Ridgeline Adventures

[bigdave269]

Hopefully this is the right place for this thread. I was thinking a thread where we can write about our on and off road experiences in our Ridgelines would be cool. Did you take a trip somewhere? Did you pull a trailer? Did you go to a beach or an OHV area and want to write about it? How about a vacation road trip or an interesting hitorical site that was enhanced by taking your Ridgeline? While you may never get to take a picture of your Ridgeline in front of the Magic Castle (unless you have Photoshop), maybe you can enhance your story with a photo.

I will be on later with I ride I just took today with my brother up The Old Road between Castaic and Gorman along I5 outside Los Angeles. It was a fun ride, and I got a good pic to share. See you in a bit.

[Ridgeline2006]

I've posted about my trip to Wisconsin hauling an Acura CL on an auto transport trailer, dropped the CL off in Madison, went to Iowa and loaded up a 1957 Chevy Bel Air and came back to South Florida. I left on Thursday afternoon and got home with the '57 on Sunday! What a trip! I have some pics, I'll see if I can post 'em.

[tomcat]

Since I'm done building the cabin,I got rid of the gas hog Dodge I had .I could'nt stand the 10-14mpg every time I went up north :x .I dont fill up the back like I use to thats why I bought my Steel Blue Ridgeline 8) .Last week I drove up the North Shore and did some hiking.The more I drive this thing the more I want to drive it.I've been getting 19-23mpg hwy. and 17-20mpg combo.Ive got 2500mile on her now and will be going back up in a few days.The colors are fantastic.I think I might go to Ely this weekend its only 60miles of twisty turny roads to get their from the cabin, should be a blast.Just have to watch out for the moose :shock: .

[Ridgeline2006]

Is that Ely,MN?

[colorider]

Ridgeline2006 wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")Is that Ely,MN?

Can't be Ely NV, I'm sure!!!

[Ridgeline2006]

Maybe Ely, CA...

[colorider]

Or maybe Ely IA???

[Ridgeline2006]

Ely Township, Michigan?

[tomcat]

Sorry check my flag

[Ridgeline2006]

I don't know what flag that is....let me see if I can find the cross-reference site...

[Ridgeline2006]

Washington, is it Washington?

[tomcat]

Cant you just put your cursor on it and it pulls it up by itself. Mine does.

[Cool Cat]

Mine does too! Ely, MN!

[Ridgeline2006]

That's cool! I never knew you could just point at the flags to see what state it is!

You might've noticed that my first "Ely guess" was MN ---- I was there once many many years ago. I go to the Northwoods in Wisco every year for a few days and have been looking for a lot or a cabin but can't make up my mind!

[colorider]

Ridgeline2006 wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")That's cool! I never knew you could just point at the flags to see what state it is!



You weren't paying attention when I pointed this out over in the state flags thread!!!

:P

[Ridgeline2006]

I guess not!

[bigdave269]

As promised, here is the story of my ride today:

I finally got together with my brother for a little road trip today and to show him how this truck does off road. There is road that was built between Los Angeles and Bakersfield in 1915, and was the route between the two cities until CA99 was built in 1933. The portion we drove today was The Old Road also known as the Ridge Route. I enjoyed taking the Ridgeline on the Ridge Route today.

We started in Santa Clarita, naturally, taking the old road instead of Interstate 5. I5 replaced CA99 in 1960, which is now covered by Pyramid Lake halfway to Gorman. Once through Castaic, we were pretty much on our own on the Ridge Route. We never saw another vehicle on the road until we hit CA138 at the western edge of the great Mojave Desert, although we saw a few homes along the way. The road was in decent repair for the first leg of the journey to Templin Highway. When we crossed, there was on ominous sign warning that it was not a through road. Maybe that's why we had no other traffic. A little further up the raod from Templin Highway, there was another sign that said it was the end of county maintained road. There was also a gate, but fortunately for us it was open. Another sign warned us not to proceed, that the road was closed, but we pressed on to see what would happen.

Westways magazine did a piece about this road a couple of years ago. At the time, they said it was passable, although it had not been maintained. Last year, Southern California received near-record rainfall, and many mountain roads had been subject to landslides which completely destroyed the roads. The Ridge Route was no different. As we approached Reservoir Summit, there was a K-rail blocking the road with some room to go around. We opted to go around and see what was ahead. About a half mile past the rail, the road was completely washed out. At the end of the pavement where we stopped, the road was broken up in large chunks 20 feet below. There was an underground gas pipeline that was broken during the landslides, and was actually replaced along the side of the road here, and over the fallen road. We went back to the K-rail, and followed a side road that had been etched in over the hills that went around this road. I never had to lock the VTM-4 to get over it, but it definitely was not a road I would have taken my Camry on. The side road went on for about a mile, and rejoined the original Ridge Route.

I would like take a minute here to mention the views. I can see why this was a popular road in the old days, even though it was much more treacherous than the other routes to the San Joaquin Valley. The scenery is absolutely beautiful, and from the road, you can see the peaks of the Liebre and Sawmill mountains to the east, and the Interstate and Pyramid Lake to the west. There are also the distant peaks of the Los Padres National Forest farther west. There are many places along the way that have Historical Markers like the one pictured below. There were road houses and way stations along the original route for weary travelers to rest. Any of these stops must have been beautiful to live in, even though you were effectively cut off from civilization.

The rest of the road was pretty degraded, although there was no other detours to take. Many short portions of the road were devoid of pavement, but again, nothing that required 4WD. We spent the rest of the ride to Gorman enjoying the gorgeous scenery and stopping to read the markers.

After a quick lunch in Gorman, we proceeded to our intended destination, the Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area. I mostly wanted to show off what the Ridgeline would do. The trails in this area are maked for difficulty, so following the signs lead us to a place where we could run the Ridgeline without too much difficulty. These are mostly ATV and Motocross trails, but surprisingly, the Ridgeline handled them pretty well. The roads had huge "whoop-de-doo's" that we were able to go over. My brother wondered about the Ridge's 18 mph top speed for the VTM-4 lock, he was afraid we wouldn't get enough speed to launch ourselves to the top of the hills. I proceeded to show him that the Ridgeline did not need to run up to 40 or so to mount the hill, that it was perfectly able to crawl up with it's own available torque. Needless to say, he was impressed.

We crawled alongs some hills for an hour or so and the truck did great, but I did manage to get stuck once. There was a little gulley that crossed one road, and I thought I was going to be able to go through it. But, the poor Ridgeline set right down on the running boards. It was just not going in either direction on it's own. Fortunately, we were able to push the truck out backwards on our own, but I realized too late that I should have taken a picture! But I wasn't going to go back and put in the gulley just to get a shot, so you'll just have to miss out. I checked for undercarriage damage, and there appeared to be none. I did set it down softly, so no problem. Coming out, we drove along a graded dirt road with some curves to it. I was able to test the VSA by going around one corner a little too fast on the dirt road. You can really feel it kick in to straighten out the truck's path. It felt like the tires got a bite, and you can actually hear the brakes pulsing. Nice to know it works so well.

The whole trip took us less than 4 hours, but it seemed like longer because of all of the new territory we were covering. It really was an amazing ride, and I am fortunate to have such fun places to go so close to home. Needless to say, the Ridgeline was the reason the trip was so fun. The ride was good, even over the broken road and the washboard sections. This truck is solid.

[Cool Cat]

Cool story, thanks Big Dave!

We're taking a road trip to Texas in December. If anything fun happens I'll post it!

[Ridgeline2006]

Man, that sounds like fun! I wish there was some place similar to that in Florida. Not that I'd expect hills and gulleys, but at least 'legal off-roading' where you can do that kind of driving without trespassing!

Thanks for the story! 8)

[colorider]

Thanks big dave for posting the adventure story!!! I love reading about things like this as there are so many hidden places all around where we live that we never seem to take the time to see and enjoy.