45 Days on a Gen3 Hayabusa - 2023 Pashnit Touring

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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

A couple of years ago (2010), I had this idea to design a motorcycle tour route centered around goat trails, twisty bumpy single lane paved mountain roads. I even called it The Goat Trail Tour. 'Goat' was in the title! There's lots of these backroads in the Coast Range north of San Francisco. Problem was I still getting this company started and I'd take anybody on the tour. Seemingly, no one read the tour description which explicitly said we are going to ride the bumpiest goatiest backroads we can find.

I had guys show up for that ride on Harley Softtail (well, okay, but Not!), another showed up on a Can-Am Spyder. (Not!) One guy was on a Goldwing. Okay fine, that's a really nimble bike with an experienced pilot. But better yet, another guy showed up on a Harley sidecar. Did anybody read the tour description? He was a trooper and muscled this huge bike with sidecar through all the mountain twisties. I don't think he'd even seen roads like these. It was a bust and although the rest of us had a super-awesome time riding, those guys were overwhelmed. Harley sidecar on single lane mountain roads? What were you thinking?! (putting on my dad hat) We did that tour twice, and the idea got nixed & retired. Some of my Alumni are asking to do the Goat Trail Tour again (the guys that love the backroads), but we learned the hard way to put really stern disclaimers in the tour descriptions.

We did roads like this below: King Ridge Rd in the Coast Range - super fun, but doesn't get any wider than this. The guy on the ST was cool, those are really nimble bikes with an experienced pilot. The Harley sidecar, not so much.

 

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I’ve always had a thing for paper maps. Tactile, tangible, they speak, oh, the journeys we will have together, of endless squiggly lines and deserted mountaintops. Ever since my first ride across the United States done with xeroxed pages of a Rand McNally Road Atlas of North America, that 5000-miles-in-9-days experience has stayed with me, even thirty years later. Each morning, I pulled out my highlighter and traced out the planned route, then slid the new piece of copy paper into a Ziploc bag, and scotch taped it to my fuel tank. Each fuel stop over the course of 5000 miles, I had to peel back the Ziploc bag to fill up the gas tank, then reattach the Ziploc bag, with even more layers of scotch tape, laden with layers of copy paper of the Western United States.

Fast-forward a few years, a few decades, still staring at a 2-dimensional paper map, this time headed for the Southern Sierra Nevada. I had learned there was another mountain pass in the Southern Sierra Nevada Range. Carson, Ebbetts, Sonora, Tioga, get all the attention, we’re done, right? My paper map showed a narrow, thin line, on par with what could be a dirt road. But, I had learned of a place called the Domeland Wilderness, it had wilderness in the title, and it led to a place known as Kennedy Meadows. A community so remote, they still don’t even have electricity and wireless phone services only arrived a few years ago. The only logical thing to do was ride in that general direction to check it out.

Near the summit, we have to take a break to take in the view.

 

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This H2 is really starting to grow on me.

 

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We were down in the bottom of the Kern River Canyon moments ago.

 

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Don't see many people touring on Buells anymore.

 

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We have this story we tell about Sherman Pass. One year they had recently chip sealed the road, but the pea gravel they use was so thick, we rode on this below for about 10 miles. It was like riding on ice.

Everyone survived and no issues, but it took a few miles for my butthole to unclench, the bike squiggled all over the place & I said I never want to do that again!

 

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Reaching the summit

 

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The Kern Plateau is actually a flat plateau about 30 miles across. Unlike the Central Sierra Passes like Sonora Pass which goes straight up and straight down over the range, Sherman Pass is much like Ebbetts Pass. Riding straight up wiggling through lots of twisties to the top, then it's flat at the top (sort of). The terrrain is very sandy with a single paved road (Sherman Pass), but there also dirt fire roads in every direction. That means dirt bikes. Lots of them. The Kern Plateau is an active destination for off-road aficionados with over 25 different developed trail systems.

Plus if you're motivated (& don't mind dirt fire roads), very cool fire lookout to ride up to.

In the center of this mountain plateau is Kennedy Meadows.

Kennedy Meadows is down there somewhere.

 

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Perfect place to pull in and grab lunch

Gas is expensive from an above ground tank. You are in the middle of nowhere. And there's no electricity here.

 

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The bikes that are low range bikes are encouraged to buy an extra gallon to make sure they can make it to our next fuel stop.

We gave poor Mike a hard time about the H2. Sexy bike, but not quite the range of the Hayabusa. He took an extra gallon to be safe. There's no electricity up here in the mountains so they run the Kennedy Meadows General Store off generator power surcharging the fuel with that extra charge.

 

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Kennedy Meadows General store. Elevation here is 6000 ft & there's a tiny off-grid mountain community that surrounds the general store.

Kennedy Meadows is a natural stopping point in the journey over the pass. The site has a outdoor patio to enjoy lunch at the Chuckwagon BBQ and a small store to buy curio items all stamped with Kennedy Meadows. The general store is centered on the Pacific Crest Trail. Hikers that pass through while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, which starts at the Mexico border and goes along the spine of the Sierra Range all the way to Canada, are encouraged to ship packages via USPS here, where they lie in wait for hikers to reach the location of Kennedy Meadows.

 

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Petting the cat is mandatory. Hana who is Canadian & originally from Isreal, is trying to figure out US dollars.

Place your order at the hole in the wall. The cook prepares your hamburger on an open propane grill.

 

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Sometimes I get recognized in the most remote places. Hey, you're that Pashnit guy - I've been using your site for years, he said.

A hearty handshake and we're ready to get back on the road.

 

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Count the bikes, make sure we got everybody

 

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We're headed for a place called Nine Mile Canyon.

 

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Just sagebrush at this elevation as Sherman pass flows through flat meadows between the peaks, but we top out at 7500 ft before starting to head out of the mountains and into the high desert. I believe these trees are pinyon-juniper trees that survive at higher elevations in very dry soil.
No rain here as we move into the rain shadow regions of the Eastern Sierra Nevada. No grass, just sagebrush which gives off a very sweet pungent aroma during certain times of year.

Reaching Nine Mile Canyon