May 19, 2021
Day 9: Jackson to San Andreas
Today is a short, easy day. I was only on the road from 9:30 until 12:45. But it has too much climbing to combine with another day.
Today CA 49 mostly has a narrow paved shoulder and a third of today's route is on low-traffic historic alternate routes. Traffic wasn't much of a concern for the first time in several days.
Today I cross only one major river, the Mokelumne river. It's in a deep canyon like most rivers in the area. 650 foot (198 m) descent to the bridge, then a 620 foot (189 m) ascent after the bridge. Part of the ascent was 7% grade.
When crossing the river I enter Calaveras county. The name is well known thanks to a famous short story entitled The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. The short story catapulted an unknown gold miner named Samuel Clemens to enduring literary fame using the pen name Mark Twain.
Today's landscape is the usual oak savanna. I appreciate it more when I don't have to spend so much time looking in the mirror!
Near the top of the climb from the bridge I turned left onto the Scenic Alternate route to the gold mining town of Mokelumne Hill. It's a small town with a well preserved gold rush era downtown. I took a long stop at a beautifully landscaped park/amphitheater.
Mokelumne Hill is very quiet because it's on the scenic alternate instead of on CA 49. That makes it a popular getaway for people who want to live in a remote gold rush town. The town seems to be thriving and a desirable place to live.
Hotel Leger is the oldest hotel I've seen so far.
I really like Mokelumne Hill. It's small, not as grand as the larger towns. But in Mokelumne Hill it's easy to visualize life during the gold rush.
South of Mokelumne Hill the scenic alternate eventually reconnects to CA 49. The shoulder is reliable, so the heavy traffic wasn't a problem. Then I turned onto another quiet scenic alternate for the final 3 miles into San Andreas.
Just before San Andreas I crossed a small unsigned stream. Maps say it's the North Fork Calaveras river.
I arrived in San Andreas at 12:45, feeling hungry. My first stop was at a pizza restaurant (no masks). Then I explored the town for a while before checking into Sierra Inn at 2:15.
San Andreas is a relatively big town, population 3120. It has a lot of historic houses but only 2 blocks of the Gold Rush era downtown buildings remain.
San Andreas was founded by Mexican miners in 1848. Many Mexicans lived in California at the time because the U.S. had only just seized California from Mexico in the Mexican War of 1846-1847.
San Andreas had a short-lived placer mining boom in the 1850's. Then productive gold deposits were found in gravel beds of an underground river in the 1860's. Productive quartz hard rock mines were established in the 1870's and remained successful until the 1890's.
Current population of San Andreas is 3120. The population wasn't much bigger during the gold rush.
The Calaveras County Museum complex occupies a large part of the historic downtown area. I read that it's an excellent museum but it's still closed for the pandemic.
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San Andreas is the county seat of Calaveras county. The old downtown courthouse is now part of the county museum. All the county offices are now in a suburban office park on the south edge of town.
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Home for the next 2 nights is Sierra Inn. $185 for 2 nights. It's adjacent to the historic downtown area. About half of the hotel guests are construction workers and half are one step away from homeless. The construction workers are quiet but the near-homeless people gather for conversations on the stairway next to my door. San Andreas has fewer tourists than the other gold rush towns.
Today was totally sunny with a high of 73F (23C). Substantially below normal which is fine with me.
Traffic was not a problem today. A third of today's short route is low-traffic scenic alternates. CA 49 is still busy but this segment has a reliable shoulder.
Distance: 18.5 miles (29.6 km)
Ascent/Descent: +1729/-1913 ft (+527/-583 m)
Average Speed: 7.4 mph (11.8 km/h)
Today's ride: 19 miles (31 km)
Total: 315 miles (507 km)
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