1 road, 35 miles, 5000 ft elevation change, and 600 turns. Yes, 600.

[Blown353]

Title sound like fun? It's Mosquito Ridge Road, between Foresthill and Tahoe National Forest. Looks like an absolute BLAST. Found it last night while poking around some motorcycle web pages. I've been on many of the roads they list, but I had no idea about this one and how close it was!

I plan on taking 50 to Salmon Falls Road (another wonderfully twisty road), then heading down 49 to Foresthill road, and then to Mosquito Ridge Road.

Here's a writeup and pictures of it from a fantastic motorcycle page documenting great rides in California:

http://www.pashnit.com/roads/cal/MosquitoRidge.htm

Check out that USGS satellite image! The scenery is stunning, too.

Any Norcal guys feeling adventurous this weekend, say very early Sunday morning?

I haven't decided if I want to take the STi or the Chevelle yet, but I'm leaning towards the Chevelle.

Troy

[Steve Chryssos]

35 miles, wow. I'm lucky if I can string together 3.5 miles here on Long Island--plus even the good roads are densely populated. You west coast guys are lucky. All of the views and scenery here have been sold off to the highest bidder long ago.

[Derek69SS]

You don't want to go skidding off the edge on one of those curves

[zbugger]

I took Mt. Hamilton road in San Jose to the Mt. Hamilton Observatory once. Just once. It was a 3+ hour trip to Livermore going that way. Lost count of the turns, (Or I didn't pay attention, I was driving too fast....) and I lost count of the Cattle Guards I crossed. My buddy and I even scared cows by mooing at them from 2 feet away. Awesome views of the middle of nowhere and it felt like it took forever. We were a little delirious after a couple hours, but that's expected after all those turns. I think I wasted his tires on that trip.

Hey Steve, I'd offer to take you out if you ever make it out here, but 1. my car isn't running, and 2. there are too many roads to choose from. I couldn't pick just one. Damnit, I wanna get my car going again!!!! I soooo hate being broke.

[Blown353]

Originally Posted by Derek69SS

You don't want to go skidding off the edge on one of those curves

What?!?! You're gonna let a little 1000 foot drop scare ya?

The other fun road I like around here is Morgan Territory Road up around Mt. Diablo. Used to drive it with my Dad years ago in his Vette, then later in his Ferrari, and I've driven it several times myself in the Chevelle and in my Vette before I sold it. It's 1-lane for quite a ways, and there's about a 2 mile stretch where it's just barely 1 lane with a rather steep gorge on one side. If you run into oncoming traffic (rare, but it happens) someone has to back up until they reach a turnout, which are spaced quite a ways apart-- you may be backing up 1/2 a mile. Last time I was up there I noticed a fresh Ford Econoline van about 100 feet down in the gorge. Oops!

However, Morgan Territory's drop offs are somewhat sloping with lots of nice trees to slow/stop your decent. No such restraining devices on Mosquito, and the sheer rock face won't be too forgiving.

Originally Posted by zbugger

I took Mt. Hamilton road in San Jose to the Mt. Hamilton Observatory once. Just once. It was a 3+ hour trip to Livermore going that way. Lost count of the turns, (Or I didn't pay attention, I was driving too fast....) and I lost count of the Cattle Guards I crossed. My buddy and I even scared cows by mooing at them from 2 feet away. Awesome views of the middle of nowhere and it felt like it took forever. We were a little delirious after a couple hours, but that's expected after all those turns. I think I wasted his tires on that trip.

Hey Steve, I'd offer to take you out if you ever make it out here, but 1. my car isn't running, and 2. there are too many roads to choose from. I couldn't pick just one. Damnit, I wanna get my car going again!!!! I soooo hate being broke.

Yes, the road up to Lick is quite fun as well, done that quite a few times. Just watch for bicycles!

So many good roads around here, so little time to enjoy them.

I'm also waiting for the Tioga pass (~10,500 feet summit) into the east side of Yosemite to open again. It's really fun to head up to Tahoe on 88, have lunch, then continue to Carson City, cut down 395 to Mono Lake, then cut into Yosemite on Tioga and drive on through and head back to the valley on 120 and head home. Better still if you spend a few days in Yosemite hiking/biking/climbing, but you usually have to reserve campgrounds 6 months in advance! I was up that way (88 to 395) last week and Tioga pass was still closed for snow. Lots of snow at the summit on 88 too, but the roads were clear.

Unfortunately I was in a pickup hauling a 30kW generator from South Tahoe all the way down to Lakeside (past San Diego), so I couldn't enjoy the turns-- was very worried about tipping the genset!

I also love the drive up to Lake Alpine up through Murphy's. Very fun drive if you don't get stuck behind anyone, so leave early. Lots of fun turns and awesome scenery. Just mind your speed when you're near Murphys, although every time I go I have this urge to do a burnout from one end of town all the way to the other.