Road recommendations near Tahoe

[sidm]

I was in South Tahoe with some family a few weekends ago and forgot how nice that drive up is. I’d like to head up to that neck of the woods again the weekend of the 27th for some Tahoe twisties action on the Duc (not to be mistaken with titty twisties action).  My buddy in Sacramento has volunteered his couch for me to crash on for Friday and Saturday, so my initial plan is to head up to his place after work on Friday and then ride up to the Lake and back on Saturday.

The question is: can you guys recommend any hidden gems off of Hwy 50, 80, or 89 in/near Tahoe that I should hit up?  Sac to South Tahoe and back is ~200 miles.  I’m looking to find another 100 miles of fun during this ride and would like to limit the total ride on Saturday to 300 miles. I should mention, I’ve never been a fan of goat trails or bumpy roads (e.g. not a huge fan of roads like Stage road or Hwy 130 up to Mt Hamilton).

Thanks. [moto]

[johnc]

49 is a cool highway.

4 is also cool.

120 over through yosemite, over to mono lake, then up 395 to tahoe is my fav.

[sidm]

Cool - I was checking out 49 as well.

Here's another option I came across http://www.southbayriders.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48500

[jimboecv]

Subscribe to Pashinit, it's worth the money to get such good info.  I've found many roads I wouldn't have looked at otherwise.

[ScottRNelson]

Highway 49 has some good stuff from Auburn southward until a bit before Clarksville, then is somewhat boring until you get to Coulterville, where it turns into one of the most wonderful roads in all of California, at least until you get close to Mariposa, then it stops being very interesting again all the way to the end in Oakhurst.

I kind of like Highway 89 both north and south of Lake Tahoe.

If you don't want to go all the way south to Yosemite for Highway 120, take Highway 108 through the mountains instead.  I especially like it going from east to west from Highway 395 because it's tighter up at the top and just keeps opening up more the closer you get to the Central Valley.

And there are always Highways 4, 88, and 50 through the mountains.

On the west end, Highway 132 is kind of nice between La Grange and Coulterville.  You could always make some sort of loop from La Grange to Coulterville to Mariposa, into Yosemite on Highway 140, then back out on 120.

In my experience, if you look at an area on Google Maps, most roads that look interesting are usually worth riding at least once.  The area maps from AAA are better for giving you an idea of how big a road is, where Google makes a lot of them look the same.

[sidm]

Thanks for the input - this is great stuff!

[sidm]

The weekend ride was…hot-fun. 

I rode into Sac after work on Friday and stayed at my buddy’s place.  Got a later than expected start on Saturday due having one more Macllan than I should have had the night before.  No worries – I was 100% ready to go and headed out at 9:30 a.m.  Here was the day's route: http://tinyurl.com/m8y33h. I booked it straight into South Tahoe…I hit some traffic, but made it into town in less than 2 hours.

I rested up and refueled with fluids – 91 octane for the Duc, Vitamin Water for me. The next jaunt was going to be around the Lake…partly because of the repaved section of 50 heading north and also because it’s something I’ve wanted to do on 2-wheels.  It was approximately 70 miles of good times.  Imagine the Lake as a clock…I started at roughly 6 o’clock and headed counter-clockwise.  It was great until about 2 o’clock…then the ride gets a bit slow through the smaller towns up there.  It picks back up at 9 on the way down to 6.  I ended up eating at a great local spot called the Burger Lounge. The Yelp reviewers were right – it was awesome.

After more refueling, I headed back down 50, this time with clear roads heading down into Placerville.  After more fluids, I headed north into Hwy 49.  This road is AWESOME. It was a bit of everything…tight stuff, long sweepers, a bit of slab-like straights so you can rest.  I thought the big-guy upstairs was joking with me when I came to a Stop sign and was entering the town of ‘Cool’.  They had the Cool Bakery, Cool liquor store and the Cool Pub.  It was a 102 degrees outside…not cool.

The ride was pretty blah for the last 40 miles, but that’s okay.  I had been riding for 7 hours in the heat and needed to just cruise on home to my buddy’s place again. 

Some numbers: 298 miles, 7.5 hours, 3 fuel stops, lots of liquids, no incidents. 

Good times. Here are some crappy pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025650&id=1016895704&l=4e11239340

[DanTheMan]

Looks like fun, but what a long ride.  [moto]

[ScottRNelson]

Looks like fun, but what a long ride.  [moto]

It's only "long" if you're riding a Monster.  Just about right on an ST2.

[x136]

Here was the day's route: http://tinyurl.com/m8y33h.

Nice. I did a loop around the lake similar to that (even from the same unfortunate starting point ) sometime last year. A bit too much traffic on the California side, but it cleared up nicely on the Nevada side. Very pleasant ride. I didn't know about 49, I'll have to check that one out.

[sidm]

Yea, hwy 49 was awesome...from the recommendations here and the research I did, it was a must-ride.  No regrets there, even with the heat.