El Dorado County – The Journey
Old Building in Ione. Obviously the Coke sign was there before the window.
We’re off on another trip to the Gold Country, this time to the El Dorado wine region. Originally we were planning a day trip but as El Dorado is further than our normal destination in the Gold Country, we decided to make a weekend of it and booked overnight accommodation at a bed and breakfast.
After our recent trip to Murphys and Mokelumne Hill, we had a comment from Jolaine Collins extolling the El Dorado area in and around Placerville and Fair Play. I have been through Placerville several times quite a few years ago but never realized it was also a wine area. Fair Play neither Tom nor I had ever heard of. The place name itself intrigued me but when I searched for more information I could not discover too much about it apart from the fact that there were several wineries situated there.
Jolaine sent us a link to the El Dorado Wine Country which gave me a list of wineries and their opening times along with a down loadable map of the area. We pored over the map and consulted the wineries list and decided to leave early in the morning on Saturday going first to the Pleasant Valley are where all four of the wineries opened at 10 am instead of the usual 11 am. We wrote to Jolaine and told her our plans, including stopping for breakfast on the way, and she kindly sent back lots of useful information along with the name of a place to go for breakfast.
An hour into our journey at 6.45 in the morning we were on I-205 and approaching Tracy. It’s going to be a nice day. The sun, which 15 minutes ago had popped up over the Altamont as a bright orange ball, is now shining into our eyes. Sunglasses on and visors down. Ahead we spot a small plane fly low over the freeway, bank steeply and fly back. It was a crop duster. By the time we reached the point of his crossing, he was back again seemingly inches above the roof of the car. It was definitely a ‘wooh’ moment.
I-5 was as monotonous as usual. Lots of SUVs and trucks pulling small boats, jet skies and trailers, probably on their way to one of the many lakes dotted around. On Highway 88, just outside Stockton, we stopped at a Starbucks for coffee. Tom had a muffin as well. He was getting hungry and it is over an hour to where we plan to stop for breakfast. Unlike the last time, when we stopped in Copperopolis looking for somewhere to eat and failing miserably, we knew exactly where we are going today – Zachary Jacques in Pleasant Valley.
Highway 88 is a two lane road through the Central Valley. We were heading towards Jackson (the same Jackson as Nancy Sinatra sang about I wonder?) on Highway 49. Our route takes us through orchards and Tom remarked on the fact that although the trees were all the same, some of them were tall and some were short. It looks like the tall trees had not been cut back but the short ones obviously had. We wondered why. Oleander bushes were in full bloom and lined both sides of the road at one point. Just before the Harney Road intersection I spotted a peahen standing motionless at the side of the road.
Along Highway 88 grapes, apples, and a host of other fruits and vegetables grow profusely. Fruit stands are abundent, selling strawberries, corn, applies, cherries, blackberries, apricots and blueberries – all grown locally. As we drove through Lockeford, I noticed that the Lockeford Meat Service (good sausages) in the center of town was not open yet. Just north of Clements we bear left, still on Highway 88, and for me this is new territory.
Suddenly we are no longer on the valley floor but steadily ascending towards the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range of mountains. The land has become more open and hilly. the orchards and vineyards are no more to be seen.
I see a sign advertising the Black Chasm just outside Volcano. My daughter Ginnie and I visited this cave a few years back and it was great fun. Near the Black Chasm is Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park which Tom and I visited once. Both places are worth a visit.
According to the map, the Camanche Reservoir was off to our right but I see no sign of it. I see a road sign pointing towards it with the brown symbols showing that fishing and boating can be enjoyed there.
We enter the town of Ione. How is that pronounced – I-one, I-on or I-own – I wonder? Tom says it is I-own so I’ll bow to his superior knowledge. The town looked interesting so we decided to stop and stretch our legs. The main street is wide with lots of parking places. There is a wide covered sidewalk on one side of the road and the buildings are all evocotive of the heady gold rush days.
Right behind the Ione City Hall, which was originally a hotel built in 1864, an old railway steam locomotive stands under cover and behind a high barred fence which is difficult to look through, Tom couldn’t even take a photo of the train. A sign to the right of it proclaims it to be ‘Iron Van’ which was ‘the last steam locomotive to operate over the Amador Central Railroad between Ione and Martell. …….The last trip………was made in 1956.’
It is just 8.30 in the morning and there were very few people around and certainly nothing was open. We took a stroll up one side and down the other to see what there was to see.
In the C&P Tax Service window were some old typewriters and adding machines. One was an Underwood, which looked just like the one my Dad used back in the 1960′s and on which I learned to type. Memories, memories.
Old gas station in Pleasant Valley on the way to breakfast. The pumps still showed gas at $.40 a gallon
The library is housed in the Ione Parlor No 33 N.S.G.W. building which was built in 1854. This builidng is two stories hight with a balcony on the second floor.
On one corner of Main Street is an old brick building with a faded Coca Cola sign painted on the side. A door and a window have been built into the wall which partialy obliterate the sign. On the wall of the building opposite are some large , bright paintings of annual events in Ione – the Soapbox Derby, Fireworks in Howard Park, Pumpkin Patch at Winterport Farm and Home Town Christmas.
A sign on the front of 18 Main Street declares the building to be the Daniel Co Store built in 1856. this was the first brick building erected in the Ione Valley. The sign goes on to say that Ione was once known as “Bed-bug” and “Freeze-out”. That conjures up a pretty picture doesn’t it?
Time to move on. We are both more than ready for breakfast but we still have some way to go. We left town on Highway 124, which is the Plymouth Highway, and the road climbed upwards. The brown hills on either side became higher but we had occasional views to the even higher hills ahead of us. No sign yet of the majestic peaks of the high Sierra, which will grace the skyline shortly.
At 9 am we reach Highway 49, the scienic route through the Gold Country and the historic gold rush towns from Oakhurst in the south to Vinton on Highway 70 to the north.
When we reached those higher hills, the road began to twist and turn and there were steep drop offs to my right. Our ears started to pop. A convoy of motor bikes passed us, heading south. And there, to the left of us, we caught sight of those high mountain peaks.
Just south of Diamond Springs we drive through the small town of El Dorado. This little hamlet must be the county seat of El Dorado county. I checked a map of the counties of California and was surprised to see that this county is bigger than I though it would be. It stretches all the way to the stateline with Nevada.
At 9.30 we finally reach Zachary Jacques and at last we get to eat.
August 14 2009 06:50 am | Special Places
Anna on 16 Aug 2009 at 10:54 pm #
Lovely blog! I love out of the way places! I’ve put a link to your site on my blog under ‘other food’ as that was the closest category I have as a food blog. You do nice breakfast reviews, so it seems to fit still.