Gribblenation

Last Memorial Day I took a trip up to Glacier Point in Yosemite.  Given the large crowds heading to/from Yosemite National Park I decided to do something a little unconventional and take Road 222/Powerhouse Road over the San Joaquin River to reach Fresno. Road 222/Powerhouse Road is an approximately 14 mile route between North Fork in Madera County and Auberry in Fresno County.  Road 222 begins at North Fork Road/Road 222 immediately south of North Fork. Road 222 southbound to the San Joaquin River at Kerckhoff Lake has a heavy grade that is as high as 9% in places.  The road is generally pretty good but drops from about 3,300 feet above sea level to about 1,300 feet above sea level at the San Joaquin River. Road 222 approaches Kerckhoff Lake and the Wishon Powerhouse.  Kerckhoff Lake is impounded from the waters of the San Joaquin River and is part of Pacific Gas & Electricity's Big Creek project. Apparently Kerckhoff D...

Searights Toll House As you head west on US 40 from Uniontown, there is a second historical toll house that remains standing.  The Searights Tollhouse was one of six toll houses that once stood along the historic route.  Similar to the Petersburg Toll House in Addison , Searights was built in 1835 after the federal government transferred the maintenance of the National Road to the states. Replica of the toll schedule at Searights Toll House Searights Toll House is named after the nearby village of Searights.  The village is named after William Searights who lived nearby.  In later years, a coal company town would be built just to the south of the toll house.  The toll house is a two story facility and is open for tours.  The toll house is currently owned by the Fayette County Historical Society . The refurbished living quarters of the toll house (Bee Family) After collection of tolls ceased in 1905, the toll house went into disrepair. ...

I had the pleasure of driving around the state of Vermont this past Sunday. While the main focus of the trip was to photograph waterfalls (as opposed to taking pictures of the rivers and the lakes that I'm used to), I spotted some neat signs during the course of my travels as well. At one point, I headed down a forest road between Ripton and Goshen in the Green Mountain National Forest. I passed by a couple of signs on a side road where my roadgeek intuition kicked in and demanded that I take a closer look. That's when I spotted a couple of Vermont state route shields with part of a Vermont tourism logo rather than the state name written out. Further down the road on VT 73 in Brandon, I also found a really old VT 73 shield that isn't long for this world. On VT 3 in Proctor, I saw an old cast iron sign highlighting distance to nearby Pittsford and Rutland.

My ultimate destination for the Washington trip was on the Kitsap Peninsula. My hotel was WA 310 which I reached via WA 304 through downtown Bremerton.  WA 310 is only 1.8 miles long and loops from WA 304 west to WA 3. WA 310 was part of Primary State Highway 21 until it was renumbered in 1964.  The entire highway is either on Kitsap Way or Callow Avenue.  Oddly WA 310 is one of the few state highways I've completely clinched as I decided a run the following morning.  My leg from still healing up from the tendon injury I mentioned during the Southeast trip but I felt good enough to try a solid 7-8 miles.  After reaching WA 304 I took it east Burwell Street towards the Seattle-Bremerton Ferry.  Instead of stopping at the Ferry I made my way up to the new Manette Bridge which opened in 2011.  The new Manette Bridge replaced a steel truss span which was opened in 1930.  The new bridge oddly only had one pedestrian lane but had some reall...