This ride has been superseded by the Chileno Valley Rd./Tomales Bay ride. Stop reading and go there. jr
The network of roads in Marin County between Highway 1 and Highway 101 may be the most heavily ridden cycling roads in rural California, but that’s just because they’re easily accessible from the population centers clustered around the Golden Gate Bridge. They aren’t the best riding in California. They’re fine. They’re nice. And they’re all the same—moderate rollers through dairy farm land on good road surfaces. So there is no best route. Feel free to ride on any road that catches your fancy, with two caveats: 1) try to minimize your time on the obvious main arteries—Pt. Reyes Petaluma Rd., Tomales Petaluma Rd., Sir Francis Drake Blvd.—and 2) be sure to include Chileno Valley Rd., which is a cut above the rest.
One of the charms of this area is the unpretentiousness of it all. There are few if any multi-million-dollar mansions or grand wrought-iron gates on this route, and the farm houses are real—old, family-owned, working dairy farms. The oyster restaurants along Hwy 1 are housed in shacks.
Like all grassy hills in California, these are burned brown during the dry months, so the scenery is prettier in spring and fall after the rains return.
The century that covers this area is the Marin Century, and, since the roads are all about the same, it’s a perfectly fine introduction to the area, if you want to ride 100 miles of it, which I don’t.
For those of us who want to do fewer miles, here’s a representative loop that covers a lot of the best stuff, including a very sweet (though crowded) stretch of Hwy 1, and the food is fantastic—artisan cheese, great delis, killer bakeries, and the best bread in the world. So bring money.
I actually don’t ride this route as mapped any more. I like a good hill, so I do the 34-mile Marshall Wall option described in Adding Miles, but I have to give up Pt. Reyes Station to do it.
There is something very wrong with Mapmyride’s elevation total. There are no killer climbs, but all that rolling adds up, and I’m willing to guarantee you’ll get a workout. The Marshall-Petaluma Rd loop has 3000 ft of gain, which isn’t nasty but is far from flat.
Distance: 22 miles out and back Elevation gain: 2600 ft
Occidental is an amazing cycling resource. Six roads head out of this little town, and each one of them is some degree of wonderful for riders. All 6 figure in a Bestrides route in one way or another. This route focuses on the roads to the west of town.
This ride has great variety of scenery and road contour in only 12 miles—dense deciduous woods, some redwoods, a meadowed valley, some open, rolling coastal uplands, the coast itself, and an iconic climb up from Hwy 1. It’s all really pretty. It’s more work than meets the eye—2600 ft in 20 miles, or well over our 100 ft/mile benchmark for climbing hardness, with several short pitches of 10% and three extended climbs you’ll definitely notice. And the road surface is consistently poor to dreadful (this is, after all, Sonoma County), so all descending is largely spoiled. Yet I’m very fond of this ride, and I think you will be too. A bonus is that it starts and ends in Occidental, one of California’s most charming villages. See Adding Miles below for other routes out of Occidental with much better road surface.
The climb up from the ocean after the turn-around tends to be mentioned in hushed tones by California cyclists, because it figures in the routes of a couple of famous rides, Levi’s Gran Fondo and the Marin Double Century. It’s a bit of a spirit-crusher after 70 hard miles, but you’re going to be fairly fresh, so it’s not a huge deal. You’ll climb about 700 ft in about 1.3 miles, roughly 10% average, with a stretch in the middle around 12%. About the time you start cursing, it’s over. And it’s at its steepest in the first half, so your spirit improves as you climb.
Begin in Occidental. See our Occidental Loop ride for details on the town itself. Ride west on Coleman Valley Rd. Instantly you’re into a short but steep (10%) climb that will kill your cold legs, so you might want to ride some flatter stuff to warm up. There are four other roads heading out of Occidental, and they’re all good riding, but none of them is flat. The nearest to flat is a very sweet little back road named (so it says on the sign) “Occidental CP MR RD,” which apparently stands for “Occidental Camp Meeker Road,” off Bohemian Highway just north of town on the R.
At the top of the climb, in a small saddle, there’s an intersection with two street signs telling you that Joy Rd. goes straight and Coleman Valley Rd. goes to the R. If you’re looking to minimize your climbing, start your ride here (though parking is hard to find—there’s a tiny dirt pull-out a stone’s throw down CVR).
The road climbs and drops through lovely, thick coastal forest into a charming, unpolished farming valley, the eponymous Coleman Valley. Note the old one-room schoolhouse preserved on your R. There is often a flock of wild turkeys in the area around the school.
A wee bit o’ Scotland
At the far end of the valley you climb, significantly, for a mile to a series of rollers through classic coastal headland. You’ll swear you’re in the Scottish highlands. Fog is common here on warm days, but it only adds to the Gaelic atmosphere, and almost always Hwy 1 is below the fog layer so you should get good views of the ocean and the coast. This is open range, so you’ll see cattle and sheep, sometimes on the road. The road is constantly and seriously up and down (in either direction), so you’ll burn more energy than you expect.
1.5 miles from the end, the road drops straight down to Hwy 1 and the ocean. The descent is a little too steep, too rough, and too tightly curved to be a lot of fun. There’s a bone-rattling cattle guard right in the middle of the descent, just where you don’t want it, at a spot where you’re tempted to get up some serious speed. There appears to be a second one, but it’s actually fake—just white lines painted on the road.
Coleman Beach State Park
At the CVR/Hwy 1 junction, go straight across the highway onto the unmissable little path that is Coleman Beach State Park (unsigned). You’re on top of typical coastal headland bluffs, and I saw no way down to the water, but the views are good in both directions. It’s a perfect place to have a little picnic and watch the waves crash on the rocks below. There’s a small interesting coastal community, Carmet, 1/2 mile north on Hwy 1 if you want civilization.
Climb back up the Wall. At the top, the climbing is by no means over—the route home has less climbing than the route out, but not by much.
Looking south along Hwy 1
When you get to the Joy/CVR intersection, you have a choice. You can go L and return to Occidental by way of the short, steep drop you rode up at the start of the ride. Nothing wrong with that. But our route goes R, onto Joy Rd. for a very sweet 1.3-mile descent. Take the first real L onto Bittner Rd. (it’s at the bottom of a steep saddle, so you’ll probably be doing about 35 mph when you reach it). Bittner would be a bucket-list descent if the road surface were pristine, which it isn’t. It’s still fun, and very pretty.
This ride is not car-less. Coleman Valley Road is anything but built up, but people do live there, and there’s Carmet at the end of it, so you will see traffic—perhaps 2 cars per mile.
Shortening the route: If you’re just out for an easy day, start after the Joy/CVR intersection, ride to the drop-off to Hwy 1, enjoy the vista, turn around and ride home.
Adding miles: Also leaving from Occidental, Graton Rd. is the first leg of our Occidental Loop ride. The Bohemian Highway is the first leg in our Bohemian Highway Loop. Both of these rides have very good or mostly very good road surfaces. Ride Bohemian to its northern end in Monte Rio and you’re a stone’s throw from our King’s Ridge Road ride and our Sweetwater Springs ride. Two readers (below) trumpet the merits of riding Bohemian, riding to Hwy 1, riding south to Colman Valley Rd., and riding east on CVR back to Occidental. Bohemian to the southeast takes you to Freestone, home of the locally famous Wild Flour Bakery, and the north end of all the fine riding in the Marin hills, represented in our list by the Chileno Valley Road/Tomales Bay Loop. You can turn our route into a loop by turning north up Hwy 1 when you reach the ocean and turning R on Willow Creek Rd., a very back-country back road with a long stretch of dirt in the middle I’ve been assured is rideable (Levi’s Gran Fondo has a route that includes it). You may want 28 mm tires for that one.
Fans of bike paths will want to know there is a flat, straight bike path from Santa Rosa to Sebastopol, the Joe Rodota Path, that parallels the highway (not too thrilling except as time trial training), and its continuation, the West County Regional Trail, from Sebastopol north to Forestville (somewhat less boring).
This ride is legendary. It’s the cornerstone of Levi Leipheimer’s King’s Ridge Gran Fondo, a ride that includes, in addition to most of this loop, our Coleman Valley Road ride, plus about 30 miles of very nice rolling farm and forest land riding out from Santa Rosa to Occidental and back. I don’t recommend Levi’s ride per se, because I think it’s unfriendly, but the entire route is well worth riding.
As is my method, I’m going to cut out Levi’s 30 miles of merely good riding and just tell you about the great stuff. It’s all pretty, challenging riding (5530 ft gain, and the poor road surfaces add to the effort). Perks include redwoods, a classic woodsy village, a Best of the Best descent, and the opportunity to detour to an overnight on the coast.
King’s Ridge Rd. (or King Ridge Rd.—you see it both ways) is a rough, centerline-less sorta-two-lane road that does a lot of climbing and then rolls along a ridge top through beautiful, wild country—rugged ranches and open space. Traffic is almost non-existent—the last time I rode the 47-mile loop, it was a beautiful holiday and I saw 8 vehicles, or 1 vehicle every 6 miles. The views from the ridgetop are grand. You can look north over a series of ridges untouched by Man and imagine that you’re the first human to see it. The odd thing is, you’re close to right. If you look at a map of California, you’ll see there’s nothing to the north of you for a hundred miles except a few small, sparsely-traveled roads. Breathe deeply. It’s a lonely, inspiring experience (another reason not to do it as part of Levi’s ride, when you have 7,000 riders for company). It’s not as wild as it used to be, thanks to some invasive vineyards, but it’s still epic.
The bad news is, the road surface varies from poor to lousy for most of the 50 miles. For some, the rough road surface becomes part of the adventure. And someone actually repaved 2.2 miles of it (see below), so it’s not as bad as it used to be.
(Note: if you read through the readers’ comments below, you’ll see that the state of the road surfaces on the climb to King’s Ridge is the subject of much debate. I haven’t seen it in a while, but I gather it’s much improved—by how much is unclear.)
Water is an issue on this ride, as it’s all in relatively unpeopled areas after Cazadero. There is a water bib just after the climb out of the Hauser Bridge canyon, provided for you by the thoughtful monks of the Ratna Ling Retreat Center—watch for it in a dirt turn-out on your R, just before the unmissable main gate. Still, you might want to dig out your camelbak for this one.
I’ve seen articles which call this ride “the greatest bike ride in America.” That’s absurd. It’s good. It’s in my Best Of the Best, but is actually one of my least favorite rides on that list.
(The 3-mile stretch of road marked as unpaved on RWGP’s map is wrong—the route is entirely paved.)
Start at the intersection of River Rd. and Cazadero Highway. Ride north up Cazadero Hwy to the town of Cazadero through lovely coastal forest. (If you’re dead set on back-road riding, you can ride up Austin Creek Rd., the smaller, rougher road just on the other side of the creek to the east. The turn-off from Hwy 116 is unsigned.) Cazadero Hwy has a glassy road surface, and it’s a barely perceptible climb all the way, perfect for warming up, and a treat when you’re ending the ride and you’re exhausted. It’s the last really good road surface you’ll see for 40 miles. Halfway to town, watch for the large, whimsical wooden sculpture of Babe Ruth on your R—if the nice man who does the sculpting is out and about, he might be willing to show you his other works.
King’s Ridge. Photo by Brian
Cazadero is a hardware store, a church, a firehouse, a general store, and (surprise!) some fairly heavy industry. Ride through Cazadero, make sure you go R at the Y just past town (there’s a clear sign pointing you the right way, and marking the other fork as Ft. Ross Rd., which is your return), and begin a leisurely climb. The road changes its name somewhere in here to King’s (or King) Ridge Rd. The climbing is easy until it isn’t—then it’s 1.2 miles of 10-14%, followed by an obvious “summit” that is the Father of all false summits. You’ll descend and roll and assume you’ve done the hard climbing, but the steep pitch comes back, and you do at least another mile of 10% stuff. From the beginning of the hard stuff to the end, including the rolling in between, is 4 miles. It’s all pretty country and the contour is never monotonous. Pop out onto the ridgetop and ride through miles of big, tiring rollers (you’ll see 14% pitch again, briefly), often along the very spine of the ridge, with the aforesaid grand views. There’s a great spot where crows ride the thermals coming up the slope to your L and they’re at exactly eye level. This is open range, so watch for several cattle guards.
Along the top of the ridge. Photo by Brian
At the end of the ridge, you come to a sloppy T where the road to the R (unsigned, I think) is Tin Barn Rd., which is also in Bestrides. The road to the L is signed “Hauser Bridge Road.” Go L (do some of our Tin Barn Rd. ride backwards) and plummet down a vicious 12-20% pitch with a rough surface to a steel bridge over a creek. This descent is zero fun, so ride it just to survive—on one wet Levi’s ride they helicoptered out a few people who went off the road into the crevasse below, and subsequent riders were required to dismount and walk down the hill and across the bridge. The road is covered with painted “SLOW!” signs to remind you.
On the other side of the creek the road turns up, as roads after bridges must, and you climb at a consistent 10% for 1.5 miles. When you see the cow on the sign, the hard work is over—you now roll up and down, mostly up, for several miles. From here on the road is clearly signed (you’re going to Cazadero, not Jenner, remember). You’ll ride past Timber Cove Rd. (there’s even a stop sign) and later Fort Ross Rd., both entering from the R. At the next fork go L, onto what is also called Fort Ross Rd. (clearly signed).
But before you do that, consider: do you want to add miles to the ride and go straight past Fort Ross Rd., descend Meyers Grade, and keep riding? The consequences of doing that are detailed in Adding Miles below.
Assuming you take FRR: At this point, 33 miles into the ride, you’re thinking, “OK, I climbed a ton up to King’s Ridge, descended to Hauser Bridge, climbed it all back, then rode 10 miles, mostly up, to here. So when do I get all that elevation gain back?” Answer: right now. Fort Ross Rd. is 10 miles consisting of a not-long-enough, perfect descent, a 2-mile climb, and a long, very rough descent back to that fork just north of Cazadero. It’s all gorgeous woods, as pretty as forest can get, but the first 3 miles are the prettiest, so enjoy the scenery if you can while navigating an exhilarating slalom. The first 2.2 miles (the entire first descent plus a bit) have recently been repaved and the road surface is perfect. The pitch is ideal (c. 7%), the serpentining is constant, the turns are sweetly banked, and every corner is unique. As a result this is one of the best descents I know of—a Best of the Best descent for sure.
Ft. Ross Road (looking uphill)
Enjoy it, because after the repaved 2.2 miles the old pavement returns, and it’s grim. It’s tiring to climb and jarring to descend at speed. After I rode it, I felt I had been worked over by rubber-hosed goons. By the way I saw no sign that anyone was planning on extending the repaving any time soon (as of 6/25). Letting air out of your tires helps, which you can safely do because the climbing is over.
At the fork, continue straight onto Cazadero Hwy., buy an ice cream bar and sit on the Cazadero general store’s porch for a bit to contemplate what you’ve accomplished, then ride the effortless descent to your car. Now go casually mention to your riding buddies, “Dudes, did King’s Ridge last weekend…”
Shortening the ride: Start in Cazadero (this will save you some miles but almost none of the work). The loop can’t be cut short, but you can make it a mellow(er) weekend by taking Timber Cover Rd. to Timber Cove and staying overnight at the lovely and (when I was there) surprisingly cheap Timber Cove Inn. If you do, don’t ride back up Timber Cove Rd. the next day—it will kill your cold legs. Instead, ride south on Hwy 1 (deserted in the early morning) to warm up and take Fort Ross Rd. (also steep) to get back on our loop.
There’s a chunk of the loop that makes a very sweet 20-mile out-and-back. Start at the top of the climb out of Hauser Bridge, ride to Ft. Ross Rd., descend the super-sweet 2.2 miles of new pavement on Ft. Ross, and return. This gives you about 15 miles of moderate up and down, plus a Best of the Best descent and a beautiful 2.2-mile climb, all on decent to great road surfaces.
If you detour to Meyers Grade, you get this
Adding miles: You’re in the midst of lots of great riding here. Going back to the L we took onto Fort Ross Rd.: if you live for fast steep descents, or if you want to see some ocean, don’t take that L—go R onto Meyer’s Grade Rd. (staying on the Gran Fondo route) and get ready for the Meyer’s Grade descent to Hwy 1. It’s a rocketship ride remembered by everyone who does it (to 16% grade). It’s beautiful country, though more open hillside than Fort Ross Rd’s woods, set smack on the spine of a little ridge so you get ocean views on a clear day. Sightlines are good, so any traffic will be apparent, and there’s a big run-out at the bottom, so it’s as safe as a 50-mph descent can be.
After the descent you will pay a price for coming this way. You can turn around, ascend Meyers Grade, and get back on our route. It’s steep (still up to 16%), but the scenery is good to great, the pitch varies, and the road meanders, so it isn’t boring. Otherwise, you’ll need to ride a substantial stretch of Hwy 1. This is as pretty a stretch of Hwy 1 as there is, and the road contour is amazing—it’s the stuff of TV automobile ads—but traffic is a hassle. As I recall, there is no shoulder. If dodging cars doesn’t bother you, it might be your favorite part of the ride (certainly the most dramatic). Ride Hwy 1 to Jenner, where you can take the Shoreline Hwy up the Russian River back through Duncans Mills and to your car (moderate traffic), or do what Levi’s does and continue on down the coast to our Coleman Valley Road route, then take the Bohemian Highway from Occidental back to your car. While you’re in Jenner, you might as well ride the pretty 4-ish miles (one way) of Willow Creek Rd. before it turns to dirt. In for a penny, in for a pound.
The Tin Barn/Annapolis Rd. ride sits right to the north of your route and actually overlaps it for a few miles, from the Tin Barn fork to the intersection with Kruse Ranch Road.
From the end point of this ride you’re just down the road from the end point of the Sweetwater Springs Road ride.
See the Adding Miles sections of the Sweetwater Springs and Coleman Valley Road rides for more far-flung possibilities.
Distance: 10 miles one way Elevation gain: 1434 ft
This is a challenging climb and ripping, curvy descent through surprisingly dense, pretty woods. It would be deserted were it not for the other cyclists, of which there can be many. One weekend day I met about 200 bikes climbing the back side as I descended. On a weekday, you’ll see no one. The road surface is a little rough in places, but I don’t think you’ll mind. I’ve called the ride a one-way. People ride it in either direction, so it’s possible to do it as an out-and-back, but it would give you two tough climbs, and most riders make a loop (which I will describe in Adding Miles) along roads that aren’t good enough to make our list but are good nonetheless. I always ride it the way I’ve described it, east to west. If you ride it the other way, the climb is less steep and longer.
It’s shady in there, so this ride can be drippy. It’s not a problem until you hit the 18% stuff. I did it once when the road had a thin film of water on it, and traction was…interesting. On a dewy morning you might like to wait until later in the day or start the loop from Guerneville.
Warning: periodically my electronic mapping services show a gap in the middle of this road—not a stretch of dirt, just nothing. Trust me, the pavement is continuous.
Start at the intersection of Sweetwater Springs Rd. and Westside Rd. There’s a small but nice turn-out for parking 20 yards up Sweetwater Springs Rd. Ride Sweetwater Springs Rd. to its dead end on Armstrong Woods Rd. You’ll start with some rolling climbs, then a surprisingly long descent, then ride along a little creek through a lovely, shady, thickly-wooded riparian area, then start some serious climbing.
Early Sweetwater rollers
When you enter the riparian area, the road surface deteriorates for a while, and then the climbing gets positively fierce, like 18%, 4-mph fierce. Luckily when the pitch is at its worst, the road surface is glass. The really hard stuff doesn’t last more than a mile or so. Watch for a paved driveway on your left which marks the end of the steepest work. The climb continues, but at an 8-10% grade that feels positively easy by comparison.
Along the creek (winter)
Past the obvious summit it’s all very fast, very curvy downhill—watch for road imperfections and bicycle traffic coming at you.
Adding miles: If you don’t want to ride back up the hill, you can loop back to your car with negligible climbing by riding back along the Russian River. The scenery is great, and you get to experience Guerneville, a wonderfully charming below-the-radar village. From the end of Sweetwater Springs Rd. go L onto Armstrong Woods Rd. into Guerneville. Turn R on Main St., ride to the Safeway parking lot on your L, and eat at the taco truck in the parking lot. Ride back up Main St. the way you came and keep going east along the Russan River on what is now called River Rd. This leg is narrow with a minimal shoulder, and it’s always busy with traffic, so it’s not a stretch of road I enjoy by any means, even though the ambiance (river, lush woods, old-California ramshackle vacation cabins) is adorable. Watch for Westside Rd. angling off on your L and take it—it’s all fine riding from there to your car.
At the end of our route, Armstrong Woods Road to the R is reputed to be short, steep, and rewarding.
Four miles north up Westside Rd. is Mill Creek Rd., which is described in the Adding Miles section of the Pine Flat ride. Westside Rd. itself is a popular mellow bike route, but its northern end is lined with wineries, so it’s busy with cars.
There is great riding north and south of River Rd. To the south, the Bohemian Highway is beautiful all the way to Freestone, although it’s a bit of a car thoroughfare. To the south and east of Freestone everything is good, especially Barnet Valley Rd. In the middle of the Bohemian Hwy lies the town of Occidental, a nice spot with a few surprisingly good restaurants, and the beginning of the Coleman Valley Road ride. Mays Canyon Rd. is a particular treat—a gorgeous, centerline-less, patchy, winding path through back country so heavily wooded you almost need a machete. On the north side, a few miles toward the ocean from Guerneville, is the King’s Ridge ride. See the Adding Miles sections of the Coleman Valley and King’s Ridge rides for more possibilities.
Distance: 24 miles out and back Elevation gain: 3060 ft
(Note 11/12: Pine Flat Road, along with Chalk Hill Road, was a victim of the Kincaide Fire. Nibbles (below) says they’re both still grand.)
For a comparison of 4 climbs in the Wine Country—Pine Flat Road, Geysers Road, Ida Clayton Road, and Cavedale Road—see the introduction to the Ida Clayton Road post.
This ride is a climb. Just one big, hard, magnificent climb up a 1-1/2-lane road without a center line (my favorite road size). I learned about it when someone told me it was a favorite training ride of Levi Leipheimer. But it’s more than just a training ride. It’s very pretty in a dry, barren sort of way, with grand, expansive views, it has a lot of variety to the road contour, and it dead-ends at the summit, so it has no through-traffic. Except for a few scraggly houses, it’s just you, the road, and the scenery.
Climb to the top of that farthest ridge, then the top of the ridge behind it
You’re going to climb from the floor of the Alexander Valley to the spine of the ridge to the east (actually the northeast, which Northern Californians call east). Begin at the Jimtown Store on Hwy 128, which used to be a favorite destination for local cyclists but apparently is now closed (thanks, David). A new shop has opened next door and can give you water after your ride. Ride east—to your right if you’re looking at the store’s front door—on Hwy 128 and continue straight onto Pine Flat Rd. It will soon begin to climb, moderately and pleasantly for several miles. Keep looking around you—the views keep changing as you gain elevation. You’ll ride through some steeper pitches until you reach a saddle, pass through it, and surprise!—you descend into a sweet little hidden valley, the eponymous Pine Flat.
Beyond the valley the road turns seriously steep—“damn it I absolutely will not walk this” steep at its worst—with lots of pitches in the teens and the occasional 17%—as it climbs up to the next ridge to the east. It moderates, then goes around a left turn, and, bang, you’re done. You finish at the precise spine of the ridge—the road continues down the back side, but it’s private and gated off. Pat yourself on the back, enjoy the views, try to ignore the spent cartridges that litter the ground and disturb your tranquility, and ride back home.
Heading home
The ride back down isn’t all ideal. Some pitches are too steep to enjoy (especially watch the first hard L turn that comes very soon after you start back—I went rocketing off the road there when I vastly overestimated my braking power). There is some rough road surface near the top. But much of it is great, and it gets better as you get lower and the road gets straighter and smoother and the pitch gets shallower. The last few miles are dreamy, as close to soaring as you can get on solid ground.
Shortening the ride: Ride to Pine Flat and turn around. The upper half of the ride is steeper and rougher, and David (in the comments below) thinks it isn’t especially rewarding anyway.
Adding miles: Pine Flat Rd is close to almost all the other rides in our Wine Country ride list and several other good rides. Remember, no riding on numbered roads. Hwy 128 south has a great contour, but it’s usually very busy with cars and passing is difficult. But all the roads that climb out of the valley, to the east and to the west, are good (and vertical). A stone’s throw to the north (take Red Winery Rd. to the R off Pine Flat Rd. and you won’t have to go on 128 at all) is the excellent Geysers Rd. A twenty-minute drive takes you to the Sweetwater Springs Road ride. Paralleling Sweetwater Springs Rd. to the north is the epic Skaggs Springs Rd., a 37-mile-one-way monster with a huge amount of elevation gain running from Lake Sonoma to the coast at Stewart’s Point. I don’t find the scenery especially rewarding or the road contour especially interesting until you get close to the coast, but it’s Big, and it’s a staple ride of local pros in training. If you want to test yourself, it awaits. Don’t do it on a summer afternoon—the first two thirds are full sun.
A car trip south on Hwy 29/128 brings you to Oakville Grade, a famously challenging little pitch. If you take it R it leads to Mt. Veeder Rd., and the next-door Trinity Grade, which is almost as good.
If you’ve had enough climbing and want to ride something flatter but still want to avoid the high-traffic wine roads, you have some options among the network of roads crossing the valley between Hwy 128 and Hwy 101. About three miles south of Pine Flat Rd. on 128 is Chalk Hill Rd., a 9-mile light-hearted up and down meander through classic vineyard country that I’m very fond of (it too burned in the Kincaide Fire of 10/19). It has the advantage of ending in Windsor, a lovely place to be. About six miles more down 128 is Franz Valley Rd., which leads to Franz Valley School Rd., two short but lovely back roads you could ride as an out and back. Mark West Springs Rd/Porter Creek Rd/Petrified Forest Rd. has a lovely contour and beautiful scenery but is a fairly main artery and thus trafficky and often without shoulder. Spring Mountain Rd./St. Helena Rd. is discussed in the Adding Miles section of the Old Howell Mt. Road ride.
Mill Creek Road, before the fire
A nice, moderately climbing ride in the area is Mill Creek Rd., across the valley from Pine Flat Rd. and a bit south, off Westside Rd. (or 4 miles north of Sweetwater Springs Rd. on Westside Rd., if you’re coming from that ride). Don’t confuse it with the other two Mill Creek Road rides in Bestrides. It’s a 20-mile out-and-back through redwoods and deciduous forest along a nice little creek—a completely different ecosystem than Pine Flat’s grass and oak hills or the valley roads’ gently rolling, vineyard-covered bumps. It begins with 1/4 mile of stiff climbing, but then is mellow rolling over 3-7% bumps for 8 more miles. At that point the road takes a sharp L turn and rises at a painful pitch that touches 17% for the next 1/2 mile, then climbs less painfully for the last mile until the pavement ends at a ranch driveway and you turn around. On the ride out you’ll climb about 1420 ft. (in 9 mi.). If that’s more than you want to do, just park at the top of the first climb (there’s a nice dirt turn-out) and turn around before the second (you’ll know it when you see it)—the outbound ride then becomes 8 mi. and 820 ft (just over half the vert). Since the outbound ride follows a creek upstream, the return ride is fast and almost effortless. This is Sonoma County, so the pavement varies from OK to lousy—a definite nuisance but not a deal-breaker.
Mill Creek Rd. used to be a fairy forest, but 2021’s forest fire hit it hard. The damage increases as you ride—at first there’s nothing, and by the end of the ride you’ve seen major devastation. As always, the signs of life returning can be fascinating and inspiring, but still much has been lost. If it weren’t for the pavement and the burn, Mill Creek would be bestrides-worthy.
I wouldn’t ride Alexander Valley Rd., the road that goes the other way from the Jimtown Store, for fun. It’s a flat, essentially straight road through typical picture-book wine country, but the traffic is often busy enough to be a problem. It does have the distinct advantage that it takes you to Healdsburg, a town celebrated in story and song for its food and general charm. Avoid Dry Creek Rd. except perhaps on a weekday morning in winter—it’s a major route for winery-hopping.
Further south are Bennett Valley Road and Warm Springs Road, which intersect. They’re popular bike routes, because they’re small and they meander effortlessly and playfully through pretty forests and tidy farms. But they’re a popular alternative to Hwy 12 for cars going between Santa Rosa and Sonoma, so they can be very trafficky, and there isn’t much room for the both of you.
(Note 3/21: This route and the surrounding area were seriously damaged by fire during the terrible summer of 2020. See W. G. Scott’s comment below for details. jr)
This strenuous little 20-miler climbs up from Hwy 1 and the ocean, then loops around to take in two classic back roads, all through picture-book Santa Cruz redwood forest. Bonny (sometimes spelled Bonnie) Doon itself is pretty famous because whenever the Tour of California came down the coast from San Francisco to Santa Cruz it was the climb where the winning move was made. I stood on the side of the road and watched Levi Leipheimer stick it to Mick Rogers and Dave Zabriskie on this climb one year on his way to the overall victory.
Begin at the intersection of Bonny Doon and Hwy 1. There’s a good dirt parking lot right at the intersection. Ride up Bonny Doon. It’s steep up from the get-go, so I do 20 minutes on Hwy 1 (straight, flat, relatively uncrowded) to warm up beforehand.
The road contour is not the attraction here. Bonny Doon is a fairly wide, fairly straight, and fairly monotonous, with a constant pitch just short of ouch. But the woods surrounding you are gorgeous. A little fog (which is likely) only adds to the atmosphere.
Go R onto Smith Grade, a thrilling mostly-down roller coaster through primordial Eden.
Bonny Doon Road: these woods are dense
When Smith Grade dead-ends on Empire Grade, if that feels like enough for today you might be tempted to turn around and ride back, since the next leg is merely OK riding, but if you do this a) you will miss the glory that is Ice Cream Grade and b) you won’t save any work, because Smith Grade is a lot of climbing going the other way. So let’s push on.
Smith Grade
Go L on Empire Grade. It’s feels pretty dull after Smith Grade—monotonously up, too wide to feel you’re “in” the trees, and fairly full of cars in a hurry. But it’s only 3 miles. At the intersection of Empire Grade and Ice Cream Grade and Felton Empire Rd. (yes, all three), you touch the Felton Empire/Empire Grade ride, which rides through the same intersection in the other direction.
At that intersection, go L onto the little jewel that is Ice Cream Grade. The first miles of ICG are as pretty as Santa Cruz gets, which is saying a lot. There isn’t much in there except forest, so you’ll have the place to yourself. You immediately drop down a sweet, serpentining descent to the creek, then climb back out a surprisingly easy grade up the other side until it dead-ends at Pine Flat Road. Go L and enjoy the rollicking descent down Pine Flat Rd./Bonny Doon to your car.
The loop is rideable in the other direction. It would add considerably to the climbing on Smith Grade and Ice Cream Grade.
Shortening the route: I’m torn about the best way to drop miles from this route. 1. You could skip the Bonny Doon lollipop stick and just ride the loop. 2. You could ride Bonny Doon/Smith Grade as an out-and-back. 3. You could ride Bonny Doon to the far end of Ice Cream as an out-and-back. Each has its merits.
Ice Cream Grade
Adding miles: Almost everything in any direction is good—see the Monterey Bay discussion in the Rides by Region chapter for a survey of roads in the Santa Cruz area. Since it’s the same conversation for all 6 of our Santa Cruz rides, I’ll do it once there and leave it at that.
Distance: 19 miles out and back Elevation gain: 2760 ft
(7/25 update: For a couple of reasons, I’ve cooled a bit on this ride. One is, the road surface is now iffy. Not bad—no potholes—but you will get rattled on the descent. The other is, traffic has for some reason exploded. I have no idea why cars are on this road in numbers now, but on my last ride I probably met 40 cars. The ride is still gorgeous and the road profile is constantly intriguing, but I’ve gone from “Total wow” to “Very nice.” (But see Roy’s encouraging theory below.) jr)
This is a lovely little ride. It’s a perfect climb—varied, challenging, interesting—up a gorgeous wooded riparian draw to a dead-end, followed by a constantly intriguing, constantly rewarding descent back down. Every foot of it is delicious, in both directions. It used to be largely ignored by all, even though it begins in a densely populated area, because it’s a dead-end road to a private lake. Once upon a time you could expect to meet a car or two, but now the word seems to be out, and it can be unpleasantly trafficky (I have no idea where the cars are all going). The road surface is consistently good but not great.
Robinson Canyon Rd. takes off to the south from Carmel Valley Rd. about seven miles out from CVR’s beginning on Hwy 1. You can park along the foot of Robinson, but the climbing begins immediately, so I like to spend 20 minutes warming up on Carmel Valley Road, which consists of mild ups and downs around there. If you want more miles, park in the mega-mall parking lot 1/4 mile down Carmel Valley Rd. from Hwy 1 and ride from there, but take notice, if you ride later in the day you may well be ending the ride with 7 mostly (mild) uphill miles into a significant head wind in heavy traffic at dusk (but the shoulder is good).
RCR begins with about a half-mile of fully built-up flat. Then you cross a little bridge, all housing stops, and it’s never flat again. Beyond the bridge is a sign that reads “Road Closed 3 Miles Ahead, Local Traffic Only.” I have no idea why the sign is there—ignore it.
It really looks like this
Robinson Canyon is a pretty serious climb—about 2700 ft of gain in 10 miles, most of it in a 2.5-mile stretch of 8-10% before the summit. So it’s possible to get seduced by the work load. Please don’t—this is some of the most gorgeous woodland I know of, so I hope you’ll keep your head up and take it in. It’s gorgeous from the moment you leave the houses at the bottom of the climb, and it stays that way to the end.
At the summit the hard work is over. There’s an unmissable saddle with prime vistas of Carmel Valley and the Monterey area behind you. Do a mellow 1-mile descent (the climb on the return is easy) into a pristine hidden valley with the only signs of habitation being a few expensive, pretentious stone gates in front of driveways (the golf course is behind you on the hillside to your L). Cross the valley, then do a series of short, easy climbs through an oak and redwood forest, different from the woods you just rode through but just as pretty. Watch for a field with 3 titanic oaks on your right. Ride to a gate across the road keeping out all but the members of the private lake that lies beyond. If the gate-keepers are out and about and the season is right, ask if you can have an apple from the trees beside the road.
After the summit: perfect valley rollers
Turn around and ride back on the peerless descent—one of the best descents in California. It’s 10 miles of constantly changing, constantly interesting, constantly challenging curves. The road surface is now very good thanks to a recent repaving, so you can get up to terrific speeds, but don’t go to sleep, because there are a few hairpin corners that are hard to see coming and I always seem to meet at least one car.
Shortening the route: Please don’t. You could of course save a few miles by riding to the summit and turning around, but you’d be missing beautiful country, and at the summit you’ve done almost all of the work.
View from the summit, looking at where you started in Carmel Valley
Adding miles: As I said in the Monterey Bay section of the Rides by Region chapter, there are three good rides in the Monterey area. From the intersection of Hwy 1 and Carmel Valley Road it’s an easy ride through Carmel Village to one of the others, the Seventeen-Mile Drive ride. A few miles past Robinson down Carmel Valley Road is the other one, our East Carmel Valley Road ride.
Robinson Canyon near its gated end intersects with Rancho San Carlos Rd., which is gated off at both ends and prominently marked “Private Road” where it intersects Robinson Canyon (in fact it looks like someone’s driveway, though there is a road sign). I’ve never tried it. The word used to be that the locals looked the other way when cyclists jumped the gate. Now the word is, they don’t—the closure is enforced and taken seriously. Yet Anonymous in the comments below says he was treated well when he rode through recently, and he says the ride is worth the risk. The entire area, including Rancho San Carlos Rd. and Robinson Canyon Rd., is in fact a “preserve” run by the Santa Lucia Conservancy. It’s exclusive—I notice a house along the road just sold for $7 million. Your legal status there is ambiguous. I always figure the worst that can happen is, you get caught, plead ignorance, and get asked to leave.
Distance: 26 miles one way Elevation gain: 2300 ft (north to south)
(Update: in 2021 the Caldor Fire started near Grizzly Flat, directly to the west of this ride. It spread east until it ended up threatening the Tahoe Basin. So North South Road was directly in its path and in all likelihood was devastated by the burn. In fact our route goes through the infinitesimal community of Caldor. I haven’t been back to the area since the fire.)
North South Road is a small back road that runs north and south (duh) between Mormon Emigrant Trail (which is actually a large two-lane road) and Omo Ranch Rd. It often lacks a center line, and some maps don’t even show it (AAA does). It meanders pleasantly up and down, never getting particularly taxing, through standard nice Sierra pine/cedar forest, but the thing that sets it apart is the solitude. Usually I measure traffic in cars per mile, a good road being a car or two per mile; on North South you measure traffic in cars per hour. The last time I rode it, on a fine Monday summer midday, I saw 3 vehicles, and I did 18.6 miles before I saw the first one. It has a good surface for a road this little used—only the most fastidious will be put off. Not a great ride but a very good one.
To find North South Rd., go east up Mormon Emigrant Trail for 11 miles from the Jenkinson Lake dam. Check your odometer at the dam so you don’t worry you missed it, though there are two small but clearly visible road signs at the turn-off.
Your basic Sierra forest
I’ve mapped the road from north to south, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t ride it in the other direction, and no reason why you couldn’t do it as a moderately taxing out and back. It’s more climbing south to north (3 substantial climbs instead of 1), so the elevation gain total will do much more than double on the out-and-back. There’s no road sign at the south end, though there are bold turn-off signs in both directions on Omo Ranch.
Once you’re on North South, you can’t get lost—just stay on the main road at any intersection. From the north, it’s up and down, mostly down, all the way to the Cosumnes River crossing at 20 miles, then up and down, mostly up, to Omo Ranch Rd. The only climbing you’ll notice are the last 3 miles, and they’re moderate.
There are some magnificent old pines on North South
This road is so remote that there are stretches of road overgrown with shrubbery to the point where you can’t see the pavement’s edge. Having said that, I must admit that there’s a lot going on along this road, most of it in the last 6 miles: a developed campground at mile 7 (Capp’s), another at mile 20 (PiPi—and, yes, it has a bathroom, but it’s pronounced “pie-pie”), and several OHV playgrounds, which might be a strong argument for not doing this ride on a weekend. The road is also crawling with signage, so you’ll have little doubt about where you are. The only exception to that is, about 6.5 miles in there’s an unsigned fork in the road. North South, the slightly main-er road, curves L; Capp’s Crossing angles R. Some helpful soul has painted “NS RD” and “CAPPS X-ING RD” on the road with appropriate arrows.
Immediately after PiPi Campground (unmissable) the road makes a sharp turn across the Glenn Oviatt Bridge. But before you cross it, if it’s late enough in the year, go 100 ft. down the little dirt road that goes downstream right before the bridge and go wading or swimming in the Cosumnes River. I did this in August after a week of 100+-degree days, and it was heaven. While you’ve stopped, go over to PiPi across the road and look at the telephone booth—must be the last one in America.
Cosumnes River swimming hole
Shortening the route: There is no particular goal to ride to on this road, except the Cosumnes River crossing, which is unfortunately near the end, so if I couldn’t loop it I’d just turn around when I reached half my desired mileage total. It’s all pretty much the same forest.
Adding miles: As with most Gold Country rides, everything around you is good. A third of the way down North South, at Capps Crossing, Capps Crossing Rd. takes off heading R/west, and you can ride it out to Grizzly Flat and take the Grizzly Flat Rd. west to Somerset, which I’ve never done but have heard good things about. Mormon Emigrant Trail, at the north end of North South, is part of the Carson Pass Plus ride. The Cream of the Sierra Century ride is right below you.
Here’s a very good 74-mile loop incorporating North South Rd.: From Somerset (which is little more than a grocery store and a couple of other buildings) ride north on Mt. Aukum Rd. (this involves you almost immediately in a serious climb, but it’s either do it now or at the end of the ride when you’re whipped). At Pleasant Valley go R onto Sly Park Rd. At Jenkinson Lake go R, cross the dam, check your odometer, and ride Mormon Emigrant to North South, ride to Omo Ranch Rd., and go R on Omo Ranch (a lovely long easy descent). Turn R on Fairplay Rd., and take it through Fairplay to Mt. Aukum Rd. Turn R on Mt. Aukum and ride back to your car. This loop has a lot of climbing, and there’s a nasty kicker of a climb in the last ½ mile, just when that’s the last thing you want.
If you do the 74-mile loop, you’ll need water. You can fill up at Capps Campground or Pi Pi, assuming they’re open. At the south end of North South, turn L on Omo Ranch Rd. and in 1 mile you’ll hit Cooks Station, an outpost where you can resupply. There’s little on the loop after Cooks. You pass through five named “communities,”, but they’re all TINO’s (towns in name only), so don’t count on anything.
Distance: 67 miles one way Elevation gain: 3015 ft
Here’s the rare opportunity to ride 67 miles in one direction, all of it really good. This ride is a trip through a lovely aspen-strewn Sierra valley, a famous climb up and over the most scenic of California passes, a long stair-stepping descent back to the foothills, a slalom course through vacation home country, and a final mellow leg though a classic old farming valley. It’s more than anyone is going to ride as an out and back, which is OK because I can only recommend it in one direction, east to west. See Shortening the route below for tips on how to arrange a manageable day if you don’t have a shuttle. I did the ride as part of a 4-day loop tour that started in Sacramento and passed by Lake Tahoe.
The first part of this ride, Hope Valley to Carson Pass, is famous as the fifth and last climb of the Death Ride. Park at Pickett’s Junction, where Hwy 89 meets Hwy 88. The parking is much more comfortable a mile east at Sorensen’s Resort (which seems to have been renamed Desolation Hotel—a great place to see aspens, hike, eat, or just hang out), and I’ll leave you to decide how you feel about using their parking lot if you aren’t spending money there. Ride west on 88 through the beautiful Hope Valley (if you can manage to do the ride in the fall when the Aspens are turning colors, so much the better).
Hope Valley
Soon you leave the valley floor and beginning the stunning ascent to Carson Pass. The climb itself is pretty much of a slog—unvaried 6-7% pitch and pretty straight—but visually there is nothing like it. The last 3 miles of the climb are open in front of you, the road is carved out of solid granite, and the view of Red Lake behind and below you gets more and more striking as you ascend. It all looks easy on paper—about 1500 ft of gain—but the elevation is a famous sapper of legs here, so trying to power up the climb is asking for trouble. I settle in at a docile 5.5 mph, look around at my surroundings, and spin it out.
The climb to Carson Pass
There’s a small Visitor Center at Carson Pass (with bathrooms). It caters to hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail, which crosses the road there, and it’s a friendly and cheerful spot worth a stop. They even have loaner hiking poles. A lovely 2-mile round-trip hike to Frog Lake starts there, if you have an hour and brought hiking shoes.
Caples Lake
If you’re just out for the afternoon, turning around at the Carson Pass summit will give you a 20-mile outing, and you get to see the scenery twice, but I confess the descent from Carson Pass is for me without reward. If you like straight, very fast, wind-blown, brake-straining coasting, you’ll love it.
If you continue on, the scenery stays classic High-Sierra wonderfulness for the next 30 miles—mighty granite, deep green forest, endless vistas. After the fast, sweeping descent from Carson Pass, you meet Woods Lake Road going off to the L, and you can take that road for a short, lovely ride to minute, picture-perfect Woods Lake, an ideal spot for a break, a bit of meditation, or an easy short hike.
Carson Spur
Back on 88, you pass Caples Lake, then Kirkwood Ski Resort, then a moderate climb up to and around Carson Spur, a granite monolith (stunning vistas off to your right). Then it’s down to Silver Lake, a lovely area to take a break (more secluded than Caples) or camp. Past Silver Lake you do a straight, tedious climb (a tough way to start the day if you camped at the lake), descend, and begin watching for Mormon Emigrant Trail on the R. It’s prominent, but the main road is a fast descent here and you can blow past it.
View from Mormon Emigrant Trail
Mormon Emigrant Trail, despite its name, is a road—a big, wide, fast roller coaster. It’s like Hwy 88 cubed—smaller, windier, same great vistas, and lots less traffic. It rolls up and down, mostly down, and it loses a lot of elevation over its length, so it’s tons of fun going east to west, with just enough climb in the rollers to make you feel like you’re earning this. Going west to east, the elevation change works against you, and that’s the only real obstacle to doing this ride in the other direction. Just past halfway you’ll pass the turn-off to North South Road, in our list.
Mormon Emigrant Trail debouches at Jenkinson Lake, AKA Sly Park, and the ride changes. Cross the dam and stay L onto Sly Park Rd., which traverses pretty wooded country but is built up with vacation homes and thus can be heavily trafficked. It’s a rollicking slalom descent, so if you can catch a break in the traffic it’s an absolute hoot—with traffic, the cars keep making you slow down. Stay on Sly Park all the way to Diamond Springs.
Mormon Emigrant Trail
If the traffic is bothering you, there’s an escape route: Sierra Springs Drive (or Road). It takes off to the R soon after you start down Sly Park Rd. from the lake. Most maps think it’s a dead-end residential road into a subdivision, and it was, but if you summon your blind faith in me and head down it, it goes through the subdivision through a few spectacular esses (worth the detour by themselves) and turns into Starkes Grade Rd., which is a road so small it might as well be a rec path, and which descends gently along the most gorgeous little creek you’ve ever seen. You’ll think you’re in a Japanese garden. It’s a very special place. Our mapped route goes that way. Starkes Grade ends on Newton Rd., and you’ll need to go L on Newton for a ¼ mile or so to get back on Sly Park.
Somewhere in here Sly Park Rd. changes its name to Pleasant Valley Rd., and that tells you exactly what you’re in for: a very pleasant, easy ride through a traditional farming valley. Ride to Diamond Springs, where the riding quality drops off precipitously and our ride stops.
Shortening the route: If you only have one day and you can’t arrange a shuttle, I suggest you start at Carson Pass, look at the vista to the east, then ride west as far as you wish, then return. It’s 17.5 miles to the Mormon Emigrant Trail turn-off, and those miles will give you 3 lakes, 1 rock monolith, and lots of grand vistas. If you want a little less, turn around at Silver Lake. Remember, it’s uphill almost all the way back.
Adding miles: There’s good riding all around you on this ride. Near the beginning of this route you pass the turn-off for the Blue Lakes Road ride, and from the starting point you can ride east and south (mostly long, steady, trafficky descents) to Markleeville, a charming town with restaurants and a general store, and smack onto the Ebbetts Pass ride.
From the Diamond Springs end you’re close to an endless supply of good roads. Just north of you is Placerville, home to several good restaurants and the best hardware store in the world. Our Mosquito Rd. loop takes off from Placerville. See the Adding Miles section of that ride for other routes north of town. Going south from Diamond Springs, backtrack up Pleasant Valley Rd. to Bucks Bar Rd. on your R, take it to Somerset, and Mt. Aukum Rd. going south out of Somerset leads to the entire lower Gold Country. At this point, the world is your oyster.
Afterthoughts: The Hope Valley Cafe/Resort, 1/4 of a mile east of Sorensen’s, one of those character places beloved by those in the know, seems to be permanently closed.
There are opportunities to resupply at the resorts at Silver Lake and Caples Lake (Silver has a resort at each end), and at the Kirkwood Inn (right on the highway, though the Kirkwood ski area itself is not). There’s water (for sale, I think) at the Carson Pass Visitor Center. There are no services on Mormon Emingrant Trail.
Carson Pass is kept free of snow in the winter, except for the occasional temporary avalanche. Mormon Emigrant Trail is not.
The Death Ride has made its three summits—Carson, Monitor, and Ebbetts—famous. The three climbs are very different. Carson Pass—included in the Carson Pass Plus ride—is an almost straight slog whose selling point is its magnificent vistas. Monitor Pass is a monotonous, seemingly endless grind up through featureless high desert country I find esthetically without merit, though in truth you can see a long way from it. Many riders love it. I think it comes down to how you feel about 50-mph descents. I don’t care for them, so Monitor isn’t in my list.
Ebbetts Pass, on the other hand, is one of the four or five best rides in California, a challenging but always rewarding climb along rocky steams and through pretty Sierra Nevada forest surrounded by classic High Sierra granite and big canyon views, with a road contour that is constantly varying—no long, tedious slogs, I promise. And the descent is even better—very much in the running for best descent in California. The road surface is as good as a road surface that experiences California high-country winters can be—the top few miles are a bit rough on the descent but most of it is close to glass.
Highway 4 is a “major” route through the Sierras, but it has little traffic, because most cars choose other routes. Unless you’re doing this ride on a summer weekend (never a good idea), once you leave Carson River, which is busy with fishermen in the summer, you should be pretty much alone. I last rode it on a weekday morning in September, and I saw 15 vehicles, or slightly more than a car every two miles. And the sight lines are grand, so the few on-coming cars announce themselves in advance.
The Carson River canyon before sunrise
Ebbetts Pass is closed by snow in the winter. It’s usually plowed sometime in late June. Check highway reports before heading out there.
You shouldn’t need to resupply water on this ride, but if you do, there are two formal campgrounds along Hwy 4. On hot days I take a third water bottle and cache it when the climbing gets taxing.
Picture-perfect scenery
Begin at the intersection of Hwys 89 and 4. There’s a large dirt parking lot at the intersection. The route is simplicity itself: ride south on Hwy 4 to Ebbetts Pass, then turn around and ride home. There’s a road sign immediately after you get on the bike reading “24% grade ahead,” and it isn’t lying, but that’s Pacific Grade, which is west of Hermit Valley on the other side of the pass and our route doesn’t go that far.
For two miles you ride along the east fork of the Carson River, which is a sleepy little stream, so the climbing is 1% or less. After you cross the river on a bridge, you start climbing and climb without interruption save some whoop-de-doos near the turn-around.
Once on the far side of the river, the road cuts over to Silver Creek, which has considerably more fall than Carson, and you do 5 miles of pretty, easy climbing along the creek and through forest.
Starting to gain elevation and looking back where you came from
About 7 miles in you hit a 12% stretch, and from then on nothing is easy. From here to the summit you’ll average 6%, with frequent moments of 8-11%, all made a notch harder by the elevation, which tops out at 8,736 ft.—expect 6% to feel more like 9%. The work continues right to the summit—I find the last 2 miles as hard as any part of the route. But the road contour and the scenery are always changing, so you never get bored and the steepness, when it comes, doesn’t overwhelm.
Classic High Sierra granite-and-conifer landscape
Every mile of this ride is eye candy. You begin with the stark beauty of the Carson River canyon. Then you move into green meadows and aspens. After you leave Silver Creek you scale the side of a big canyon, and there are frequent grand vistas of where you’ve come from as you climb. Higher up are some of the awe-inspiring granite crags for which the Sierra Nevada is famous. If you want to maximize the scenic wonderfulness, do the ride in September-October when the aspens are turning colors, but don’t wait until it snows, when the road closes.
Absurdly fun contour (click on the image to really see)
At the signed and unmissable summit, turn around and begin 13 miles of ridiculously wonderful descending—the nearest thing to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad on a bike. There are places where you’ll have to tell yourself to stop laughing with glee and pay attention to the job at hand. The road surface is pristine, the curves are railable and no two are alike, and the pitch is ideal—steep enough for long runs of 30-35 mph with next to no braking. Early in the descent is a mile of breath-taking, swooping whoop-de-doos you flash through at 35 mph—I know of nothing else like them.
Shortening the route: It’s almost impossible. If you turn around before the summit, you miss the wonderful whoop-de-doos on the return ride. If you drive the first few miles of the route you’ll be saving almost no work, since they’re the flattish ones, and you’ll want the warm-up anyway.
Looking north a couple of miles from the summit
Adding miles: The easiest way to add 10 miles is to start the ride in Markleeville, a small, charming little town that lives entirely off outdoor sports (mostly fishing). Since it’s the base for the Death Ride, you’ll be welcome. The five miles from town to the start of our route is well worth riding, mostly along the east branch of the Carson River through a dramatically stark landscape made starker due to some minor fire damage. There is one noticeable hill.
At Ebbetts Pass you can continue on down the back side and keep riding west as far as you like. The Death Ride goes a few miles past the summit to Hermit Valley and turns around. I hear it’s a fine ride and that the climb back up to Ebbetts isn’t bad, but I haven’t done it (see the diverse opinions among readers in the comments below). If you’re touring you can ride Hwy 4 all the way to Angel’s Camp and Hwy 49, but you’ll face that 24% climb up Pacific Grade leaving Hermit Valley. If you make it to the Pacific Grade Summit you’re at the turn-around point of our Bear Valley to Mosquito Lake ride and can do it, then keep going to the other Bestrides rides along west Hwy 4.
In Markleeville you’re not far from the Blue Lakes Road ride and the Carson Pass Plus ride and everything else detailed in the Adding Miles section under the Carson Pass ride. The ride from Markleeville to Sorensen’s is almost all trafficky, straight, monotonous, moderate climbing—totally ridable but the classic definition of grind.
The Diamond Valley Rd/Carson River Road loop, just north off Hwy 89 by Woodfords, is a pleasant, flattish (750 ft of gain) 12 miles through surprisingly desert-y country, good for a recovery day. Don’t go on a hot summer afternoon—it’s very exposed.
You’re parking at the base of Highway 89, the Monitor Pass ride, which I can’t recommend but which many others adore.
