soaztim: 13 days and 3,410.9 miles *Part V*

“A gold rush era gun shop that also serves beer... in California... that’s still open... Really?”

We left Tahoe late in the morning and headed to Gold Country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Country

This area of California is my favorite non-remote area. Yes, that’s convoluted, but I prefer the remote spots near the Salton Sea or Death Valley more, but for an area with paved roads, this is the best!

Each town is so old and well established, let alone beautiful. With names like Sonora, Angels Camp and Copperopolis it’s hard not to conjure some cool images.

These aren’t great photos, but they show a bit how each town in this area looks.

This was cool. A place called “The Sportsman.” At first I thought it was some sort of hipster throw back. I mean, come on, I doubt any place 80 years ago served beer and sold guns. Right? Wrong, this place was on it’s second owner and was keeping it true to it’s origins as a place to grab a cold one, buy some ammo or talk about the recent hunting trip you just finished.

We had to go in and grab a cold one, we just had to. A guy came in shopping for a gun while we sat at the bar. Another came in to post up a picture of the deer he’d just bagged on the cork board. I liked this place.

We talked to the owner for a while and he had some old pictures of the building which was first the butcher and then “The Sportsman” thereafter for the last 80 or so years.

That was a cool stop. We decided to camp not far from the entrance to Yosemite. That was the next big stop, but we didn’t dare camp at high elevation, it was cold enough down low!

We camped in a campground with something like 50-60 spots. Not one other person was there due to the lake not existing anymore. That’s right, no water, at all. So, as creepy as it was, we camped next to a lake that at one time looks to have been a popular spot.

There is nothing creepier than having a car slowly idle by in the middle of the night when you know you are the only person in an entire giant campsite. I didn’t sleep great after that and was wishing I was off on some remote road in my Landcruiser. Oh well, at least it was wet! No rain, but everything was soaked, including us.

At least we had plenty of wild Turkey’s to keep us company.

Here we go, what you were scrolling down to see.

Heading into YO! SEMIGHTY!

When it’s winter, you’re driving a car that has no problem making heat, and you’re in an empty national park with these views, you drive with the sunroof and all windows open. It’s just something you have to do.