Draw an imaginary line from Santa Cruz, on the Pacific coast, east through the Central Valley, over the Sierra Nevada mountains to the Nevada border. "Backroads of Northern California," for which I wrote the text and made the photographs, is about the remote places in the Golden State that are north of that line.

The text - approximately 55,000 words - covers many of California's most scenic backroads, and offers vignettes about the state's rather colorful pioneer past, with stories about miners, loggers, a cowgirl, the last Stone Age American, California's first Renaissance couple, and a Chinese shop keeper and his child bride. A few stories about my own backroad experiences are chronicled, too.

Edited by Todd Berger, to whom I owe many thanks, the book contains almost 150 color photographs, most made especially for the book, others culled from my collection of images made on Image Quest photography workshops. Several more historical images date to the mid-1800s.

The book explores portions of four mountain ranges (the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, the Klamaths and the Coast Ranges), the Sacramento Delta, the Central Valley, the Great Basin Desert, the Pacific coast, and wine country.

Available in both hard and soft covers, "Backroads" will be available by late June. If you would like to purchase a copy, just visit your favorite local bookstore.

Although I think it's more fun to visit a bookstore in the physical world, "Backroads" can also be ordered now, directly from amazon.com, either the hardcover version or the softbound version. If you would like to order books for your school, your library, or if you would like to sell the book in your store, contact the publisher, Voyageur Press.

"THERE are some who believe the center of the universe is in northwest California. The only way to know for sure is to drive twenty-two miles on California Highway 96, along the Trinity River and into the heart of the Klamath Mountains."

"WHEN I was a college student I would occasionally drive a few miles with my girlfriend to the Honey Run Road Covered Bridge in Butte Creek Canyon, not far from Chico State. We would walk across the bridge, listening to our footsteps echo inside the wooden span, listening to the water flowing beneath us, and then share a kiss in the night one suddenly very still."

"WHIMSICALLY referred to as Yosemite's smallest waterfall, the spring is about a foot high. It's also home to the rare lungwort, a plant that requires constant shade and moisture. Both requirements are in good supply at Fern Spring, which offers a charming counterpoint to the larger, more famous waterfalls of Yosemite Valley."