So as I sit here and plan my rides for next year, I got to thinking about places to avoid. We all have our favorite places we've ridden and like to share our opinions about great rides. But what about the lousy roads we've found ourselves on?

For instance, last year, I rode south down US 285 from Carlsbad NM to Pecos TX on my way to Big Bend.

That road was awful. It's only a two lane road for many miles and cuts through the center of a huge oil/gas field. For starters, it was pouring rain that morning, which is never fun, and visibility sucked.

I've never seen so many Semi trucks nose to tail in my life. Every one hauling tanker trailers of brine or crude or machinery or whatever for the drilling operations. Unfortunately for us, me and my buddy were the only two willing to travel just at, or slightly under, the speed limit of 65 in the rain and gloom. Truck after truck just blew past us at every opportunity dousing us in spray.

If being surrounded by Semi's isn't fun enough, the road has a lot of dirt on it from all the truck traffic entering from the fields on either side. In the rain it made for a disgusting mess, being blasted with muddy water from everywhere. My bike has never been as filthy as it was following that road.

A local we chatted with the morning we departed warned us to "watch our ***" on that road as impatient oil field workers have been known to attempt to pass lines of commercial vehicles and had already caused numerous head-on collisions. Let me tell you, that factoid was not far from my mind as we rode in the muddy spray!

Thankfully the ride, while miserable, was otherwise uneventful.

So what about you? Have any memorable roads you'd like to avoid?

 

Hate to say it, but just about every road I have ever been on in Ohio, with Indiana right behind. And that is coming from a NY resident who commutes in and out of NYC every day.

 

A couple of years ago took a trip down to the Columbia Gorge and decided to take WA HWY 14 on the Washington side of the gorge.

Left Camas, WA. that morning and headed west toward Biggs Junction. Was one of the worst roads I have ever ridden. Come to find out the truckers use that road a lot to avoid the more traveled I-84 on the Oregon side of the gorge. Washboarding, huge pot holes, lots of blind corners and the wind shears coming off the gorge were just plain terrifying.

Won't ever take that route again. That was supposed to be the highlight of my road trip and was just the opposite.

 

There's a big difference between a bad road and bad traffic. This one below doesn't hold a candle to some parts of the Alaskan or Dalton Hwy I've been on.

 

I was following 2 cattle semis on a windy rainy day on I-15 a few years ago. I stayed quite far back, couldn’t pass them. It was a shitty ride!

 

the worst stretch of pavement I've ever been on was between Pelly Crossing and Dawson City, Yukon. a close second is the secondary highway in front of my farm before they rebuilt it a few years ago. and any gravel road that they use calcium a a dust suppressant...slicker than boiled owl's **** in the rain.

 

During our past August tour with our Florida friends, being straight road flatlanders they would choose the twistiest roads they could find. So, we ended up on Mountain View Road in Northern California. It starts on Highway 1 near Manchester and winds and climbs, and drops, on a 1.5 car width wide, rough surface , for 25 miles to Boonville on route 128. Oh yeah, and we were all loaded down for a long distance tour, and two of us were 2-up. We didn't get any pictures, but a did a screen shot of a few sections on Google Street.

 

You might be living up to your name there. That road looks like a lot of fun.

 

You didn't ask for it, but I'll give you my top 3:
1) The East River Drive into/out of Manhattan;
2) The East River Drive into/out of Manhattan;
3) I95 between NYC and roughly New Haven, CT [especially leading into or coming out of a holiday weekend].

 

Back in the day it was RT. 666 that went from around Holbrook AZ to around Safford/ Benson right before the interstate I believe it was, was pretty spooky. It has changed now to 191.
Their curves were bad *** and when they said 10 & 15 mph you'd better follow the recommendations as it was straight down like hundreds of feet.
Really spooky in the dark and in a rain storm.
Watch yo ***.