Since I got my 8 last year I have been investigating some of Southern California's mountian roads, I've had some fun rides but this mornings ride was exceptional.

I've been using http://www.pashnit.com/motoroads.htm as a guide and the description of the Palms to Pines highway peaked my interest, so this morning I packed up some drinks in a cooler, gassed up the 8 and with my trusty AAA Los Angeles & Orange Counties and Vicintity map (an excellent map I might add covering the coast from San Diego to Santa Barbara and inland to Palm Springs) in hand I headed off into the sunrise.

I left my home in Anaheim at about 7:00 AM and headed East on the 91, the eastern sky was a bit overcast which was nice since it did a pretty good job of keeping the sun out of my eyes for much of the drive. From the 91 I took the 215/60 South/East and then stayed on the 60 East heading towards Banning. There was quite a bit of construction on the 215 and 60 and the roads were fairly rough but traffic was light and I made pretty good time all the way through Moreno Valley.

In the the Badlands section of the 60 I encountered a little bit of misty rain but it only lasted a few minutes and the Badlands' curves gave a little taste of the fun to come. The 60 joined I-10 coming into Beaumont/Banning and I continued East on I-10. Heading into the San Gorgonio pass I was greeted by the sight of thousands of windmills backlit by the dawn spinning slowly in the morning breeze. The sight of the giant blades spinning in sychonization was almost hypnotic and I had to keep tearing my eyes away from them to watch the road. Passing Palm Springs I exited I-10 at Monterey Ave in Thousand Palms at about 8:30 AM.

After a brief pitstop at a MacDonalds just off the freeway I headed south on Monterey Ave passing through the towns of Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert. I could see the hills ahead getting closer and closer. Leaving Palm Desert I headed up Hwy 74 towards Seven Level Hill. I was in heaven! Seven Level Hill is one switch back stacked on another, all perfectly banked with a smooth road. Traffic was light and I was able to take most of them in 3rd. There was some traffic on the road but there were a few two lane passing sections and most of the traffic I encountered was polite and used the turnouts if it was a no passing zone.

After all the twisties comin up the hill, the road levels out at Santa Rosa summit. This was a nice break and I set the cruise control and leasurely motored past the meadows and trees of the plateau. It's really beautiful up there, a big difference from the crush of Orange County. I stayed on Hwy 74 until I got to Mountian Center and took the left fork and continued on Hwy 74 towards Hemet.

The road heads downhill at this point and the twisties start again. I was having a great time for the first seven miles or so, then I encountered bane of every mountian road driver, a motorhome that refused to use the turnouts. There weren't any passing sections on the downhill side and I was stuck behind that outhouse on wheels until we reached the bottom of the hill. Bummed about missing some good twisties I pulled in at the Cranston Ranger station and after a brief break to stretch my legs I headed back up the hill to enjoy the twisties that I missed coming down.

The uphill run was much better since it had several passing spots and plenty of large turnouts so I didn't have any trouble with traffic. By the time I got back up to Mountian Center I was out of breath, slightly naseous and grinning from ear to ear. At the junction I took the left on to Hwy 243 towards Idyllwild. This was a pleasant drive through the woods but the area between Mountian Center, Idyllwild and Pine Cove is somewhat more built up and you have to be carefull because of the cross traffic and people turning on to and off of the road at the turn outs and trail heads.

After Pine Cove the twisties start in ernest again as the road drops down the side of the mountian heading towards Banning. Traffic on this section was light and everyone I encountered used the turnouts at first oppertunity. ( I wonder if the sight of my red RX-8 suddenly appearing on their rear bumper had anything to do with that. ) I managed to get a few glances of the view from the road and it is marvelous with entire valley spread out below. I thought of stopping at a turnout to admire the view but I was having too much fun driving. I went by several groups of sport bikes going the other way up the hill and several riders gave me a thumbs up as we passed.

I got gas in Banning at the bottom of the hill, after that was back on to I-10 West for the trip home. The trip back was un-eventfull but I did encounter some stop and go traffic on the 91 between Green River and Imperial Hwy (No big surprize there, I can't imagine driving the 91 everyday into Orange County, that would really suck). I had the 8 back in the garage at 11:30 AM. Total time on the trip 4 hrs 30 mins, total miles 263.3

I really enjoyed this trip and I hope that I didn't bore you too badly with my description. I intend to do this trip again in the not too distant future as well as explore several other roads that I've had my eye on. If anyone would be interested in joining me on one of my little jaunts, either with their car or as a passenger, I would be happy to have the company. Leave a note here or send me a PM .

Mike

 

Nice! Instead off taking I-10 back to the bumpy 91, you could have cut across to the 15 via Perris to Lake Elsinore and finish off the day with the 33-mile Ortega Highway run back to the 5.

 

I thought about that but it was about 10 by the time I got to Banning and I figured that by the time I got over to Ortega it would have been full of squids and cops.

 

When is the next run?

 

I'm thinking about doing an early morning run Sunday 9/26. I want to leave my area about 6:00AM so that I can be at the drive area at dawn to avoid traffic.

 

Thanks for the write-up! Interesting read.