Last trip of the year: Sonora Pass

We had such a great time on our trip to Oregon in June, that my husband and I decided to plan one more trip before winter. I’d read over on ADV about Sonora Pass many times, and had filed it in the back of my mind on the list of places I’d like to see. The weather looked good, and it seemed like a good time to go, so I came up with a three-day route for us to ride.

We left in the dark early Sunday morning.



The first part of the ride was uneventful, and not terribly scenic, so the pics start at a gas stop in Traver, CA.



We had a bite to eat at the Happy Burger Diner in Mariposa.



Lake McClure & Highway 49:





It's a wonder I didn't lose the camera after this stop, because I left it sitting between my tailbag and dry duffle. It rode there for about 15-20 miles until I stopped for the next picture.

Coulterville:



I can't remember the name of this lake, but it was scenic:





We arrived in Columbia, where we visited Columbia State Historic Park (shown below) and stayed in a small cabin for the night.



We saw these deer on our way to the cabin, and they seemd to like the attention.

Monday morning we put on all of our extra layers, anticipating cold weather on the pass. We stopped in Mi-Wuk Village at a quaint little roadside diner for breakfast that had great good.



The scenery between Mi-Wuk and Dardanelle was beautiful, but there weren't a lot of places to stop.

Dardanelle:



Then the scenery just got better and better.















And then we reached the pass:





The road dropping down the other side:



Little Walker River:





My bike with recently installed Leo Vince and power up:



This is probably a good time to mention that I was reallly impressed with the new setup. The bike ran better, started better, and didn't backfire once coming down the steep grades. It's a huge improvement over stock--much more than I even realized until I really got some miles on it during this trip.



We then stopped in Bridgeport for gas. They had picnic tables there, so we decided to have lunch. When I circled the building and pulled into a parking spot, I was thrilled to see a blue and yellow TE610 on a hitch-hauler on the truck parked next to me. I have only seen one other 610 besides mine. As I was checking it out, the owner walked up. He was a fellow ADV'r. He asked if I was familiar with some of the ride reports by Woodschick and Larryboy. Of course I said that I was, and that I was inspired by their ride reports, and many others. I didn't get his screen name or real name, but he had been doing off-road riding in the area and was headed for the Black Rock Desert.

We then headed to Bodie:



I thought the last three miles of washboard road to Bodie, combined with my stiff SM suspension, would probably rattle my teeth out, but I was pleasantly surprised. The bike did great.











A friend recommended that we take the June Lake Loop, and it was well worth the small detour.

Nearing Bishop:



We then arrived in Bishop. We had dinner, before checking in to the Brown's Town Campground. We were anxious to try out our new Nemo Losi 3P tent. I didn't get a pic of the tent, but I highly recommend it.

At Brown's Town Campground, Bishop, CA:

Monday night in Bishop, my husband said that he wasn't going to wear all of his layers of clothing the next morning, so he packed them away. Well when we got up the next morning, it took him about 5 seconds to change his mind. He announced that he was wearing everything I'd packed for him! It was 41 degrees when we pulled out. The other Californian's here will probably agree that 41 can be cold on a bike, but those of you from the rest of the country are probably laughing at this point.

Just south of Lone Pine, where the speed limit was slowly increasing from 25 to 35 to 45 and eventually to 55 and 65, I was riding in the slow lane, gradually increasing speed (probably going 40-45) when a tour bus (like a Greyhound) started to pass me in the fast lane. The thing was, I could see that directly in front of the bus was a Honda Accord that was completely stopped in the fast lane and signaling to make a left hand turn. The bus and I were nearly side by side. The bus was not slowing at all, and in fact, he was accelerating. I could see what was going to happen. Either the bus was going to take out the Honda Accord or me, and I had a pretty good idea it was going to be me, so I quickly backed off. At the absolute last possible second, the bus swerved into my lane narrowly missing the Honda Accord by what looked like just a couple of feet from my perspective, although I'm sure it must have been more like a car length or two. I had backed off enough to avoid all danger, but I guess it still looked a bit scary to my husband who was riding behind me. I wondered what the people on the bus were thinking. A nice hand gesture to the bus drive was probably appropriate at that point , but I let it go.

These were the last two pictures from the trip:





We had a great time and saw some outstanding scenery. If you haven't been over Sonora Pass, it's really a great ride.

Since we live in California, we do ride year round, but this kind of feels like the end of the season, because it's the last motorcycle trip of the year for us. Our next trip will probably be Death Valley in the spring. But in the meantime, we do have some other kinds of adventure planned, including backpacking in Zion National Park.

Outstanding travelogue!

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I always debate about whether my reports are interesting enough to actually post ride reports on, but then I figure what the heck. Most people seem to at least enjoy pictures. And I hope that maybe I'll help encourage others to travel and discover what a great experience it really is.

I enjoyed the trip even more than I expected. The road over the pass was awesome. Highway 4 and 89 are definitely in my mind for next year. I'm not sure if the guy I met in Bridgeport actually knew you and Larryboy personally. I kind of got the idea that he just knew you from the forums like I do. I think he's still riding in the Black Rock Desert. I'm not sure if he's on Cafe Husky or just ADV, but maybe he'll put up something on his trip. He had a large tank and Leo exhaust on his bike, but then most TE's do.

Great report and fantastics pics...Thank you for sharing!!

The cabin we stayed in was at the Marble Quarry RV park. Here's a link to their site with info and rates for the cabins:

http://www.marblequarry.com/

We stayed in the smallest of the cabins. It was a "sleeping cabin", so we used our sleeping bags. We've stayed in several camping cabins, and this one was one of the nicest ones we've stayed in. They also have larger cabins with more amenities. They're located within walking distance to Columbia State Park, and it was very quiet there. I would definitely recommend it and would stay there again.

Thanks for reading!

when in Columbia, please look me up. I'm less than 3/10th of a mile from the RV park. I can show you all some super secret fun trails to Twain Harte from Columbia with a bunch of old gold mines. ALL DIRT!!!

Wow! Small world. You live in a really neat area. The trails to Twain Harte sound interesting, especially on my KLX. I hope we make it back to that area again sometime.

Beautiful! Great pictures, love the shots of that old ghost town.

Lake McClure & Highway 49 also known as Bear Valley, great twisties dropping down to Coulterville. Hotel Jeffery had President Teddy Roosevelt as a guest when he was president. Some great tight trails out of Coulterville at Dogtown to HWY 140...too bad the BLM gustapo closed them off last month. Really good burgers in the Coulterville Cafe. Next time check out Priest/Coulterville Rd. to Hwy 120 to Groveland and Wards Ferry Rd to Sonora, all super twisty,NARROW and scenic without the CHiPs.