Michele Bigley - Backroads & Byways of Northern California: Drives, Day Trips and Weekend Excursions

Drives, Daytrips & Weekend Excursions

Michele Bigley

Copyright 2012 by Michele Bigley
Recipes on pages 4649, copyright 2008 by John Ash

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages.

Excerpts from first appeared in the Los Angeles Times Travel section.

includes text from Steven Streuferts blog
http://bigfootbooksblog.blogspot.com .

Backroads & Byways of Northern California

ISBN: 978-0-88150-976-2

Interior photographs by the author unless otherwise specified
Maps by Erin Greb Cartography, The Countryman Press
Book design by S. E. Livingston
Composition by Eugenie S. Delaney

Published by The Countryman Press, P.O. Box 748, Woodstock, VT 05091
Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

TO NIKKO:
THANK YOU FOR HITCHING A RIDE WITH THIS CRAZY FAMILY.

As with the abundant size of this region, the wealth of people who helped make this book possible may be difficult to acknowledge fully. A hearty thanks goes out to Kermit Hummel, Lisa Sacks, Kim Grant, Kate Mueller, Doug Yeager, Caitlin Martin, and the Countryman Press team for believing that a pregnant mom of a three-year-old could birth this book and a child in the same month.

Buckets of gratitude go out to John Poimiroo, Tina Luster, Eden Umble, Steven Streufert, Tyffani Peters, Rita King, Al Hodgson, Richard Stenger, Jenny Zink, Karen Whitaker, Darcy Tunt, Bobby Richards, Christina Glynn, Andrea De-Trinidad, Jeanette Chin, Heather Thompson, Lindsay Wright, Sandy Gordon, Koleen Hamblin, Stephanie Fermin, and Lucy Steffens for their generous assistance crafting itineraries.

This book would not have been possible without the glorious wordsmith Linda Mastrangelo. Rachel Edgar and Autumn Cobb pulled through when I needed it most, and for that I owe you both big thanks. This book would not have been born without my parents, who trekked north to explore the farthest reaches of the state with me, offering plenty of encouragement along the way.

Most of all, not one syllable could have been crafted without the love and support of Eddie, Kai, and Nikko, my lifelong travel companions.

The Shasta Cascade in spring

Every summer, as a child, my parents packed us up in their van and drove for six weeks from Ohio to California and back. My father dutifully followed his AAA maps as my mom entertained my brother and me by counting license plates and schooling us on everything from Elvis to cornfields. Once we arrived at our destinationbe it Yosemite or the beaches of Montereymy dad would abandon the map and veer onto a back road, where we would always find our best adventures. Getting off the main road and into real communities where people (or animals, or Bigfoot, in the case of Northern California) live illuminates a place in a fresh way that cannot be accomplished by merely exploring Alcatraz and saying you know San Francisco. And on our warm weather jaunts across the continent, those friendly folks inhabiting the Gold Country towns around Yosemite, the sinuous drives along the Big Sur coastline, and the wooded marvels along the Avenue of the Giants all made this traveler fall in love with Northern California.

Yet, most people visit Californias majestic northern half and rarely get off the main road. It is easy to see why with big-ticket destinations like San Francisco, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Monterey, and Napa. However, after visiting the best this swath of the state has to offer, visitors find it nearly impossible not to returnthis time slowing down, turning off onto unchartered territory, and soaking up the wealth of nature located in this pristine environment.

Native Americans have a rich history stretching from the San Joaquin Valley, through Napa and Sonoma, and up into the Shasta Cascade. Many tribes consider this region sacred, with its abundance of healing hot springs, pristine lakes, and mystical mountains. When the forty-niners descended on the Sierra foothills, extracting hunks of gold from the earth during the largest human migration westward ever, the prospectors knew they had stumbled on a majestic area that offered more than mineral riches. They settled throughout the state, congregating in San Francisco, along the coasts, and in valleys and in mountain towns, creating new communities that still exist today.

This book is organized to introduce you to the range of natural and cultural experiences hidden in the depths of Northern California. Each chapter presents an itinerary for a road trip designed to last a weekend or a week. Ive offered routes that showcase the tourist destinations of Northern California as well as some of the least traveled byways in the state. The first few chapters connect destinations by theme (for example in The Tourists Trek: The Best of Northern California youll explore San Francisco, Napa, Yosemite, and Carmel). Others focus on a speck of the region and can be stitched together with other itineraries to create a longer journey (see sidebar).

With this book, youll be armed with tailored itineraries to suit varied travelers. You can hunt for Bigfoot; craft your own wine bottle label in Napa County; or shop for and then prepare your own gourmet meal created by world-renowned chef Josh Ash in Sonoma County. Travelers can shuck their own oysters in Marin County; drive along the historic Volcanic Scenic Legacy Byway to explore the subterranean caves carved by lava tunnels; surf and ski in the same day; or spot ghosts in the High Sierra. Sample the robust red wines of Gold Country or the best artichoke bread in the Central Coast; walk in the footsteps of Americas greatest writers; or submerge yourself in the redwoods. These itineraries take you off the beaten track and into parts of California that natives dont even know exist, and hopefully, by getting on some of the United States most beautiful back roads, you too will become smitten with Northern California, finding excuses to return and craft your own itineraries.

A peek of San Francisco

BLENDING ITINERARIES