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Special thanks to Dikk Jones for this recap of the tour
This year's Fall Leaf National Tour was hosted by the Sonora Regional Group in Murphys, California, a small, old goldrush town in Calaveras County located in the foothills
of the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada mountains. Calaveras County is probably most known for Mark Twain's story about the jumping frogs written in the late
1800s when a number of towns sprang up in the area. This year's Fall Leaf Tour included visits to some of those small towns that still exist.
Murphys is 2117 feet above sea level. The tour would be mostly within a thousand feet above or below that level. The touring below 2000 feet would be in rolling hills
where the dark green Spanish oaks would contrast sharply with the late season dry grass that resembled wheat fields in their straw color. There would be some
challenging grades and some steep down grades, but mostly the driving would be easy.
Ninety-six cars were registered for the tour, and each day the tour set out from Murphys to drive over mostly rural, remote roads to visit towns with names like Angels
Camp, Copperopolis, Chinese Camp, Knight's Ferry, Mountain Ranch, Sheep Ranch and Sonora.
The most prominent local industry seemed to be raising cattle; less obvious but of more interest to the touring HCCAers would be the many local wineries. Of the 96
registered cars, all but 7 wore California license plates.
Wednesday: Most of the tour participants were checked in to the tour headquarters, Murphy's Suites, or other local motels by early afternoon. The sky was clear and
blue; the temperature was about 85 degrees. It was typical autumn weather for the area and was ideal for open car touring.
To keep the tourists occupied and to check out the cars, a poker rally was run from 3:00 TO 5:00. Cards were dealt out one at a time at five stops in the area. Several of
these stops were at local wineries. In addition to pulling a card from a hat, some navigators sampled those institutions' product.
The poker hands were evaluated at Murphys Park where an hour of hosted drinks and then a barbecue dinner followed. The Cinderella Syndrome manifested itself as
the sun descended and ancient cars with various states of lighting bee-lined to the motels as the curtain of darkness closed over the foothills. Car talk and such
continued later in the parking lot.
Thursday: Touring began soon after an 8:30 drivers' meeting and covered about a hundred miles. Early cars toured through the area where towns had popped up during
the even earlier goldrush era; some of the towns still stand with stone or brick buildings displaying build dates back in the 1850s. Most of the wooden buildings of the
early days were lost to frequent fires. The still extant, large brick armory in Copperopolis, built for the Union Militia during the Civil War, was the venue of the morning
coffee stop. In contrast to the gold mining for which the area is famous, the town of Copperopolis was the center of a huge copper quarrying and milling industry until
well into the 20th century.
The Copperopolis Museum, two doors from the armory, had relics from the 1800s and early 1900s. The centerpiece exhibit was a large working model of a copper mill.
Lunch stop was at a park whose chief attraction was the longest covered bridge west of the Mississippi. Following photo ops of the cars exiting the bridge, there was a
long drive back to Murphys through mostly prairie like country on narrow roads that wound past ranches that provided grazing cattle and horses and an occasional
llama to add variety to the landscape.
Friday: The tour wound through miles of Spanish oak covered hills to the coffee stop at a nicely gardened farm surrounded by a large vineyard before continuing over
winding, hilly roads to the lunch stop at the old town of Sheep Ranch.
The evening's banquet was held at the Ironwood Winery a short bus ride from the tour headquarters. An Italian tenor performed throughout the evening and had the
group groovin' and movin' out on the dance floor. It was commented that the HCCA hasn't been this animated for 30 years.
Saturday: The day began at about sunup with the revelry-like ringing of in-room telephones as an impromptu telephone tree alerted tourists that rain was falling. Tops
were raised, tarps were tossed, seats were toweled, and many cars were loaded into trailers as if to evacuate to high ground should the water rise 2,000 feet. The
lesson of New Orleans seems to have been learned.
After towels were wrung out and clothes changed, there followed a period of huddling under the motel portico with warm coffee in hand while conjecturing about the
possibility of rain abating.
Weather reports indicated that the storm would blow through soon, and it did. A much diminished number of cars set out in the light drizzle and chill. By the time the
coffee stop was reached at the beautiful, late model, steel beamed barn at White Oak Ranch, the sky was mostly clear and the temperature was warming.
Either the barn was severely misnamed or severely misused. Where the hay loft should have been there were skylights but no floor, the very nicely finished concrete
floors seem never to have been subjected to a single pitchfork full of straw, and the stalls were entirely too wide for horse husbandry. Rather than agrarian relics, there
were living quarters, shops and a number of nice cars ranging from early 20th century to a thirties 12 cylinder Pierce Arrow that had a cylinder head removed so one
could count half the pistons. The sin of envy could almost be smelled over the exhaust fumes as the cars departed the "barn."
Lunch, back in Murphys, ended at 1:30, as did the whole event. A few members would spend another night in the town that seems so quaint to many of the urban
HCCAers, but the large grass lot that had been covered with closed trailer rigs was empty and but a half dozen were parked loaded and ready to leave the motel Sunday
morning.
A few miles from Murphys in any departure direction, the two lane roads would give way to multi-laned freeways and to the 21st century.
This year's Fall Leaf National Tour was hosted by the Sonora Regional Group in Murphys, California, a small, old goldrush town in Calaveras County located in the foothills
of the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada mountains. Calaveras County is probably most known for Mark Twain's story about the jumping frogs written in the late
1800s when a number of towns sprang up in the area. This year's Fall Leaf Tour included visits to some of those small towns that still exist.
Murphys is 2117 feet above sea level. The tour would be mostly within a thousand feet above or below that level. The touring below 2000 feet would be in rolling hills
where the dark green Spanish oaks would contrast sharply with the late season dry grass that resembled wheat fields in their straw color. There would be some
challenging grades and some steep down grades, but mostly the driving would be easy.
Ninety-six cars were registered for the tour, and each day the tour set out from Murphys to drive over mostly rural, remote roads to visit towns with names like Angels
Camp, Copperopolis, Chinese Camp, Knight's Ferry, Mountain Ranch, Sheep Ranch and Sonora.
The most prominent local industry seemed to be raising cattle; less obvious but of more interest to the touring HCCAers would be the many local wineries. Of the 96
registered cars, all but 7 wore California license plates.
Wednesday: Most of the tour participants were checked in to the tour headquarters, Murphy's Suites, or other local motels by early afternoon. The sky was clear and
blue; the temperature was about 85 degrees. It was typical autumn weather for the area and was ideal for open car touring.
To keep the tourists occupied and to check out the cars, a poker rally was run from 3:00 TO 5:00. Cards were dealt out one at a time at five stops in the area. Several of
these stops were at local wineries. In addition to pulling a card from a hat, some navigators sampled those institutions' product.
The poker hands were evaluated at Murphys Park where an hour of hosted drinks and then a barbecue dinner followed. The Cinderella Syndrome manifested itself as
the sun descended and ancient cars with various states of lighting bee-lined to the motels as the curtain of darkness closed over the foothills. Car talk and such
continued later in the parking lot.
Thursday: Touring began soon after an 8:30 drivers' meeting and covered about a hundred miles. Early cars toured through the area where towns had popped up during
the even earlier goldrush era; some of the towns still stand with stone or brick buildings displaying build dates back in the 1850s. Most of the wooden buildings of the
early days were lost to frequent fires. The still extant, large brick armory in Copperopolis, built for the Union Militia during the Civil War, was the venue of the morning
coffee stop. In contrast to the gold mining for which the area is famous, the town of Copperopolis was the center of a huge copper quarrying and milling industry until
well into the 20th century.
The Copperopolis Museum, two doors from the armory, had relics from the 1800s and early 1900s. The centerpiece exhibit was a large working model of a copper mill.
Lunch stop was at a park whose chief attraction was the longest covered bridge west of the Mississippi. Following photo ops of the cars exiting the bridge, there was a
long drive back to Murphys through mostly prairie like country on narrow roads that wound past ranches that provided grazing cattle and horses and an occasional
llama to add variety to the landscape.
Friday: The tour wound through miles of Spanish oak covered hills to the coffee stop at a nicely gardened farm surrounded by a large vineyard before continuing over
winding, hilly roads to the lunch stop at the old town of Sheep Ranch.
The evening's banquet was held at the Ironwood Winery a short bus ride from the tour headquarters. An Italian tenor performed throughout the evening and had the
group groovin' and movin' out on the dance floor. It was commented that the HCCA hasn't been this animated for 30 years.
Saturday: The day began at about sunup with the revelry-like ringing of in-room telephones as an impromptu telephone tree alerted tourists that rain was falling. Tops
were raised, tarps were tossed, seats were toweled, and many cars were loaded into trailers as if to evacuate to high ground should the water rise 2,000 feet. The
lesson of New Orleans seems to have been learned.
After towels were wrung out and clothes changed, there followed a period of huddling under the motel portico with warm coffee in hand while conjecturing about the
possibility of rain abating.
Weather reports indicated that the storm would blow through soon, and it did. A much diminished number of cars set out in the light drizzle and chill. By the time the
coffee stop was reached at the beautiful, late model, steel beamed barn at White Oak Ranch, the sky was mostly clear and the temperature was warming.
Either the barn was severely misnamed or severely misused. Where the hay loft should have been there were skylights but no floor, the very nicely finished concrete
floors seem never to have been subjected to a single pitchfork full of straw, and the stalls were entirely too wide for horse husbandry. Rather than agrarian relics, there
were living quarters, shops and a number of nice cars ranging from early 20th century to a thirties 12 cylinder Pierce Arrow that had a cylinder head removed so one
could count half the pistons. The sin of envy could almost be smelled over the exhaust fumes as the cars departed the "barn."
Lunch, back in Murphys, ended at 1:30, as did the whole event. A few members would spend another night in the town that seems so quaint to many of the urban
HCCAers, but the large grass lot that had been covered with closed trailer rigs was empty and but a half dozen were parked loaded and ready to leave the motel Sunday
morning.
A few miles from Murphys in any departure direction, the two lane roads would give way to multi-laned freeways and to the 21st century.
| Fall Leaf @ Murphys |