Sonora Pass (west)

Bill Bushnell — September 21, 1992

O.K. So we wimped out again. Jules and I had planned to ride both sides of Sonora Pass, but we didn’t have time to do this and drive from Hope Valley and drive back to the Bay Area. But, I think we chose the more difficult side of Sonora Pass, the side everyone always seems to talk about when you ask them what their hardest ride was. Some of the purists may object to the fact that we didn’t start our ride in Sonora. I make no apologies. The highway from Sonora to Kennedy Meadow, while worth riding sometime, is really not very distinguished. It is also more crowded with traffic and logging trucks. CA- 9 from Saratoga to Santa Cruz is similar. The interesting section of CA-108 runs from Kennedy Meadow on the west to Leavitt Meadow on the east side of the Sierra Crest. Given our limited time, I wanted to ride the most noteworthy section, and that meant saving the east side of Sonora Pass for another trip.

After driving over from the east side of Sonora Pass, we park the car near the lone telephone at the junction of Kennedy Meadow Rd. and CA-108. The top of the pass was cool and comfortable, but at Kennedy Meadow some 3400 feet lower, the air is hot and dry. (My Avocet 50 compresses the readings once again. Sonora Pass actually lies at about 9620 feet above sea level.) We drink as much water as we can before starting out. Unfortunately, we’ll be riding up the steepest, hottest section of road at the noon hour. We’re fresh, but we’re not warmed up, so this will be hard.

We pass the yellow road sign warning of steep and windy road ahead, and not more than 100 yards of flat road later, we begin the steep climb. To the left, is a steep hillside covered with light-colored rock and shrubs and to the right is Kennedy Meadow and Deadman Creek. This part of the climb averages about a 10% grade, but it feels worse than that.

This first part is hard work, and the sunlight bouncing off the light-colored rock makes us sweat buckets. Just before we reach the point where the road cuts through a large rock boulder (I believe this is what some people call the “Rock Window”.), Jules calls out that he’s overheating and wants to stop. I pull off at the turnout just below the rock.

“Jules, why don’t you push on a little further. There’s a vista point just a little ways up the hill.”, I yell out.

“O.K.”, says Jules.

After a minute or two, Jules gets on his bike and continues on to the vista point. After snapping a picture of him riding through the Rock Window, I continue and join him at the vista.

From the vista, the road continues not quite as steeply as before. But it’s still hot, and there’s little shade. About a mile beyond the vista the road makes two short switchbacks. At the second switchback there’s another vista. I stop and wait for Jules. We’ve gone only 2 miles, but we’ve climbed over 1000 feet. Meanwhile some hunters are standing by the road taking a break from their drive.

“You bicycled up this road?!”, one of them asks incredulously. “You’re not going up to the top are you?!”

“Yeah, we only started at Kennedy Meadow, so we’re going up to the pass and then down. It shouldn’t be that hard.”, I reply.

“Man, that’s hard work! Good luck!”, he says.

When Jules catches up, we rest for a couple of minutes, take a couple pictures, and then continue riding. The road levels off about a mile and a half above the second switchback, and then it drops down a long straight hill, the only downgrade on the climb. We’ve reached Chipmunk Flat. The downhill feels good, but we both know that we have to make up the altitude somewhere along the way.

From Chipmunk Flat, the road rises gradually through a forest and then opens up into a landscape of alpine meadows, rock, and an occasional tree. This is the most beautiful section of the climb. A crumbly rock wall of white rock stands to our left, and a gracefully upswept talus slope rises to the right. I stop to wait for Jules and to eat some food. (Hey, it’s lunchtime!) I don’t eat much because I know we have some climbing to do still.

After rising up a short, straight, steep hill, the road levels off then becomes steep again. After a couple of switchbacks at about 8700 feet, the road makes a sharp uphill turn to the left and begins climbing to the northeast. This is the second steep extended upgrade on the climb. There is no shade, but the air is quite a bit cooler here than it was near the bottom. CalTrans is working on the road, but the flagman waves me through.

Once past the road crews, I feel the road level off a bit. I’m still climbing, but it’s not that difficult. The air is cool, and clear. I ride slowly to allow Jules to catch up. We both continue the ride, and after a couple easy miles we reach the pass together.

“Well. Do you want to go down the east side for a little ways?”, I ask Jules, half seriously.

“No. I’m almost out of water. Besides we don’t have time.”, he replies.

Just then a pickup truck hauling a horse trailer comes up over the pass at a snail’s pace. The smell of hot machinery hits our nostrils as it lumbers by. The horses in the trailer aren’t too happy as they’re kicking the inside of the trailer.

We return down the west side for a quarter mile and then turn up the road to the Sonora Pass Trailhead picnic area where we eat more food and finish up our water.

After a fifteen minutes we start down. The descent is not terribly interesting. It’s steep, and I reach my maximum speed going down the upper steep section just before the sharp turn at 8700 feet. Since I descend faster than Jules, I stop occasionally to wait for him, to take an interesting picture and to let my rims cool. At the vista point near the bottom, we catch up with the trailer hauling the kicking horses. After what seems like all too short a descent, we reach the bottom.

“That’s it? Gee, I wish we had time to go down and up the east side. Some parts were difficult, but it wasn’t all that bad. I think there are several climbs close to home that are more difficult, like Alba Rd., Jamison Creek Rd. or Bohlman Rd. What do you think?”, I say.

“Yeah, I really don’t feel all that bad.”, Jules replies.

“Well, remember, we haven’t even ridden 20 miles yet, so we’re still fresh. If we had started in Sonora, we would be more tired for sure.”, I add.

As a final note, I suggest that anyone wishing to ride this bring plenty of water. I started out with 76 oz., and I used it all up by the time I reached the bottom at the end of the ride. There is no water between Kennedy Meadow and Leavitt Meadow unless you don’t mind drinking from the streams.

Ride stats:

distance: 18.6 miles

climbing: 3320 feet

total time: 3:20

riding time: 2:01

average speed: 9.2 mph

maximum speed: 43.0 mph

index: 32

irp: 10

mirp: 16

An article on indexing can be found here.

©2004, Bill Bushnell

Please do not publish or distribute for profit without permission.