The Ridge Route - Drive with High Speed Playback
This is the old Ridge Route from Castaic Junction to the town of Grapevine.
There are three things I really like in this life: 1) Old roads that were built a long time ago, 2) Highways that hold or once held some crucial purpose for people's travel and commerce, and 3) abandoned or all but forgotten roads. This is the big daddy of them all, and it literally doesn't get any better than this. The Ridge Route unified Southern California with the rest of the state likely averting the state being split up in the early 1900's. This was an engineering feat paved with concrete in about 1913 and used until the US 99 Alternate was created in 1933. (If you want to see a drive through a portion of the US 99 Alternate, check my channel for a high speed version).
During dissolves between Castaic Junction and Ridge Route Road, you will see that I jump the freeway between Castaic Road and The Old Road. This is because during this section, the original two lane road was buried or destroyed in the creating of the U.S. Route 99 alignment (now Interstate 5 alignment). The same holds true for when I jump the freeway just north of Gorman. On that section, which is called, North Peace Valley Road, the old Ridge Route came across Interstate 5 at a higher elevation than the 5 is now graded, and then it skirted along the hills of what is now on the west side of North Peace Valley Road. If you look (or hike) carefully up there, you will find remnants of the original concrete road. A few miles down the road, Dead Man's Curve ended up being so bumpy with my running down the road and unsuccessfully trying to hold a camera steady, I thought that, 12th Street Rag, would be more fitting for that section since I did it in such a makeshift way. Sorry that the changeover is so jarring. LOL!
Just a note that the Old Ridge Route is actually closed at the moment from the southern end by the U.S. Forest Service. However, at times (such as when I recorded this video), they have had the northern gates open. It's not something that is currently predictable. Therefore, you will see during one of the times I cross dissolve to dump my phone's video memory to make room for more, that I come upon a gate. At the end of the dissolve, when I am on the other side of the gate, this necessitated my driving all the way down from the north end to continue taping. Of course it was worth it because now we can all enjoy it. Apologies in advance for quickly changing times of days. It was a lot to record and I couldn't do it all in one session. If you drive it, please know that it is not currently maintained, so if allowed by the Forest Service, please drive very carefully and slowly on every inch of the unmaintained sections which belong to the U.S. Forest Service just north of Templin Highway to about where Sandberg Peak Road is, about two miles south of Route 138.
The next time you are driving north on Interstate 5, after you have passed the small community of Lebec and are heading down the actual grapevine grade into Central Valley's southern portion, the San Joaquin Valley (as opposed to it's northern portion, The Sacramento Valley), please imagine the old concrete road winding and meandering through the plush meadows and around big old thick trees, along with a peripheral river that used to fill that canyon, and most of which no longer exists since Interstate 5's construction took most of that space and moved tons of earth around covering most of it. This must have been a gorgeous drive once upon a time.
For more information, visit:
PLEASE NOTE: If you have the SLIGHTEST interest in the Ridge Route, you MUST read Harrison Irving Scott's Book, The Ridge Route: The Road That United California. He wrote the most comprehensive and most fascinating book on this historical road. Many of the facts, and the reason I knew where to look for things, are because of Mr. Scott's great research and written efforts. He is the go-to person for information on the route.
With the exception of 12th Street Rag, by Johnny Maddox from his album, Red Hot Ragtime, published by Crazy Otto Music, Inc., ©2000, all other piano tunes are from Autumn 20th Anniversary Edition album © 2001 Composer: George Winston, Label/Publisher: RCA Victor. There is also some incidental classic country music from XM Radio as well 100% speed playback moments. I do not claim any ownership to any of the music.