CA 165

[Max Rockatansky]

The third clinch of the day was CA 165:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmbzHCbG

There is some surprisingly interesting terrain south of Turlock along the San Joaquin River and Salt Slough.  Weird to see the Central Valley actually still resemble a wet land...at least in one place.  I did have one wooden bridge find south of Los Banos.

[Max Rockatansky]

And the CA 165 road blog is up...I'm done writing for today:

http://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2017/12/california-state-route-165.html

[sparker]

I always thought CA 165 to be one of the more valuable/appropriate later additions to the state highway system.  I was using it often in the mid-'80's to get from NB I-5 to a vendor in Ceres, south of Modesto.  You're right about the signage north of CA 140; I happened to be driving NB on the route over Thanksgiving 1978, and actually witnessed the Caltrans crew putting up the first 165 signpost north of 140.  And it's not surprising that the 1949-vintage bridge over the Delta-Mendota Canal south of Los Banos looked similar to state highway bridges; the Bridge Department of the Division of Highways did the design work for most of the highway bridges required for statewide water projects. 

[Max Rockatansky]

I thought it was a pretty handy route with three major connection points with; 99, 152, and 5.  It is certainly far more viable as a connector route than 33 or 99 would be.  It's too bad there aren't more east/west or north/south routes connecting 5 and 99.  I took Need Avenue from I-5 to get to 33, crosses my mind it would be a plausible 180 extension since it seems that it will never reach the Diablo Range.

[Max Rockatansky]

Posted an update to the CA 165 blog.  I found a image of the first CA 165 in Los Angeles on the 1964 Division of Highways Map.  Also, I recently obtained a copy of a 1966 Goshua Highway Map which shows Signed County Route J14 extending from Turlock southward to CA 33/152 in Los Banos. 

https://www.gribblenation.org/2017/12/california-state-route-165.html