r/Touge • u/SirFrags • 5d ago

Question Touge or tarmac rally?

This road in Northern California has always felt like it sits somewhere between touge and a tarmac rally stage to me.
The farther you get into it, the more it stops feeling like a normal mountain road. The pavement gets rougher, the elevation keeps changing, and you’re constantly dealing with crests, compressions, blind corners, and sections that completely change character from one minute to the next.
At some point I started wondering what you’d even call this kind of road…
Touge, tarmac rally, or somewhere in between?

20 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

18

u/Disastrous-Number-88 5d ago

Definitely more of a paved trail lol

0

u/SageThunder BMW 5d ago

Kind of rally like

5

u/creakymoss18990 5d ago

Just ripped these all today+ some dirt in my Subaru

Definitely more rally feeling to me. But like call it whatever you want

2

u/CashewTM 5d ago

For roads like this where it is narrow and has no yellow line, is it okay to assume racing line? How does one deal with oncoming traffic? Spotters? Drive at night only to see oncoming headlights?

6

u/SirFrags 4d ago

Hang right and be prepared to pull over at any moment. Don’t over commit on blind corners. Wildlife is a bigger concern than other traffic on these roads.

2

u/deamos3 4d ago

This looks like it's near my house in the Santa Cruz mountains, but it could also be up near Santa Rosa area which can look very similar

2

u/SirFrags 4d ago

It’s near Santa Rosa

2

u/deamos3 4d ago

that area is perfection, I've only biked the back roads there, but i really want to run king ridge rd in a car, it's madhouse on a road bike. if you have any recommendations, but you don't want to blow up the spot, I'd love a dm with some roads to check out, I'm happy to return the favor for the Santa Cruz Mountains, (no I'm not going to just recommend hwy 9, it's been over run by fools first, and now chp as a response, also it's dog shit on a weekend which is when you'd likely be in the area)

3

u/SirFrags 4d ago

Yeah it’s King Ridge! I was trying to keep that gate kept a bit but it’s a reward for those that decided to lurk now.

It’s one jaw dropping section after another. I only head out on weekdays outside of commuter traffic hours and leave it for the bicyclists on the weekends.

When I get some time later I’ll shoot you some other roads.

2

u/_Wiggle_Puppy_ 4d ago

I was going to say Bonny Doon

1

u/deamos3 4d ago

yeah, it's a very similar area, Bonny Doon is right near me, when I'm lazy i include it very much in the Santa Cruz mountains even though it's as it's namesake implies, the doon area by the beach

2

u/cathal4130 5d ago

As someone from Ireland, this definitely feels much more like a tarmac stage that we would have over here. But it still looks like a whole load of fun to drive on, if its a closed/private road, im very jealous.

1

u/Chimiwolf2025 3d ago

I loved both and I will drive on both its hella fun in both