KMX3060
New member
My wife and I took a drive into LA just to look around. She looked at a map and thought it would be fun to take a short cut over a small hill to get to the other side of Mt. Washington.
We turned off Ave 50 onto a street called Eldred.
The sign at the bottom said "Not a Through Street". My trusty navigator has seldom been wrong looking at our Thomas Guide so when I asked about the sign she said, It's OK, there is a street called Cross at the top on the map so it must really go through.
Now the reason I was questioning her is that the street in front of me appears to go straight up. From my perspective, I might have to use 4WD to get enough traction just to get up and the idea of turning around or backing down was not what I wanted to do under the best of circumstances.
Well, I drove up the incline slowly. We marveled at the idea that people live on this street; they even drove normal sedans up and down. (Though I suspected the locals had secretly planted these vehicles here to entice visitors to try the hill. Or better yet, these were the vehicles that the owners were to afraid to drive back down and so left them here to rot.)
As we approached the top I correctly surmised that there were two problems slowly approaching: 1) There are no side streets ahead. 2) There is no area to turn around at the top.
Just to let you know if you try this yourself. It took every available horse my V8 could muster to get to the top.
I noticed a small out building on the left that had a paved area nest to it on the upside so I turned in. Now we had the prospect of either backing down or turning around. I opted for the turn around.
It took me about five manuevers of back and forth to get turned around without going off road behind me. It has been several years since I have been 'sidehill' so I was not used to it and I was not happy. We slowly cruised down the hill and took a drink of water.
Out of curiosity I looked up the street to see if there was any information on it. It turns out that this is one of the two steepest streets in LA. Claimed to be 33.3%. Let me tell you that at the top of that hill it is more than 33.3% more like 35-38%.
Here is some information if you are curious:
http://www.walkinginla.com/2004/Feb15/EldredSt.html
Have fun!
Oh Yea, If you want, at the top of the street there is a wooden stairway to the top of the hill. Like someone will want to try that after walking up the hill.
Ciao, Brian
ps I would have taken pictures but I did not want to get out.
We turned off Ave 50 onto a street called Eldred.
The sign at the bottom said "Not a Through Street". My trusty navigator has seldom been wrong looking at our Thomas Guide so when I asked about the sign she said, It's OK, there is a street called Cross at the top on the map so it must really go through.
Now the reason I was questioning her is that the street in front of me appears to go straight up. From my perspective, I might have to use 4WD to get enough traction just to get up and the idea of turning around or backing down was not what I wanted to do under the best of circumstances.
Well, I drove up the incline slowly. We marveled at the idea that people live on this street; they even drove normal sedans up and down. (Though I suspected the locals had secretly planted these vehicles here to entice visitors to try the hill. Or better yet, these were the vehicles that the owners were to afraid to drive back down and so left them here to rot.)
As we approached the top I correctly surmised that there were two problems slowly approaching: 1) There are no side streets ahead. 2) There is no area to turn around at the top.
Just to let you know if you try this yourself. It took every available horse my V8 could muster to get to the top.
I noticed a small out building on the left that had a paved area nest to it on the upside so I turned in. Now we had the prospect of either backing down or turning around. I opted for the turn around.
It took me about five manuevers of back and forth to get turned around without going off road behind me. It has been several years since I have been 'sidehill' so I was not used to it and I was not happy. We slowly cruised down the hill and took a drink of water.
Out of curiosity I looked up the street to see if there was any information on it. It turns out that this is one of the two steepest streets in LA. Claimed to be 33.3%. Let me tell you that at the top of that hill it is more than 33.3% more like 35-38%.
Here is some information if you are curious:
http://www.walkinginla.com/2004/Feb15/EldredSt.html
Have fun!
Oh Yea, If you want, at the top of the street there is a wooden stairway to the top of the hill. Like someone will want to try that after walking up the hill.
Ciao, Brian
ps I would have taken pictures but I did not want to get out.
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