コーストレンジの峠・トップ6

Starting in Maricopa, the climb on Highway 33 takes you on a long, remote, and demanding journey from the arid Cuyama Valley floor high into the rugged Los Padres National Forest. You'll ascend steadily through starkly beautiful, changing landscapes – from desert scrub and oil fields, through chaparral-covered slopes, eventually reaching cooler pine forests near the 5,100ft Pine Mountain Summit – this climb is approximately 19-20 miles, gaining a substantial 4,500ft. Be prepared for a relentless grind; the average is around 4.5% with potential ramps over 10%.

This climb begins just north of Ojai, California, and takes you through the beautiful landscapes of Ventura County as you ascend along Highway 33. For the first 27 miles, you’ll ride through the San Emigdio Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Range, before entering the vast Los Padres National Forest, a 1.9 million-acre expanse that offers stunning vistas of rugged terrain and lush forest. After reaching the narrow, remote paved road for the final six miles, you’ll be rewarded with serene, isolated surroundings, though the lack of services on this stretch makes it essential to be fully prepared for the challenging ride ahead.Bring extra water.

Trip advice is inaccurate. The road from Powers is paved, but only to the saddle on the route shown. (My understanding is that it is paved you turn west at a Y just shy of the saddle, which joins the road into Gold Beach about half way there.) It is decent gravel down to the Agness Jct -- but with lots of rafting traffic in summer. A far more scenic, even bucolic, route is to take the eastern dirt road at the saddle which winds its way down. Just above the Rogue River Trailhead, the road becomes paved and a few miles later joins the main road down from the saddle. Very little traffic on this road.

Agness Saddle, on the paved Agness Road, connects Powers and the Rouge River. It's a key intersection with the gravel forest road to the coast, passing Iron Mountain and following the Elk River.

Slightly lower and less busy than Kirker Pass Road across the Concord Hills. Saw only 5 cars, but mostly without shoulder.

At 2888 foot elevation not the highest but one of the steeper summits along the trans-Trinity Alp highway 299

Verdant green for a short time after spring rains, the very dry grazing land climbs up hills to a pass almost to 1000 feet elevation.

Agness Saddle is the highest point along the paved Agness Road, between Powers and the Rouge River. It is also a strategic intersection with the well-gravel forest road between Agness and the coast, which leads first to Iron Mountain and then follows the Elk River to the coast at Port Orford.