Ridge route??

aa battery

aa battery

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Oct 11, 2006
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Any of you southern California mders ever tried the old ridge route that goes from L.A. to Bakersfield.I watched a show on it and it looks promising.The only problem is part of it is historical.Another name was the Grape Vine finished in 1915.The road is 38 miles long and takes 4 hours to drive.The tv show said it has 680 turns :o.There were places along the way like cafes and lodging that are long gone.Let me know if you have driven it.Thanks aa
 

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I'd like info about the show were you saw the info. I'm native Angelino and my family vacationed in the central San Joaquin Valley every year.The Grapevine was the shortest route out of LA basin to there. It was a treacherous drive. I was young but knew my Pop respected how dangerous it was to tow the boat over it, especially with us kids riding in the back of an open pickup.
 

Urban the show was California gold narrated by Hugh Howser.Because i dont know how to post the site on here go to Ridge Route .com.My wife and i are thinking of going down there and checking it out.First thing though it goes right through the National Forest and part of it is Historical.The road iam talking about is not the old U.S.99 that i too traveled when i was young.Check out the site it has all the info you need. aa
 

Old sign
 

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There was actually even an earlier road than the early auto route. So that made for 3 generations of road/route (not counting intermediate minor bend straightenings or whatever).

The 3 generations are:

1) The stage and/or foot/horse travel days.

2) Then the auto days (finished 1915 as you say). It may have used many of the stretches that the stage route went through, but in other stretches, went altnerate ways.

3) Then there's the modern Hwy 5 days, which I guess came in the days of multi-lane freeways(1940s? 50s?). The modern freeway probably has some of the same stretches as the earlier chip-gravel crooked road days, wherever that was logical engineering choice. But many stretches were, as the show told, just abandoned.

I haven't checked out the 1915 era road stops (pullouts, camps, road-side businesses, etc...) but I DID get to hunt a spot from the stage era road ;D It was a stage stop that started in the 1860s or 70s, and existed right up to the time of the completion of the 1915 road. When the 1915 road by-passed this stage stop site by a few miles, it fizzled and died d/t lack of customer traffic. The last person bailed by the late teens and the buildings were taken down. So the latest coins we've found at this site were wheaties from the late teens (1919 I think was the newest coin). We got cool relics (even a gun) seated coins, shield nickels, V's, IHs, etc... from this site.
 

Dang it Tom :D You already cleaned it out? It still looks like a fun drive i will let you know if we go up there. 8) aa
 

Have been on parts of it but was probably not the original alignment...

As to National Forest, there are many National Forests that have no trees...so don't expect the Sequoias or Redwoods when you tour this scenic mountainous high desert region. Its going to be the scrub oak, juniper to low pinon pines.

If you can find any remnants of the old roadhouses along the route, you may find a gold mine of Model T and Model A parts...I doubt though that yhou will find much along the edges of the roadway alignment except broken glass and rattlesnakes...
 

Stefen i was thinking of 2 spots but your probably right.
 

Want to have a great drive, then drive through the Redwood Giants in Humboldt County...will blow your mind...
 

Sounds good i hear its looks prehistoric there.
 

I was on a road trip to Frisco just prior to shipping out overseas. It was dark and late, I was falling asleep but saw a campground so stopped and slept in the drivers seat.I woke in the morning in the Julia Phifer (sp) Redwoods. It was so beautiful and as you say mind blowing I canceled the rest of my trip and just stayed there for the next 4 days. I was a young Marine and met some old Hippies that feed me and helped keep the rain off. Never cared much for the counterculturists prior to that but these folks were good people and we all had a better understanding of the other sides point of view after that. One of my more memorable experiences.
 

I hear redwood is going for mucho pesos now. 8) aa
 

Your totally right, the cost os moving upwards, yet so is all lumber costs...so its relative...

True market cost depends on the quality, quantity and regional location...(as with all lumber)

For us SoCal boys, it's about the same as all-clear pine and 1/3rd less than oak. Obviously the closer to the source, the cheaper it is...my future b-in-law owns one of the few mills left in the Humboldt region so my cost is not an issue.
 

Battery,

Tom from Ca is right about the old stage route before the grapevine road was established, it was the Butterfield stage route (1858-62) leading up too around late 1910's with the newest coins a wheat penny (1918.) I think the earliest coin from here was an 1857-8? seated quarter, I'll have to check the finds we made from this site.

We made some good finds from one of it's Butterfield stage stop's on that same route, I have most of the finds from that particular site including finds donated by Tom for the display.

Tom found part of a gun on the surface, I think about 24 coins came out of this stage stop ranging from six Seated coins, Several Indian pennies, Several V-nickels, Two-Three Shield nickels, Several barbers, one 1862 civil war token found by Tom and one 1918 wheat penny plus buckets full of relics and civil war buttons.

Also, Two rings which are uncommon finds for a Stage stop. One was a ladies gold ring the other a pre-1850's mans silver gold ring and beauty to boot!

Give me a few days and I'll post a picture of some finds we made from this Butterfield stage stop on the same ridge route,
HH, Paul (Ca)
 

post um paul i would like to see your pics aa
 

I remember that Paul, You found some neat stuff, Riding in on bicycle
Dodging the cow crap, and the cows
Hidding from the authorities keeping and eye on the Aquaduct
Thinking someone was going to put poison in the water
Sometimes at night
That was hard work I'll bet ???
Hope you still got the pics

HH TIM ;D
 

I just discovered this older thread... fun stuff, for me!

It would take about 2 or 2 1/2hrs to run the ridge route from castaic lake up to Hwy 138.
Maybe another 1/2hr from the south end of the Gorman post road to get up to Ft. Tejon.

It was my friend who burned the Sandberg Lodge down. He said forestry handed him a bill for $90k, or something like that, because a large oak tree up against the lodge also burned. He was in the process of shellac'ing the wood floors, and distressing them for effect... burned soaked newspapers in with the normal rash in the fireplace and it got away from him and the roof caught fire.

It's a hot, dry road in the summer! If broke down, you might not see another car for a while...
rmptr
 

My father got me the book Ridge Route and I'm still reading it. What a history. My father has a lot of memories traveling on that old highway. I'd hope to someday take the time and check it out. I'm only about 2 hours away from it.
 

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