California Dreaming

[Guest]

I'm from Massachusetts and and visiting California next week to go to my GF's son's wedding. I rented an FZ 09 from a guy in Hesperia on Riders-Share.com. I'll be staying in Palmdale and not knowing the area, I was thinking that maybe there's be another rider from here that might like to do meet up for a Saturday 7-13-19 ride. I was thinking of heading towards the desert but I'm not stuck on any particular destination. Anyone game?

[DavidS]

I don't live in California anymore, but my sister lives in Lancaster.  If you can't find a local to join you, you might try this route. Head west on N2/Pine Canyon Rd until it turns into 138. Continue out to 33 south in the Los Padres National Forest. South to Ojai and take the 126/14 back to Palmdale. It's about 215 miles/~5 hours of riding. If you want to ride longer, and I recommend you do, you can extend it further to the west all the way to the Pacific Ocean to Santa Barbara.

Whatever you do, don't go south into Los Angeles, all you will find is traffic and freeways.

 

[Guest]

The wedding is actually in Lancaster and we're staying in Palmdale. This looks cool except I'm picking the rental up 50 west so I might go towards the desert. Thanks,

I'm still holding out hope that another forum member sees this and is game for a day of riding.

Edited July 8, 2019 by Guest

[koth442]

Have you checked the member map?

[chitown]

Won't be around that weekend but can give you route suggestions if you provide where you want to start and end, what type of roads you prefer, how long a day you want, scenic vs twisty etc. DavisS' includes some really good stuff. If going more desert in July you'll want to check temps depending on how far. EG I've got to go through Vegas on the 13th and I'm seeing 108 for the weekend. Oh joy.  

[DavidS]

59 minutes ago, chitown said:

Won't be around that weekend but can give you route suggestions if you provide where you want to start and end, what type of roads you prefer, how long a day you want, scenic vs twisty etc. DavisS' includes some really good stuff. If going more desert in July you'll want to check temps depending on how far. EG I've got to go through Vegas on the 13th and I'm seeing 108 for the weekend. Oh joy.  

That will be one hot ride.

Might want to put in some new antifreeze in before you do that ride......

[chitown]

1 hour ago, DavidS said:

That will be one hot ride.

Might want to put in some new antifreeze in before you do that ride......

Just did coolant a few weeks ago. Only the best for my baby: Wally World premix. Am I confident? Well, it handled multi 105F +  ambient days on the last big summer trip. Took this in my driveway

[Guest]

3 hours ago, chitown said:

Won't be around that weekend but can give you route suggestions if you provide where you want to start and end, what type of roads you prefer, how long a day you want, scenic vs twisty etc. DavisS' includes some really good stuff. If going more desert in July you'll want to check temps depending on how far. EG I've got to go through Vegas on the 13th and I'm seeing 108 for the weekend. Oh joy.  

I'm picking up the bike in Hesperia. The Bike is also Located 20 minuets from the Big Bear/ Arrowhead and the Angelus Crest Mountain ranges which the owner says are both amazing rides. I'm going to end up back at my hotel in Palmdale. What are those places like? I have no clue what 108 degrees is like but i'm not really looking to go through the desert as much as get a look at it. I'm guessing with a black leather jacket you'd be found dead on the side of the road.  Thanks.

I'm still hoping that someone local is looking for a riding partner for a day. I might spring for lunch.

[betoney]

26 minutes ago, chesterburnet said:

I'm picking up the bike in Hesperia. The Bike is also Located 20 minuets from the Big Bear/ Arrowhead and the Angelus Crest Mountain ranges which the owner says are both amazing rides. I'm going to end up back at my hotel in Palmdale. What are those places like? I have no clue what 108 degrees is like but i'm not really looking to go through the desert as much as get a look at it. I'm guessing with a black leather jacket you'd be found dead on the side of the road.  Thanks.

I'm still hoping that someone local is looking for a riding partner for a day. I might spring for lunch.

Just a suggestion, start your rides early in the morning, you can get in a few hundred miles of riding and be done by lunchtime before it gets really hot.  Besides, there's just something special about an early morning ride.

[chitown]

4 hours ago, chesterburnet said:

I'm picking up the bike in Hesperia. The Bike is also Located 20 minuets from the Big Bear/ Arrowhead and the Angelus Crest Mountain ranges which the owner says are both amazing rides. I'm going to end up back at my hotel in Palmdale. What are those places like? I have no clue what 108 degrees is like but i'm not really looking to go through the desert as much as get a look at it. I'm guessing with a black leather jacket you'd be found dead on the side of the road.  Thanks.

I'm still hoping that someone local is looking for a riding partner for a day. I might spring for lunch.

They both offer good roads and plenty of elevation which is usually what we like in the summer. Big Bear has a lot of traffic on the weekends as it's a destination. Angeles Crest isn't and in fact has one slide closure that's actually in your favor as it's keeping the number of squids and CHP down on the stretch I always avoid anyways because of, well, CHP and squids  

Depending on how long a day you want here are some various loops / suggestions

Big Bear and east

138 toward Arrowhead/BigBear - 18 - 38 - 10 (freeway, but only to get to the next good road) - 243. This puts you in Idyllwild. If it's not hot I'd consider taking 74 Palms-to-Pines out to Palm Desert, maybe eating there, reverse the route (243 is worth several laps) or slab back via 10-15-138. 

Angeles Crest CA-2 west

138 toward Wrightwood - 2 - stop at Newcomb's - Upper Big Tujunga - Angeles Forest north - if you want a short day you're not far from Palmdale at this point.. but you could extend this by Mt Emma - El Tejon - Valyermo - Big Pines Highway - back in Wrightwood. This is one of my favorite loops and is scenic with very good roads. Angeles Crest when it's open and clear is one of the best roads ever. Once back in Wrightwood you could reverse some of this to Palmdale or do 138 which isn't really fun on that stretch but gets you where you're going and at least it's not a freeway. 

Another option from Upper Big Tujunga is to take Angeles Forest south. Make your way to 210 freeway, north for a few miles to Osborne road - Little Tujunga - Sand Canyon - Vasquez Canyon - Bouquet Canyon - Spunky Canyon - San Francisquito Canyon - San Francisquito Mountain Way (mostly paved, may be some gravel at the ends) - Lake Hughes - stop at the Rock Inn (limited days/hours) for a bit -- either Elizabeth Lake and local roads back to Palmdale or continue west on to Pine Canyon Road. At Three Points make the left on to road N2 - Ridge Route Road - 138 back to Palmdale. 

Another option is to go north on Angeles Forest, but turn west on Aliso Canyon - Aliso Arrastre - Soledad Canyon - Escondido Canyon - Sierra Highway + everything above from Vasquez Canyon on. 

For a longer day you could combine parts of the above as well.

There are good places to eat and fuel in Wrightwood (Grizzly Cafe), Big Bear (Maggio's, family owned, away from the more touristy part of BB), and Idyllwild (several). There's a popular bike spot, Newcomb's Ranch, on Angeles Crest but it has limited hours and food at this point as the closure (farther south than I have you going) is impacting them. They always have food on the weekends tho. Usually there is some pretty exotic machinery in the lot. Bikes, car clubs, etc. 

There's more, depends on how much your butt can handle  

There are frequently zero tolerance areas for CHP on Angeles Crest south of Newcomb's which I (and the closure) have you avoiding, and south of Idyllwild in every direction. You can have fun trying to keep at 55 all the places it's signed 55 and it will require the fewest passes as far as traffic goes. Angeles Crest is still recovering from big fires but pretty. Big Bear and Idyllwild have scenery and nice panoramas if air quality is good.  

My choice would probably be Angeles Crest + Aliso + Bouquet etc... the last option I discussed above. 

Edited July 9, 2019 by chitown
typos

[chitown]

21 minutes ago, betoney said:

Just a suggestion, start your rides early in the morning, you can get in a few hundred miles of riding and be done by lunchtime before it gets really hot.  Besides, there's just something special about an early morning ride.

That's always a good option but there's a rental pick up involved. 

Another thing I try to keep in mind when doing a loop is starting and ending direction. I'd rather have the sun in the oncoming traffic's eyes than mine. There are downsides to that too but I assume they're blind anyway I don't want to be blind too

[Guest]

1 hour ago, chitown said:

That's always a good option but there's a rental pick up involved. 

Another thing I try to keep in mind when doing a loop is starting and ending direction. I'd rather have the sun in the oncoming traffic's eyes than mine. There are downsides to that too but I assume they're blind anyway I don't want to be blind too

Chi, that is an amazing amount of effort to put in to suggesting rides. I'm going to look at the maps for each suggestion and see which looks the like  the most fun for my tastes. I like the twisties but I also like scenery and interesting stuff. I'm picking up the bike on Friday afternoon and returning on Sunday morning so I have 1 full day to let it rip.  I'm sure they are all way cool rides. Thank you.

 

Lot's of good advise and interesting ideas from everyone. I'm really psyched about riding in a place that I've never laid eyes on. The only thing that could make it better was if I could do it on my own bike which is K-Teched out at both ends. Doing it on a 2017 FZ 09 is not a bad option though.

Anyone ever headed to southern Mass or Rhode Island let me know. I'm always up for a ride. 

[betoney]

@chitown - That is a lot of good info.  Thanks for taking the time to share it all. 

[chitown]

One thing I should mention to anybody from out of town doing Angeles Crest... from a distance Google and some others make it look like you can connect it to CA-39 San Gabriel Canyon. But the top 4 miles or so (between Crystal Lake and Angeles Crest) has been closed since the 70s. 

Google does show a much shorter temporary closure with Traffic and will not route you through it. It's still a state highway closed due to construction. There's a weird soap opera behind that along with a $100 million rock and mud slide.

 

[koth442]

Slight side bar, let us know what you think of riders-share. I haven't heard of it before, sounds neat.