Cerro Noroeste-Mil
Portero
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Best Downhill on
Earth: A perfect 5 on our 5 scale -
Remote. Fast. Requires intuition. Tough on suspensions. Our favorite drive; best downhill in California...
Going NW from Frazier Park, this drive descends the remote northern face of Transverse Ranges through the Los Padres National Forest. The Drive along Cerro Noroeste-Mil Potrero is a downhill run through Los Padres National Forest that descends 6,000 feet to the southern terminus of California's Great Central Valley. Vegetation changes dramatically, from sugar pines at upper elevations to the grasslands and xerophytics below.
Cerro Nordeste spans two counties: Kern, and the northeastern tip of Ventura... Neither want anything to do with it. Henceforth, chain gangs do much of the road maintenence on Cerro Noroeste. It consists of 4th and 5th gear straightaways punctuated by wide, constant raduis, banked sweepers with very good visability. Inter-county maintained road in fair to poor condition at high elevations improving to good condition at lower elevations. Ephimeral out-wash scars are present. No Botz-Dots. No cattle bars...
It's geology is prone to solufluction as a function of threshold antecedent moisture. Hence, the drive is quite intuitive. This remote A-31 secondary road may not necessarily drive exactly the same twice. You're likely to encounter a new discontinuity every time you drive it. People who tend to get themselves in trouble on Cerro Noroeste are the ones who've driven it before. Because you free-wheeled that turn last year in 5th at 3,800 revs doesn't mean you'll get away with it next time. Its an intuitive drive.
Long sweepers of the sort long since banned from organized motorsport competition, driving Cerro Noroeste is the epiphany of what it must have been like for Grand Prix drivers between the world wars. You'll freewheel through the countless sweepers in 5th, scrubbing off revs, ex ante apex, before clipping your third gear to catch the back end, then you'll bang it into 4th on the exit, rev her until there's nothing left, slam it back up 5th for a bit more, then freewheel into the next turn, where you hold the hammer down flat, scrub off the revs again, clip third, bang it back up 4th, then 5th.... over, and over, and over, and over. Several places, you'll use up a good portion of your top gear. Between those brutal, hyperfast, banked sweepers you'll periodoically glance down upon the blanket clouds overlying California's Great Central Valley.
Nothing compares to this drive.
Rough and choppy, it rewards bravery. Accessible from the Fraizer Park off ramp via Interstare 5, Mil Portero-Cerro Noroeste zigzags 2 county lines as it descends from over 8,000 ft in elevation to provide secondary access to Highway 166, the Cuyama River, and the Cuyama Valley. This road takes considerable snow in winter. Watch out for ice or run-off near Fraizer Park from November through May.
This road drives best from Fraizer Park, to Hwy 166. We particularly like this drive during Indian Summer.
General Note: Hwy 166 is aggressively patroled, but Cerro Noroeste isn't.