Sunday Ride in Gold Country

Sunday February 10th

We both agreed that we need to re-orient ourselves to Sundays without football.  We planned to take a ride up to Auburn and environs to see the area.  Auburn is only 10 miles E on I-80 but between here and there the terrain changes from the gentle hills around here to real mountain scenery with only an increase in altitude of 600 ft. (we are at about 400ft and Auburn is 1000ft).  Cathey decided to take a nap shortly after noon, so I drove over to Harbor Freight for amusement.  I bought a 1/2 inch drive torque wrench for $20 and a couple of handy-dandy little items.  Being at Harbor Freight was nice enough but what was really great was that I figured out how to get to the shopping district in the Harbor Freight area without getting on the freeways!  That has been a puzzle to me for some time; I knew where the Harbor Freight store was but could not figure out how to get there without getting on I-80 and CA-65.  The street that HF is on is not shown on our closeup map of the area but today I figured out my approximate location and plotted a course via surface streets to hook up with Taylor Avenue, which runs right past the RV park and into downtown Loomis.  I am trying to use the GPS less because it can get you where you want to go, but because you are watching the screen, you don't watch landmarks and street names and you still don't know how to get to the same place the next time.

When I got back to the trailer, Cathey was just getting up, but was not interested in going for a ride, so I decided to go myself.  I took Sierra College Blvd north to CA-193 which took me almost to Auburn.  I did have to get on I-80 for a mile or two but then got off on CA-49 which cuts across the foothills to junction with US-50 that runs from Lake Tahoe to Sacramento.  We were contemplating taking CA-49 S when we leave here but that will not happen, now that I have seen the road.  The first six miles out of Auburn are a series of hairpin curves where the road descends down to the North Fork of the American River.  Then you cross the river and start climbing up a ridge, over the ridge and then down to the South Fork of the American River.  Somewhere in there, is the State Park where they have created a replica of Sutter's Mill where gold was first discovered in 1848.  It didn't seem very far from Auburn to Placerville but when I got on US-50, the signs said it was 42 miles to Sacramento!  By that time it was almost dark, so I told the GPS that I wanted to go home and it found me a shortcut between US-50 and I-80 so that I didn't have to go all the way to downtown Sacramento.  Stopped at a Pizza Guys Restaurant and got a Pizza for supper and then went back to the trailer.