Sonora Pass, CA 10/30/2012

Tuesday: Travel and road ride

We left Carson City NV this morning at 10 am, heading south on US 395.  What a beautiful drive. We have to say a big Thank You to Baja Bob, who has been relentless in his attempts to convince us to take this route. The whole way here has been outstanding.

Topaz Lake

 

In Antelope Valley

Rock Creek Canyon

 

Another thing Bob convinced us to do was to pull over and unload the bikes at the start of SR 108, the Sonora Pass highway.  So today we did a road ride, no dirt involved.  It was an outstanding ride! I have to put it in my top 2 road rides ever, dating back to our two-up road touring days, BB. (Before Becca) The other one is the Galena Pass highway from Sun Valley to the Stanley Basin.

 

This road is steep and the curves are very tight. There are signs warning that trucks and vehicles with trailers should not go this way, however that didn’t stop one truck driver who got in over his head and jack knifed his rig in a corner.  We weren’t sure we could get by but a guy on a big Harley said we could get past if we didn’t mind going on the soft gravel. If we didn’t mind…  CHiP’s was on site when we got up to where the truck was.  They let us go by because as one officer said “I would if I were on that bike”.

So off we went up the pass, enjoying the sights and the twisties…

Silly Wayne

 

 

Not one of the Giant Sequoias, but still impressive.  Originally we were only going to ride for an hour, then head back to the coach as we wanted to be farther south by this evening.  But the ride was too beautiful to cut short, so we kept on going.

 

 

 

 

Walking trail, yes it's paved

This is the Clark Fork of the Stanislaus River. We’d like to see it during spring run-off, I bet it roars!

Now that is a big cone!  I think it is from a Jeffrey Pine, but I’m not sure. That is a size 7 boot.

 

More places I’d like to see during spring melt

Leavitt Falls 

 

Leavitt Valley

 

Nice overlook, built it right around that tree

 

After our ride, we loaded up the bikes and continued on our way to Lee Vining on Mono Lake.  Mono Lake is a salt water lake sort of like the Great Salt Lake, only smaller.  Highway 120 statrs there and goes up and over Tioga Pass; Yosemite Valley is on the other side.  That is tomorrow’s ride.