A Smooth Scenic Loop

July 24, 2006

If the six-mile-long Mammoth Lakes Scenic Loop can't be exactly scenic—it ain't scenic and it ain't a loop— then at least it oughta maybe be a smooth bike ride, which it also ain't.

Somebody in the government agrees with that, thanks be to the cycling gods.

On Monday, July 31, the town is going to have an Open House to gather community input for a proposed improvement on the road. The meeting will be between 5-7 p.m. in Suite Z of the Town Offices complex, above the Minaret Cinemas.

The proposed improvements would rehabilitate, resurface and restore existing pavement, add paved shoulders, widen the curves, shift alignments to obtain the proposed pavement width, and construct paved ditches where desired width cannot be obtained.

The typical roadway section, as proposed, will consist of 11-foot travel lanes and 3-foot paved shoulders.

This is good for road cyclists, at a time when Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is looking to increase its participation in the road cycling world.

Whether or not that heralds a return to big-time road cycling, as Mammoth was two decades ago, is almost beside the point.

The point is that any kind of improvement would help the ride, which is plagued by the road's deep expansion joints. It is almost foolish to try to road down the hill, relegating the road to what is basically a six-mile climb.

The Sierra Cycling Foundation will be at this meeting to propose an uphill cycling lane four-to-six feet wide. On the downhill side, cyclists don't need a lane. They usually "take the lane," sharing it with vehicles, to avoid riding next to the shoulder, which can be danged dangerous.

The proposed improvement avoids an entanglement with Caltrans, which still will not get off the dime on the June Lake Loop and probably never will. This improvement is proposed by the Central Federal Lands Highway Division (CFLHD) of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), in cooperation with the Inyo National Forest (INF) and the Town of Mammoth Lakes.

There will be a pop quiz on that at about noon.

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