SF to Lake Tahoe, weekender

[FourG]

My buddy and I will be riding our bikes (R1150GS, F650GS[single]) to the Lake Tahoe area from SF in September. Neither of us have ever been to the area and are looking for some road and destination recommendations. Bonus points for GPX files as I'm going to try to have a semi-planned route since we have limited time. I'd like to stay off the super slab, at least one way. Also, anyone know of any dirt roads to hit in the area? I haven't gotten my 1150 in the dirt yet, so I'd like to start out easy.

We're also looking for 2 places to camp... somewhat remote, not looking for resort stuff. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

[FourG]

Bump, anyone have any pointers?

If I can only do one, should I do:

1) Sonora Pass
2) Monitor Pass
3) Ebbetts Pass

[widebmw]

Originally Posted by FourG

Bump, anyone have any pointers?

If I can only do one, should I do:

1) Sonora Pass
2) Monitor Pass
3) Ebbetts Pass

Ebbetts and Monitor are connected you can do both.

[Hobbes950]

Henness Pass Road for dirt. Head up I80, then 49 to Nevada City and find you way out to Henness Pass via 20 and out to Alleghany.

[FourG]

Originally Posted by widebmw

Ebbetts and Monitor are connected you can do both.

Ah, ok. I'll have to give it another look. Thanks for the suggestion.

[FourG]

Originally Posted by hobbes95821

Henness Pass Road for dirt. Head up I80, then 49 to Nevada City and find you way out to Henness Pass via 20 and out to Alleghany.

Wow, never heard about Henness but it looks great, thanks for that. I have very mild off-road experience on big bikes and am quite rusty off-road in general (been about 7 years), is the pass easy enough for beginners running Metzeler Tourances?

[ilazonic]

what days you guys planning on going? I was thinking about doing weekend trip in eastern sierras but I think mainly I want to stay on road but then again off road could be fun to except GSA is kind of heavy for hardcore stuff

[meatwitheyes]

From SF work your way north thru wine country (Sonoma and Napa) do some wine tasting if you like. Go up to Clear Lake take Hwy 20 east to Grass Valley (make sure to check out the historic downtown) then go north/east on 49 to 89 head south on 89 to Lake Tahoe. Well that's one way you could do it and almost no slab. You could also continue on 20 out of Grass Valley to Truckee then take 89 up to Tahoe.
Good luck….

[Hobbes950]

Originally Posted by FourG

Wow, never heard about Henness but it looks great, thanks for that. I have very mild off-road experience on big bikes and am quite rusty off-road in general (been about 7 years), is the pass easy enough for beginners running Metzeler Tourances?

I am a woman with no dirt bike experience. Previous bike was a Honda Interceptor 500 that I had for 2 years about 15 years ago. I was riding my KTM 950 with knobbies that I had a years experience on when I rode Henness and it was a piece of cake.
That will give you an idea of difficulty, but I must ad the disclaimer that I can be ballsier than a lot of guys on a downhill singletrack on my mountain bike which is where I learned most of my abilities.