Nevada (Snowy)

The area around Placerville and Auburn CA is cut by huge, deep valleys, with steep sides. We took route 49 to Auburn on our way to tour Sacramento, and it was a narrow winding 10% grade down to the confluence of the north and south forks of the American River, and then just as steep and twisty back up again. A wild ride just in the truck, especially with double trailer gravel trucks roaring up and down. This road is known as the Auburn Grade, and it was first used to supply the gold miners in the Placerville area, where the excitement all started. It passes through the town of Cool, named for Aaron Cool an intinerant preacher, not some 60’s commune, and their huge limestone deposits and caves are the reason for the gravel trucks. The locals drive these roads with brio, and so does Don.

On our way to Nevada, we avoid this wild road, and go around to pick up I 80 over Donner Pass. Lunch anyone? I have a hunch there were many emigrant parties that came to the same desperate straits, the press just got a hold of this one. It is a long, long pull, but not particularly steep, 7,000’ at the top where we stop for lunch. Snow still lies in the shady areas, and the trees and the dirt look sort of exhausted and squashed after being under huge drifts of snow. The snowplows up here must be monsters driven by demons. I can see scrapes on the paving and light poles pushed over.

We are following the Central Pacific’s route to Promontory Point, and high on the side hill are the snow sheds, miles of wooden tunnel to protect the tracks from avalanches and 20 foot drifts. Just building the rail line was another feat of engineering madness, and making the sheds seems almost too much work, but necessary up here.

The California side of the pass is green, and lush, above the line for deciduous trees, the pines are magnificent. Beautiful Donner lake with chalets all round, and several ski areas. On the eastern side, we follow the Truckee River down to Reno NV. This is one of the few places where crossing the state line does have an immediate visual change. The Sierra Nevada (Snowcovered peaks) catch all the rain that comes in from the Pacific, so from lush forest, it goes to just rock, with a little sagebrush, in a hurry. The rocks are a dangerous looking rainbow of colors, copper greens, black silver ore, sulphurous yellows, and red lava. It looks so toxic with minerals that even with rain, I doubt much would grow.

And of course, since Nevada is all about separating you from your money and your virginity, there are huge flashy billboards and casinos everywhere. We fly through Reno, flashy and noisy, and out into the rowdy naked hills. There is mining every where, and processing plants. Limestone trucked down to a huge cement plant, Diomite, for filters and abrasives. A hundred ways to strike it rich in hard rock mining, and in the Casinos. We see some small ranches right along the Truckee River, but the rest of the land is only good for digging up.