CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 98 km one-way ride from near Arnold, about 1 h 29 of riding. The stops in between: Lake Alpine and Ebbetts Pass. The highest point is about 2,650 m. Ebbetts Pass is open in summer only - check it is open before you set off. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 49 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go — slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
The ride follows Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway for 24 km.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Arnold is a mountain town strung out along Highway 4 in the Sierra Nevada foothills, a place of log cabins, pine trees and holiday homes at about four thousand feet. It is the first real settlement on the way up the Ebbetts Pass road, and many people use it as a base for the summer, thanks to its cool air and the lakes nearby. The town has cafes, a supermarket and gas stations, and is a sensible place to prepare for the mountain road.
Read the complete Arnold California write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Arnold California is where the day begins. Next is Lake Alpine.
Lake Alpine is a high, clear reservoir in the Sierra Nevada, about 2,200 metres above sea level, and it sits like a cupped hand among granite and lodgepole pine. Highway 4 runs along its edge, and for a few months of the year it is a delightful stop: a lodge with a deck, a small boat ramp, and a view down the water to bare rock. It is the sort of place where you take your helmet off, buy a cold drink, and for a few minutes forget that the road beyond is a serious one.
Read the complete Lake Alpine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lake Alpine comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ebbetts Pass.
Ebbetts Pass is one of the narrowest, steepest and least-visited paved passes in the Sierra Nevada, and for that reason it is a favourite with riders who like their mountains a bit raw. It tops out at 2,663 metres, on Highway 4 between the western foothills and the eastern desert, and the road that climbs it is a patchwork of single-lane sections, tight hairpins, steep gradients and rough surfaces. It was named for Major John Ebbetts, who explored the route in the 1850s hoping to find a place for a railway, and the railway never came, which is why the road is the way it is.
Read the complete Ebbetts Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 69 km into the recorded legs you reach Ebbetts Pass. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Markleeville, mostly downhill.
Markleeville is the seat of Alpine County, which has fewer residents than any other county in California, and the town feels like a mountain hamlet that has never been in a hurry. A few hundred people live along the East Fork of the Carson River, with a courthouse, a small museum, a general store, two or three cafes and the rest hidden in pine and aspen. At around fifty-five hundred feet, in the eastern Sierra, the air is clear and cool, and the sound of the river runs through the village.
Read the complete Markleeville write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Markleeville closes the day.
Arnold California → Lake Alpine is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lake Alpine → Ebbetts Pass is 24 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Ebbetts Pass → Markleeville is 29 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.