Paperback, 79 pages. From book: This guidebook focuses on the 267-mile stretch of SR 49 between Mariposa and Sierraville; descriptions of some rewarding side trips are also included. Although Highway 49 extends both north and south of this strip, these areas have little Gold Rush significance. The book traces a tour through the Mother Lode country from south to north, but this does not constitute a recommendation that travelers follow this direction.......California's Mother Lode country encompasses a narrow belt extending nearly 200 miles along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and ranging in elevation from about 700 to over 2500 feet. It is a peaceful, bucolic region characterized by small ranches, quiet little towns and grassy hills dotted with oak and pine. Yet in the mid-19th cewntury, this was the focal point of one of the most frenzied migrations in human history--the California Gold Rush.