An adventure on the personal side of life

By Dave Boyer

Sometimes there’s stuff in your back yard you never knew existed. And sometimes a person that lives 800 miles away might know something about that stuff when its been right under your nose your entire life. In the fall of 2011 not only would I take an enjoyable trip, I’d learn something about a little town I’ve passed through many times during my lifetime.

(Please click on smaller images to enlarge)

Sportsmobile forum member Tom Sinclair (Zeta) has been in touch with me over the last few months concerning some high tech retractable steps that are being built in his neck of the woods up in Utah by Rock Slide Engineering . I saw these steps demonstrated on the W.A.V.E., a specialized 4×4 van that has been built for Disabled Explorers . After having LA’s Deaver Spring company improve the suspension of my van, I’ll have to admit that the added height of lift applied to my rig was making it difficult for me to climb into the vehicle. Tom set up a group buy for a few members and I was definitely interested. Not only do these steps fully retract to clear trail obstacles, they are fully functional sliders which prevent lower body damage when off road driving takes a turn for the worst. In October I met up with Tom at the Valley of Fire Sprotsmobile Forum Meet that took place in Nevada to look at the sliders. Unfortunately his steps were not installed due to a delay during part of the construction phase so I didn’t get a chance to even see the rails or steps. So what does this have to do with a church?

In early November Tom was scheduled for some upgrades on his van at Sportsmobile West in Fresno which is only an hour away from my home town. Maybe this would be my chance to see the steps and meet up with him again. Tom contacted me explaining that after the work was completed by SMBW, he planned to visit Hornitos and needed some suggestions on where to camp nearby. Hornitos! How did he pull that one out of his hat?

Hornitos California is an itty bitty one horse 1800’s era gold rush town about 40 minutes from my hometown. Hornitos is so small that their main street is only a few city blocks long, most of which only supports a limited amount of buildings including some businesses, homes, a post office and some structures no longer in use. I take the short drive through it on a regular basis because it’s on one of the major paths I frequently use returning from the Sierra Nevada’s, namely the Yosemite area. While asking Tom what the visit to Hornitos was all about, I expected to hear something like my grandma lives there. But his answer kind of stunned me…he said do you know who Ansel Adams is? Well I’m not any kind of professional photographer, but anybody who knows anything about Yosemite know who Ansel Adams is. So the question was, “what’s in Hornitos???? Tom’s answer was “the church???. Hum… the one on the top of the hill? It had to be; I knew Hornitos today has a church and a bar…for the most part it always has in my lifetime. The funny thing was that while I’ve been to the bar I’d never been to the church. Well, so much for my shining armor. Then Tom explained to me that this little church was one of Adams prized photographs. Fascinating; it sure must have added some fame to this little community. In my view, I feel that most of the small towns close to home are basically “part of my back yard??? and Hornitos is no exception. Many of the gold mine towns are famous for one reason or another and knowing the history grants some bragging rights from time to time. Even though many of these towns are a few miles from my home, they are part of a larger community of which I belong, and not knowing this little fact about Hornitos was a surprise to me. Sometimes history jumps up and slaps you in the face. Tom showed me a side of Hornitos I never knew.

Sportsmobile West expected Tom to arrive around 1PM Friday on November 4^th. I gave him a call and suggested some good back roads to take after leaving the shop. Rather than taking highways into Yosemite, roads like Prescott, Ben Hur, and White Rock are fine alternate routes to take as scenic drives heading towards the park.

On Friday night, I received a cell phone call from Tom saying he was in Mariposa and was looking for a spot to stay for the night. He ended up on Ben Hur and planned to camp at the Bagby recreation area , a small campground off highway 49 on Lake McClure north of Mariposa. I suggested the Merced River Recreation Area at Briceburg might be a better choice even though Bagby’s not a bad CG. Depending on the time of year I prefer the Merced River Canyon because of its remoteness but even it can be busy at times. Tom took the suggestion and I told him I’d head up ASAP. (Note: Bagby has showers, something the Merced River Area does not have).

The weather in the San Joaquin Valley was windy and overcast. The forecast was for rain and wind, so rather than load up my bumper box with wood for a campfire, I threw in my small “little red propane fire pit??? instead. The awning does a good job keeping me dry and the propane fireplace knocks off the chill without throwing embers.

When I finally arrived at Briceburg, it was dark and I saw totally clear skies… go figure. Tom had a fire going and at least he had some wood. Guess I screwed up by not packing something to burn, but we still had a good night around the fire with what he had. A few beers and a fine cigar topped off the night. While chatting around the fire I told Tom about the Yosemite Valley Railroad that once ran along the Merced River. Very few remnants remain of the old track but most of the railroad base still exists along the river and we just happened to be camping on it. Ansel Adams had been a passenger on the train at one point in his lifetime to reach Yosemite. I mentioned that Sportsmobile Forum member Jack Burgess has written a book about Yosemite Valley Railroad and has a large detailed miniature model set of the long abandoned track. You can see it at this site: http://www.yosemitevalleyrr.com/

Tour the track

In the morning some overcast had moved in. At least there was no rain. I got out to look over the area and took some pictures.

 

We had several early storms this year and the grasses were already turning green.

Tom had chosen Railroad Flat out of the three camps to stay at. This camp is more suited for vehicles and while the other two CG’s have a few drive in sites, most sites are along the river walk-in types. Luckily Railroad Flat was void of other vehicles.

 

There are grave sites located here. This section of the river had been known as a gold mining area since the early gold rush. There is still gold here but just be aware that there are private gold claims staked here even though this is BLM land. If the person owning the mineral rights happened to drive up while you happen to be trying your best shot of doing some panning, they might not be too happy.

Usually the Merced river is reduced to a trickle at this time of the year but with the recent rains the flow was slightly up.

 

After a little breakfast and espresso, we packed up and headed to Hornitos.

 

 

Tom Sinclair and his rig ready to go.

The road into the camps follows the river with much of it being only a single lane shelf drive.

A signature icon of the Merced River Canyon is the Briceburg Bridge.

Fortunately this gateway keeps the big RV’s and trailers out.

Coming into Mariposa Tom called on the radio suggesting we grab something to eat for lunch. He read my mind. Mariposa has a pretty good pizza spot that also has beer, so of course we moved in that direction. Driving through town was kind of cool… two official looking white vehicles coming into town. Yep our vans did turn heads but what SMB doesn’t? I don’t know what was going on in Mariposa, but parking was a major PITA. It took a bit of looking, but we finally found a parking spot and headed out on foot toward the beer… I mean Pizza.

After consuming our pies and refreshments, we were off to explore. I suggested Old Toll Road, a poorly paved backcountry route off highway 49 that leads down the hill towards Hornitos. At the upper end of Old Toll there are several homes for the first half mile or so. Expecting a drive I’ve taken a million times, I was about to see something that I’ll probably never see for the rest of my life. Coming over a hill, I saw what I thought was a vulture in the road picking at road kill. As I approached I was stunned to see a large bobcat with a housecat in its grip. I had to brake to keep from hitting the dueling cats. It was obvious who would become the winner. As I passed, I radioed Tom and he saw the big cat take its prey over a hill. Nature can be cruel and as a cat lover I was at odds with my feelings. I wasn’t sure if I would have wanted to get off a shot with my camera…but it was so unreal I wish I would have had the time!

Down the road we pulled over to a spot I frequent for a photo opt. From here we would take a few unpaved back roads to Hornitos.

While sitting around the fire the night before, I suggested a route that had several Chinese walls that had been constructed in the general area. The image below shows one of these rock walls.

Tom didn’t seem to know about these walls so I picked a few routes where we would get a chance to stop and take a look at them.

Chinese walls are stone walls that were constructed for cattle ranches and built by any worker needing a job in the mid to late 1800’s. Some of these work groups were made up of Chinese emigrants. After the gold rush played out, many Chinese ended up unemployed and would work for pennies to make a living building these property lines using small field boulders located on cattle ranches.

These boulders were a nuisance to ranchers and were known to trip up their cattle during roundup, but the main reason for the construction of these stone fences was that laws were passed in California making it mandatory to set up property lines.

With barbed wire and wood fence posts in short supply, rocks were the obvious choice. Some of these rock walls actually pre-dated barbed wire. Both Mount Gains and Number Nine road have these walls scattered about and because both roads were unpaved as well as being off the beaten track, I figured Tom might enjoy the ride.

At least I thought he’d find several reasonable photo opportunities along the way which in fact he did. Whenever he radioed for me to pull over I figured something caught his eye. At the last stop before heading further down the hill, I asked Tom if he’d ever seen Tombstone Rocks. I’ll post more on those later.

We finally made Hornitos and pulled in to shoot some photos.

I’ll have to admit, until this trip I’d never taken any pictures of Hornitos and it was kind of cool to check out something other than the bar.

 

Several of the old buildings are still being used such as this one shown above. On the other hand many are abandoned and no longer occupied as this one shown below.

An old fuel pump from the earlier days of the automobile era.

 

 

Looks like this structure has seen its day.

 

 

 

 

I guess I’ve always took this community as one of the lesser gold mining towns. I was wrong.

After milling around the main section of town for a few minutes, it was time to head to the church. Tom whipped out his smart phone showing a picture of Ansel Adams’s well known photograph which is seen at the beginning of this writing.

Things have changed, namely the fence in the foreground of the picture. The picket fence isn’t there anymore, but the church is still a part of history and learning something new about Hornitos intrigued me. Both of us grabbed our cameras and started exploring.

Of course I did my best at taking a good picture, but really my talent would be considered more of the snap shot type.

The old metal wire fence that still circles the church today is a true work of art in itself. You don’t see too many like this out here. I did get a kick when Tom walked up to the church and tapped on the wall… Sears type plastic siding!

OK, she’s old. Heck even the roof was a new metal type but the buttresses that were installed to help support the church were unchanged. Walking through old graveyards was interesting and this one is old.

 

 

I was surprised to see a name on several graves that’s one you don’t see too much of; Campodonico.

 

 

I told Tom I work with a Gregg Campodonico who had mentioned his family was from Hornitos, I just didn’t realize how many of them lived there. Campi had told me “yeah bro, we’re all over the place up there???. He also said some of the family had changed their name in the early part of the 20^th century to Campodonica. Apparently his Great Great Grandfather came to America and set up shop in town. The business just happened to have old mine tunnels under the property that were used by the less scrupulous patrons to evade the law. One of the more famous individuals who frequented the area was Joaquin Murrieta, a local bandit who escaped capture using these tunnels more than once. Needless to say, Campi portrays his past family members as coming slightly from the outlaw side of life and he’s proud of it. He’s one of the family members who refuses to change his name from the original clan.

 

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I did read that some of the graves were above ground at one time in the past, giving Hornitos its name which means “little ovens???. It’s always interesting to find the oldest marker in a graveyard even if the headstones have been updated from the original. I’m sure there were plenty of wood markers that have deteriorated over the years and the above ground type graves for which the town is named after are gone but we found  headstones dating in the early 1800’s. That’s before California became part of the Union in 1850.

Some of the gravesites had decorative fencing around them which I assume was built for the more prominent persons or families.

After getting our fill of Hornitos, it was time to take a look at some tombstone rocks. These rocks are basically thinner pieces of shale that jut upward out the ground resembling headstones.

I don’t actually know the geology of these rocks but I’ve seen them throughout the local foothills. One section that holds more than average abundance of these stones is on Rock River Road close to the Keystone ranch off California state highway 108.

On the way there I stopped by the Crimea house, a stage stop of the gold rush era. About all that’s left of the site is a stone corral, but a historical marker about the Tong War has some interesting info telling about a scuffle between 2,500 Chinese workers that happened here in 1856. From what I’ve read most of the fighting was more of a yelling and physical muscle match between the rival groups, with very few casualties.

The area holds many tombstone rocks that were used to set up corrals and fences but the Crimea corral doesn’t contain many tombstone rocks, it’s built mainly with the large round volcanic rocks that also litter this region.

More information about the fences and corrals can be found here:

http://www.oakdalecowboymuseum.org/StoneFencesandCorrals.pdf

Coming up to the Keystone area brought us to another 1800’s railroad that is still in use today. The Sierra Railroad runs between Oakdale and Sonora and supplies freight to the local foothill communities. A short section runs along Green Springs Road which connects to Rock River. If you’re lucky you might encounter one of the old steam engines that still travel the track as a tourist ride. The Sierra RR with its antique engines and cars have been seen in many western TV shows and movies, notably High Noon starring Gary Cooper, Petticoat Junction and The Wild Wild West pilot production. Many of these trains can be seen at Railtown State Park located in Jamestown not far up the track from Keystone. Engine #3 has had a vivid past as shown in this Youtube video. Unfortunately time was short and a sideline trip to Jamestown was out of the question.

After veering away from the tracks, tombstone rocks started to pop up along the road. A few miles in and the formations were everywhere. Even though it was beginning to turn dark, Tom was able to get off a few shots. These rocks are interesting and I would like to see if he captured any good shots. Unfortunately my camera lens needed for low light conditions was at home sitting next to my tripod. No more pictures for me until the next day. These pictures of Rock River Road are from some of the other trips I’ve taken. Like Hornitos, Rock River is the route I take home when coming from the Sierra’s Sonora Pass area north of Yosemite.

Even if you don’t care about geology, Rock River is a great alternate road to take rather than flying down the highway and I highly recommend driving this narrow bumpy path into the lower foothills. Too bad we didn’t get one of those vivid red California sunsets with spotty cloud cover. A large cloudbank was on the horizon that didn’t look good… it looked like rain. Tom wasn’t feeling like a long drive to his destination was in order and asked about somewhere close by to camp. Turlock Lake SRA was minutes away and I didn’t mind spending another night at someplace other than home. Pulling into the campground after dark I was surprised to see other campers. Well, it is a nice State Recreation Area that’s extremely well shaded. Luckily we found a good camp away from the others…ah, at least some privacy. I headed back home to grab some brews, and a little wood while Tom setup camp. It’s kind of weird staying so close to home…it just doesn’t feel like camping to me, but with friends who cares; it brings back those high school days when I didn’t have enough money to go anywhere else.

The forecast was for rain but so far we had missed it. As luck would have it, I didn’t get too far before having to turn on the wipers. I’d hoped the storm would miss the campground but it didn’t look good. It came down all the way to Turlock and was heavy at times. I loaded up with wood anyway but figured there wasn’t going to be a fire that night. The rain was pouring down all the back to camp until I was about 5 miles from camp. Maybe we’d get some luck thrown at us after all. Pulling into the campground it looked dry so maybe a fire would happen that night. Well they say smoke follows beauty; I found rain follows fat guys. It wasn’t 15 minutes and the rain hit hard. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like camping in a rain provided the winds are reasonable. Tom had his awning out at camp and I had to eventually deploy mine as the rain continued to increase. At least the campground was sheltered from the wind, because it was blustery. Finally I got out the Little Red Propane Fire.

This portable fireplace is handy in certain circumstances and considering the weather I was happy to have it along. We slammed some beers plus had a couple of nice cigars while enjoying the little propane fire. The rain was heavy throughout the night but being sheltered from the rain and a good warm fire at our feet, times were good. As the evening waned, both of us figured it was time to turn in, besides the beer was gone.

In the morning the weather had cleared for the most part and it was time to pack and head out. I took some picture of the campground for the trip report.

The tree cover is mainly Oaks, Cottonwood, and Maple trees and I could see why it was occupied as shady as it is here.

Wild grapes wind through many of the trees giving it a kind of jungle look. This time of the year is a good time to visit this place.

The end of the trip:

For me it was a simple short drive home. Tom on the other hand had a drive ahead of him. His next stop was Monterey and the Pacific Ocean which happened to be about 3-4 hours away. Rather than taking major roads through the Central Valley, I suggested highway 33. This was the main route through the Central Valley until I-5 was built. Highway 33 is a nice drive that has not been touched by time. It’s common to see remnants of the 1950’s era when driving through some of the small towns and outlying areas. Most of the drive is through farmlands, which is a pleasant alternative to a crowded I-5. Just outside of my hometown I waved to Tom as he headed down Keyes road traveling toward the town of Newman, highway 33 and his destination the Pacific Ocean.

This was a fantastic little run. Thanks to Tom this adventure was more than just a trip home and being able to guide someone around my local area was somewhat exhilarating. I have to give my thanks to Tom for teaching me about something about the local community that I never knew about and for following me throughout the foothills. Overall though, nothing beats making new friends while exploring the good old USA.

Good times… enjoy life while you can.

Thanks for following AutoRamblings… maybe see ya on the trail.