The High Sierras

Carmichael to Cooks Station

Today we gained 5,000 feed in elevation and traveled 70 miles.  That’s a hard bike ride.  Lucky for me, I got to drive the sprinter up to Cooks Station, which is located on route 88 about 30 miles west of Kirkwood ski resort.  On the way, I stopped in Placerville—a gold rush town also known as hangtown—to have some fro-yo, chat with some people in the public works department of the city, and watch Dave and Austin get photographed for the oldest newspaper in California, the Mountain Democrat.

In city hall, I spoke with administrative secretary Salina Mitchell about Placerville’s composting program, which is more of a yard clippings pick-up program.  The city used to have an additional annual pickup of fall foliage, but it was cut in the past year due to budget constraints.  Now, they have a more regular pickup, but Salina says that many residents call in complaining about the small size of the waste containers.  Also, the clippings are sent to a compost facility in Sacramento, which is over 40 miles away.  It’s expensive to ship the green waste that far, but that’s the closest facility that processes organics.

After talking with Salina and meeting Megan Jerimica, the Mountain Democrat photographer, I headed up to Cooks Station.  While waiting at the top of the mountain for the boys to climb 5000 feet (closer to 6500, actually when factoring in elevation losses), I spoke with Josh, the “future son in law of the owner” of the restaurant at Cooks Station.  They serve breakfast and lunch, and are open from 7 AM to 7 PM.  I asked Josh if he could quantify the amount of food waste from uneaten servings, he responded saying that he had no way to quantify it.  “Some people eat everything on their plate and some people don’t, there’s no way to measure it,” his coworker added.  When I asked what happened to the food leftover on people’s plates, he replied matter-of-factly: “we throw it away.”  According to Josh, there’s no compost program in Cooks Station or the surrounding area due to its location.  On a mountain-top 65 miles from Sacramento, Cooks Station is not conveniently located near a large-scale landfill or compost facility.  As a result, the collection program in the area is quite limited.  Trucks do collect recyclables and transport them to Sacramento, but organic waste is sent to a landfill.  It’s hard to get a full picture painted of the Sierras, seeing as I only spoke with one (of three that I passed) restaurant, but from what I can tell, composting there is very limited, at least along route 88.

Tonight we're camping at Pipi campground about 8 miles from Cooks Station. It's Austin's first time camping (...what?) and it's beautiful here.