Mega Sierra Pass ride - June 14/15, 2016

[NevadaWolf]

Ah, summer time. Which means Vacation Time!

Part 1: Sierra Pass challenge

A few years back, a local adventure event held a Five Pass Challenge where a rider needed to visit the five nearby passes over 8000'. Myself and my friend Shawn finished it, and since then I've been thinking. What if I were to try to visit all the Trans-Sierra passes?

Handy Wiki list is handy (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...da_road_passes)

Took off Tuesday morning for Susanville and just made the rough plan of heading to each pass in order and then making my way south. The trip up 395 was same ol same ol (been on it several times) and I made a short stop at Shell for gas and munchies. While at the counter (stupid "See cashier" message) I overheard a local tell how the bank was just held up at gun point and the suspect had escape to the Wal-Mart down the street. The suspect was still on the loose at the time of the story.

Fredonyer Pass 5,748*ft (1,752*m)





Fredonyer Pass was fairly easy to locate, wide open road and a clear spot to pull over. Nice short drive from Susanville and was on my way soon after.

Got back down to Hallelujah Junction and had to stop for lunch. A screaming headache had started up around Susanville and was not going away. While chillaxing on the sidewalk (forgot my chair, stupid!) I kept having to remind myself I was not on a certificate ride and could easily relax and enjoy my lunch.

Beckwourth Pass 5,212*ft (1,589 m)





Another wide easy pull over with the sign readily available. The wind was starting to pick up and made the ride interesting. Good thing I need to wear off the right half of my front tire, the wind kept me at a constant right hand turn.

Reached a milestone as I turned south towards Loyalton:



Over the spring, my friend Greg and I had ridden Hwy 49 around through Downieville and pulled into the staging area. I saw the sign and was reminded of my personal challenge. Hwy 49 is an awesomely twisty road heading up and over the mountain, but be warned the curves are tight. Signs warn of "Deadman Curves Ahead."

Yuba Pass 6,709*ft (2,045*m)





A side road takes off right at the summit so it made for an easy pull over. There was a caravan group reorganizing their stuff across the road and I ended up getting stuck behind as I went down the mountain again. Luckily, the meadow was pretty.



Heading on back towards Truckee, I was starting to get cold. Luckily, I membered to bring my heated jacket this time. It's June, WTH?!

Little Truckee Summit 6,400*ft (1,951*m)





Not sure if Little Truckee Summit is a legit pass on the Sierra, but it is listed on the wiki and so I eventually tracked down the OHV staging area. Yay for a sign with the summit name on it! Course, had to use my GPS to get the elevation but hey, gotta do what you gotta do.

A quick ride into Truckee and jumped onto I-80. The summit has a huge rest area and both the eastbound and westbound areas have their own summit sign. I was heading west so was at the higher one.

Donner Summit (Euer Saddle)7,239*ft (2,206*m) I-80 westbound





It's a rest area so not much to see here. Grabbed the picture and headed over to the next off ramp for some gas at Sugar Bowl. Took historical Highway 40 back to the next summit.

Donner Pass 7,088*ft (2,160*m)





I love this pass, prefer to take it vs the interstate any chance I get. Mostly for this reason...



But also because the road is silly twisty!! I also found a short cut back from the highway to the interstate so I was back on my way up to Tahoe in no time. The good thing about riding on a weekday is there is little traffic. The downside is all the construction work is being done on the roads. Phooey.

Echo Summit 7,377*ft (2,249*m)





I wasn't sure I could park next to the Echo Summit sign, but with my recent adventures off pavement I've gotten better at braving gravel so, there you are. Picture taken and back down I go.

As I headed down 89 towards Hope Valley, I knew Luther Pass was at the county line. But I rode past the line and no pass sign. What? Flipped around and headed back up. Ah ha! Spotted the sign on the one side and the empty post on the other. Unfortunately there was no safe place to park next to the sign.

Luther Pass 7,735*ft (2,358*m)





Sign acquired it was down to Hope Valley. Of course, one must get a picture as you cross the bridge.



Turning up 89 towards Carson Pass the temp began dropping and the wind was really putting up a fight. Eventually climbed my way up to the pass, startling a deer standing on the side of the road on the way, and pulled over onto the shoulder.

Carson Pass 8,573*ft (2,613*m)





I had to call it for Tuesday, too cold and getting late. The rest are going to have to wait for Wednesday.

Bright an early the next morning, I was off! This time I had my heated jacket on from the get go and the armor over it to hold it against my core. I followed 88 until Woodfords where I turned south, picking up the route I was on yesterday.

Ebbetts is tight, narrow, and super twisty. I love it! But it does shrink to just a lane wide and has some serious hairpins. Plus a sweet section where you just rock back and forth to sail through. Its my favorite!

Ebbetts Pass 8,732*ft (2,662*m)





And here's why this road is awesome!



A fantastic ride down the mountain brought me back to 395 and I continued south towards 108. As I turned to head back up, I passed by a beautiful meadow and some amazing flowers!



Sonora Pass 9,624*ft (2,933*m)





And another awesomely twisty road.



Getting on towards lunch time, I tried to decide if I wanted to make Tioga first or eat then go up. Watching the storm build over the mountain convinced me I should go now instead of waiting. Good thing too, it was COLD up there!

Tioga Pass 9,943*ft (3,031*m)





Back down in Lee Vining I stopped by the Whoa Nellie Deli where I had an absolutely delicious burger and sat in on #motochat on Twitter. It was a good way to calm down after the rage inducing tourists.

It was getting colder and I was tired from fighting the wind all day. There was one more pass before a huge gap so I figured I'd go to that last one and call it a day. Unfortunately, I really had no idea where it was. Oh well, this is an adventure after all!

Turned up the road towards Mammoth Lakes, first time up there, and even rode through the Mammoth Mountain ski resort. Wow, BIG mountain! Found my pass at the entrance to Devil's Postpile.

Minaret Summit 9,175*ft (2,797*m)



And even went up to the summit vista point!





As you can see from the clouds, the cold wind was pushing over the Sierra and I was done. So a quick ride back to Carson with a short stop in Bridgeport for a snack.



Though my trip is over for this ride, there are three more passes further south that I need to journey to one day.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

No roads cross the Sierra Crest for 137 miles (220*km) between Minaret Summit and Ninemile Canyon.

Sherman Pass 9,140*ft (2,786*m)

(none) 6,260*ft (1,908*m)

Walker Pass 5,246*ft (1,599*m)

Good start to my unplanned vacation.

[Baron]

Woah!

[snot]

Wow... Beautiful pictures. What was the temperature? I see snow on the sides of the roads in some of the pictures.

[NevadaWolf]

Probably around 50's or 60's. Cool enough I had my heated jacket on most of the time. Top of the passes the snow sticks around on the north sides for awhile. It was still that way today over Ebbetts and Carson Passes.

[LittleRedNinjette]

Nice!

[Alex]

Awesome ride.

[JohnnyBravo]

I love your ride reports and pics looking forward to your next adventure!

[DEFY]

Nice images, oooohhh the views to behold.

Originally Posted by NevadaWolf

Probably around 50's or 60's. Cool enough I had my heated jacket on most of the time.

This weekend I wanted to take mine off, little to no wind and hot. Thankfully not humid. Spending most of my time riding around with my visor up and sun glasses on so I don't get my eyes poked out by a beetle.

[Panda]

Awesome!

How come you were on the ninja and not the 500?

[NevadaWolf]

Wanting to add miles to the Ninja. Got about 6k more to reach my 100,000 mile goal with her

I got the bike with 1857 miles on the clock, so want to not only roll over to 100k but also get it to 100k under my ownership.