Big Pines-Valyermo Road

Big Pines-Valyermo Enscarpment

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Harrowing Downhill: A perfect 5 on our 5 scale!

One of my personal favorites... Big Pines-Valyermo-Ft. Tejon, as a downhill.

Fair warning: The Big Pines-Valyermo-Ft. Tejon downhill demands utmost respect. Never do the Big Pines-Valyermo downhill, 10/10ths, with a passenger on board. At 10/10ths, even for a seasoned FIA world rally navigator, it's daunting. For a typical passenger, it's horrifying. So quick, and so fast a descent as this, oftentimes a typical passenger will incur motion sickness.

Big Pines-Valyermo downhill is not the place to choose, to come to grips with your heel 'n toe. It is imperative you've had your heel 'n toe well honed before you ever attempt the Big Pines-Valyermo downhill. Screw up your heel 'n toe, on this downhill, devine intervention could not intervene, to course-correct you.

Those two first gear hairpin switchbacks are brutal. As a downhill, it takes a brave driver, supreme confidence in his equipment, to late-brake that first gear hairpin. Screw it up, you'll vault yourself over the Armco. From there, it's entirely up to you: take your chances, stay with the car, and ride it down. Or, pop your belts off, and jump out, mid flight. Either way, it's straight down.

If I think my roof will collapse? Then, I'll unstrap, and jump out, take my chances. If I think it won't? Then, I'll retract my knees, up out of the wheel-whel, well-away from my pedals, up to my chest, make myself as small as possible, hang on, stay with it, and ride it down. However, tumbling, end over end, you can't open your doors. I may not have that choice. End over end, if my doors open, they'll flap. That situation, having T-tops (...provided it's unlocked) makes punching-out a cinch. Either way, important thing, for me, is getting completely out, or staying completely in. Half-way out, half-way in, ravens are going to swoop down, peck-peck-peck away, at you.

You'll have used up a lot of brakes, well before you ever reach the first of two -- 1st gear hairpins. Turns long since banned from the likes of Formula 1, for some 30 years, now, as you approach the first of two 1st-gear hairpins, you'll do so, from triple digits, way up your speedo. Maximum braking, while banging down, through every gear in your gearbox, to your 1st gear, descending the leeward face of a steep enscarpment, impeccable heel 'n toe is imperative.

Never will your brake lights burn so brilliant or so true a red, for so long a duration.

Knotched my first Porsche 911 encounter, on the Big Pines-Valyermo downhill. Hillclimb, Big Pines-Valyermo-Ft. Tejon complex is terrific, for 911s. Downhill, it certainly is not. Having settled, into a good rythym, I could see a 911, off in the distance, ahead. Closer I got, those were SCCA stickers on his back windows. Thought to myself: "...Hmmm. An SCCA guy, huh? I probably know this guy."

Whole experience, a competent driver, pressuring him, reeling him in, like clockwork, from behind, I could sense that Porsche guy was beyond his depth. Clumsy way his car moved around, way he turned in, early apexing, the way he lit up his brake lights, he wasn't doing it right. Caught him up, in short order, and took station, about a foot from his bumper, at each successive apex. Gap between us extended, as he'd plant the throttle to draw away, from every apex, until the next braking zone, where any straight-line advantage I'd usurp, would put me right back where I was, same 12 inches off his tailpipes, the turn before.

Triumph of engineering over design, guys who buy 911s are victims of fashion. GM stopped building rear engined vehicles, what: back in the 1960s? Volkswagen quit, back in the 1970s? High roll-over axiom, high rop throttle oversteer axiom, rear-engined sports cars are obsolete. Everybody knows that, but Porsche. PCCBs notwithstanding, under no circumstance would Porsche's 911 be my weapon of choice. Of all places on God's green acre, to go 10/10ths, with a 911? The Big Pines-Valyermo downhill would be the last place on planet Earth I'd ever expect to encounter 911.

Hard as he tried, futility of being able to draw away from me, I could sense his frustration.

Hammer and tongs, nip and tuck, down the hill we went. Twice, we almost touched. I had a beat on him, a couple times, and drew up thoughtfully, alongside. Archetypical SCCA guy, both times, he pinched me off. Having forced my left-side rubber off, onto the shoulder, no ABS, my left side in the dirt, my right side on asphalt, under maximum braking for an intermediate left apex, I overcorrected left, under yaw. Then, when she came around the other way, I grabbed second gear, dropped the clutch, right foot flat, to nail down my back tyres. Then, back up to third, out the apex, to give chase...

Deliberately holding me up, that Porsche guy was starting to irritate me.

I followed that Porsche guy, diligently, down the mountain, waiting for my opportunity to set him up, once and for all, into that banked, left hand, first gear hairpin. Following along, intently, saving my brakes, watching him draw away with his horsepower advantage, reeling him back in, under braking, I followed him in, very deeply, into the braking zone, I shot down low, drew up alongside, approaching the upcoming 1st gear hairpin. His 911, perhaps 800 pounds heavier than my kerb weight, that Porsche guy held his braking just a bit too late.

Not the thing to do, on the Big Pines-Valyermo downhill.

If you suspect there could be the slightest problem with your car, then the Big Pines-Valyermo downhill is not the place, to find out. If you're in an unfamiliar vehicle, if you're overmatched by your vehicle, then the Big Pines-Valyermo downhill is not the place to be. No worse a place he could ever have chosen, to come to grips with his rear-engined 911, than the mighty Valyermo downhill; no worse a car, to learn down hills, than Porsche's 911.

Approaching that hairpin, that all you see is desert floor, below, some 10 miles away, you know, breach that Armco, it's a long way down.

I chased him, down the hill, into the banked, 1st gear hairpin complex. Both of us, hard on the brakes, popping 5th-4th-3rd-2nd-1st, hauling down our vehicles, from triple digits, I drew up alongside, door handle to door handle, confident this time, I'd make it stick. In his attempt to match my braking point, tit-for-tat, he failed to account for our weight differentials. Subsequenly, he'd left his braking, just a little too late.

I don't know whether he was brave, or stupid, or both.

His back end stepped out. I saw motion in my right perepheral, his left forearm suddenly snapping up, to high noon on his steering wheel, as he desperately counter-steered, hard right.

I slipped by, inside, while he wrestled, trying to keep all that rear-biased mass, from doing the inevitable (e.g., swapping ends). I dove underneth, maximum braking, affording him the widest ample berth I could, while he busied himself, trying to gather it back up, I took the spot.

Exiting that left hand hairpin, that the next turn, a right hander, is a1st gear, plunging, late-apex hairpin, if he used his horsepower to run me down, late braked, then early apexed that next turn, I worried he'd tee-bone me; my passenger-side door. Between those hairpins, I'd have to draw away enough of a gap, or I'd lose the spot, and be right back where I started.

Ex post that apex, hammer down, my chin likewise, back up my gearbox, 2nd-3rd-4th, down the hill I went, heading for the next hairpin. I swept up, to kiss my redline, each upshift, eeking-out everything I possibly could from my trusty Cosworth mill, thinking perhaps he'd give chase, draw back alongside, with his horsepower advantage, to take back the spot, and put me back in my place.

Moment before entering my braking zone, getting ready to line-up the plunging, late-apex 1st gear right-hand hairpin, I shot a quick scan, left to right, across my mirrors, knowing full well he had ample horsepower, and ample brakes necessary, if not to poke his nose inside, to take back the spot, at least to draw up, to my bumper, and make my life miserable.

Not so.

Those outstanding Porsche brakes of his, bailed him out of his 911's fundamental design flaws. But, it was my weight advantage which proved insurmountable. I was plesantly surprised what I saw. There he was, distant and small, out my starboard side mirror. Too far back, I late apexed the next hairpin, no worries. What seemed a hundred, or so, yards he fallen, adrift, he'd snapped shut, and given up the ghost. I could sense the Big Pines-Valyermo downhill gave that 911 guy a mighty fright.

He'd had enough.

Wisely so. No shame in that. Big Pines-Valyermo downhill's given me a mighty fright, far more than merely once. Not that he was a bad driver, so much as he was, an unfair one, I put the hammer down, 10/10ths, and drew away, relieved to finally be rid of him. I had the rest of that run, to myself, uncontested. Cat & mouse, down that hill, doing my best to rid myself of that awful 911 guy, not before or since have I encountered a 911, in God's canyons.

Just as we did, you'll use up considerable speedometer on Big Pines-Valyermo. And, perhaps some ABS, too. You'll plunge, some 4,000 ft., from Wrightwood, to the desert floor. Some of the switchbacks will bring you all the way down, from 6th to1st gear. You'll find Big Pines-Valyermo are always in outstanding condition. Surface is excellent; visability is fair to excellent. Breathtaking vistas, dare you look, you'll be far too busy for that.

The Big Pines-Valyermo enscarpment, grandure of that vista, descending some 4000 feet, with a view from the Transverse Ranges, across the high desert floor, all the way to the Lower Sierra Nevadas, is like a dream. From there, you can see, across the desert, to GEs windmills, spinning away, there in Tehachapi.

We prefer Angeles Forest Highway, going northbound. So, tieing together what you see, map above, implies an opportunity cost, if you like Big Pines-Valyermo, as a downhill. Since Angeles Forest is so much better, going north than south, our suggestion to you is: do the loop clockwise. Use Fort Tejon Rd and Big Pines as a hill climb. Doing so, all right hand turns, at critical junctions, the rough segment of Angeles Crest (going westbound from Upper Big Tujunga) is worth enduring, because Angeles Forest is incredible, in its first few miles, immediately north of Angeles Crest.

Try the loop you see above, both ways... see what works for you. If you decide to do Big Pines Highway as a downhill, then reconnioter, first, with utmost diligence. As a downhill, it's very easy to wind up on Valyermo unintentionally; the Fort Tejon Rd intersection is very easy to miss. After a 10/10ths descent, your guys might not have the brakes to haul down, from their triple digits, to make the tight left turn, at Fort Tejon. Your backmarkers will likely miss the turn, entirely, if someone isn't there, waiting for them.

Don't forget: Big Pines Highway is real fun hill climb... a lot safer that way, too.

ADVISORY: High performance pads and high temp brake fluid are imperative. And, make certain your brakes are properly bedded. Going 10/10ths from Wrightwood, Big Pines will boil the brake fluid on most vehicles, long before you ever reach Valyermo. Above all else, never (NEVER) plan Big Pines Hwy as a downhill, for antique or vintage automobiles (...don't do that). Do the Big Pines-Valyermo downhill a few times, at a leisurely pace, in your daily driver, take good notes, and get to know it, intimately, before risking your go-fast Sunday driver. You could really screw up a nice car on that road.

If you've done the Big Pines-Valyermo downhill? At the end of your run, stand arears to your vehicle. Have your buddy open the door, and hit your brake pedal. See if you've popped a bulb.

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