Well Scot I'm sitting here staring at the monitor, listening to the creek roaring past the deck, the fire crackling in the airtight stove, trying to come up with the best way to describe life here in the sierra foothills.
First a little geography lesson: Angels Camp is located ~54 miles East of Stockton in the foothills (1,200ft level) at the junction of highways 49 and 4.
Hiway 49 continues south-east through Carson Hill (just a few houses <10 and a BIG hole in the ground left over from gold mining about five years ago), over Malones Reservoir ( the bridge is the only straight stretch around for testing the Cuda), pass Jackass Hill (old Mark Twain cabin there) to Sonora, then on up the hill and over Sonora Pass (~8,000ft).
Hiway 4 goes northish up to Bear Valley Ski Resort then over Ebbetts Pass (8,800ft) and eventually to the Minden Nevada Hiway.(good fishing all along this road.)
Angels Camps' claim to fame is the "Frog Jumps" held each year in May. The Frog Jumps were immortalize by Mark Twain in his tale "Jumping frogs of Calaveras County" (the favourite frog was feed 'buckshot' to fix the event). We use to have two "Mountain Air Festivals" good bands and great music but the city elders didn't like the influx of "young" people (smoking dope, drinking and crowding our roads) and refused to rent the Fair grounds for that type of activity. The only growth activity is the construction of a golf course that is scheduled on the Womens' PGA Tour.
Decent jobs are scarce around here, the main industries were logging (regulated to death), and mining (the last major mine closed after a mysterious shaft fire). The up side is the growing number of small specialized businesses and a growing tourist trade.
Angels is a nice little town, peaceful and quiet, real quiet they roll up the sidewalks at 9pm. There are no drive by shootings, minimal drugs and very few crimes. The nearest movie house is in Sonora ~30 miles away, also the location of the Big City stores WalMart, Mervyns and Kmart.
Angels also holds the honour of having the ONLY stoplight in Calaveras County!!! This makes the directions to my house very easy " Go to Stockton, turn East on Hiway 4, go 54 miles, turn left at the stoplight, go five miles (past the egg place), turn right at the driveway across from the only paved road going up the side of the hill"
So back to the original question "Life in Angels Camp" what's it like? In a word fantastic, a trout stream beneath my deck, a 1/4 mile walk to the nearest neighbour, minor amount of snow (1,800ft elevation) seldom sticks for more than 3-4 days, if you want more snow it's only 10-15 minutes away or 35 min. to Bear Valley for skiing. There's year around fishing at Melones Res. 15 min away.
Spring time is somewhat strange around here, cars with snowmobiles and ski racks going up the hill, camper trucks with ski boats and motorcycles going to the lakes and reservoirs, you can snow ski in the morning and water ski in the afternoon, really strange.
I live in a small 900sq ft house over a 900sq ft garage!! on 13 acres of land.There's a well and septic system and intermittent PG&E (Power outages 10 times per year) when the power goes out your SOL , telephone works, heaters don't, kerosene lamps, and wood heat, no water pressure or TV and NO electric blanket!! early to bed is the name of the game. 4 or 5 years ago we had a cold spell that froze the water pipes for about a week, we had reserve drinking water but had to break holes in the ice covering the creek to get water for bathing and flushing the toilet, not much fun but very interesting!!
We have an abundance of wild life, deer which eat any and all gardens not to mention raiding the plumb tree in the fall, possum, racoons, and the odoriferous 'wood kitty' all of which raid garbage cans, then there is the squirrels who delight in hiding their acorns and nuts in dark places, carburettors, fenderwells, air vents places like that.
My job? I have my own business "The Clever Computer", Sales, Service, Programming, Custom Built Systems... anything computer related I do. When I'm not "computering" my time is mostly consumed tinkering, fixing, building, working on one of the eight cars or the three motorcycles I have laying around. When it gets too hot I walk into the creek to cool off or plunk myself down in an innertube with an ice filled liquid refreshment and splash around the pond.
That pretty much says it all OBTW did I mention that the small trunk area of the Cuda will hold my fly-rod and creel and all my customers are within 10 minutes of a river or creek??
Bob Cuda-65 Angels Camp, CA I'll post the Beemer story to the list as it is automobile related.