Mixed Terrain-Expedition Options between Oakland and LA?

[jrm]

I understand that there's places to stop along the way between Oakland and LA to do some 4 wheeling and then return to the fwy to complete the remainder of the trip. But are there any routes that you could use to complete the trip using dirt and fwy/highways?

Fams in so cal and the 6 hour drive down and back on 5 completely sucks ass and flying is twice as much as driving. I've read about guys doing the drive on scooters which sounds kind of interesting. So has anyone done anything like this?

 

[mckennar]

I understand that there's places to stop along the way between Oakland and LA to do some 4 wheeling and then return to the fwy to complete the remainder of the trip. But are there any routes that you could use to complete the trip using dirt and fwy/highways?

Fams in so cal and the 6 hour drive down and back on 5 completely sucks ass and flying is twice as much as driving. I've read about guys doing the drive on scooters which sounds kind of interesting. So has anyone done anything like this?

Depends on how long you want to take on the trip.

The wife & I spent 2 weeks going from San Diego to Eureka on our honeymoon. Spent the better part of a week between Paso Robles and Big Sur crisscrossing the dirt fire roads, campgrounds and wineries up there. Absolutely breathtaking.

Since our Military IDs were still valid at the time, we stayed in the campgrounds aboard Fort Hunter-Liggett for a few nights and basically explored tank trails during the days.

We found a break in the fenceline (open back gate on Del Venturi) and drove around for a few hours before we found a place (Santa Lucia) with some unimproved campsites before heading back to the coast to Big Sur to pick up PCH from there.

So yeah uh... take PCH south if you want a non-boring drive with plenty of access to trails but it will add a significant amount of time to your trip every time you leave pavement. It's not really an efficient way to do it.

Perhaps others know of dirt trails that handrail the 5 or 101?

 

[BigSur4R]

Sobranes Fire is still active in north end of Big Sur... So if you are traveling any time soon, I'd check your route vs fire activity.

 

[jwkilgore]

Depends on how long you want to take on the trip.

^^--- 100% this. That's a long trip, already most of a day's drive. Any time you spend running 15 mph on dirt roads vs 75 mph on the Freeway will take 5x as long, plus the fact that the dirt roads require more driving distance because of curves and hills.

I have a similar length trip to see my folks (~5.5 hours straight driving, plus potty and food stops) and I've investigated multiple diversion trips on Google Maps. Some day I'd love to take the Trans-America trail, which goes from close to here to close to there. But ultimately the goal is to get there to see Memaw and Papa, and my wife, kids, and dog would flat-out mutiny if the normal 7-hour trip took two days. So what I do is get there as quickly as possible, then at some point during the trip slip off and do a little driving down a few private hunting club roads I have access to.

Back to your situation...

The PCH is beautiful, but it'll stretch your trip out to about 9 hours.

One option would be to blast down 5 to the mountains just north of LA then divert along forest service roads. I found a route where you get off 5 and head a little east at Lancaster Rd (Hwy 138), then cut south over the mountains to rejoin 5 at Castaic. It adds about 1.5 hours to the trip. All maintained roads so no serious wheeling, but it won't be pavement.

Another option would be to go south to San Jose then follow Airline Hwy (St. Rte. 25) then Coalinga Rd. Rejoin 5 at Colinga. All paved, so more fun in a zippy sports car than an SUV, but different from the freeway. This adds about 2 hours.

Most of the trip is through private farm/grazing land. There are dirt roads parallel the freeway, but usually those will be private and gated. And even if the gate at one end is open, the one at the other may be closed.

If you were in SoCal (Riverside County) I could point you to countless utility service roads across BLM land (ungated), but I'm not really familiar with many areas north of LA. Maybe someone local can point you to an unmapped semi-parallel side route.

Good luck!