Suffering from a touch of cabin fever this morning so decided to take a little drive on some back roads here in Calaveras County. The first half of the drive was stunningly picture perfect. The second half of the drive was... well, have you ever found yourself on one of those unmaintained dirt roads in the back country where you say to yourself "boy, I sure wish I'd brought my emergency kit with me" or "man, I sure wish I'd let someone know where I was going and when I planned to be back", or "God, I sure hope I make it out of here!", well, on the second half of the drive, all of those came to mind multiple times. More on that later. Finally, the third half of the drive was pretty, but tame, familiar for the most part, and a nice change from the white knuckle ride preceding it. That's right, make no mistake about it, this drive was a drive an a half!

It all started with Google maps. I'd been perusing maps of the area looking for river access points that looked like candidates for fishing, panning, etc.  I found one that looked good and set out to find it this morning.  The trek stared by heading down to Murphys and then going up Sheep Ranch Road from Main Street as though you're going to the cavers.  I took Sheep Ranch Road all the way to its end at the junction of Mountain Ranch Road and Railroad Flat Road.  Spring is in the air in the back country!  The hills are lush with fresh green grass, the fruit trees are in bloom, the birds were singing, and I saw sever herd of deer along the way.  Very refreshing!

I turned West on Mountain Ranch Road.  I wish I'd stopped to take a picture of the old Mountain Ranch Inn but neglected to do so... very picturesque.  Next, I turned North West on Whiskey Slide Road.  Wow, it's only one lane so you have to keep your eye on the road and be prepared to move over into the ditch part way if you encounter someone coming the other way, but how beautiful!  It's a bit of a bumpy ride, but paved almost all the way, and the short section that is not paved is a good gravel road.  Just keep you eyes open for potholes, etc.  The road is tree lined for most of its course, and at times heavily forested.  It is in fairly stark contrast to much of the surrounding chaparral.

So, that's the first half of the drive.  I highly recommend it.  Lots of great photo opportunities which unfortunately I did not take advantage of on this trip.

The second half of the drive started when I turned right onto Jesus Maria Drive for a short distance and then left onto Ponderosa Way.  From what I saw on Google maps, including the fact that it includes a bridge over the North fork of the Calaveras River (our destination) I had thought that it would be paved.... Nothing could be further from the truth!  Let me begin by making a recommendation.  Unless all the following are true, DO NOT take this route:

1. You have 4 wheel drive.
2. You have a relative high ground clearance.
3. It has not rained in at least a week.
4. You don't care about your paint job (see picture below).
5. Your heart is healthy enough for... well you know what they say in the Viagra commercial.
6. Someone, other than a passenger, knows where you are going and when to expect you back.
7. You have food, water, and blankets with you.
8. You brought your camera.
9. You know how to back up steep, windy, bumpy, narrow rutted dirt roads for long distances.
10. You are just a little bit crazy (or stupid in my case).

So, here we go... The road starts out like a "normal" dirt road.  However, it quickly becomes evident that this road is not maintained, or if it is, it is not maintained often, and has not been for at least a year.  It is bumpy everywhere, there are sections with ruts a food deep, and in some places a good chunk the already narrow "road" has slid dow the hill.  I did not run into any down trees but I'd guess they pose a hazard a good deal of the time.  If I were to go back (which is, unfortunately, likely) I'll probably pack along a chainsaw.  There were stretches of the road where it was either so narrow and overgrown, or where hazards dictated, that you could not help but drive harshly against brush growing on the uphill side of the road.  As you can see, this was not a gentle journey...

As you can imagine, this is VERY slow going.  I was in low gear, 4wd, crawling nearly the whole way.  It's just a little over 3 miles from the start of Ponderosa to the bridge over the Calaveras but I think it took me about 45 minutes to get there.  Going down to the river the biggest challenges were extremely rutted sections, a couple spots where part of the road had washed down the hill, and a couple of very overgrown sections.

So, heart pounding, stomach doing flips, I finally made it to the bridge I was looking for.  Was it worth it... hmmm... If I go again, I don't think I'll go the same way... read on.

Here's the bridge seen from the side:

Built in 1935... how do I know?

I walked across the bridge and my first impression was that it might not be passable.  It's not clear at all that the bridge has seen a lick of maintenance since it was built in 1935.  There are sections of the wooden track that are missing, and many that appear extremely worn and tired.  However, I saw fairly recent tire tire tracks on both sides of the span so decided to give it a whirl.  I went across carefully and other than  a couple bumps where the track was missing, made it across without incident.  Still, it's amazing that the bridge is still open.  It looks like a tragedy waiting to happen to me.  I may go down to the bridge again, but I don't think I'll be crossing it other than on foot.

While I was down there I scoped out the river access.  You can indeed get down to the river, and it looked like a very reasonable place for fishing or panning.  I have no idea what the ownership / placer claim status is so cannot advise doing either.  One thing I can tell you is that they have plenty of what the mixture of Chaparral and water produces... poison oak!  There was plenty!  So, Chewy and I didn't make our way down to the water.  He was very disappointed:

On the other side of the bridge, the road is still ugly, but in different ways.  Going from the bridge up to Highway 26 you are going more through rolling hills rather than down the side of a canyon as we did coming in.  However, this side too has suffered from obvious neglect as has the entire length of the road.  On the way out, we still had to contend with deep ruts in places, potholes in others, and a new obstacle, nearly pond size mud puddles of unknown depth... "Got Mud?" as the bumper sticker says.  What we did not have to contend with was the steep, narrow, sometimes scarily washed out conditions we faced coming down the side of the canyon.  So while not a great road, and definitely not something I would recommend for anything other the 4 wheel drive with good ground clearance, it was not as nerve wracking as it was coming down.

So, we made it out to Highway 26 at a very nondescript  junction that would be hard to find sans GPS and that ended the second half of the drive.

Like I said at the beginning, the third half of the drive was a long but welcome letdown from the second half.  It was all highway, going from the junction of Ponderosa Way and Highway 26 West to Mokelumne Hill and then on 49 back to 4 and home.  If I'd driven that section of 26 before, I didn't remember it and it was very pleasant.  Everywhere it was spring so very green and inviting but mostly familiar.  By the time we got back, my cabin fever had gone into remission and it was good to be home back here living the postcard in paradise.

For my next installment I may talk a little about a jaunt I took over to the Tuolomne River recently.

Hope you enjoyed the little story,

joe