Pashnit Motorcycle Tours

18/06/2024

Pashnit Motorcycle Tours - Sierra Nevada VI

A few years ago, several riders developed a rating system for twisty roads to rank them from best to not so best. They added in all the pertinent mathematical formulas, twistiness, pavement, engineering, scenery, remoteness and finally, character. In the end, they compared them all, simply added up the scores and came out with a clear winner for California Motorcycle Roads.
The authors named Highway 89 Monitor Pass as the best motorcycle road in the state of California. Riders were either pleased or surprised. What about Road X, Road Y or Road Z? Those are better.
I have to admit that as an author & connoisseur of roads for motorcyclists, I never wanted to create a rating system for roads. Which is why the Pashnit.com site has never had anything like that in the last 20 years. Who am I to say what type of road you’ll like?
Read the article(s) on Pashnit.com, absorb the photos, glue the legs together in your journey. You decide. I have no idea. That’s your job.
However! What I do know is our tour participants love Highway 4 Ebbetts Pass. I can say that with conviction because in last 21 years of running motorcycle tours across Ebbetts Pass, I’ve never met a motorcyclist that didn’t fall in love with this road. It's my favorite. Single lane mountain twisties! Sign me up!

17/06/2024

Pashnit Motorcycle Tours - Sierra Nevada V

We call it the Switzerland of California.
Although the term likely means nothing until you detour off Highway 395 onto the June Lake Loop on the eastern side of the Sierra Range. Uniquely positioned, The June Lake Loop is found in the center of Highway 120 Tioga Pass to the north, Mono Lake Basin to the east, Mammoth Mountain to the south, and Yosemite National Park wilderness mountain regions bordering to the due west along with the Ansel Adams Wilderness Area. The elevation of this out-and-back loop hovers around 7600 ft. The scenery throughout this 16-mile loop is a stunning ride into a horseshoe-shaped mountain valley and looping around four crystal clear lakes of Grant, Silver, Gull while riding right along the very edge of the water in several places.
Four more lakes can also be reached along this ride via short hikes to Parker, Fern, Agnew and Gem Lakes. Not a place to go fast, lean it deeper, or be in a hurry, the June Lake Loop is for riders who want to add mileage to their journey rather than cut the journey shorter. It’s also the perfect mid-day stop for the Pashnit Tour group at the Double Eagle Resort.
High above the resort is Horsetail Falls, a massive 270 ft waterfall spreading out over a massive rock wall into multiple fingers during spring snowmelt. To add to the rustic mountain motif, a swollen creek flows right through the center of the resort emitting a melodious sound.

14/06/2024

Pashnit Motorcycle Tours - Sierra Nevada IV

You have to ride the central Sierra Nevada Passes.
Every rider knows that. Steep grades & numerous tight hairpins. Incredible views. Endless twisties. The first Sierra Nevada Pashnit Tour was in August 2005, twenty years ago, and that's exactly what we did. Rode up & over the range to Bodie State Historic Park & back. Two decades have gone by and we've done this loop many times over with many tour groups. What else ya got?
Headed up the pass with the group in tow, I started to review the options: Cherry Lake Loop, Graffiti Bridge, Balance Rock, Calaveras Big Trees, Mosquito Lake, Column of the Giants, Kennedy Meadows, Bodie Ghost Town, Twin Lakes, the Que de Porka, there’s even a cool logging museum in Arnold with a Shay locomotive parked out front no one has ever heard of. Lot of cool stuff along this route. Donnell Vista, we'll stop there. Last year, we got chased away by pouring rain, but one year later, only blue skies above. Donnell’s Vista at the 6300 ft level provides a bird’s eye view of Donnell Reservoir in the canyon 1500 ft directly below, completely full this time of year. Fed by the Middle Fork of the Stanislaus River, you can hear the sound of the rushing river in the canyon, swollen with snowmelt. Easily missed, Donnells Vista is the perfect stop halfway to the summit.
One year ago, to the day, we reached the summit on Sonora Pass to be greeted with 10 feet of snow on the side of the road, most snow in 70 years. We were lucky to ride the pass one day after it opened in 2023. This year, still a fair amount of snow, but melting quickly as our summer heat has arrived.

13/06/2024

Pashnit Motorcycle Tours - Sierra Nevada III

Roads in the Sierra Range all run east-west, up the range, and down the range. Right?
After all, everyone knows to ride the passes. Up the range, and down the range. Endless twisty, twisty. Figuring out a north-south trek through the range however takes a bit of pre-planning to stay off the main highway. If we connect this backroad with that, that with this, perfect.
Iowa Hill > Mosquito Ridge Rd > Eleven Pines Rd > Wentworth > Ice House > Silver Fork Rd > Mormon Emigrant Trail, any of those sound familiar?
How about North South Rd, that connects Mormon Emigrant Trail with Highway 88. Heard of it? I skipped that one in favor of Mt Aukum > Ostrom > Hale > Charleston > Volcano. The plan was even to ride Highway 26 to Jesus Maria Rd to Railroad Flat, but by the time we reached Volcano for ice cream, it was getting late in the day & it was horse to the barn time.

You've ridden right past it a zillion times!
Ride it> https://web.archive.org/web/20041208224519/http://www.pashnit.com/roads/cal/SilverForkRd.htm

12/06/2024

Pashnit Motorcycle Tours- Sierra Nevada II

600 Curves in 36 Miles.
If you are anywhere near Mosquito Ridge, add it to the To Do List.
Mosquito Ridge has been closed the last few years due to the 2022 Mosquito Fire, but it opened up a few days ago and we made tracks to ride it.
From Foresthill, Mosquito Ridge drops into the El Dorado Canyon, across the Circle Bridge, and right back up the canyon wall. French Meadows Reservoir was completely full of snowmelt which is awesome to see.
Eleven Pines Rd isn't for everyone, but it connects Mosquito Ridge with Wentworth Springs Rd 35 miles to the south. When my wife and I first settled in the Sierra Nevada Foothills 22 years ago, Wentworth Springs was a dirt jeep trail. Ice House Rd was 9 miles from my new house, and new (to me) Hayabusa. Then they graded & paved Wentworth Springs, I first rode it before they painted the lines down & photographed it with a 35mm film camera.
Lifetime ago. Still one of the best roads in the central Sierra Range from Georgetown to Ice House Rd.
Btw, Ice House Rd is being completely resurfaced and repaved right now over the coming months. What a delight that will be in a few months. If you ride Ice House, don't miss the ride up to the Big Hill Fire Lookout. It's the only fire lookout in the Sierra Range with a paved road to the summit and open to the general public. And bikers.

04/06/2024

Pashnit Motorcycle Tours - Southern California III

26/04/2024

Northern California's Highway 36
Endless curve for 140 miles.
https://www.pashnittours.com/northern-california

24/04/2024

Pics, pics, pics!!
Complete pic album of Parkfield photos uploaded:
https://flickr.com/photos/pashnit/albums..bringing the pic count to 52,223 tour photos uploaded over the last 20 years of Pashnit Motorcycle Tours.

We've already booked the town of Parkfield for our motorcycle tour group for April 5, 2025 if you can plan that far in advance.
Pashnit Tours Alumni are already signing up for the 2025 Tour. Limited space (just 10 rooms in the whole town), the tour will sell out and move to a waiting list. If you want to ride with us in 2025, sign up here: https://www.pashnittours.com/parkfield

18/04/2024

We're finally headed for Northern California.
Known as a motorcyclist's paradise, few people, tiny towns, and endless twisty mountain roads defines NorCal.
After wandering around the central portion of the state for the last few months enjoying the brilliant spring green of the Sierra Foothills & Central Coast Range, the snow has melted enough to allow us access to anything below 5000 ft in NorCal.

10/04/2024

doggone it Randy Brooks
I thought both hands on the bars was in the safety brief.
Do I have to add that?
dang kids 😁

25/02/2024

Several spring Pashnit Motorcycle Tours coming up quick.
We have one spot left on the Death Valley Tour March 08, starts in Tulare, does two nights in Stovepipe Wells and one spot left on the March 22 Southern Foothills Pashnit Tour which starts in Turlock & we ride the Southern Sierra Nevada Foothill regions from Mariposa/Oakhurst to Bakersfield. Super fun riding region. Many of our Pashnit Tours Alumni have done both these rides.

Excited to go see Death Valley Badwater Basin which is now a lake with about 12 inches of water in the saltwater flat. Lowest spot in the United States, 282 feet below sea level.
Super rare occurrence we're going to see in person.
More details: www.PashnitTours.com
Contact me if you want to ride.

19/01/2024

Long, lonely roads are not for everyone. If you want Endless Twisties, I know a guy. But, there's an allure of wide open road that's hard to describe. We last did this Pashnit Motorcycle Tours in 2018 & it was a super fun good time. Lot of space in the American Southwest, and a lot of wide open road. We're headed for Nevada soon & we've already got a full crew signed up for this motorcycle tour, but if this is something you've been day dreaming about, do check it out. September 2024.
https://www.pashnittours.com/nevada

18/01/2024

30 years ago today was the Northridge Earthquake in Southern California. I rode right into the middle of it 30 years ago today.

Excerpted from my story: 6000 Mile in 8 Days:
https://www.pashnit.com/6000miles8days

As I reached downtown Los Angeles and headed north on Interstate 5, the main freeway that connects Southern California with Northern California, the traffic started getting thinner and even more sparse till there were almost no other cars on the road. There I was just humming along on the bike on a 5-lane freeway on a Monday afternoon all by myself in the middle of Los Angeles. Is something wrong with this picture? Then up ahead, I noticed there were orange cones shunting people off the freeway.

I took it all in stride, hey, this is Los Angeles, where they have fires, riots, unrest, all sorts of weird things go on here. I thought nothing of it nor did I think to ask anyone why. All I wanted to do was get out of Southern California and get home. I had been on the bike for a week riding non-stop stopping only to sleep.

There was another CHP by the nearby on-ramp parked. The CHP officer stood near the vehicle as if waiting for something to happen. It still didn't sink in to strike me as odd. I just figured it was normal. As I exited off the freeway, there were people milling around and not doing anything. People sitting on cars or standing there in groups talking. Everyone seemed to be outside in the middle of the street on a Monday. I thought to get fuel while I was there but the gas stations were all closed in the middle of the day on a Monday.

There was an odd sensation that something wasn’t right, but this is probably normal for around here, only in Los Angeles I thought. Rather than figure out what was going on, I got back on the freeway and simply headed back south the opposite direction. I ended up getting very lost and real confused. My unfamiliarity with Los Angeles worked against me and my United States road atlas on the tank proved difficult to read compared against the labyrinth of options. There were signs for everything and I wasn't sure what freeway went where. I missed the turnoff for 101 somehow and so I took the 10 instead going east. I rode awhile then the same thing happened. A big roadblock and all the cars in a long line being sent to the street. I was at a loss; how do I get out of this city?

This time I pulled the motorcycle to a stop beside the long line of cars being shunted onto the city streets. I spotted a motorcycle cop standing in the middle of the freeway, just standing there all by himself. I hopped off the bike, peeled my helmet off, and strode over to him carrying the helmet. He saw me and met me halfway.
"How do I get out of Los Angeles, all the freeways are closed," I said in a rather causal way.

"Where've you been?" he replied flatly, somewhat annoyed, as though I didn't belong.

He looked a bit unkempt, disheveled and I thought that a bit odd. It was also an odd answer.

"Well, I went through Phoenix early this morning," I said, "and before that came through New Mexico and Texas the day before. I left out the part where I rode 36 hours non-stop across three states except for a quick nap under an overpass in Texas.

"Los Angeles got hit by an earthquake a couple hours ago. We know of over 30 people dead and there are a lot of fires and rescue personnel everywhere. The epicenter is just a couple of miles over there in Northridge" He motioned to the west.

"The freeway up ahead has collapsed and an elevated section of Interstate 5 up on the north side of the city also collapsed," He spoke while looking at his motorcycle. He half spoke to it and me at the same time. "A motor officer was riding to work this morning on his motorcycle when the freeway gave way and he was killed." He paused for a moment and the words hung in the air. "

You can take 101 north; it's the only thing open right now." And with that, he turned mid-sentence and began walking to his motorcycle as if I were no longer interesting.

It suddenly occurred to me.

"What time?" I called to him before he was out of ear shot, "When was it?"

"About 4:30AM." He replied not looking at me and continued walking back to the middle of the deserted 4 lane elevated freeway looking alone and out of place. There his white and black motorcycle sat with all of its emergency lights flashing. There was no sound of busy freeway, the city made no sound, there was no motion anywhere. With the helmet off, I finally noticed.

I was perplexed for a moment and just stood there in the middle of freeway because it finally all came together. I was supposed to be here 4:30am this morning, or could have been if I hadn't stayed outside of Phoenix for the night only hours earlier. After all the things that have happened over the last 6000 miles, I was amazed to have missed a major earthquake by mere hours. It started to all make sense now and I slowly realized the entire city of Los Angeles was at a standstill. I was standing on an elevated freeway in the heart of Los Angeles moments after one the of largest earthquakes in decades to hit the city. I'd ridden right into the middle of a major disaster.

6000 Miles in 8 Days
A Motorcycle Ride across America
https://www.pashnit.com/6000miles8days

13/01/2024

If you get a flat, the tour guide will (merrily) fix your tire.
But there will be photos.

13/12/2023

Pashnit’s Guide to California:
One of the most interesting things I’ve discovered while riding is a man-made island on the edge of Owens Lake (about 5 miles south of Lone Pine) in the Eastern Sierra known as Owens Lake Plover Wing Plaza.
Owens Lake was a large body of water until the Owens River was diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913. However, the now dry lake bed, a salt flat the size of San Francisco covering 110 square miles, became the largest single source of dust pollution in the entire United States due to steady winds coming over the Sierra Nevada Range picking up the dust from the dry lake bed and carrying the dust particulates across the United States. Decades of litigation followed. The simple solution to mitigate the dust; create shallow ponds with berms & dikes, then flood the ponds. A labyrinth of dikes were built, the water returned, along with wildlife & thousands of birds returned to the once barren valley. The Owens Lake Plover Wing Plaza is essentially an art installation in the middle of a lake.
There are no signs to find it and no clue anywhere it even exists. The entrance road to the Owens Lake Plaza is off Highway 136 on the lake’s eastern shore. 2.25 miles north of Keeler, turn east and head downhill on dirt roads toward the lake. Several markers along the dirt road direct you to the Plaza trailhead parking area. Surrounding the Owens Lake Plover Wing Plaza are large mounds of rock said to resemble waves or white caps. Pipelines have been buried in the shallow lake bed and the water is rotated through the ponds to saturate the salt flats thereby mitigating any dust.
I rode in from the Highway 136 east side of the lake near Swansea and eventually was able to see the island on the edge of the lake and headed that direction atop narrow dirt berms separating the shallow ponds. Super cool place to check out if riding up Highway 395.

12/12/2023

Pashnit's Guide to California:
Chances are, you’ve ridden right by it. While you say that you have ridden the Sierra Nevada Passes, have you ever slowed down to smell the roses? Easy to miss and nothing to let you know this even exists other than a small sign along the road, this vista along Highway 108 Sonora Pass is one of the best in the Sierra Range. Donnell’s Vista, el 6311', provides a bird’s eye view of Donnells Lake in the canyon below, fed by the Middle Fork of the Stanislaus River and several other creeks. It resembles a miniature Yosemite Valley with steep cliff faces creating the basin for the reservoir. The vista looks down nearly 1500 vertical feet at the reservoir. Built in 1955 at an elevation of 4,893’ for storing water and power generation, the curved arch dam is 291 feet high and 750 feet long. Unfortunately, there is no paved road that leads down to the reservoir and the only way to reach the dam is to ride up the canyon from Beardley Lake further downhill. Easy to miss. I rode by it for 20 years before I finally stopped to check this out.
https://www.pashnit.com/ca-highway-108

15/11/2023

Mid-November update:
It's mid-November and our tour dates for 2024 are beginning to sell out and we're moving to a waiting list of names waiting for someone to cancel. 8 Tours are sold out or almost sold out for 2024.
Parkfield, SoCal, Coast Range, Sequoia, Oregon Tours & Trinity Alps are sold out and NorCal & Trinity Alps tours can take 1 or 2 more riders and then sold out.
Waiting List means we'll keep a list of names who want to ride if someone cancels.

2024 Tour Dates

Feb 16, 2024 - EL DORADO
Mar 08, 2024 - DEATH VALLEY
Mar 22, 2024 - SOUTHERN FOOTHILLS
Apr 05, 2024 - PARKFIELD - Sold Out / Waiting List
Apr 19, 2024 - SHASTA COAST - NEW
May 03, 2024 - THREE SISTERS - NEW
May 24, 2024 - SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - Sold Out / Waiting List
June 07, 2024 - SIERRA NEVADA
July 12, 2024 - COAST RANGE - Sold Out / Waiting List
Aug 02, 2024 - SEQUOIA - Sold Out / Waiting List
Aug 16, 2024 - NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - Almost Sold Out
Aug 30, 2024 - OREGON COAST RANGE - Sold Out / Waiting List
Sept 13, 2024 - NEVADA - NEW
Sept 20, 2024 - TRINITY ALPS - Sold Out / Waiting List
Oct 04, 2024 - YOSEMITE VALLEY
Oct 18, 2024 - CENTRAL PACIFIC COAST
Nov 01, 2024 - MARIN/SONOMA

08/08/2023

Projected schedule for 2024. Tours are already starting to fill up.
More details>> www.PashnitTours.com

Feb 16, 2024 - EL DORADO
Mar 08, 2024 - DEATH VALLEY
Mar 23, 2024 - SOUTHERN FOOTHILLS
Apr 05, 2024 - PARKFIELD
Apr 19, 2024 - SHASTA COAST - NEW
May 03, 2024 - THREE SISTERS - NEW
May 24, 2024 - SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA -NEW
June 07, 2024 - SIERRA NEVADA
July 12, 2024 - COAST RANGE
Aug 02, 2024 - SEQUOIA
Aug 17, 2024 - NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Aug 30, 2024 - OREGON COAST RANGE
Sept 13, 2024 - NEVADA - NEW
Sept 20, 2024 - TRINITY ALPS - NEW
Oct 04, 2024 - YOSEMITE VALLEY
Oct 18, 2024 - CENTRAL PACIFIC COAST
Nov 01, 2024 - MARIN/SONOMA

California Motorcycle Tours along Pacific Coast, NorCal, and Sierra Nevada Mountains from the author of Pashnit.com, Ride California & Oregon with PASHNIT guided organized tours.

24/05/2023

All-new California Motorcycle Road posted to Pashnit.com>>>

My wife worked on Saturdays. I had Saturdays off. We were newly married and for a short time, Saturdays were all mine. In-between bikes after selling my much-loved ’93 Kawasaki ZX-11D, I began the task of saving up for a Hayabusa. But I had bought an EX500 for my new wife, who had recently gotten her motorcycle endorsement. The Ninja 500 was small, nimble and peppy. But no one was impressed by the Baby Ninja, it was unassuming and even had pink pin striping.

However, it ran like a sewing machine, and the 16-inch rims made it very nimble on backroads. Each Saturday, while my new wife worked her weekend day shift, I would head out and explore a new set of roads with the EX500. The rule was I had to be back before she was home from work, which meant a little over 8-hour ride. Four hours out, four hours back created a 4-hour radius from home base.

Back in the olden days, there were no resources online that talked about motorcycle roads, you looked for squiggly lines on a paper map, or you had to buy a book at the local book store. And books about roads in California, I had quite a few of those. And my latest new book, Scenic Driving California, had an alluring photo on the cover.

I came to learn this photo was a shot of Ridgecrest Blvd north of San Francisco, better known as Bolinas Ridge. This cover photo depicted a curvaceous road atop grass covered rolling hills combined with the mountainous background was too alluring to ignore. I had to go find this road and set out on the baby Ninja one Saturday to ride it. What I discovered was a true gem, and like no other road I had ever ridden in my wandering travels around the state.



More>>>
https://www.pashnit.com/ca-bolinas-ridge

Ride Bolinas Ridge to Mount Tamalpais | California Motorcycle Rides

17/05/2022

Photos from the latest Pashnit Tour to Sequoia National Park posted
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pashnit/albums

18/04/2021

Here's the punchline before we get to the pitch... When I first planned this latest motorcycle tour route, I thought I'd hit the jackpot. The tour concept seemed simple at first. Non-stop twisties through sparely populated rolling ranch land. Grassy hills that heave and sigh.

Then I realized I'd plotted out a 200-mile stretch of backroad riding with nary a gas station in sight for the length of those 200 miles. That may seem an insignificant detail, however it's a clue to what's in store when we ride the Southern Sierra Nevada Foothills.

But not so fast.... Every pitch has a problematic issue it must solve. In this case, it's the conundrum of California's Fresno & Tulare Counties. We've ridden this region before, but we keep missing roads. Point A to Point B just isn't cutting it. That ribbon of blacktop over there also- you have to ride that! Can't be missed. Why pick and choose? Let's ride them all.

But, answer this one question first... Why is it worth noting that it's possible to ride 200 miles of twisty road, but not come in contact with a single gas station?

More> the latest new Pashnit Motorcycle Tour scheduled for April 23, 2021

https://www.pashnittours.com/southern-foothills

Ride Tulare & Kern County motorcycle roads

15/11/2020

Nacimiento Rd | You must ride it.
https://www.pashnit.com/ca-nacimiento-rd

Best Central California Coast Motorcycle Rides

29/10/2020

Season 18 Booking Now
2021 Pashnit Tour Dates:

2021 Pashnit Tour Season
March 12 - Death Valley
April 2 - Parkfield
April 23 - Southern Foothills
May 28 - Circle NorCal - Memorial Day weekend
June 11 - Mystery Tour # 1
July 16 - Coast Range
September 3 - Southern Oregon - Labor Day Weekend
September 24 - Classic NorCal
October 8 - Mystery Tour # 2
October 22 - Santa Barbara

31/07/2020

Headed out to ride Marin & Sonoma County in a few days
https://www.pashnittours.com/delta-bodega

30/07/2020

Next project:

23/11/2019

Santa Barbara Motorcycle Tour announced for 2020 tour season: http://www.pashnittours.com/tour_35.html

23/11/2019

Next Project:

10/06/2018

Knights Ferry Worth a vist. Longest covered bridge in California www.PashnitTours.com

10/06/2018

Morro Rock, Sequoia National Park www.PashnitTours.com

01/06/2018

Twisty Road a day keeps the doldrums away.