#SONORA FORD DRIVER#

It was colored toilet paper on top of that. Making matters worse after we got the car and drove about two miles down the backside, Brian - who I assure you did not end up with a career in the medical field - had managed to secure from a passing motorist a roll of toilet paper to help stop Rob’s bleeding. One had taken a bad spill in a hairpin turn after losing control on gravel.Īt that point, Hime and I turned around and headed back downhill although in just about 12 minutes we would have reached the pass. He wanted to know if we were with two other cyclists up ahead.

#SONORA FORD DRIVER#

We got past the pitches and were where Highway 108 virtually flattens out less than a mile from the pass, when a truck driver going in the other direction stopped us. I hung back with Hime while Rob and Brian went ahead. Since I had extra bicycles, that was no problem. We were going to tackle Sonora Pass on racing bicycles but instead of starting at Sonora we did so from Dardanelles.Īlso, at the time there was an East Union High School senior by the name of Hime Romero who was taking photos for the Manteca Bulletin on the weekend that asked to join us.

The first year I moved to Manteca that summer Rob and Brian came down. I also had four or five bags of IV drips during the time I got in the ambulance until I left Sonora. I ended up sleeping it off in the ER on a steel exam table for 10 hours until my mom was able to drive to Sonora. The high point on Highway 108 that runs 120 miles from Modesto to Highway 395 just past the Marine Corps’ winter mountain warfare training facility is topped only by Tioga Pass at 9,943 feet on Highway 120. Sonora Pass is the second highest paved highway in California coming in at 9,623 feet. If it has been plowed, there are actual areas you can park at Sonora Pass which is where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses Highway 108. The best place to frolic in the snow is beyond the hairpin turn and after the road starts leveling as you come within a mile of Sonora Pass. There should be epic conditions this year.

In the past two drought years there was enough snow to do some decent downhill snow play well into mid-July. But given we’re talking going downhill in snow with a bunch of friends in the summer, it is one of those simple pleasures that you’ll remember.

To be honest, few can make it up more than a hundred or so feet before it gets too steep to cover without crampons.

Sonora ford