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 155 km one-way ride from near Sonora, about 3 h of riding. On the way it passes Dardanelle and Sonora Pass. The highest point is about 2,950 m. Sonora Pass is open in summer only - check it is open before you set off. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
The ride follows Sonora Pass Road for 23 km.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
The ride follows Sonora Pass → Bridgeport for 51 km.
Sonora is a gold-rush town, and it was founded by people from the Mexican state it is named for. In 1848, miners from Sonora arrived in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and found gold in the creek beds, and the camp they made grew into one of the richest in the Mother Lode. The mix of cultures was rough, with Mexican, Chilean, Chinese, European and American miners in close quarters, and conflicts over claims led to rules that pushed foreign miners out. Today the town has about five thousand people, and a main street of brick buildings and Victorian houses, cafes and antique stores.
Read the complete Sonora California write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sonora California is where the day begins. Next is Dardanelle.
Dardanelle is a bend in the Stanislaus River and a name on the map, and it is the last place of any size before Highway 108 starts to climb in earnest. The name comes from the Dardanelles, a long line of dark volcanic cliffs on the ridge above, which early travellers thought resembled the straits of the same name in Turkey. The cliffs are the remains of mudflows from ancient volcanoes, and they give the upper canyon a rugged, castellated look that you notice as soon as the trees open up.
Read the complete Dardanelle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dardanelle comes up about 81 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sonora Pass.
Say Sonora Pass to a Californian rider and watch for the pause. At 2,933 metres it is the second highest road over the Sierra Nevada, after Tioga, and it has a reputation for its gradients: the stretches on the eastern side are rated at around twenty-six percent, which is the sort of number that makes you check your clutch cable. Lanes are narrow, guard rails are rare and the edges are dramatic. It is not the place to try your first mountain pass, but it is a wonderful one to graduate to.
Read the complete Sonora Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach Sonora Pass. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Bridgeport, mostly downhill.
Bridgeport is a small, sun-baked county seat in the eastern Sierra, at the edge of a high valley of sagebrush and meadow, ringed by snow-capped peaks. Fewer than six hundred people live here, at an elevation of about sixty-five hundred feet, and the main street along Highway 395 is a short row of cafes, motels, a store and a stately white courthouse. That courthouse, built in 1880 in a Victorian style with a cupola, is one of the oldest in California still in use, and gives the town a quiet dignity.
Read the complete Bridgeport write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bridgeport closes the day.
Sonora California → Dardanelle is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Dardanelle → Sonora Pass is 23 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Sonora Pass → Bridgeport is 51 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.