History buff shares best of the present
Cliche or not, sometimes you really do need to leave your hometown to be able to appreciate it, and Anne Garner is thankful she got the lesson. Garner, whose great-grandfather moved to Long Valley in Lake County in 1883 from the “heart of the Napa Valley,” now owns and operates Eleven Roses Ranch on some of the same property. She says she loves it there. But she had to leave first. “My family has been ranching here since the 1880s. I left to go to school and worked for a while, but I always knew that I would come back,” says Garner. “It will be my home for the rest of my life.”
And it’s a home she’s happy to share. Eleven Roses offers day trips on the ranch in the spring that offer a peek at 19th century Lake County life, right down to the tour in a wagon pulled by resident Percheron draft mules, Belle and Blue. Garner gets visitors from near and far (including from overseas), to whom she gives the history, the nature and, at the end, a chuck wagon barbecue with Lake County wines. “The experience that they get is a step back in time.”
To be sure, she also is happy to share the rest of the county, often giving recommendations for destinations and diversions in Lake County to customers — and non-customers who just call. Even as long as her family has been here, however, she still learns something new every so often. Here are a few of Garner’s favorite spots.