East, Into The Mountains

part II

On a Saturday in March I met up with a childhood friend, Anthony, at his house in Placerville..a small town cozily tucked into the foothills of the Sierras, 40 minutes east of where I live. Once I arrived, we hopped in his 4Runner and headed towards the road that winds behind Jenkinson Lake: Mormon Emigrant Trail.

Jenkenson Lake on the lefthand side

Almost 10 years ago, I drove on this same road for the first time when I moved back up to Northern California at 19 years old. Whenever I think of the mountains, the first thoughts that come to mind are those fragmented memories on that dark, fall afternoon driving the slow and scenic way to South Lake Tahoe. After that drive, I only then realized how much of this region of California I had not explored yet. And oddly enough at that same time in my life, I too had a 4Runner. It was the same year and color as the one Anthony now has. As we trekked through this familiar snow-covered road in this familiar car, I was flooded with memories of my youth and early adulthood: a period of my life when nothing but long photo-drives filled my free time.

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Hitting the backroads with Anthony always reminds me that we like to explore in the same type of manner: going where our instincts and limitations (this time around, fresh snow being our limitation) take us. It’s days like these where I feel like a kid again with hardly any responsibilities. Just a child-like sense of curiosity and the means to go wherever I/we desire.

It’s truly special to have a friend like Anthony. A friend who nerds out about the same things I do such as abandoned structures, odd-looking trees, funny-looking rocks, etc. And on top of that, our conversations flow naturally like the cold snow-melt rivers that rush below the backroads we drive through.

drivable, so far..

some of the first scenes we came across

a typical sign in this neck of the woods..

tree detail

pit stop for coffee

just guys being dudes..

every now and then, the sun poked through the clouds and would form soft shadows on the charred remains from the 2021 Caldor Fire, which I wrote about in an issue linked below ~

pulled over at Camp Creek

on the way to our final stop before turning back

Old Capps Crossing Bridge (built in the 1930s) + an old U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey Benchmark monument set in 1957

and just like that.. we were on our back to the main road. Another lovely day of adventure for the books ~

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a song that will always pair well with these mountain drives:

past issues in the same neck of the woods:

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