Tioga Pass, Yosemite

Last summer my coworker, Ethan Jones, and I had planned to ride over Tioga Pass in Yosemite. Unfortunately, difficulties came up that forced us to cancel that trip. This year the Tioga trip was at the top of my list and had decided to make the trip regardless if anyone went along with me. So when I heard Ethan and his dad, Jonathan, available and up for the challenge I was overjoyed. We had Friday, July 3rd off for the holiday, so we planned it that Friday and Saturday. We booked a room in Lee Vining and waited for the day.

We left at 8 AM Friday and headed out through Friant. We were not far from Friant when I noticed that I had lost my backrest. It was a corbin-style that fits into my corbin seat. We backtracked to see if I could find it, but came up empty. Not a good way to start a trip.

We reached Oakhurst, took a break for a cold drink, and headed on to Mariposa. It was already turning out to be a hot day and I was looking forward to riding in some cool weather. We filled up and had lunch at Mariposa. So having had delicious, nutritious meal at the local Burger King, we started for the park. We chose the Merced entrance to the park to limit our driving time in the park. The Fresno/Madera entrance would require a lot of slow driving and a trip through the valley to get to Tioga road. The Merced entrance is up the Merced river to the Yosemite Valley. It's a nice ride, but hot without any breeze blowing.

About halfway up the Merced river there is a rockslide that closed the road. It was the biggest rockslide I had ever seen. The road was completely shut down and didn't look like it could ever be opened again. We were routed over a temporary bridge, across the river for 1/2 mile, then back over another temporary bridge back to the original road.


From there we head up a steep gorge to the park entrance where we took a break. The cool shade was a welcome relief after the hot ride up the river. From there we head up a gorge to Big Oak Road turn off. From there it is another steep climb up the mountain to Hwy 120 at Crane Flat. You climb some 4000' feet in just 10 miles of road. You pass through some great scenery up along the side of the mountain. The view back over the Merced River gorge and Yosemite Valley is outstanding. There was a controlled fire burning on the mountain across the river from the road. The view of the fire was something else. It gives you an idea of just how devastating fires can be in this environment.

We got to Crane Flat where one of the three park gas stations is located. The road intersects with Hwy 120 at this point. Going west on 120 takes you back to Modesto, east takes you over Tioga to the eastern side of the Sierra's and the state of Nevada. Filled up and ready, we headed east for Tioga pass. I was leading at this point and traveling at the speed limit. The park roads are normally very good and this one was no exception, surprising for a road that is closed for most of the year.


Climbing higher we reached the tops of the mountains out into the open. What a spectacular view. Olmstead Point has to be one of the most beautiful vistas in the whole park. We could see the landmark hills to the south, including Half Dome and Glacier Point. To the North, as we rounded Olmstead Point, we had a fantastic view of Tenya Lake. This is snow melt water, but people were out swimming in it anyway. We felt the water and it is really cold.

Moving on past that we pass through the mountain domes and finally come to Tuolumne Meadows. It is a huge group of meadows that are surrounded by mountain domes. The altitude there is 8619 feet, and you feel it when you walk. We fueled up there and got something to drink. Walking the inclines to and from the store really had me sweating. And, boy, is there some mesquitoes here! Swarms of them surround you. This is because it is a marsh here during the snow melt, with the Tuolumne River running through the meadows.



We traveled a little further and finally came to the park entrance located at Tioga Pass, elev 9945 ft. After passing out of the park, we pulled over for some pictures. From here you have a good view down the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The road down this side is very steep dropping you 3000 feet in a few miles. The hillsides are much more bare and there are few trees. The road down takes you along some scary rockslide hillsides. You can see fallen rocks on the side of the road and scrapes in the road where previous slides had been cleaned up. It is definitely not something you want to happen while you are on a bike.


More to come...

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That "Dam" Ride - Day 2

I was up the 2nd day at 5AM. I had some breakfast, gassed up, and was headed out toward Kingman for the Arizona side of Hoover Dam by 6AM. The weather was nice but still a little on the warm side for that time of the morning. In Arizona they have these photo speed enforcement sites at various places along the roads and highways. All the other cars pulled to the right and slowed down, so I did the same. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I definitely didn't want an out of state ticket.


The route to Hoover Dam from Laughlin takes you toward Kingman, then North on Highway 93 to the dam. Highway 93 is under construction around the dam where they are widening it and making a river crossing to bypass the dam. You pass through some hills as you work your way down to the river. The construction limited our speed, so it was almost 8AM by the time I got to the dam. I parked at the first parking lot and snapped a picture of the dam. As I was getting ready to move on, one of the tour busses pulled right up to my bike and blew his horn for me to move. There was no bus parking sign where I was parked, but I guess they assume they can park where they want and everyone else has to get out of their way. Well, since it ticked me off getting scared by the horn of the bus, I took my sweet time getting my helmet on, too his annoyance. (I just need to pray more...)


Hoover Dam is really neat to see and even funner to ride across on a motorcycle. I was going to say it was "cool", but it's too hot there to be "cool". Even early in the morning it was hot. And I knew it was going to get real hot later, so I wanted to get my touring done as quickly as possible. I parked on the Nevada side in the cover parking garage and walked back across the dam snapping pictures along the way. I checked into taking a tour, but the cost was too high. I might go back and bring the family when I have more time, and when the weather is cooler. I grabbed a few souveniers from the shop and started out homeward bound by 9:30. Some people may think, why do you even go there if you are only going to spend a little over an hour there after all that distance. They would be missing the whole point, it's the ride not the destination. The destination is just an excuse for the ride!

Riding back through Las Vegas to Barstow was interesting. I had driven it in a car and new the speeds that others would be going, which was far beyond the speed limit. However, traveling myself at 75-80, I was not expecting to be passed by "gambling buses". Those dudes really move on. And they are LOUD. I don't want to hear one more person grip about my pipes, until they stick their head out the window doing 80 MPH with one of these buses 5 feet away. Deafening!

I stopped at Primm on the CA/NV border, fueled up, had lunch and headed toward Barstow. Traffic was fairly light for this road, which meant people could drive even faster than usual. I was moving along around 75, constantly being passed by everything on the road. The bike would run with the others, but going any faster the road bumps and wind just beat you up. So I found the fastest comfortable speed and ignored (as best I could) the other vehicles. I was making good time till we came to the inspection station outside of Barstow. There was no way I was going to do stop-and-go in this heat, so I proceed to share-the-lane up to the inspection station. In California it is legal for motorcycles to share lanes with other vehicles. Yes, it is legal for us to ride right up the middle of the road like that. It's also very scary at times, especially when some driver is upset because you can and he can't. I had a few cars try to squeeze me in, but a honk and some yelling usually fixes that. It also helps to be dressed in leathers so they think you are "bad".

Riding through the desert is hot business. Your worst enemy is dehydration. I installed cup holders before taking this trip so I could carry drinks with my in easy reach while riding. Usually I drink water or Gatoraid, but when I saw a Starbucks next to the gas station while I was fueling up in Barstow, I started craving a frappachino. It was while drinking this wonderfully cold drink down Hwy 58 that a group of out of state Harley bikers passed me. As they went by, I held up my frappachino in salute, with a few head shakes in return. These Kansas bikers must have had a good laugh at their next stop talking about the crazy California bikers that ride around on rice burners drinking frappachinos through the desert. But hey, what the heck, California is the land of "fruits and nuts". By the way, my little rice burner (Japanese-made bike to those who don't know) had no problem keeping up with those big, American Iron bikes, once I finished my frappachino that is.

I made it to Tehachappi in good time. Riding behind a California Dept of Forestry fire truck helped a lot. I sat in his wind draft and coasted along without most of the wind blasts I would have had to fight. I filled up, grabbed a cool drink and headed out to Bakersfield. I was getting anxious to get home. I hit Bakersfield and started up Hwy 99 towards home.

It was about then that my hinder parts were starting to suffer from a bad selection of jeans for the ride. The jeans I was wearing were bring on a bad case of heat rash. I was having to scoot around in the seat to find some comfort. I had been riding constantly since Primm on the border of CA/NV with only 2 gas/drink stops for about 5-10 min each. That had been close to 4 hours of constant, hot weather riding and I was beginning to feel it. Normally I would have stopped after 2 hours, but I just wanted to get home. It was getting so bad that when I stopped for gas at Tulare, I almost fell because I could not get my leg down because of the pain. But, I wanted to get home and I knew I was close. So, after a quick fill-up I was back on the road. Fresno was 45 minutes away and I could make it. By the time I pulled into the driveway, I almost couldn't walk from the pain. But I made it. I had ridden from Primm to Fresno in 5 hours, averaging 72 miles an hour, including 3 gas stops.

One reason I decided to make this trip was to see if I could handle long distance riding. The longest I had gone in the past was 300 miles in one day. On this trip the first day was 420 miles. The second day was 515 miles for a total of approx 935 miles. These are the two longest rides to date, but I'm hoping for others of equal or greater distances. Until then, I'll savor this ride for a while.

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