45 Days on a Gen3 Hayabusa - 2023 Pashnit Touring
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Can't stay up here forever, it was time to head down the mountain
Heading down the mountain includes one of my favorite roads that's been mentioned before in this thread: Wentworth Springs Rd
Wentworth Springs Rd wasn’t paved up and over Silver Hill Ridge until 2003. Prior to that, this was a dirt jeep trail.
Heading down the mountain includes one of my favorite roads that's been mentioned before in this thread: Wentworth Springs Rd
Wentworth Springs Rd wasn’t paved up and over Silver Hill Ridge until 2003. Prior to that, this was a dirt jeep trail.
I rode it as soon as it was opened mere months after my new wife & I settled into our new home we purchased nearby. The fog lines & center line hadn’t even been painted yet but the new paving was completed and the road was open. Leaving before dawn to arrive at the road as the sun came up, it was quickly apparent that the all-new Wentworth Springs Rd was even better than what one might have imagined.
Imagine glassy smooth swaths of gently arcing curves, unprecedented perfection upon a deserted mountaintop. Imagine no homes, virtually no paved side roads, no people, national forest wilderness on all sides. Imagine mountain tops that framed the edge of horizons and before you something you once imagined in your mind’s eye, but couldn't believe in until you saw it with your own eyes begins to play out. Now open your eyes and stop imagining. It’s known as Wentworth Springs Road. Riding this will saturate you with a sense of motorcycle awe, a spiritual experience.
Atop the summit on Wentworth Springs Rd 20 years ago
California has the equivalent of the Bolivian Death Road, at least our closest version. It’s known as Iowa Hill Rd, a single lane canyon wall ride, zero guard rails, 16% grade, with vehicles popping out at you around blind corners. Oh, and multiple hairpins. Awesome great fun. Best described as 'narrow and serpentine', 'narrowest, curviest and steepest', & 'dangerous with steep cliffs'. This ride connects Colfax with Iowa Hill, another gold rush town that in present day is off grid, despite being a few miles from a major freeway, still no electricity.
Iowa Hill is merely an echo of the thousands of gold miners who once lived here. But as most gold rush towns went, destroyed by fire several times. All that remains is a few homes, and the Iowa Hill Store acts as a restaurant, bar, post office and ultra mini-market. Definitely ticks all the boxes.
The single lane road into the canyon.
Iowa Hill is merely an echo of the thousands of gold miners who once lived here. But as most gold rush towns went, destroyed by fire several times. All that remains is a few homes, and the Iowa Hill Store acts as a restaurant, bar, post office and ultra mini-market. Definitely ticks all the boxes.
The single lane road into the canyon.
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Blind corners on a single lane road, with 5 mph mountain hairpins, zero guard rails & it's straight down into the canyon - we talked about maintaining the right lane position on single lane roads, right?
Hope ya listened in the morning safety brief - right as we came out of the hairpin - butt clencher, car coming right at us.
You can see the bridge in the bottom of the canyon...
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VIA Magazine called me one day & asked if I would do a photo shoot of the Empire Cottage at Empire Mine in Grass Valley for an upcoming article in AAA's travel magazine. I had a toddler at that time & my wife was 8 months pregnant with my son. We loaded up into our ’87 Olds Cutlass and headed up to Empire Mine to check out the grounds, while my very pregnant wife chased after my oldest and I ran around the grounds shooting photos trying to get that exclusive magazine cover shot.
Ironically, the article never ran in the magazine, but the road trip wasn't a bust, I now had some great photos of the Bourne Mansion and wrote my own article for Pashnit.com about Empire Mine some years later & paired it with those same photos.
Fast-forward 19 years & I’m taking my Pashnit Motorcycle Tour group to Empire Mine, don’t think we’ve ever stopped here, although we’ve ridden past it countless times. The mine produced 5.8 million ounces of gold pulled from 367 miles of tunnels, which converts to $10,000,000,000 (that's with a B) in today's dollars. This mine was the oldest, deepest, richest, and longest operating. And the tunnels beneath our feet extend down 2 miles and span 5 square miles. The tunnels are all still there in present day, but filled with water, as the water table is 150 ft below the mine. Fascinating place to visit & they have a great museum here. If you want to get inside the mansion, plan ahead, as we could only peer in the windows.
www.pashnit.com
Mine Superintendents House
Below our feet - 367 miles of tunnels were dug nearly a mile under the ground.
We headed into the museum which is quite amazing. This is a full sized model of the mine long before computers could map a mines progress, it was done by hand. Kept in a secret room with blacked out windows, no one was allowed to see the model of the mine while it was in operation.
Ironically, the article never ran in the magazine, but the road trip wasn't a bust, I now had some great photos of the Bourne Mansion and wrote my own article for Pashnit.com about Empire Mine some years later & paired it with those same photos.
Fast-forward 19 years & I’m taking my Pashnit Motorcycle Tour group to Empire Mine, don’t think we’ve ever stopped here, although we’ve ridden past it countless times. The mine produced 5.8 million ounces of gold pulled from 367 miles of tunnels, which converts to $10,000,000,000 (that's with a B) in today's dollars. This mine was the oldest, deepest, richest, and longest operating. And the tunnels beneath our feet extend down 2 miles and span 5 square miles. The tunnels are all still there in present day, but filled with water, as the water table is 150 ft below the mine. Fascinating place to visit & they have a great museum here. If you want to get inside the mansion, plan ahead, as we could only peer in the windows.
Empire Mine State Park | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit
Ride to Empire Mine in the Sierra Nevada Foothills
www.pashnit.com
Mine Superintendents House
Below our feet - 367 miles of tunnels were dug nearly a mile under the ground.
We headed into the museum which is quite amazing. This is a full sized model of the mine long before computers could map a mines progress, it was done by hand. Kept in a secret room with blacked out windows, no one was allowed to see the model of the mine while it was in operation.
As the mining progressed to a feverish pace, the depth of the mine soon fell below the water table. The solution was the Cornish plunging pump, capable of pulling 18,000 gallons of water out of the mine per day. These pumps were powered by steam, which required large amounts of wood. Area forests were then clear-cut to supply the wood needed to power the steam engines. Clear-cutting the forest had the obvious result of running out of trees to power the steam engines that powered the mining operations. Although electricity was generated at the mine as early as 1895 from the use of Pelton water wheels, Cornish pumps were finally replaced with electrical hydraulic equipment around 1900 after 40 years of use.
How to deliver men one mile underground? A sled known as a skip & a very long steel cable.
Cornish immigrants were fortunate in many ways: they shared a language of those who sought their skills, worked in a countryside much like their home-land, and were numerous enough to maintain their customs. One custom they brought with them was the pasty, a meat & potato pie, which is readily available today in nearby Grass Valley restaurants. Each day, they carried with them their metal lunch tin down into the mine. The lunch pail had several levels within it. Using a candle, miners heated the bottom of the tin, in turn heating the pasty.
The Cornish valued self-sufficiency and some thought them clannish, but this unity led to stable communities. The church was usually their first public structure. A love of music and literature was expressed in church choir preparation and Bible study. Miners often sang hymns as they rode into the mine on skips. The Cornish were also less politically active than the Irish, but were attracted to fraternal groups, such as the Elks and Odd Fellows Lodge. Miners joined the union but emphasized its social and benevolent roles.
The hard rock Cornish miners worked a life of hard work in a dangerous occupation. During peak years in the life of the mine, they worked six days a week and ten-hour days in the moist, gloomy underground tunnels.
By 1890, single jacking was replaced with compressed-air powered drills to carve holes into the walls of rock. Later, these evolved to an improved design that sprayed water onto the drill bit to keep down clouds of dust created by earlier designs. The mine was pushed further and further soon extending 11,000 feet on the incline and a mile below the surface in a maze of 367 miles of tunnels.
How to deliver men one mile underground? A sled known as a skip & a very long steel cable.
Cornish immigrants were fortunate in many ways: they shared a language of those who sought their skills, worked in a countryside much like their home-land, and were numerous enough to maintain their customs. One custom they brought with them was the pasty, a meat & potato pie, which is readily available today in nearby Grass Valley restaurants. Each day, they carried with them their metal lunch tin down into the mine. The lunch pail had several levels within it. Using a candle, miners heated the bottom of the tin, in turn heating the pasty.
The Cornish valued self-sufficiency and some thought them clannish, but this unity led to stable communities. The church was usually their first public structure. A love of music and literature was expressed in church choir preparation and Bible study. Miners often sang hymns as they rode into the mine on skips. The Cornish were also less politically active than the Irish, but were attracted to fraternal groups, such as the Elks and Odd Fellows Lodge. Miners joined the union but emphasized its social and benevolent roles.
The hard rock Cornish miners worked a life of hard work in a dangerous occupation. During peak years in the life of the mine, they worked six days a week and ten-hour days in the moist, gloomy underground tunnels.
By 1890, single jacking was replaced with compressed-air powered drills to carve holes into the walls of rock. Later, these evolved to an improved design that sprayed water onto the drill bit to keep down clouds of dust created by earlier designs. The mine was pushed further and further soon extending 11,000 feet on the incline and a mile below the surface in a maze of 367 miles of tunnels.
In 1899, Mules were introduced within the depths of the mine. At one-year-old, they were taken down into the maze of tunnels and spent the rest of their life there. They soon became an essential part of the work. They had their own clean stalls, fresh food and water. The mules were also very temperamental. Miners kept handfuls of oats, a shot of whiskey, and the mule's favorite- a snuff of tobacco. A miner trying to walk past a mule might be stopped in his tracks by the mule bloating its stomach in the narrow passage. A little payoff was all that was required for passage.
If a miner might try to fool the mule into pulling 7 tons instead of 8 tons of ore- the mule knew. Until the extra car was unhitched, and the mule was compensated with a quid of tobacco- the mule wouldn't budge. After that, the mule would diligently pull the 7 cars with all its might.
If a miner might try to fool the mule into pulling 7 tons instead of 8 tons of ore- the mule knew. Until the extra car was unhitched, and the mule was compensated with a quid of tobacco- the mule wouldn't budge. After that, the mule would diligently pull the 7 cars with all its might.
Currently, an 800-foot shaft has been cut into the hillside. Known quite simply as the Underground Tour Project, the plan was to transport visitors through the new shaft and give a fresh hands-on experience to life inside the mine. The plan was, after viewing several dioramas of mining life and operations along the way, a tram finally reaches the main shaft where visitors can view the quartz vein which was mined upwards creating a large cavernous room called a stope. The tram would have carried 24 people at a time with hard hats and rain slickers part of the tour.
The state of California spent $2.5M, obtained from grants and donated money, on the project until 2012 when the state fire marshal found steel beams installed to shore up the tunnel were corroding and determined to be unsafe. The state then determined it would take another $1.4M to fix the issue and killed the entire project, much to the chagrin of local supporters who felt the mine tours would be a terrific new draw for tourism.
The state of California spent $2.5M, obtained from grants and donated money, on the project until 2012 when the state fire marshal found steel beams installed to shore up the tunnel were corroding and determined to be unsafe. The state then determined it would take another $1.4M to fix the issue and killed the entire project, much to the chagrin of local supporters who felt the mine tours would be a terrific new draw for tourism.
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