail of 100 Giants, this grove is found at the far southern end of the Western Divide Highway, a road that runs along the spine of the Southern Sierra Range. Aka as Highway 190 - the northern end of Highway 190 is one of the twistiest motorcycle roads in the entire Sierra Range. Fun stuff. Not only is the Trail of 100 Giants a remote grove of Sequoia trees, it's also one of the least visited and never busy, it’s easily reached and easily explored. The Trail of 100 Giants is a sequoia grove located right along the highway.
Comon kids, follow the leader
Sequoias don't have a main tap root like most trees, instead, much like the Coast Redwoods, they have massive bases to support their weight - with this weight reaching upwards of 4000 tons, or nearly 1 million pounds for one tree. 4000 Tons works out to 8,000,000 loaves of bread, 1700 pickup trucks, 55 Space Shuttles, or 900,000 cats. The General Sherman Tree, considered the largest sequoia, in Sequoia NP is said to weigh 2.7 million pounds.
Comon kids, follow the leader
Sequoias don't have a main tap root like most trees, instead, much like the Coast Redwoods, they have massive bases to support their weight - with this weight reaching upwards of 4000 tons, or nearly 1 million pounds for one tree. 4000 Tons works out to 8,000,000 loaves of bread, 1700 pickup trucks, 55 Space Shuttles, or 900,000 cats. The General Sherman Tree, considered the largest sequoia, in Sequoia NP is said to weigh 2.7 million pounds.
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Our tour group, some of us have been riding together on these Pashnit Motorcycle Tours for nearly 20 years.
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Tim, I’m sure you’ve been to the Samoa Cookhouse. The old historical
pics they have inside showing the redwood giants being harvested are really something to see too. This is one of my fav pics, my 6’4” son leaning against one inside Calaveras Big Trees SP. It’s so cool watching the looks on peoples faces the first time they see one in person.
pics they have inside showing the redwood giants being harvested are really something to see too. This is one of my fav pics, my 6’4” son leaning against one inside Calaveras Big Trees SP. It’s so cool watching the looks on peoples faces the first time they see one in person.
Indeed. My buddy Tom, he's from Texas, seeing sequoia trees for the first time. He was tickled pink.
I read each and every post as it's a good way to travel with you by proxy....I'm only good for a few hours on a bike these days so there's no way I could ever take one of your excursions.....
Our goal is to head into the Kern River Canyon and the right back out the other side onto Sherman Pass towards Kennedy Meadows.
But, we're gonna pass by Forest Road 23S16. It's currently not open due to winter storm damage, although we've ridden it several times with tour groups through the years. It's the only paved road in this region of the Sierra & it continues the ride that Highway 190 starts staying atop the very spine of the Sierra Range and continuing southward towards the next main paved road - Highway 155. It's known as Portuguese Pass, or colloquially what I deemed it, The Road with No Name. I only found it because I was lost and the road was paved so I just kept going on the Busa.
No GPS, no paper map.
Just, I wonder where this goes. Fun way to explore sometimes.
That's it, about all the signage you're going to get. Paved, but single lane with lots of sand.
See that sand? It's everywhere up here from the road cuts, just the type of soil in the high Sierra.
But, we're gonna pass by Forest Road 23S16. It's currently not open due to winter storm damage, although we've ridden it several times with tour groups through the years. It's the only paved road in this region of the Sierra & it continues the ride that Highway 190 starts staying atop the very spine of the Sierra Range and continuing southward towards the next main paved road - Highway 155. It's known as Portuguese Pass, or colloquially what I deemed it, The Road with No Name. I only found it because I was lost and the road was paved so I just kept going on the Busa.
No GPS, no paper map.
Just, I wonder where this goes. Fun way to explore sometimes.
That's it, about all the signage you're going to get. Paved, but single lane with lots of sand.
See that sand? It's everywhere up here from the road cuts, just the type of soil in the high Sierra.
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Not for everybody, but super fun ride, middle of nowhere stuff.
Forest Road 23S16 - The Road with No Name
Forest Road 23S16 - The Road with No Name
With Forest Road 23S16 not an option to ride, we headed down into the Kern River Canyon dropping several thousand feet into the canyon.
Right at the bottom of the canyon is Sherman Pass Rd, ready to climb up to 9200 ft?
Notice any trees? It's all scrub.
Much dryer climate the further south we go towards Southern California.
Notice any trees? It's all scrub.
Much dryer climate the further south we go towards Southern California.
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This is Sherman Pass. It has a couple of squiggles. 
Yup. Squiggles. And wiggles. Fun! And switchbacks.
Continuously climbing in elevation. Forest Rd 23S16 in the above pics is on that opposite range waaayyy over there.
You can see these switchbacks here on Sherman Pass from the vantage points waayyy over there. Sherman Pass is the very last, the most southern mountain pass up and over the Sierra Nevada Range, then it's all Southern California desert regions south of here.
We're headed to Southern California in a few months - but not today.
All new Southern California Pashnit Tour for 2024
Yup. Squiggles. And wiggles. Fun! And switchbacks.
Continuously climbing in elevation. Forest Rd 23S16 in the above pics is on that opposite range waaayyy over there.
You can see these switchbacks here on Sherman Pass from the vantage points waayyy over there. Sherman Pass is the very last, the most southern mountain pass up and over the Sierra Nevada Range, then it's all Southern California desert regions south of here.
We're headed to Southern California in a few months - but not today.
All new Southern California Pashnit Tour for 2024
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This is Sherman Pass. It has a couple of squiggles.
View attachment 1676690
Yup. Squiggles. And wiggles. Fun! And switchbacks.
View attachment 1676691
Continuously climbing in elevation. Forest Rd 23S16 in the above pics is on that opposite range waaayyy over there.
You can see these switchbacks here on Sherman Pass from the vantage points waayyy over there. Sherman Pass is the very last, the most southern mountain pass up and over the Sierra Nevada Range, then it's all Southern California desert regions south of here.
View attachment 1676692
Thanks for the pics Tim. I haven’t been much farther south than Visalia on two lanes. Interesting countryside. The higher up you ride the fewer trees are around. Riding above 11,000’ in CO there ain’t a tree anywhere!
Truth now, were all the roads paved? On tour ages ago on my 82 CBX somewhere up north. I got sorta lost, well, not lost really, I mean I knew I was in Oregon…or Idaho….I ended up on the (other) side of the Snake River Canyon on a nicely paved forest road that lead me to the Baker City area. Turned out to be a very nice riding area. Seeing those road signs for lil communities farther away when you’re already way off the beaten path always makes me smile. There are a few at the far eastern side of Huntington Lake that I’ll have to explore someday, dozens of miles farther east. If I start hearing that music from Deliverance I’ll turn back…
Everything we ride on these motorcycle tours is paved. As to how well paved, that's entirely subjective.
We call these goat trails, as in fit only for goats. There are a lot of these types of roads in California. Forest Road 23S16 shown in previous posts is a perfect example of a goat trail. Paved, but single lane, very twisty, lots of sand at this high 7000 ft elevation, and potholes. I have a reputation for throwing in at least one goaty (but paved) road into every tour route with my groups that it's become a running joke. The riders call them Tim Roads.Occasionally there are short stretches of (well-known) roads that go to dirt. Reaching Bodie SHP is 10 miles of deliciously fast mountain curves, then three-miles of dirt to get to the Bodie ghost town at 8200 ft. The ride to Glass Mountain near the Oregon border also has three-miles of well-graded dirt fire road to reach Glass Mountain (a literal mountain of glass), but we haven't done that ride since 2016 (the tour alumni are already asking to do it again. We also do a couple miles of well-graded gravel on Bald Hills Rd way up north near the Oregon border in a couple of months, 3-miles of it, on the upcoming Trinity Alps Motorcycle Tour this coming September but I have to warn the riders in advance, there's a short stretch of gravel up ahead. But the trade-off is amazing curves and views of the ocean.
Bald Hills Rd - the gravel stretch is a quick 3-miles. But the view!
But this is the trade-off for that gravel. Several miles of brand new pavement.
I don't mind doing short stretches of dirt/gravel on this bike, but I'd prefer not to.
The last time I got caught on a dirt road, even though last time I rode it, it was paved, was 25 miles of washboard gravel. It was miserable but I was too stubborn to turn back and backtrack to the paved road.
This is Beckwourth-Genesse Rd near Antelope Lake to Portola in Northern California. Busa was not happy. I've ridden it multiple times while it was paved, but they pulled up all the (poor) pavement and laid down this washboard gravel. Well nuts.
There are two other tour outfits in NorCal that are dual-sport orientated, best known is Sierra Nevada Adventures and they do all the dirt roads in the Sierra Range. Yah, nope. You guys do your thing, I'm good on the Hayabusa.
I didn't see one other person the entire time on this road. I made it , but not doing that again.
We're doing an all-new Southern California Motorcycle Tour in a couple of months with a day in San Diego County near the Mexican border, and in planning that ride, there are dirt roads everywhere in that region. I see something squiggley on the paper map but then when I use Google Satellite to check the road surface, it's dirt. Or, it's paved up some mountain canyon for the first five miles, super curvy, looks awesome, then the pavement just stops and it's dirt. Yah, nope. I'll let the dual-sport guys enjoy that.
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One of these years, when I have the travel time, I still want to do a Pashnit Tour.
I want to sign up for the Tim Road Goat Tour when I do!
lol...really
I want to sign up for the Tim Road Goat Tour when I do!
lol...really
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