Highest Paved Road in California

Has anyone done the climb from US395 just south of Mammoth on Rock Creek Road to the top at Mosquito Flat?
I am getting conflicting info on how long it is and what the elevation gain is. I know its part of the Everest Challenge, and on their site it says :

The road to Mosquito Flat at 10,250' is the highest paved road in the Sierra Nevada. The climb is 22 miles, average grade is 5%. Maximum grade lower half is 9%, upper half is 11%. There is 280' of descending along the way, bringing the total climbing to 6,048'!

On another site, that states all the stats on CA highways and passes, its says this:

The highest paved public road (not necessarily a state highway) in California is Rock Creek Road in Inyo County. Rock Creek Road is both a county-maintained and US Forest Service maintained paved road that begins at US 395 near Tom's Place northwest of Bishop (elevation approx. 7,500 feet) and climbs southwest into the High Sierra along Rock Creek. The road deadends around 15 miles later at Mosquito Flat, elevation 10,300 feet.

Thats a big difference in gain. I am heading up to Mammoth in 3 weeks an want to plan how many GU's to stuff in my jersey.:lol:

 

That is a very high road. I have been to toms place, you can catch the road up on the left after Bishop. It is not a good road to ride, and it is narrow, windy and runs by a creek parts of the way up. I know their are some high road up by Mt. Whitney, but then it becomes trail. But I can tell you at the top of Mammoth Mt. at some 11,000 feet up the air is very thin, and makes it hard to breath under hard conditions. Are you just looking to ride the highest point in CA? It would be cool to do a ride from that point to Death Valley, but that is 200 miles or so, but down hill most of it, on bad roads, and on the 395 cars fly 75-100 mph. 30 years of driving to Mammoth 3-4 times a year I would have a hard time doing it, but none the less the idea is cool.

Good luck on that. Maybe call caltrans in Bishop?

 

Good luck

I drove up the Whitney Portal road,
My Subie ain't been the same since.

The road your talking about sounds tough. Your gonna ride this? There was a guy at the top of Whitney Portal who was being helped off his bike. He looked f'ing crippled! Sounds like fun... !

 

The Everest Challenge is describing the total race climb starting out of Bishop. The second one is describing the Rock Creek climb proper.

 

Stuff a carton in there...you should be fine!!

 

Yes. Good call. I just noticed that after reading again. So the first part is climbing up to the top of Sherwin's Grade.

 

I've ridden that climb, I can tell you its effin' high and long but not the most difficult in the area of bishop. A real challenge is mtn biking to the peak of white mountain. that was an epic ride.

 

John did the Everest Challenge--it's all up, but I'm not sure about the exact elevation. Good luck with it--you trying the Everest Challenge by any chance? If so, you'll be all prepped to do the Vision Quest next year!

 

The full Rock Creek Climb starts at Lower Rock Creek Rd. right where it meets Pine Creek Rd. just North of Bishop.

20.5 miles/5548' of gain with an average grade of 5.1%.

Listed as #20 in the 100 toughest climbs in the U.S.

 

Thats child's play for us mountain bikers...:steppie:

 

I think there's a difference between going from the beach to 5K in 20 miles, and going from 6K to 11K in 20 miles...

 

Don't let my Laguna Beach address fool ya. I spend most of my time riding at altitude. The only time I ride sea level is after work. Will be hitting some 12k peaks next week in Colorado. Hope my head does not explode.

Dean

 

I did a road a ride up to 10 k in utah and a mtn ride up to 9k on single track. Both starting at 5 k. They both were fun and defenently werent easy. But riding up on a mtn bike on a loose steep trail is much harder.

 

Me too. But my head usually explodes when I'm thinking about a ride. It has yet to explode on a ride.

 

I agree.

I'm the only Mtn. Biker in the "Elevation Gain Challenge" over at Bikejournal.

Guess who's winning?

http://www.admeadlaw.com/Elevation%20Challenge.htm

 

I've climbed many times over 14,000' in a day many times but the highest would be doing the Brian Head Epic mountain bike race. It goes up to 11,300 and back down and back up again and again.

 

Are these stats still child's play?
Day 1: 120 miles, 15,465 feet of climbing
Day 2: 86 miles, 13,570 feet of climbing
Total for event: 206 miles, 29,035 feet of climbing

Part of the challenge is also gearing. Climbing a 15% grade in 39x25 is much harder than 20x34. Granted you got significantly more friction on the dirt but still.

 

It's amusing to me when people compare what's harder. Hard is what you make it, you can spend all day toddling along and climb 9000ft, or you can pin it and climb 7000ft....the 7000ft climb will be harder because you went harder. Hard is a function of distance and time. It's like racing, the course doesn't make the race hard it's the racers who force you to go faster.

 

Just playing around, trying to see if I can get someone's patties in a wad. You know I come over to this forum once in awhile, lob a grenade over the fence and run back to the other forums.

Dean

 

The Everest Challenge is the only organized road ride I'm motivated to do.

I look at it as a VQ/Traverse for the road.