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[JCZ]

We finally arrived at Fanny Bridge in Tahoe City for another short break....











These are the guys, when I was a little guy, my mother used to tell me these were hoodlums.......

[JCZ]

The gateway to Squaw Valley.  Many of you are old enough to remember back in the ancient days when Squaw Valley is where they held the winter olympics.....




and old enough to remember the ol' Flying A gas stations.....back when they were called "service stations" because you pulled in and got "service" like your windshield washed, air in your tires checked, water in your radiator, etc.





OK....time for a real breakfast.  We're in Old Town Truckee.....

[JCZ]

Leaving Truckee, we continue north on Ca. 89....

[JCZ]

Rut-rohh.....road construction...again......

[JCZ]

The signs tell us that we're officially at the begining of our Hwy. 49 Tour.....

[JCZ]

[JCZ]

[JCZ]

We have finally arrived in Downieville, Ca.

[JCZ]

[JCZ]

Hwy. 49 fol
lows north to south along the Sierra Nevada Mountain range where all the old gold mining towns are located.  Most everybody knows the history of gold being discovered in Coloma, California at Sutter's Mill in 1849 (thus Hwy. 49).  They came from all over the country and Europe to find their riches in the mountains of California although the large majority died broke.  One of those cities from the 1800s was Nevada City and so we passed through.....








We pass on through Nevada City and Colfax (another mining town) and head for another old mining community called Iowa Hill.  Now this place is way, way back in those mountains, very narrow and very steep for many, many miles.  I've shared with people before, Iowa Hill isn't a place you find when out for a weekend ride.  You don't find this place by accident.....you find it only because somebody that knows about it took you back in there.

[JCZ]

Did I mention that it's a long, long way down.....way, way down the side of this mountain on the outside edge of this road and no guard rails?

Please excuse the quality of these pics.  As I mentioned, they were all taken on the fly and with constant shifting up and down, trying to steer around all the twists and turns, snap a pic and not run off the side of the cliff......it was challenging, even for me.   

[JCZ]

[JCZ]

And we finally roll out of the thick forest at the dam of Sugar Pine Resavoir.  The pictures say it all.........














Not much on the down hill side of the dam.....

[JCZ]

That's the Foresthill Bridge in front of us....aka Auburn-Foresthill Bridge.  This is the highest bridge (deck height) in Calfiornia at 731 feet.  Tomorrow we're down below it.  Here's some images of this bridge to give you different perspectives.....   https://www.google.com/search?q=foresthill+bridge&biw=1920&bih=940&site=webhp&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiu_fWW2NbPAhVMOj4KHRX2DNEQsAQIOw















We stopped at C & E Auburn Indian to visit old friends of mine for the past thirty years, Carlo and Emma Lujan.  Some of you old drag racers may remember Carlo.....he raced for a lot of years.  They owned C & E Auburn Harley Davidson for years until they sold it, retired and traveled the country on a motorcycle for many years and finally came back home and opened the Indian dealership.


Emma gave all of us a t-shirt with the dealership on it so we're probably the only CVO owners running around with Indian dealership t-shirts.      They still carry HD parts so they were able to replace Mike's broken headlight.....even installed it as a courtesy.  Carlo and Emma.....great friends for many, many years!





Almost forgot to mention.........they have several used CVOs for sale.  Go to their web site....





Mike has it rough tryin to hand with the big dogs day after day.  I was at the counter checking in to the hotel and turn around to find Mike out!





Tomorrow we visit Coloma......where gold was first discovered at Sutter's Mill.

[Panhead_Jimmy]

Congrats on riding the Iowa Hill road again.  That's about the most hair raising one lane road in the USA.  Especially at the warp-JC speed.