The Donner Pass ended up not being too bad. Nothing compared to the Teton Pass. As I made my way over I-80 and down the western slope of the Sierras, I decided to take CA 49 south, following the foothills of the Sierras to Sonora. Mistake! Major mistake! It was twisty, hilly, with some serious grades. What was I thinking.
I arrived in Placerville and headed west of US 50 towards Sacramento. From there I picked up CA 99 south. CA 99 is a multilaned road traveling parallel to I-5. But wow! Californians drive like maniacs! Swerving, darting in and out, speeding. When I completed drivers training in California, we covered a device called the blinkers… what you use to indicate a lane change. Apparently this has been dropped from the curriculum.
CA 99 leads to Manteca and CA 120. CA 120 travels east (all the way to Yosemite) but we made the turn on to CA 108 south of Jamestown. After passing through Sonora, we headed up CA 108 gaining a bit of elevation. We made it to Mi-Wuk Village with the only trouble of backing the trailer into the driveway of my dad’s cabin. The driveway was smaller than I remember. So were the residential roads. After a few attempts, I got the trailer spotted on the driveway. We had made it to California.