Shasta Wines

After getting back down off the hill we grabbed a quick lunch and headed out for the Trinity Alps wine region.  Since we were rushing we decided to rely on our GPS to tell us how to get there. These are interesting little tools that work fairly well in most urban circumstances, however, when you get them out into a fairly remote area they seem to freak out a little bit and try to send you places no one in their right mind would go.  As we left Mt. Shasta City it predicted out travel time to Alpen Cellars in Trinity Center at just under an hour. That would only give us less than an hour leeway to make it to the winery on time, but ok.

If you have never used one of these devices they have a female voice that tells you when and where to turn all through the route it picks to your destination. It can be quite annoying in my opinion. The device told us to head south about 10 miles and access a road across the Trinities south of Castle Crags.  We aren’t from the area, so we believed it, our first mistake.  When we took the first exit the GPS told us to take we quickly found the road getting very narrow.  As we came around a turn in the road we quickly found ourselves in someone’s yard where adding to your home means putting two trailers together to get a double wide and with a very unfriendly pack of dogs as the greeting committee.  The road was blocked by a logging truck parked in the middle so we decided it was the better part of valor to just turn around and go back to the highway.

We headed back down the highway and this time the road the lady in the GPS sent us down turned into a deeply rutted dirt road about two miles off the highway.  Back we went to Hwy 5 with an increasing distrust of the GPS. We had visions of a woman sitting in an office somewhere transmitting bogus directions to us and laughing hysterically.  The only maps we had were Forest Service maps, which don’t really consider roads their highest priority and didn’t show anything promising that would get us across the mountains between where we were and Redding.

After two more exits and similar experiences we soon just ignored the GPS when it told us to leave the Hwy.  I don’t know if it was my imagination, but the woman’s voice seemed to become increasingly shrill as it told us it was recalculating the route when we didn’t do what we were told.  We finally ended up taking a very long route through Redding, up Hwy 299 to Trinity Dam Road and through the beautiful little town of Lewiston, where Onemaple Vineyard and Winery is located.  Onemaple actually has a tasting room that is open daily from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, which we didn’t know at the time.  It will definitely be part of a return trip.  The road through this region is winding, but very pleasant and works its way up toward the road to the Trinity Lake Dam.  It was very obvious at this point we were not going to make it to our destination, Alpen Cellars, before it closed, but we were determined to at least see it before dark.  From Lewiston we headed west and then north up the west side of Trinity Lake to the far north end, a distance of over 40 miles.  Here we finally found a sign telling us to turn right for a nine mile trip to the winery.  The roads in the area are not very well marked and it’s easy to think you missed the winery as you head back in this very remote valley.  Make sure you have the address with you when you go out there so when you get to East Fork road and start heading out the narrow road you will know you have not passed the winery.  It is actually about a mile or so back up the canyon and you know you have arrived when you see a bridge on the left side of the road with the Alpen Cellar sign on

The winery had been closed for more than an hour by the time we got there, so we could only stand on the outside looking in.  As we walked around taking pictures we were greeted by a rattlesnake who asked us kindly not to trespass.  We complied.  The moral of the story, have good maps, know where you are going and leave plenty of time to get there.  The roads are winding and not as well marked as you might hope for, but if you know where you are going, no problem.  There are not a lot of services out there, either, so gas up your car and take snacks and water, you aren’t going to find a Safeway or an Arco.   Continued