My Home County Makes CNN....

I'm pretty sure I drove on that road back when I was in my "visit every county in California" phase (which I did complete).

Sonora Pass and CA-108 was my big Sierra hangout for a long time until I got spooked when the car/bodies of the Yosemite tourist murder victims were found in Long Barn.

Hehe I had a similar shock recently when I realised that a car ad was filmed in my home village, and that a clean-cut family man was driving his car past a house where I had some unimaginably filthy sex about eight years ago.

You very well might have, Chris - the "bridge" that they mention/show in the coverage is on Highway 49 - at the Mokelumne River which is the dividing line between Amador and Calaveras counties.

I've not done much of 108 - most of my High Sierra time has been off of Highway 88 - though I did have a memorable backpacking/camping trip off of Highway 4, in Calaveras County - south of 4, across some national forest lands, across a wildlife refuge - I think it was called "Sho-Fly Crik," and was near the Devil's Darning Needles - damn, I want to go back there - it was stunning. But back to 108 - *thinking* is that the road that splits going up a grade and you can either go the long/safe way or the short and dramatically dangerous way (I think it's called Old Priest's Grade)?

Matt - that's a most wonderful story. Here's mine, along those lines:

My sister and brother-in-law just bought a home in our hometown. They sent me photos, and when I looked at them I realized that I'd had sex in their downstairs room. I'll never pass that along to them, though. They think I'm odd enough as it is.

Then definately. Driving the length of Highway 49 was one of the first big road trips I took.

I don't have my maps here handy, but if memory serves the Old Priest's Grade is on Highway 132 between Yosemite and Highway 49. I drove that road once in the middle of the night when 140 was closed for road construction - pretty nifty little driving road. I want to go back there now that I have a car that has some actual handling to it (well, that and the 49)

I've been over 108 several times. I love driving it because you pass through just about every climatic zone that California has - start from the San Joaquin Valley, go through the Sierra foothills, trees/heavy forest, then the big canyons, rocky cliffs with scrub, a windblown pass, and finally desert on the other side. End the trip with a meal at the Bridgeport Inn.

Highway 4 on the eastern side is terrific. Incredibly narrow and steep in places but there's a small lake about two-thirds of the way up that's beautiful picnic spot.

Hmmm... should scan those pictures next.

Laura: I'm laughing, and I feel absurdly pleased. That's ace.

Chris - I am thinking that you may be right on it being 132 - I wish I could remember the name of the town at the top of the grade - I always felt like stopping there and kissing the ground before I went down Old Priest. Sheesh. I know they had a big fire through there about 8 years ago (maybe longer, though) and they found all of these cars (okay, maybe only two or three) down in the ravine/canyon, with intact skeletons and stuff - the heavy brush had hidden them for years. I looked at the road differently after that lovely revelation.

Oh - there's a road out of Jamestown - goes down into the "Grand Canyon of the....(sorry, can't remember the name" that's incredibly beautiful and wild. Hell there's a lot of those in Calaveras County, too - there's one (again, another fire there several years ago) that leads back into the hills about 20 miles - all of a sudden you drop about halfway down a rdge line and out of nowhere there's this compound - no other word for it - looks like a private school - lots of similarly pinted buildings, on either side of the one-lane road - and completely deserted (at least every time I've been through). And just past that creepy site is the foundation of a house owned by some rich someone who was big in California in the '20s, I think - it's burned down now, though. Sheesh. These anecdotes are really lacking for definitive facts. Sorry. I'll go look at a map or something.

I used to take 108 out of Stockton, when I was going to college there - then hopped on 88 into Amador County and then onto 49 to wherever I was living at the time. (Sorry, not an exciting anecdote.)

I've actually done 4 on the east side, just not all the way through from the west. But I think my favorite is still 88 - when you come down from Carson Pass and drop down into Hope Valley (by the way, when I croak I want my body hauled-up to Hope Valley and stuck in some tree for the birds to eat - but leave a note telling the law enforcement that I was not a victim of foul play or anything. Or just scatter my ashes there. Or bury me in a plain pine box). Wow - that was morbid. Anyway - there's a little resort there called Sorrenson's, I think - it's at the intersection (middle of no-where, mind you) of 88 and some road that goes up and then drops down into Tahoe.

Okay - I am off to look at a map. Or some old pictures or something.

Matt - glad to entertain - I really think that anecdote completely sums up my life. So I make the most of it *grin*

Okay - I've dug out the maps and avidly scanned them - and now I'm all mopey and homesick. But besides that, here's the update:

1. Old Priests's Grade is on 120, and the town at the top of the grade is Groveland.
2. The road out of Jamestown that leads into the "Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne" is called the "Wards Ferry Road" and I seem to remeber it being one hell of a drive.
3. The road off of 49 that led to the fire-stricken area where the deserted school and stuff is located is called "Fricot City Road" and I am assuming that the burned-out structure belonged to old Mr. Fricot.
4. The place I went camping off of Highway 4 was out of Dorrington and I think we were near the Whittaker Dardenelles - but I am not certain.
5. The road that meets with Highway 88 in Hope Valley is 89 out of South Lake Tahoe.

And that's it - I feel like I am forgetting something, but I don't know what - so I'll post this and go back to map-staring.

Haha... I fished out my maps here.

Yes, the Priest's Grade is the 120. I got confused because the first time I drove the Grade was at night - I then cut down the 49 and took the 132 into Modesto. On a later trip I drove down the grade in daylight and wondered what the hell I was thinking. That stretch of road looks like something straight out of a Dr. Seuss cartoon. I did have a good lunch in Groveland once.

The 88 is the last trans-Sierra highway I haven't driven. I've driven the 80, 50, 4, and 108 (and the 120 and 178 of course), but the last time I was in the area I wandered the 89 up through Markleeville and then into Tahoe.

My fave place anywhere there is the Stanislaw River overlook off of the 108 near Pinecrest/Strawberry

Criminey - let me know when you want to do 88, Chris, and I'll drove cross the country to tag along. And I can give you the running monologue of all of the interesting things I know that happened in the vicinity (or on) the road - such as the tractor-trailer that lost its load of garlic and how the whole road was rather pungent for weeks afterward. And where I picked-up the hitchhiker at 2:00 AM in the middle of winter, after he'd rolled his jeep, and he convinced me to drive him 30 miles out of my way in a snowstorm. And the pass where my mother managed to go off the road while pregnant with me. And the marmot hillside. And where to feed the mangey chipmonks. And where the first fireplants of the winter can be found. And where I want to be buried/fed to the birds. And where some scene from "The Horse Whisperer" was filmed. And my where there is a ladybug hatch every summer.

And if you took 89 out of Markleeville, then I think you've also been on 88, for a bit. Sheesh - does Markleeville have the hot springs? I am thinking so, for some reason.
Damn. I can actually picture that road in my mind - and smell the alpine air and so forth - this is making me homesick and weepy and now I am rethinking why it is that I moved away in the first place and whether it's worth it.

Mmmm.... overturned load of garlic!

Laura, you're on for the 88... And yah - I've been on the one part of the 88 that's shared with the 89 between Markleeville and Tahoe. Grover Hot Springs is the place you're thinking of - it's on the 89 in Hope Valley. Always wanted to check that place out.

I remember going camping at Grover Hot Springs as a child - it was snowing and we sat in the steaming water and stared at the sky. That's all I can remember, though. I've better anecdotes about the hot springs along the Snake River in Idaho.

Oh, I just remembered, Chris - if we go to PiPi Valley off of 88 I can show you where I was traumatized as a five-year-old when I went camping and my rubber ducky (yeah, just like Ernie's!) floated down the river and the adults were laughing so hard that they didn't retrieve it in time and it was borne by the waters down into the delta and then out to the bay and then the ocean. *sniff* And the camping spot where I managed to throw a frisbee through the only lanter we had brought along - that was the same trip, I do believe, when we had brought our brand-new tent and opened the factory-sealed box only to discover that someone had neglected to put the poles into the box. And we'd been dropped off at this remote campsite for a long weekend. Man, I had a most awesome childhood.

I've always wanted to go to a hot springs like that - where there is snow everywhere outside. It's funny, with all the springs in California, I've only ever been to the ones just downstream of Ouray in Colorado.

If time permits, we'll have to hit the 108 also - the S. Fork Stanislaus overlooks just S of Dardanelle are pretty mind blowing.

Heck, let's just raft the Stanislaus - there's a put-in point down out of Big Trees, I think.

There's some decent hot springs further north, too, I think - somewhere around Burney Falls? Outside of Klamath? Or outside of Shasta? (Have you ever stopped in Dunsmuir off of I5, south of Shasta - one of my favorite city parks is in that town - great place for a picnic when driving north from my home town - the next stop would be Ashland, of course.

I have a confession to make...
I have never been rafting. Anywhere.

Dunsmuir is great! I love wandering around town there when I've been on the 5 forever and need a break.

Oh, man - you've not lived then, Chris - rafting is soooo where it's at! Actually, I've only been a few times and not on any really exciting stretches of water - when I get back west I'll take it up, again.