The California Tour: Jackson To Sonora, CA

I just re-read some of my previous posts and one word comes to mind: Sensory Overload. The rest of what I’m gonna write and what you will hopefully read isn’t going to be much different. I’m quite positive that there are many place in this great country of ours equally filled with the kind of splendor that I experienced on my California Tour but my God how did all this beauty get packed into such a small stretch of highway. Well, small when you consider the grand scheme of things.

And with that opening I’ll tell you how this, my 5th day on the road ended.

It was now almost 4PM and I was still in Jackson. Checking my map the next “big” town on Hwy 49 was Sonora and looked to be about 50 miles south so I hopped on the old Honda Shadow 750 and rolled on.

Now remember Hwy 49 is not a big slab of cement like the I-5. It’s a two lane road that twist, turns, rises and falls as the landscape dictates. I had no illusion that I’d be in Sonora in an hour. The fact is I didn’t roll into Sonora until sometime after 7PM. but I had lots of good reasons for that. Here are just a couple of the distractions that kept me entertained as I headed down the road:

I don’t know about you but I just can’t haul ass down a road like this without taking the time to enjoy the surroundings. The scenery was so incredible there were times I found myself going no faster than 20 MPH all the while gasping to myself, “Holy Shit!”

Here are few more of the “magical” distractions I found on my way down to Sonora:

Carson Hill

Carson Hill is located about five or six miles north of Angles Camp (more about Angles Camp in a second). Today Carson Hill is nothing more than a blimp on the map. In fact Wikipedia calls it a ghost town. That’s not too far off from the truth as I didn’t see one single person or car as I rolled through. But at one time Carson Hill was a hot spot of the Gold Rush. It was one of the most productive mining camps in the state. The Morgan Mine was one of the richest mines in the area, so much so that the miners didn’t even have to dig. They would simply blow up a vein and collect the pieces of gold that were strewn about the land. The mine was also where one of the largest nuggets in the state was discovered, a 214 pound block of gold that was worth $43,000 at the time.

The image on the right is what’s left of the Morgan Mine.

Robinson’s Ferry

Just about six miles south of Angles Camp I rounded a left hand corner and was again met with a view I had a hard time believing was real. There on the left hand side of the road was a turn out and a historical marker immortalizing Robinson’s Ferry.

On August 13, 1850 John Robinson and Stephen Mead were licensed by the Court of Sessions of Calaveras County to maintain a ferry on the Stanislaus River and here I was 159 years later standing in that very spot! Here’s a picture of the plaque:

Here’s the view of the bridge and the Stanislaus River from the turn out:

Angels Camp, Jackass Hill & Mark Twain

In 1848 Henry Angel, a shopkeeper from Rhode Island, opened a trading post after deciding this would be a more profitable use of his time than digging for gold, thus founding the town of Angels Camp. At one point in Angels Camp’s early history there were as many as 4,000 miners working the claims. As with all the extraordinary towns along Historic Hwy 49, Angels Camp has many stories of pioneers striking it rich but Angels Camp has a bit of history that goes even beyond the Gold Rush stories of early California.

Just after crossing the bridge at Robinson’s Ferry I noticed another historical marker that said Mark Twain’s Cabin next to a road sign that said Jackass Hill. Obviously this was not something I was gonna pass up.

I hung a quick u-turn and headed up Jackass Hill. It was a narrow rocky, dirt road about a mile long but I’ll be damned if at the end of the road directly in front of me was Mark Twains cabin. Now the whole Mark Twain story in Calaveras county is just too long for this venue so I’ll give you a bit of the history and let the images do the rest of the talking but let me again tell you. Standing in the very spot where one of the most famous authors in the world had also stood, had more than just a magical effect on me. It was another one of the many truly spiritual experiences that this California Tour provided me.

So here’s just a little of the history of Mark Twain and Jackass Hill:

Mark Twain lived in this cabin on Jackass Hill in 1864-1865, when he was unemployed and trying his hand at gold mining. But as winter turned bitter he spent more and more time at the saloon in the Angels Hotel. It was there, on a cold February night in 1865, that Samuel Clemens first heard the tale of the jumping frog from bartender Ben Coon. He hiked back to his cabin and wrote his version of the fable — “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” The story that launched his literary career. The cabin burned, but was rebuilt in 1922 with the original chimney and fireplace.

Here is the plaque that sits just out side of Mark Twain’s Cabin:

The inscription reads:

Stopping place of packers carrying supplies to miners. Often 200 jackasses on hill over night furnishing concert suggesting name “Jackass Hill”. Very coarse gold found here. $10,000 taken from 100 square feed of ground. Quartz found containing 3/4 of total weight in gold. Mark Twain, Steve, Jim and Bill Gilis and Dick Stoker, the “Dick Baker” in “Roughing it”, were cronies. Mark wrote here “Jumping Frog of Calaveras” from notes made at Angels Camp Tavern.

Here is the cabin and the view that Mark had of the Stanislaus River from his cabin:

Here is a view of the grounds, and look there really is a jackass on Jackass Hill, please no comments about there being more than one, I get it…

This had been a long day. Remember I started in Lincoln just outside of Sacramento and was now well into the Gold Country on Hwy 49.

As I said earlier it was almost 7PM when I rolled into Sonora and checked into the Sonora Gold Lodge. I grabbed a Subway sandwich and hit the sack. I decided to get some rest before exploring Sonora itself. I’ll tell you about that in my next post.

I grabbed a Subway sandwich and hit the sack. I decided to get some rest before exploring Sonora itself. I’ll tell you about Sonora in my next post.

The Route

While a lot happened between Jackson and Sonora the route was simple. I stayed on Hwy 49 south. Also know as the Mark Twain Bret Harte Trail.