This road is off of HWY 1, on the pacific coast route. Kruse Rhododendron State Reserve is at the northern end of Salt Point State Park. I took the dirt road that runs through the Rhododendron reserve, and continued along until I reached HWY 1 again. It seemed like a nice alternative on the map, and it was, but that downhill was killer.

I won't be switching to disc brakes. However, all my pads will be replaced with Kool-stop salmon pads. I've had good luck with them on my other bike. Before this downhill I was riding in the rain for 4 days straight, so the pads had worn and weren't quite performing as they should have on Meyer's Grade Road. I usually practice the alternating method described by foamy above, but my rear brake was really fading, so it didn't work that well.

My guess would be that over 2 miles distance the average grade is 18%, but I'm not exactly sure how they measure it for the signs.