route from Bakersfield to Glendale

[William Monsen]

Hi All,

I am trying to plan a ride that goes from Bakersfield to Glendale. If anyone has ever done such a thing I would appreciate a suggested route. 

There appear to be a few potential routes to get “over the hills” between the Central Valley and the LA Basin:

• Bakersfield to Maricopa and then CA-33 to Ojai and Ventura, then to Santa Clarita and then to LA Basin sort of paralleling I-5
• Bakersfield to Maricopa, then to Lebec, and then to Santa Clarita and LA Basin sort of paralleling I-5
• Bakersfield to the Antelope Valley and then over CA-2 to Flintridge/La Canada
• Bakersfield to Grapevine and then some mystery dirt roads to Lebec, and then to Santa Clarita and LA Basin sort of paralleling I-5

The first route seems plausible but very indirect. The 4th seems most direct but may not be plausible on a road bike. The third seems as indirect as the first. The 2nd seems most plausible.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Bill

[Larry Sokolsky]

Bill,

1, 2, and 3 are all nice routes (with some modification). 

From Santa Clarita, take Sand Canyon/Little Tunjunga to Burbank.  Much better than paralleling 5.

From Maricopa, take 166 W to Klipstein Canyon.  That runs into Hudson Ranch road which goes through Pine Mountain Club and Gorman.  I'd strongly recommend the old ridge route from 138 to Santa Clarita.  Closed to cars, not too rough, very nice.  If you do want to continue down N3, both San Francisquito and Bouquet canyon are very nice.  You could continue to Angeles Forest Hwy, but then you have to ride through part of Palmdale (not that great).  

If you take 166 to 33, Pine Mountain summit is great down to Ojai.  I wouldn't go to ventura; instead, take 150 E to Santa Paula - saves you a lot of ugly riding through Ventura.  

Another good way to go is to take 33 to Ventucopa, and then take Quatal canyon up to Hudson ranch road to Gorman.  Quatal canyon is dirt, but has a reasonable grade.  I'd recommend a minimum of 40 mm tires.

Note that all of the routes go to 5000+ feet, so watch the weather.

Larry

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