Tag: highway 89

climbing, equipment, training

Thinking of Riding Monitor? Here Are Three Things You Should Know

NOW that Monitor Pass has opened for the season (thank you Caltrans!) it seemed like a good time to post up a few hints on riding one of the most iconic passes in the California Alps.

ESPECIALLY because while we await the opening of Highway 4 between Lake Alpine and Centerville Flats (Ebbett’s Pass), it’s a great training ground for any ride at altitude, including America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride (just under a week out!), Tahoe Truckee Gravel (forest fun five weeks out), the Deathride (seven weeks from Saturday!) and the Mammoth Gran Fondo (a September cap off to the summer).

MONITOR is monolithic compared to say, Ebbetts, which is longer, yet more gradual. Similarly, Carson has some flat spots and so allows for some breathing room. Monitor. Not so much. The views are breathtaking, though, especially in the early morning hours when heading east and dropping down from the pass.

BOTH sides, west and east, of Highway 89, are short, steep and declivitous.

Looking northwest from just over the Mono Co. line. The pass is about 1 mile away.
Taking a well deserved break at a snowy Monitor Pass marker after climbing up on a bluebird day.
Roscoe on a trail just off Leviathan Mine Road. Aspens a poppin’
All smiles in front of the Monitor Pass marker after my 10th ascent up the west side of Monitor Pass
The first mile o’ Monitor!
Our friend Mario, after making an ascent a couple years ago.
Looking east from Monitor Pass towards the Pinenuts. Those are sulpher flowers in the foreground.

EACH is approximately nine (9) miles long – ALL UP, or down, depending…

Supplies Are Scarce

AT least on the climbs, that is. Markleeville is five (5) miles away so certainly you can load up (at the General Store), fuel up (at Al’s – for your vehicle; or Cutthroat, Outwest or Stonefly – for you), and take a nature break. Heads up – the port-a-potties were removed recently from County properties so look to the local establishments for facilities. The Chamber will likely have its portable pissatorium back soon; not sure about the other locations, though.

CARSON River Resort, between town and Monitor Junction (the confluence of Monitor and Ebbett’s Passes) is another place to get basic supplies and also a great place to stay, especially if you have a trailer or camper.

BIKE shop? you ask. Unfortunately not. We’ve talked to the owners of the General Store (Andy and Avery are totally supportive of cyclists) about stocking some basic provisions (tubes, tires, etc.) at the store and they’re amenable. With the summer cycling and riding season kicking into gear I guess we should get our ca-ca together and get that done. Ok, it’s on my calendar.

ONCE you are on the road from the west side, there is NO WATER until you get to 89 and 395 (Topaz). There is a hidden spigot there – not really hidden, just hard to see – at the BLM “pullout” just east of the Topaz Center Fire District (a Deathride rest stop). It’s right by the vault toilet on the northeast corner. Look for the red handle.

Weather Is Always A Factor

FOREST-LIKE on the west side; moonscape on the east. The terrain is “very Sierra-front” style. Steeper and rockier on the east side of the Sierra Crest, more sloping and green on the west side. As such, the weather can be vexing, especially the wind. Not always is it really windy but most days there is some wind.

HOTTER on the east slope than the west, unless you’re coming up the east side later in the day, it can be a grueling sweat-fest midday, even mid-morning. That’s one reason the Deathride climbs Monitor first: starting at 5:30 a.m. means you can be back over and heading up Ebbett’s before it gets too hot on Monitor. Depending on your fitness, I’d suggest allowing for an hour, to an hour and a half of climbing per side. Baking in descending time and nature breaks and such, I’ve found 3.5 to 4 hours is my sweet spot to do both east and west.

IN late fall or early spring I’ll often wear a sack back. In it goes a vest, extra gloves, neck-thingy and a spare cap. If I’m planning on hammering up hill I’ll even throw in a spare jersey. You can work up a pretty good lather on the ascent and so those dry pieces of wardrobe come in handy for the descent, and the vest oh so valuable when you’re hitting 30, 40 or more MPH on those downhills.

HERE’S an example of the temperature variations you’ll encounter on a “normal day” (if there is ever a normal day in the Sierra):

AT 9:00 a.m. ’twas 72 degrees Fahrenheit at the western base (Monitor Junction) and just a bit later, as our recon was by vehicle, the temp. was 58 at the Pass. About an hour later, the mercury was hitting 80 on the east side (Topaz).

It’s Exposed

THERE’S not much cover on either face of Monitor. On the east side, you can get some shade at Boy Scout Corner, about four (4) miles from the start. On the west there are some dappled patches near the start of the climb, around Heenan Lake (3.5 miles from start) and again closer to the 8000 foot mark. And at the pass itself you can get some respite from El Sol courtesy of the aspens, who often quake with excitement when visitors are about.

THERE’S no cell service either. BOLD Once you get to Whorehouse Flats (yeah, it was, and still is, a real place) there’s no service until you get to Topaz. And in case you were not aware, it’s pretty much Verizon only in Markleeville. Not sure about that ol’ east side, however.

DO a lot of stuff in the Sierra and want to step it up a notch? I carry an InReach Mini on my travels. I can text my contacts when there is no cell service and help is just an SOS away.

BECAUSE it’s so exposed, the wind, as I alluded to earlier, can howl some days. Usually down either face, but sometimes you’ll get some crosswinds so pay attention on those descents if that’s the case. I’ve found that Monitor is not as temperamental as Carson (thunderstorms, with hail, happen often in the summer) but it’s not to be taken lightly either.

UV arm “warmers” come in particularly handy, as they can be used for both the hot hill climbs and those daredevil descents.

A Few More Resources

CHECK out our virtual climbs of both sides of Monitor Pass on FulGaz.

STAY tuned for more on that by way. Our California Alps Cycling Club Room on Fulgaz will be launching shortly. You’ll be able to access all of our rides from one place and we’ll be hosting some group rides and workouts in June, with some cool prizes to boot.

ALTA Alpina Cycling Club’s Training Series still has a couple more weekends available – June 3rd and June 17th. You can Kick Some Passes Asses! ® with some local cycling experts.

CURRENT Markleeville weather and air quality is always available on our website.

SOME previous posts that you may find helpful:

REMEMBER and honor the fallen on this Memorial Day and please, ride safely.

community activities, giving back

Members of the Alpine Watershed Group and California Alps Cycling Do a Bit of Adoptin’

Last Saturday, Mike Barton and Rich Harvey, members of the Alpine Watershed Group, joined members of California Alps Cycling (yours truly, January Riddle and Patricia Schwartz) in an Adopt-a-Highway litter clean-up along Highway 89 in and around Markleeville. Brian Peters, Community Development Director of Alpine County, also gave up part of his Saturday to help out.

Our bags piled up
and ready for pick up by CalTrans

We collected eight (8) bags of garbage including the following items:

  1. A cell phone (smart-phone) – a brand of which we had never seen.
  2. A cooler lid along with two (2) other lids from totes of some sort. Nope we didn’t get the totes too.
  3. A rolled up dollar bill. Someone was doing something illicit but I appreciated the tip nonetheless.
  4. A couple dozen cigarette butts. Really, people still do that?!
  5. About fifteen (15) or so beer cans. All but two (2) were either Coors or Coors Light. The other two were a Bud Light and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Does this say something about Coors drinkers? You decide!
  6. Many, many mini-wine bottles. Mostly Sutter Home…again! Okay, what’s the the Sutter Home people?
  7. Quite a few plastice garbage bags (ironic, don ‘t you think?), a 10×20’ piece of black plastic, and
  8. A chunk of car bumper, a slice of roof rack and a headlight unit, sans bulb.

This was all collected along a three-mile stretch of the highway, from Camp Markleeville to Turtle Rock Park!

It was a good day of community service and a big ol’ C.A.C. THANK YOU goes out to all of our intrepid volunteers.

light sign typography lighting
Photo by Gratisography on Pexels.com

community activities, giving back, things to do

California Alps Cycling’s Adopt-a-Highway Adventure

So after a bit of fun doing things like filling out applications, getting an encroachment permit, viewing orientation videos, getting our gear and getting sign decals made and installed on the panels,california alps cycling, lets kick some passes asses, sierra cycling and then mounted on the signs, we were official and ready to rock-n-roll!

Last week, we decided (ok, I decided) that we would just do it. It would just take a couple hours and it wasn’t too hot. Wrong!

Our crew consisting of yours truly, my wife (and soigner extraordinaire) and our Club Mother (aka Mom) got out on the road and did some adoptin’.

Okay, before I continue, some context: CAC has the stretch between Turtle Rock Park and Camp Markleeville – mile markers 14 through 17 (North bound), just between Alta Alpina and the Alpine Watershed Group, other good stewards of the area.

That’s our little stretch of heaven, right there, between those arrows.

california alps cycling, lets kick some passes asses, sierra cycling,
Date and time of the mission: Thursday, July 26th, 1000 hours. Launch location: Camp Markleeville pull-out (bottom arrow). Mission finish: Turtle Rock Park and Highway 89 (top arrow)

Two hours…not! How about four?! And it was hot. 95ish or so, but we had to kick some passes’ asses so we gutted it out and collected about five good sized bags of plastic bottles (lots of those little Sutter Home wine bottles and Crystal Geyser water bottles), cigarette butts (really people! still? so not chill – but I guess all litter is so not chill). Oops, there I go. Let me step off the soapbox and continue. A few beer bottles were in the haul. No micro-brews, though. I found that interesting. Quite a few straws, a flip-flop (didn’t find the match), some gloves (various), lots of bits of plastic-mostly from fast food soda lids, an old antifreeze bottle filled with stinky tar and most importantly, an orange 5 gallon “Let’s do this!” bucket that was in great shape (thanks Home Depot!). Authors note: My wife made our house its forever home and so it didn’t go to the landfill. Oh, and only 2 Gu packs and 2 Gu pack “lids” so not bad, cyclists.

All in all a really good day for team California Alps Cycling. Helped the community and generated some good karma, especially with motorists and our fellow locals (based on the “nice honks,” and waves).

Want to join us next time? We’d love to have you. We’ll be hitting the road again in the fall (September we’re thinking). Right around the time our new Castelli schwag comes in. Oh, boy!

Follow this blog and be on the lookout for an announcement. And remember, part of our mission here at California Alps Cycling is to help the communities in which we live, work and ride. We did our part last week.

What are you doing to give back or pay it forward in your community? Let us know by commenting on this post.