Drove up Mormon Emigrant gap on Saturday. I was in a bad mood and had to force myself to go. The road is clear up past Light Canyon road but there are some rocks and snow berms along the way.
I drove until snow completely blocked the road (at least for my sedan). Then I turned back to North South road and took it. The road goes almost straight down into a watershed leading to Camp Creek and eventually the Cosumnes River.
I took a side trip onto Pebble Canyon road (dirt) and that may have been the problem. I wasn't much into hiking because I've still got the cough from hell and it's a little hard to hike when you have to stop every yard or so to cough up a lung and lower your head to avoid passing out. That's maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but now much of one!
We parked at a scenic spot and the faithful hound chased rodents into the forest. Someone has been trimming the forest and there are slash piles everywhere. I can't believe that there's not some economic good to be had out of these downed trees...most of the slash piles were easily the size of McMansions and contained plenty of big trees.
From the map, it looked like Pebble Canyon met back with Mormon Emigrant but I was stopped by snow. I did drive over several branches and sticks and even had to get out and move a shattered tree log that had fallen over the road. Fortunately it was rotted and light and easy to move.
I was forced to retrace my steps back to the North South road and drove down, down, down to the little bridge over Camp Creek. I would have strolled along there, but several other people had had the same idea and were camped around and about the place.
I headed back up. There was a bit of a road (75?) and we strolled along that road. I briefly considered going off trail a bit down to the stream because I could hear a waterfall but it was getting late and the cough wasn't improving. Commando had a few good runs and terrorized many rodents and had even eaten some snow balls on our little stops so even he was willing to call it a day.
On the steep hill climb, my car suddenly redlined and the idiot light came on and I was overheating. I didn't even try for the cell phone because I just didn't want to wait an hour for a tow truck to find me. At least I was on the paved road. I just drove and every time the car overheated I stopped and let it rest.
We finally got to the top and Mormon Emigrant is mostly downhill so I babied the engine and it stayed at 190 (normal) most of the way. I was hoping to make it all the way into Pollock Pines but I stopped at the Sly Park entrance and called for the tow truck. This was another hill climb with no shoulder and plenty of traffic.
I was towed into the Shell station and the garage was closed already (of course). The driver wasn't even sure they worked on VWs. It's there now and I've left my pathetic little note in the key drop.
If I've blown the head gasket or cracked the head I will be so pissed.
Surprisingly, the trip put me in a slightly better mood...or maybe it's just resignation.
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