Donner Pass

I’ve had a goal, for years, of riding all the Sierra passes. Why? I’m not sure, although every one I’ve done so far — Ebbetts, Sonora, Tioga, Carson, and Sherman — has been an amazing and beautiful ride. But for whatever reason I hadn’t done the most famous one, the

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Lost Coast: Getting Home

After a fun and exciting day exploring the Lost Coast I left Real Northern California to return home to Supposedly Northern California. Rather than retrace my route down US 101 I opted to take Highway 1 most of the way and split the ride into two days. The first stretch,

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Lost Coast: Found!

So it’s not lost anymore! Not, of course, that it ever was. Except to me. But now even I know where it is! Today’s ride was a total blast, although it did give my arms and lower back a real workout (all those bumps, potholes, road heaves and other pavement

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Lost Coast: Phase 1

…and we’re off! Well, we will be in about 30 minutes :). First step: get to Garberville, California.First challenge: survive the wilds of US 101 in Marin County 🙂 I made it to Garberville, California after a five hour ride and a 45 minute stop for lunch and gas. Boy,

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Sherman Pass Trip

After a long COVID-19 related hiatus, I finally managed to do a long-planned multi-day ride. Initially my plan was to head up the California coast to what’s called the Lost Coast1. But that got stymied by on-going rain forecasts. So instead I opted to head south and west to knock

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Sherman Pass, Day 5: Home!

Well, almost. I made it back to our place in Santa Cruz, so this will be the last post related to this trip. Today’s route took me up the Monterey Peninsula from San Simeon, where I stayed last night. The weather was typical summer coastal — overcast and cool, never

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Sherman Pass, Day 4

Since most of today’s ride was going to be across the San Joaquin Valley — in the heat — I decided to get an early start and replace my normal kick-off-the-day cup of coffee with a little motorcycle-induced adrenaline. Worked like a charm! I descended out of Kernville and the

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Sherman Pass, Day 3

Today was the real Sherman Pass day. As in I was actually going to ride through the pass. I’d been a bit nervous the night before, with the fear manifesting itself mostly as “what if I run out of gas in the middle of nowhere?” I love my Yamaha FJR-1300ES,

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Sherman Pass, Day 2

After a rocky launch this trip has quickly turned into one of my favorites. Cruising through all sorts of different Californias, spectacular vistas, giant trees…and the twistiest road I’ve ever ridden! What’s not to like? Before leaving Coalinga for the Sierras I happened to do some more research on the

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Sherman Pass, Day 1

Well, I finally got to Coalinga. But man, what a bunch of silly little frustrations along the way! First, it was raining in San Carlos when I woke up…which kind of offset my having delayed the start of my trip by two days so as to avoid the rain. The

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