The RV Adventures Henry Jones Jr.

The Ladybird Johnson Grove and Fern Canyon

Today we decided on visiting those sites we didn’t have time to see yesterday.  So after breakfast and waiting for the sun to come out, it’s back north, to Orick to the Kuchel Visitor Center which sits right on the beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  It’s a grey day and the fog is starting to burn away, but the beach isn’t why we’re here, so, after a few more souvenirs, we head inland to the Ladybird Johnson Grove.  The parking is some walking distance from the lot, but well worth the short hike.   Beautiful redwood giants are preserved in this grove and even with all the photographs taken, none can really do justice to their majesty.  We spend a good two hours walking through the redwood forest shrouded in a vapory mist with fingers of sunlight penetrating the canopy, caressing the massive tree trunks and lightly touching the undergrowth.

After our meditative saunter through the redwoods, we decided to head west to the coast along Davidson Road to the southern-most section of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park to the trailhead to Fern Canyon, a deep cleft in the ocean-side bluff where a temperate rainforest exists in miniature.  The steep walls are lined with a drapery of bright green ferns and trees provide shade.  A stream meanders through the canyon floor as logs provide a minor obstacle.  We go into the canyon as far as we can before it starts to get more difficult and as it starts to narrow and the canyon floor rises.  On the way back, I notice a couple of really cool dragonflies, one repeatedly trying to carry another of the same species.  Both are colored a beautiful turquoise blue and now it appears that one has been weakened, perhaps waterlogged in the shallow stream and the other is trying to prey on it.  So I decide to interfere, doing the unnatural rather than the amoral.  I take a stick and “save” the one being attacked and set it on a log.  It immediately starts to buzz its wings as if to dry them.  At least now, if it is attacked after we leave, it’ll be more of a fair fight.  I know that’s not how nature works, but that’s how people work and what sets us apart from animals.

Back on the road we stop at the Palm Café once more for some coffee and pie.  After another delightful morsel, it’s getting late in the afternoon, but we still have a couple of hours before heading back to the motorhome.   We decide to visit Patrick’s Point State Park and hit the visitors center first then to their major exhibit, the Yurok Village of Sumêg, a newly constructed site built by local Yurok people and park staff.  Three typical houses are partially buried into the grassy knoll, while a dance pit and a redwood log canoe offer an interpretation of Yurok and regional native culture.  The rocky coast of the state park offers some spectacular views and recreational opportunities, but not for us; at least not right now.   It now close to 4 pm and we still want to visit Trinidad State Park, but that will have to wait as we make a quick stop along highway 101 to view a herd of elk just a little ways away.  Other cars stop and people are scrambling down a ravine to get better look and to take pictures.  After observing these beautiful animals, we get back to the car and continue south to Trinidad and to the state park.  By this time, the only thing to do is take the road out onto the bluffs and view the ocean and a large pair of birds, osprey or eagles perhaps, gracing the evening sky amid large alder trees.  A fine end to an incredible day and another adventure.

The Redwoods National and State Parks

Today was a great day, we said as we made our way back to the motor home after stopping for pie at the Palm Café in Orick.  Homemade pies made by Mrs. Martha Peal, owner of the Palm Motel & Café on the Redwood Highway.  We started our day at the Palm Café, each with a Redwood Country breakfast of biscuits and gravy, eggs over easy, golden hash browns and a slab of ham for me and some bacon for Lou.  Coffee was good, too.  Best home cooked breakfast that rated right up with the breakfast we had enjoyed at the OK Café in Tombstone, Arizona some six years ago or so.  We noticed the pies and inquired about them.  Soon as we found out they were hand made by Martha, we promised we’d stop by on our way back.

Our first stop was at the Redwood information center in Hiouchi, just east of Crescent City on Highway 199.  I had planned our scenic drive route the night before and I wanted to make sure the roads were still open and if there were any “must see” stops along the way.  Good thing, too, because we found out about the Stout Grove on the scenic Howland Hill road. that meanders through the Jedediah Smith Redwoods state park.  It was the perfect highlight of our tour.  The drive through these giants was magnificent and the 0.5 loop trail through the Stout Grove was unlike any other redwood grove we had ever visited.  This was called a first growth forest, one that is still growing and the trees are gigantic!  The understory is mainly sword-ferns and some other brush and is kept neat and clean by the regular flooding of the nearby Klamath River.  The rangers at the Jedediah state park visitors center, located in the campground across from the Redwood information center mentioned a bridge on the river that connects the Stout grove with the campground and the beautiful views from the bridge.  They weren’t kidding.  By the time we got there, one of the rangers, Patricia, was already on the bridge and gave us another tip of some otters that were seen up the nearby creek.  So we diverge further from our original trail and wander up the rocky shore of this creek.  I at least have my hiking boots on.  Lou on the other hand is wearing his usual sandals.   I have no problem crossing a downed log across the rushing water of the creek.  Lou avoids a near miss as his sandal loses traction, shredding the side of the log, but regains his balance to make it across safely.  All for not.  No otters could be seen and we didn’t feel like going any further.  We still had to backtrack to the main river and back up to the Stout Grove loop trail. 

Howland Hill road continues through more pristine redwood forest and at times narrows and winds between the trunks of massive coast redwoods.  What a delight!  The sunshine streamed down through the canopy to highlight the forest floor and ravines where more giants shot up to the sky.  Soon this impressive display gives way to an ordinary conifer forest as the road leaves the Jedediah redwoods and we make our way back to Highway 101, just south of Crescent City.  Back along the coast, the fog kept the temperatures about 10 degrees lower and made stopping at any of the vista points or scenic overlooks rather pointless.  Continuing our return south on 101, we again drive through the Del Norte Redwoods state park.  Back in the town of Klamath we notice many RV parks on both sides of the highway, the ones overlooking the Klamath River seemed nice with tremendous views, especially the Golden Bear and Klamath River RV parks.  The stay in Trinidad was obviously too far from all the redwood parks.  Klamath would have  been a better locale to start off from.

Our last leg of our scenic drive tour went through the Prairie Creek Redwoods state park along Newman B. Drury Parkway.  This is a well-paved two lane road that traverses the heart of another strand of gigantic redwoods and we travel south to the visitors center for yet more souvenirs and information.  We find where the best places to see the Roosevelt Elk, second in size after the Moose.  We had seen a “bagged” elk with an 8-point rack in the back of a pick-up back in Trinidad this morning and took a quick picture of it while it was parked across from the gas station we were at.  Beautiful animals!  Living is better, or course, but the day was getting late and the drive out to the coast through open meadowland to Fern Valley, another loop trail, was to be saved until tomorrow. 

Continuing on toward Orick, we notice cars stopped at the side of the highway and people taking pictures of a bull elk in the front yard of someone’s house.  Not wanting to trespass, we stay by the road and take our pictures as the elk lays down to rest under a tree, then scratches his backside ever so delicately with his massive rack.  How cool!  Further down the road, same thing. People on the side of the road, only this time it’s a herd of about 25 does, fawns and youths.  One young buck already has a 5-point rack.  Seems kind of small to be his harem.  They’re browsing on a gravel bar on the Redwood Creek just on the northern outskirts of the town of Orick.  They’re sighting just made our day and we celebrate in town with a piece of pie and milk at the Palm Café.  It may be dinner time, but life is uncertain, so we have a dessert first.

21 miles more to the south and we’re back in Trinidad at our motor home to find more RVs have arrived.  We did notice more RVs on the road today than we have on any other day since we started this latest adventure a week ago.  This coastal area must be very popular with us “trailerites”.  Our neighbors in the Itasca Sun Cruiser left on Sunday and we got new neighbors this evening.  Emerald Forest has excellent cable and we’ve been able to catch up with the SF 49ers and Giants and we settled in for the night with another Giants game and some beef stroganoff courtesy of the Helping Hand.

The Humboldt Redwoods & The Lost Coast

We said goodbye to Bodega Bay and continued northward on Highway 1 to Jenner then on River Road, Route 116, to Santa Rosa to catch the 101.  I had planned on going back to Route 12 through Sebastopol to 101, but before I had time to think about it, Lou had the RV pointed to go left instead of right, so I said, “sure why not?”  The drive was easier than I thought it would be, River Road, along the Russian River was very wide with a wide shoulder for the most part and not winding at all.  The apprehension of driving across San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, through two narrow tunnels on each side, was a distant memory and I was relaxed, trusting in Lou’s driving and handling of the rig.  Piece of cake.  Really!  He hasn’t hit nothing…..so far!

The drive north on Highway 101, the Redwood Highway, was equally relaxing, it being four wide lanes most of the way, except when you get to the small town of Arnold the “highway” narrows to two lanes after crossing a narrow steel-gauge trestle bridge.  After doing a few slalom runs past some roadside redwood trees, which had obviously sustained being sideswiped by big rigs some time ago, the highway becomes wider and comfortable all the way to the small town of Myers Flat, population 200.

This one horse town doesn’t even have a stop sign on the main road which is called The Avenue of the Giants.  The Avenue of the Giants is a 31 mile stretch of the former highway 101 and meanders along the south fork of the Eel River, crisscrossing the newer highway from Garberville to Pepperwood.  It also runs along the eastern edge of the Humboldt Redwoods state park and is studded with giant coast redwood trees.  We had the sunroof open so we, well, I, could look up at the trees as Lou was drive the car during one of our expeditions.

The Giant Redwoods Campground & RV Park is right on the Eel River with the redwood forested hills of the state park in the background.  The park itself is OK.  Gravel road and pads with full hook-ups.  Every type of camper comes here including a couple from Germany who were on a year hiatus and biking (bicycling) their way around the world.  They were on their way to San Francisco (220 miles away), then to Australia to bicycle there, then to South America.  I’d like to say it sounds fun, but I won’t.  It does sound hard.

Thursday morning we opted for breakfast at the Avenue Café in another small town of Miranda.  Eggs and chorizo for me and an omelet for Lou and we were ready for another adventure.  We inquired about the Dyerville Loop road I kept seeing signs for and were told that it was just another drive through more forest containing smaller trees.  Basically nothing to write home about, which is kind of what I doing right here.  But the storefront owner says the drive out to the coast to Shelter Cove and back is scenic.  So armed with only a tourist map we drive south to Redway to top up the gas tank in the Saturn (bright chili pepper red thing, you can’t miss us) and get a map of the Lost Coast as it is known.  The 24 mile drive is OK, but just as you crest the mountains you see the Pacific Ocean framed by the V-shaped, heavily forested canyons of the King Range.  Gorgeous!  We make our way all the way to the end of the road right on the coast to the edge of a bluff overlooking the ocean and where the Cape Mendecino lighthouse has been refurbished and relocated to.  Nice old three story lighthouse with a red dome top over multiple panes of windows surrounding the top floor.  A pathway leads down to the ocean and a picnic bench offers a quite respite for retirees and for some rather large gulls sitting patiently at the table along with elderly women reading her book.  Interesting, I think to myself.

Shelter Cove is yet another small town right on the coast, which appeared to be on the verge of a housing boom until the bottom dropped out.  Now, some would-be vacation homes remain only partially finished.  The local market and campground appear run down, the large plywood humpback whale on the side of the building is falling apart.  Their RV parking spaces do have full hook-ups, but the steep and narrow drive make these available only to the smallest of RVs.  The smell of the marine air is intense, the sea beckons and my heart is moved by the lull of the ocean waves.  That was a first for me, this subtle beckoning.  I finally understood what it was about the sea that has hypnotized many a mariner.  I wanted to stay longer, but there was nothing else to do in town, nothing else to see.

A kiosk by the old lighthouse shows a map for the King range conservation area, one of the first BLM conservations areas ever established.  Just outside of town, the Kings Peak Road traverses the length of the King Range, northward, and catches the Mattole road which goes back to Highway 101 to form a loop back to the campground.  We had found our scenic loop tour for the day which even included an unexpected 40 mile narrow and winding dirt road drive down through, and out of, a couple of heavily mixed-forest canyons, through these coast mountains.  Kings Peak, at roughly 4000 ft. is the highest point along the contiguous US coast, another bit of local trivia to make you go, “wow!”

By the time we reached the small town of Honeydew, we were ready to go back to the motor home but we still had the narrow state park road ahead of us before we got to the highway.  Actually the drive through this section of Humboldt Redwoods is very scenic and included the Tall Trees Grove and the Bull Creek Flat Grove all part of the Rockefeller Forest.  We’d have to come back tomorrow as we were tired, parched and a bit peckish.

Back at the motor home, I fixed us some snacks of cheese & crackers and some dried sliced salami and slices of a large pear we purchased at the local market.  It was grown over in Pepperwood, we were told, and the store was out of them a couple of days later.  Sweetest pear I ever had.  It complemented the other snacks perfectly.  We kick back in our lawn chairs, reading and watching the afternoon go by.  Big leaf maples and tall white alders bristle in the breeze.  Raucous Stellar jays are defending their territories.  A couple of quails run past us and dive into the underbrush.  They are quick!  Three large, round guineafowl also make their way past our camp.  There is no shortage of birds around here!

For dinner Lou barbecued some pork shoulder strips smothered in hickory BBQ sauce and I made some mac’n’cheese with bits of broccoli mixed in.  We had had a couple of rib-eyes the previous day with some instant mashed taters and sautéed peppers and onions.  Yeah, we eat well, vacation or not, the RV after all is just an extension of our home.

Friday, our last day at Humboldt Redwoods, we drive back to the Tall Trees and Bull Creek groves to view some of the largest of the redwood trees and stroll the Rockefeller loop trail through old-growth forest.  Naturally felled trees have become a valuable resource to renew the forest, their massiveness is just mind boggling.  One final stop at the visitors center to watch the in house movie about the local flood of ’64 when many of the bridges in the area were wiped out, and to purchase those last minute souvenirs.  On the way back to Myers Flat along the Avenue of the Giants, we stop at the drive-through tree.  For 2 buck a piece, we got to drive through a narrow tunnel through the stump of an old tree just to say you’ve done it.  The private park also has a couple of hollowed out tree stump houses with pitched shingle roofs and small doors and windows, perfect of taking pictures with the little ones, in our case, bears.  The gift shop offers souvenirs made of redwood and other gifts.  For the bears, I couldn’t resist the small faux coon-skin caps, splurging for the last five, one for each bear.  If anything, I felt like contributing to this local attraction which helps to support the community.  Many of these small towns are seeing the effect of the downturn in the economy, many storefronts were empty where cafés, restaurants, and gas stations once flourished.

Back in the car, we notice the temperature has climbed to the 90’s.  It’s been nice these last few days, today would be the start of heat wave.  By the time we get to the motor home, the temp has climbed to 102 degrees.  Yikes!  Kick on the AC ‘cause we’re spending the afternoon indoors today.  We watch the Coast Redwoods DVD I bought back at the Humboldt state park visitors center and peruse the news on the internet.  Tonight we dine on spaghetti and meatballs, sautéed veggies, including some eggplant and squash I grew myself in pots filled with compost back in San Francisco!  I clipped them off the plants just as we were about to get underway.

Tomorrow we depart to continue our exploration of the Pacific Coast Redwoods further north to the Prairie Creek Redwoods and Redwoods National Park.  We’ll be staying at the Emerald Forest RV Park in Trinidad, 70 miles from Myers Flat.

The Sonoma Coast – Point Reyes to Jenner

This morning started out with Lou’s famous Hotdog Chilaquiles, a breakfast that has been fine-tuned over the years and is one of my favorites as in I don’t have to cook!  While cleaning up and having another cup of coffee, we heard a helicopter fly overhead, only we didn’t get the Doppler effect that we were expecting.  Instead we heard it slow down as it landed in a field adjacent to the RV park!  It was a Sonoma county sheriff’s helicopter.  After the blades stopped rotating, three sheriff’s deputies in green flight suits marched out toward the entrance of the park!  Seems they land quite often to get a cup of coffee at a nearby coffee shop.  It’s 10:00 am, it’s break time, much to the delight of all of us here at the park.  A very exciting few minutes.  On the way out of the park we wave a friendly hello to the flight crew.  Gotta love and respect those in the service of the public.

Our first full day of vacation we spent touring the Sonoma Coast.  First south on Highway 1, through the small town of Tomales and further along the narrow length of Tomales Bay.  Several oyster farms dot the bay shore with a few restaurants offering seafood as well as fresh oysters served in a variety of ways, barbequed oysters seemed to be a popular dish among the many tourists this beautiful Labor Day.

We drove as far as the town of Olema at the entrance of the Point Reyes National Seashore.  Drove by the Olema RV park to scope it our for a future trip to the area.  Nice meadow-like grassy open area with trees, which is a step above  Bodega Bay’s dirt/gravel pads with patches of dead grass and a tree in between the sites.  That is just a cursory comparison as I don’t know what else they have as far as amenities.  We stopped at the Pt. Reyes visitors center to purchase a few souvenirs and to take a quick look through the exhibits.  We’ve visited on a previous occasion so we didn’t take long this time around.  There is much to see and do at Pt. Reyes, but today was just for touring. 

On the way back to Bodega Bay, we stopped at Tony’s Seafood Restaurant which featured barbequed oysters.  Not being oyster fans, we opted for a light lunch with a bowl of clam chowder and some sourdough bread and butter.  The view out the many windows was spectacular being right on the waters edge of the bay with the forested hills of the Pt. Reyes peninsula in the background.  Several small boats were anchored in the  bay, rocking with the waves and light breeze.  Such natural beauty belies the famous fault beneath these waters.  The San Andreas fault runs along the length of Tomales Bay then straight through Bodega Bay, through the Bodega Headlands and out again to the Pacific Ocean. 

Back on the Highway 1, northbound, we exit in Bodega Bay at Eastshore Road and drive to the length of the Bodega Headlands, the small spout-like peninsula that juts out from the mainland.  Actually the headlands are not geologically part of the mainland as it is on the eastern edge of the Pacific plate, while the town side of Bodega Bay in on the North American plate.  You can really see the striations in the land as you drive south on Highway 1 from the town of Jenner, which was our next stop as we continued north.

Jenner sits right on the Russian river estuary where it flows out into the Pacific.  The scenery along this part of the Sonoma coast is spectacular with scattered rock formations jutting out of the sky blue water with white foam surrounding each rock as the waves crashed around them.  We stopped at the Sonoma Coast Beaches State Park visitors center to find that it was closed.  Still, a small boardwalk behind the visitors center overlooks the estuary and has a couple informational panels.  The day couldn’t have been more perfect for touring the coast.  We continually kept an eye on the road with thought of driving the motorhome along this stretch of Highway 1.  The answer was, definitely, yes.  The drive from Jenner to Olema can be done quite easily even in a larger rig.

Back at the motorhome, it’s almost 6 pm and we get ready to make dinner and settle in for the rest of the night.  Tomorrow we leave Bodega Bay and journey further north on Highway 101 to Myers Flat near the Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

The Mother lode is a term associated with the mining of gold and silver, and refers to a principal vein or zone of veins of gold or silver ore. In the United States, Mother Lode is most famously the name given to the long alignment of hard rock gold deposits stretching northwest to southeast in the Sierra Nevada of California. The California Mother Lode is a zone from one to four miles wide and 120 miles long, which stretches from Georgetown in El Dorado County on the north, through Amador, Calaveras, and Tuolumne counties, south to Mormon Bar in Mariposa County.

The term is also used metaphorically to refer to the origin of something valuable or in great abundance.  This is the usage of today’s title, the reason we all go on vacation, in hopes of striking it rich, in adventure and in making of fond memories.  Even when things don’t go as planned.  Like when we arrived back to Treasure Island RV Park to store the motorhome, we discovered the Protect-Tow in tatters and the PVC cross-support bar missing.  It was never attached and we just drove off merrily on our way, unaware of this mistake.  Fortunately, the tow cables and pressurized air line didn’t get damaged and nothing damaged the towed vehicle.  Still, we’ll look back on this trip some years from now and recall, “Remember when…?”

Well that’s certainly true.  There is still gold to be found around here, but the cost to extract it, we are told, doesn’t make it a worthwhile venture.  So today we set out to explore our immediate area, Gold Hill and the Coloma Valley, where it all started.

Our first stop is to the American River Conservancy’s Nature Center at the old Kane House across from the Coloma Resort on Main Street, also known as Route 49.  Actually our first stop was at the Coloma Café at the corner of Mt. Murphy Road and Main, right next to the replica of Sutter’s mill.  We stopped for a couple of Icee’s, which we had been hankerin’ for since we arrived.  The woman at the Icee stand wouldn’t let me tell her how to assemble my mixed slushy.  She’s used to taking orders from all the children that visit and makes them as she sees fit to save time.  She mentioned that this particular Icee vendor has the highest amount of sales in all of northern California!  It’s a single machine with four flavors.  I guess when you have a steady stream of tired kids, you’re going to be making a mint!

So, we stop at the Nature Center to see their exhibits and to inquire about a local BLM trail that I had read about but didn’t see the trailhead entrance on our way to Auburn the other day.  She described the general area and the stone entrance and the sign which was set inside the gate and not readily visible from the street.  It’s an informative center with nicely painted murals on the walls and furnishings and a small book and gift store.  They even had some stuffed wildlife on display including a Puma (mountain lion), a Bobcat (linx), an owl and other birds and mammals.  They also had a live rosy boa, a California tiger salamander and a California king snake on display.

Our next stop was the Gold Hill Olive Oil Company.  There is also and Gold Hill Vineyard but we didn’t stop as wine tasting wasn’t something we do often.  We do use a lot of olive oil, though, so it only seems natural to visit a local olive orchard.  The store is set up for tasting and we found one of their blends exceptional.  We purchased some for ourselves and an extra as a possible gift. 

Well so far our day is going rather quickly and we drive back toward route 49 on Lotus Road and make a left at Route 49 toward the town of Cool and start to look for the stone entrance leading to the David Moore Nature Area parking area.  There is no leaflet or posted information about the trail.  You’re pretty much on your own and on this day, we were the only ones on the one mile loop trail.  The trail is easy and the riparian habitat has some spectacular scenery.  It took us about 40 minutes to hike the trail, taking many digital photos to the point where we ran out of battery power.  Still, I think I captured the essence of our hike, the end of which left us ready for a cold drink.  Back in the parking area we suddenly hear a loud crack and deep thud coming from the direction we had initially hiked through.  What was that?  Maybe a bear or maybe just a large tree limb falling.  There was no way to know but it had our imaginations running rampant!

Our search for a cool elixir led us up Coloma canyon on Marshall Road to the gold rush town of Growlersville, now known as Georgetown.  I like Growlersville better and hope someday the name changes back.  By the time we make the nine mile trek deeper into the hills, we were also looking for that perfect snack that would tide us over until dinner.  There wasn’t much to choose from but did find Starvin’ Dog Pizza which appeared to be more bar than pizza.  We bellied up to the bar and ordered a personal size pizza to share, a coke and a beer which was just what we were looking for.  The pizza was very good and they didn’t skimp on the toppings.  The owner, who was tending bar, mentioned how slow it’s been, probably due to high gas prices.  Still, he was hoping summer vacation would bring in tourists who would be more willing then to bite the bullet and take their vacation regardless of gas prices.

On our way back to the resort, we took a shortcut on Mt. Murphy Road which ends right at the Coloma resort, the road narrows then the asphalt gives way to gravel and dirt as we wind up the side of Mt. Murphy (according to a crude map I had).  We couldn’t let a vacation go by without some off road driving and this one allowed us to see the south fork of the American river and surrounding area from above.  Albeit short, the drive was adventurous as we didn’t know the condition of the road ahead or if it actually connected with the section in town.  The map didn’t show it connected because of some printed names on the map, I just assumed it did.  Slowly but surely we finally made our way back to the resort entrance.  The school children were all gone and, now, the weekend, more RVs are finding their way to the resort.  With each one, we hope no one is assigned to  park to our right, which would completely block our view.  Not that it matters much now.  We have had a glorious week here in California’s gold country and will definitely return.

With each new adventure, our souls cry out Eureka! And we become renewed.

Bonanza (bə-năn‘zə) definition:  n. 1. A rich mine, vein, or pocket of ore.  2.  A source of great wealth or prosperity.

The next day we day started off with a stack of hot pancakes, buttered and full of syrup, eggs over easy and crispy bacon.  This is the day that a hoard of school children would be shipped in and camp overnight.  They started to arrive early this morning, attending one of the classrooms scattered throughout the resort and the Discovery Park.  The plan was to make ourselves scarce and visit the Placerville area. 

Our first stop, after coffee at Starbucks (there are four in town, so it must be true that they’re on every corner) was the Gold Bug Mine Park.  The children were here, too, on a guided tour through the short mine.  We opted for the self-guided audio tour.  With hardhats and recording devices in place we started out at the mine shaft and followed the numbered stops and listened to the recordings that went along with each stop.  This type of mine was a load mine, where a visible vein of quartz was mined from a tunnel called a drift that followed the vein.  These underground excavations were called stopes.  Branches of a vein were also mined as much as possible, sometimes straight up into the slate rock that formed the hill.  An air shaft mined to the top of the hill provided much needed fresh air.  Further into the mine, small rail cars were used to load up bits of ore (quartz & gold) and pushed to the entrance to the Stamp Mill.  When a vein of ore ran out, miners would then start a tunnel sideways in hopes of finding another vein.

Gold Bug Mine Park also has a stamp machine on display.  These are large metal weights attached to long vertical metal poles which were driven by a belt, are raised and allowed to fall, piston style, on the chunks of ore to crush it and extract the gold. They had a smaller working replica and the docent turned it on for us to demonstrate how it worked.  What was immediately apparent was the tremendous noise this little model made.  The big one must have been deafening and heard for miles, and, we were told, usually ran all day and all night!  The crushed ore was then brushed with mercury which attracted bits of gold like a magnet to form an amalgam.  Also on display was a retort, used to extract the gold from the amalgam.  Basically a still, the amalgam would be boiled and the mercury vapor would rise and allowed to condense in a downward tube and recovered in a pot for reuse.  The leftover gold would have holes throughout it and was called sponge gold.  The gold was further purified and formed into bouillon and transported by Wells Fargo to the US Mint.  A graph in the Stamp Mill showed that the volume of gold mined in this gold rush bonanza, peaked in 1853 and quickly fell to a low level, only four years after the gold rush began.  There is also a trail around the park where an old silver mine was located and remnants can be viewed.

Enough of the mining stuff, the next stop was Boa Vista Orchard in the Apple Hill area just to the north of Placerville.  This area is just beautiful with vineyards and orchards blanketing the hills and the mixed conifer covered  mountains in the background.  This area must be bustling during the harvest season, but many of the businesses weren’t yet open to the public.  Fortunately, Boa Vista Orchard was open and offered pies and other baked goods, produce, nuts, fruit syrups and preserves, pickled veggies, wine and wine tasting, a veritable bonanza!  A great place to get some goodies for yourself and to give as gifts.  We purchased some Apple wines, preserved spicy olives with names like, “Blister Maker,” “Crying Tongue” and “Burning Butt.”  We also got a jar of pickled spicy Brussels sprouts called, “Frog Balls.”  Their baked pie selection was a bit ragged, so we stopped by The Argonaut again for the last two slices of strawberry-rhubarb pie, least until they bake another one. We noticed a lot more children being moved from place to place in small manageable batches, including one that marched past the pie store and were pining for some ice cream.  One of the adults in the passing line turns to us and says something like, “we’ve been hiking for seven hours, nah, we don’t need any ice cream.”

Back at the motorhome, we decide on hamburgers, potato salad and some “Frog Balls,” which were rather good if you like Brussels sprouts and vinegar.  This adventure in the California Gold Country has been a recreational as well as educational bonanza, rich in history and steeped in fun!