Pogwatigue Perambulations: Feather River Scenic Byway

Pogwatigue Perambulations

Pogwatigue: A Pottawatomie word meaning 'running water.' Early settlers chose this word as the original name for my hometown, Niles, Michigan.

Perambulation: roam, stroll, inspection of an area on foot.

My intent for this blog is to catalog my various local, regional, national, and perhaps someday international explorations. Originally, I found the blog a good vehicle to publish Google maps on the internet and all my initial posts have such a map embedded, but I don't limit myself to that genre. Almost all the posts will have a personal, geographic element. For the title, I chose Pogwatigue due to its ties to my roots roots and perambulations as a fancy, alliterative word to describe the content.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Feather River Scenic Byway

I spent last Labor Day driving the Feather River Scenic Byway, a stretch of CA-70 that hugs the river as it flows through the northern limit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The lowest pass through the mountains, I seen this route described as the dividing line between the Sierra Nevadas to the south and Cascades to the north. It it gorgeous route that requires creative engineering on plenty of occasions to make way with limited options. The highway is actually a latecomer to the canyon. The Western Pacific RR blazed the first route, tracks which are still in use.

I dedicated a whole day to the byway, an easily justifiable decision. The pins in the map recount most of my stops on the 120 mile journey.

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