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.
Elevation, sweepers and closure discipline north of LA. Out of La Cañada Flintridge and back again: 216 km, roughly 3 h 14 in the saddle. The stops in between: Newcomb’s Ranch area and Wrightwood mountain edge. The climb of the day is Angeles Crest scenic core. It tops out at about 1,450 m. The passes are the reason to go.
La Cañada Flintridge sits at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, in the foothills north of Pasadena, and its main job on a ride is to be the last good place to buy petrol before the road turns serious. This is where the Angeles Crest Highway, State Route 2, begins its climb into the Angeles National Forest, and where a lot of Los Angeles riders meet on a weekend morning. The town itself is a prosperous, leafy suburb of about twenty thousand people, known for its good schools, the Descanso Gardens, a large botanical garden with camellias and a rose garden, and for being the home of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whose engineers have sent spacecraft to every planet from this corner of the valley.
Read the complete La Cañada fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Next is Angeles Crest scenic core.
The Angeles Crest Highway, State Route 2, is the road that Los Angeles riders talk about with a lowered voice. It climbs out of the foothills above La Cañada into the San Gabriel Mountains and runs along a high ridge for more than sixty kilometres, with tight bends, steep drops and views over the whole basin on a clear day. The road was completed in the 1950s, cut into the mountainside by engineers who had to deal with rockfall and landslides from the start, and it has never entirely stopped being a problem.
Read the complete Angeles Crest scenic core write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Angeles Crest scenic core comes up about 43 km into the recorded legs. Next is Newcomb’s Ranch area.
Midway along the Angeles Crest Highway there is a roadside restaurant that has been serving riders and cyclists for generations, and it has become the unofficial parking lot of Southern California motorcycling. On a sunny weekend morning, rows of bikes line the verge, from sport machines to old Harleys, and riders stand about with coffee, comparing routes and telling stories. It is a social place, and a good one for getting a sense of what the road is like that day. Check that it is open before you count on it, because fire and road closures have affected the area, and hours vary.
Read the complete Newcomb’s Ranch area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. Next is Wrightwood mountain edge.
Wrightwood is a small mountain town at the eastern end of the Angeles Crest, tucked into a wooded valley at about 1,800 metres and ringed by peaks that carry snow in winter. It is a quiet place of cabins, pine trees and one main street, a town that serves skiers in winter and hikers and bikers in summer. The air is clean and cool, the smell of pine and woodsmoke is strong, and after the long climb from the desert or the ridge, it feels like another country.
Read the complete Wrightwood mountain edge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wrightwood mountain edge, late in the day. Next is Back to La Cañada.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Cañada fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Back to La Cañada. That is the ride.
This Angeles Crest scenic core → Newcomb’s Ranch area stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.
Newcomb’s Ranch area → Wrightwood mountain edge is the reward section in San Francisco. Look through the bends, use legal pull-offs for photos and keep a little margin for tractors, cyclists and damp shade. The best ride here is smooth, not noisy.