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.
Out of Sierra Madre, one way: 347 km, roughly 5 h 29 in the saddle. The stops in between: Castaic, near Agoura Hills, Rancho Palos Verdes and Westmont. The climb of the day is in Anaheim. It tops out at about 1,150 m. Much of it runs through woodland.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 80 km this is Historic Route 66, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Mulholland and Malibu Canyons is where the day begins. Next is Los Angeles / Southern California return.
Shortly before midnight on 12 March 1928, the St Francis Dam, a concrete wall holding back a reservoir in San Francisquito Canyon, collapsed. A wall of water swept down the canyon and the Santa Clara River valley to the sea, killing hundreds of people. It was one of the worst civil engineering disasters in American history, and it ended the career of William Mulholland, the engineer who had built the aqueduct that brought water to Los Angeles. The ruins of the dam lie a few kilometres north of this stop, broken blocks of concrete scattered in the canyon.
Read the complete Near Castaic, on the way back write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Los Angeles / Southern California return comes up about 84 km into the recorded legs. Next is Food stop near Agoura Hills.
A break here. Next is Mulholland and Malibu Canyons photo pull-off.
The Palos Verdes Peninsula is a big block of hills pushing out into the Pacific at the south-western corner of Los Angeles, and Rancho Palos Verdes wraps around its southern edge. The coast road here, Palos Verdes Drive South and its continuation west, is about as scenic as a short ride in the LA basin gets: bluffs dropping to the sea, coves, kelp beds, and on a clear day the long grey shape of Santa Catalina Island floating on the horizon.
Read the complete Rancho Palos Verdes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mulholland and Malibu Canyons photo pull-off, about halfway. Next is Mulholland and Malibu Canyons checkpoint 8.
Simon Rodia, an Italian immigrant labourer, spent more than thirty years building a cluster of tall, lacy spires in his back yard in Watts, using steel rods, mortar and fragments of broken pottery, glass and seashells. The Watts Towers, finished in the 1950s, are one of the great works of folk art in America, and they stand a short ride east of this finish, in a neighbourhood of small houses and palm trees.
Read the complete Near Westmont write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Mulholland and Malibu Canyons checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is High point in Anaheim.
High point in Anaheim is the summit of this stretch. Next is Scenic stretch in South San Jose Hills.
Scenic stretch in South San Jose Hills closes the day.
Fuel stop near Sierra Madre → Near Castaic, on the way back is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop near Agoura Hills → Rancho Palos Verdes is 94 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
High point in Anaheim → Scenic stretch in South San Jose Hills is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.