ON THE OLD ION HIGHWAY

On the Cedarville, Burns, Winnemucca Tour

Fourth in a series…

The old Idaho Oregon Nevada route, known as the ION Highway directed frustrated California 49ers to the greener (or more golden) pastures (goldfields) of Idaho and Montana which opened up in the mid-60s.  I suspect California’s Yuba-Sierra County Henness Pass Route was an extension of the ION.

A night-before’s glance at the map informed us that the ION would be an interesting diversion from US 95 passing through Rome to Arock to Danner – in search of the final resting place of Jean Baptiste “Pomp” Charbonneau, son of Sacajawea.  

But, as with many Church of the Open Road adventures, we shoulda known something was up when John's 2012 4-Runner's skid plates began cutting the tops off sage and bouncing over boulders amid the "highway's" ruts.

US 95 heads east-northeast from Burns Junction toward Jordan Valley.  It would be easy to fly by the unpaved Rome Road that connects to the historic and remote ION route across the plateau. 

Paralleling the Owyhee River, the Rome Road turns and becomes the route we’re looking for, according the GPS in John’s 2012 4-Runner.  It crosses the Owyhee on a vintage 1906 steel structure.

A filigreed placard immortalizing those visionaries who planned and built the bridge rusts atop the span.

Up stream, a small dam diverts water into an irrigation flume, which courses along the base of the sandstone bluffs.

Nearby, the bulldozer perhaps once used to maintain this “highway” rests in a state of perpetual unemployment.

The GPS unit is spot on.  It directs us through a weary looking farmstead and up a chiseled grade and across some high, gently rolling terrain. 

The road looks as if it hasn’t seen a grading blade since the old boy down the hill retired, but the Toyota’s high ground clearance and rugged body-on-frame engineering makes light work of the tough climb.

Miles on, a primitive gate bars further access toward Arock.  Sans any type of lock, we utilize the cleverly provided wooden lever to unbind the stay from the wire loop and pass through.

 Returning the gate to its closed position takes more torque than I can muster, but close and secure it we finally do.

We know we are nearing an outpost as we encounter more and more derelict equipment slowly melting into the sage.

Arock – the halfway point to Danner – sports a Community Center, a church, a Post Office, and a crisp looking little grammar school.  A substantial route leads south back to US 95.  But we scoff at this.

A home built from quarried lava cap stands across from the Community Center.

The GPS leads us eastward out of town.  At a point not much further on, the unit tells us the ION Highway courses northerly.

But, being smarter than any electronic gizmo, we stick with the rutted route that appears more heavily frequented.

As things would turn out, we are proven not to be smarter than the GPS nor are we particularly Frostian in our choices about which road not to take.

A gorge carved by a tiny stream that was dammed in 1903 blocks our route.

We would not make Danner this way.

We return to Arock, find the road south to US 95 and hope that none of the locals – peeking through their curtains – catch us backtracking.  After all, we’re geographers. 

© 2013

Church of the Open Road Press

A JANUARY RIDE THROUGH THE GOLD COUNTRY

Perhaps the only conceivable upside to climate change…

MANY INDEPENDENT SCIENTISTS believe fervently that changes in weather patterns over time are the result of human activity. Industry scientists disagree. Either way, January 1, 2012 found the temperature hovering around April 1st levels and a mid-winter motorcycle ride was in order.

MOST OF THE ROADS in my area I’ve enjoyed; few I’ve enjoyed in January. Heading north on state route 49, I approach Grass Valley. Just one year ago, this little gold country town was blanketed in previously unrecorded amounts of freezing snow and ice. I remember watching people shush along town sidewalks to carry on commerce in the many independent businesses there. Today, there may as well be pansies planted in the flower boxes.

WINDING THROUGH TOWN, I find myself on the old Rough and Ready highway heading west toward a berg of the same name. A century and a half ago, folks in these parts had had just about enough and seceded from the union. Bloodlessly, they rejoined, perhaps when they discovered nobody was paying attention.

OUT PLEASANT VALLEY ROAD, a renamed section of the old Henness Pass Route, nee: Virginia Turnpike, one discovers a string of what used to be gold encampments along the course of the South Yuba. At Bridgeport, a covered bridge spans the river. Purported to be the longest in all the country, it is closed to pedestrian traffic due to structural concerns surrounding earthquakes, so for the time being, the span serves merely as historic eye candy for the passer-by. South Yuba River State Park is on California’s heartbreaking list of those slated for closure.

Nicely groomed trails and abandoned wagon roads course over these foothills and long the route of the Yuba – both upstream and down. In two months the flattened dry grass will yield to sweeping fields of lupine and poppy. I must make a note to return, if only to test this theory. There is adequate paved parking both inside and outside the park’s gate. A delightful reconstruction of an old Shell Gas Station and a tiny interpretive center invite some off-saddle exploration. When the park closes, one trembles at the thought of the place’s demise – and multiply that by 70 other parks, I am told.

UP THE ROAD A PIECE, the pavement angles through French Corral. One could speculate on the origins of this town’s name, but I’ll bet some guy name Pierre or Andre or maybe just “Frenchy” may have had something to do with a livery there. An historic marker indicates that the world’s first long distance telephone line linked French Corral with Bridgeport. The associated story tells us that during prohibition, the phone line was as a means to warn those upstream of the approach of revenuers. Students of area history dispute this claim, but as with the secession of Rough and Ready, it makes a good tale.

PLEASANT VALLEY ROAD continues through the temperate regions of Nevada and Yuba County intersecting with State Route 20 at Sweetland. A bar sits at the corner – one frequented on weekends by droves of riders on big vee-twins. I’ve not stopped in.


A DESCENDING SUN reminds me that I am, indeed, riding in January. The spring-like temperatures will not hold past dusk. Plus, it’s my night to cook. State Route 20 provides a pleasant run back across the South Fork, through Nevada City and Grass Valley and on the bottomland suburbs of Sacramento.

Regarding climate change? I’m not one who’d like to see our beautiful planet rendered into little more than a charred bit of puffed wheat, vacantly orbiting a sun none too quick to nova. I’d like us to regard our activities with a little more care and take every conceivable action to retard the overall warming of the place. Still, on a 68-degree mid-winter day, I’ll probably compromise my concerns and head out for a few hours on the bike enjoying dry pavement, sunny skies and those April-like temperatures. Call me selfish.


MORE PICTURES from the South Yuba River State Park:

View down the South Fork from one of many area hiking trails.

One of three or four plaques placed to provide details about the covered bridge.

Back in the day, one pump meant only one flavor of petrol.

Inside a restored barn, several examples of early transport - horse or ox-drawn - are preserved.

The "Virginia Turnpike" is also known as the old Henness Pass Route.

At the Kneebone family cemetery.

On the current circumstance surrounding the historic bridge.

Bitney Springs

TODAY’S ROUTE: State Route 49 north from Auburn to Grass Valley; exit Bennett Street left toward town; left on West Main which becomes Rough and Ready (R&R) Highway to R&R. Backtrack east on R&R Highway; left on Bitney Springs Road (a delightful section of pavement through small farms, pastures, and past the spring itself); right on Pleasant Valley Road to Bridgeport (South Yuba River State Park), French Corral, Birchville and Sweetland; right on State Route 20, return to Nevada City – Grass Valley.

RESOURCES:

California State Parks: www.parks.ca.us

South Yuba River State Park Association: http://www.southyubariverstatepark.org/
Please check out the link to this important volunteer group.

This poor fella's on display at the visitor's center.

Regarding Rough and Ready seceding from the Union: http://www.roughandreadychamber.com/rough_and_ready_004.htm

© 2012
Church of the Open Road Press

FRIDAYS WITH ARIA: BOWMAN LAKE ROAD

click to enlarge

A PLEASANT FRIDAY and after a breakfast meeting in Nevada City, I chose not to drive straight home. Figured a jaunt up State Route 20 might afford shot glimpses of fall color.

Not so much, I'm afraid.

So the sojourn became a vehicle for taking portraits of the Aria, the Guzzi B-1100.


THE MID-OCTOBER mid-day sun provides interesting light for photography.

Bowman Lake, to the right, is on the old Henness Pass Road. Only a few miles east northeast of here, Bowman Lake Road turns to gravel. So Aria doesn't go on it.  [This I leave to the likes of GSA, currently home in the garage. The Church of the Open Road has ventured up that way many-a-time.  See the admittedly very poorly titled: http://thechurchoftheopenroad.blogspot.com/2010/09/californias-first-recession-probably.html]

THE PAVED PORTION proved a nice tryout for the new Michelin Pilot Road 2 tires I'd installed a few days back.

This picture would have been enhanced had there been some cloud cover to mute the forest and add interest and depth to the sky.  Still, I imagine this might be pretty much what the gray squirrel saw that I just missed running over as he darted out and back and out again in front of me. I’m sure you know the little guy – or one of many of his cousins.

AUTUMN FLOW on the South Yuba River. Many years, this stream this time of year, would be nearly dry, but owing to a late, wet spring and early storms this fall, the water looks delightful.

The fifty-five-degree weather of just a week ago had been driven out by a high pressure system. This day, at about 1:00, the temp was in the mid-80s. The water looked mighty inviting, but I was over-dressed in my leather jacket, and the concept of peeling everything off, thankfully for all denizens of the forest, passed rather quickly.

JUST A BIT SOUTH of the Yuba is the Discovery Trail. Here we get a close up view of the Bear River, only a few miles west of its source. The pooled water reflects the just-about-to turn-golden color of the black oaks broadly lobed leaves.

Less than a mile off State Route 20 about 3 miles east of I-80, this is a nice place to picnic and show the (grand)kids around. That’s one that’ll have to be added to the to-do list.

Oh...  And...


HERE, MORE EVIDENCE that some – only some, mind you – folks who own firearms are morons. In this example, the National Forest sign that is neither good eatin' nor is in any way a threat to anyone's safety or property, proved to be some idiot's victim.

Again: C'mon, gun owners! If you don't want regulation, regulate your-own-damn-selves and quit doin' dumb stuff like shootin' up government signs. Sheesh!


© 2011
Church of the Open Road Press

JOURNEY TO THE COMSTOCK -- HENNESS PASS ROAD

CALIFORNIA’S FIRST RECESSION probably occurred in the 1860s. That’s when the labor force, seeking to line their pockets with gold scooped from the American, the Yuba and the Feather, discovered that there wasn’t as much gold to go around as had been advertised. The bubble burst.


Recessions are times when those of entrepreneurial spirit make hay with creative, out-of-the-box thinking. Thus, the Truckee Turnpike Company organized to shepherd frustrated gold miners eastward from the dying Mother Lode of California to the booming Comstock of Nevada.


Today, the Henness Pass Road is found on many maps. I carried three: The AAA’s Northeastern California, DeLorme’s California Atlas and Gazetteer, and the Forest Service’s Tahoe National Forest Map. According to each of these, the route begins in Camptonville (eastern Yuba County off State Route 49), rumbles through the rugged heart of Sierra County and ends in Verdi, Nevada near I-80. Interestingly, on the ground, only in Verdi is there a road marker citing Henness Pass Road. At Camptonville, one doodles around until finding that the only route out of town that’s not the state highway is called Mountain House Road. It is marked as Sierra County 293, then becomes SC 302, then SC 301 although the maps don’t share these designations commonly.


There would be much more “doodling around” this day. Perhaps some of the adventure in adventure touring is the thought that you may, at times, be hopelessly lost.



A WEST-TO-EAST TOUR of this route provides a study in contrast between the verdant west side and the arid east side of the Sierra. Early on, to the north, the Alp-like Sierra Buttes rise from the thick fir forests along the drainage of the Yuba. Logging is active in the area so even after three month of summer drought, the road may be muddy based upon the dust control activities of the timber harvesters.

Cresting a ridge, a long descent into Milton Reservoir is rocky and taxing. Once there, two gunite dams hold back a tiny stream creating a pool, perhaps a hundred years old that is silting from the incessant work of storms wearing away the high arêtes that ring the area.

In another lifetime or two, the pool will be rendered into meadow.

Henness Pass itself is a mere 6920-foot draw that, were there not a sign, one would pass over without notice. 30 miles south, the Donner Party attempted to scale the crystalline cliffs of the pass now named in their honor. An honor that would be un-noted and unnecessary had they attempted a route only two days walk further north. A Virginian named James Beckworth, trapping in the 1840s discovered that the further north one traveled, the less daunting the passes of the Sierra. Peter Lassen capitalized on this and, in the Comstock Rush of the late 1850s and early 60s, so did the Truckee Turnpike Company.

Over the pass, the environs illustrate the rain shadow effect that renders Nevada so dry. Thick fir forests have given way to sparse groupings of pine. Sage invades the bottomlands where modern-day ranchers continue carrying the cudgel first borne by those who chose not to seek silver in the Comstock. The road traces ridges that afford views of flats and valleys named Kyburz, Sardine and Stampede.

The final four miles is an uncomfortable (at least on a motorbike) descent along a twisting road covered in golf-ball sized rocks down a tributary canyon of the Truckee. Reward for this is dusty adventure is a few minutes in a delightful river park in Verdi, Nevada with manicured lawns and access for kayaking, trout fishing or just reflection.







Resources:

http://www.ncgold.com/Museums_Parks/syrp/henness.html “Nevada County Gold” blogs about parks and recreation in the South Yuba drainage.

http://www.ghosttownexplorers.org/henness.htm “Ghost Town Explorers” provides direction to many historic places otherwise passed by. A nice link!


© 2010
Church of the Open Road Press


Note: The following graphic provides information on the “rain shadow” effect that the uplifted Sierra affords lands to the east. This graphic regards the area around the Owens Valley and is posted in the park at Independence, CA, but explains nicely why things are the way things are.

Sierra Buttes

[Mid-October] A co-member of a writers group reminds me that when in a boat on the ocean, the coast does not approach; rather one approaches the coast.

Good enough. But when in the outback of Sierra County traveling west from Yuba Pass on a road only identified alpha-numerically by the Forest Service, and when chugging up hill on a dirt and gravel logging road at the east edge of the Lakes Basin, the Alp-like Sierra Buttes do rise in front of me as I near the crest. So, just as the coast approaches, these alp-like mountains grow and evolve before my eyes, capturing more of my breath with each meter of elevation gain.

A stop to absorb the majesty and a quick, reorientation glance at the map. The area at my feet, I find, is daubed with alpine lakes and traversed by countless miles of roads to explore. Somewhere through this area is the old Henness Pass toll road; the route worn-out and disheartened gold miners took to escape the disappointment of the Mother Lode in search of the silvery riches of the Comstock.

Gotta take that one. Must return after the spring melt.