So anyway, I left Alameda around 1:30pm and headed east. Took some boring freeways into the Delta, then 12 east to Kettleman Road to 88, just past Lodi. Then I hopped back onto 12 and then onto highway 26, which was a lot of fun, at least until I tried to find a shortcut back to 88 and came across this:
So I backtracked back to 26 and wish I'd stayed on it, because just before the junction with 88 it swoops down into and then back out of a deep, forested valley. Very pretty.
Finally I got back on 88 east. There was plenty of snow at the higher elevations.
The lake near Kirkwood was frozen.
As was the one a few miles beyond, just below Carson Pass.
The condition of the road was OK. There were some big-ass rocks around the Carson Spur, probably caused by the rapid snowmelt -- the snowpack contains plenty of rocks and other nasty stuff, in addition to plain old water.
By the time I got to Markleeville, it was around 7:00pm and starting to get dark.
Nonetheless I headed up Monitor Pass.
Here too, the road conditions were mostly OK, with just a little grit and pea gravel along the edges of each lane.
The shadows were getting long over the backside of Monitor. Amazingly, though, the temperatures were quite tolerable. I didn't even have to plug in my Gerbing liner.
I tried to take a picture of myself, but I clearly still have a lot to learn about my new camera, in particular about the self-timer setting.
By the time I got to 395, it was almost completely dark. I made my way up to Carson City, found a room, and had a late dinner.
On Sunday morning I had another leisurely start, leaving the *$ in north Carson City around 11:00am.
After a short ride down 395, which is not very nice, I took Jack Valley Road toward Genoa. While sedately cruising through town at the mandated 25mph, I realized just in the nick of time that there was a 4-way stop there. Oops. Fortunately there wasn't any cross traffic.
Then I got on NV 207, the Kingsbury Grade, which is 9 miles of fast uphill sweepers followed by 2 miles of tight downhill twisties.
Unfortunately there's quite a lot of traffic.
At the end you're rewarded with a view of Lake Tahoe. After a late breakfast at an IHOP in South Lake, I got back on Hwy 50 for the ride home. Just past Echo Summit I saw a line of 7 CHP SUVs eager for action, so clearly some caution was in order. I mostly stayed within the limits, then at Pollock Pines I turned off onto Sly Park Road to avoid the chaos around Placerville. This also turned out to be a very fun little road, at least the first 15 miles or so. Took this down to Plymouth, then Hwy 49 for a bit, then 124 into Ione, and finally back into the Delta for the rest of the ride home.
After turning onto 160 from Twin Cities Road, I went straight instead of going into Isleton, and ended up on a Winding Levee Road™.
Then a ferry.
And then another one.
From the deck of which I got a shot of Mount Diablo, which meant that my trip was almost over.
Total mileage for the weekend was about 560.