Long Point / South Yuba
“I understood at a very early age that in nature, I felt everything I should feel in church, but never did. Walking in the woods, I felt in touch with the universe and with the spirit of the universe.”- Alice Walker
If you want to get a taste of the South Yuba this is the largest slice you can get. This is one of my favorite trails because of its proximity to my home in Nevada City and the many year-round options it provides. The upper South Yuba Trail is about 16 miles long with no crossings – a truly wild and scenic segment. It extends between the South Yuba Campground trailhead on North Bloomfield Road and the Poorman Creek trailhead, two miles below the town of Washington. The trail parallels the river in a mixed conifer forest with some spur trail options for shorter day hikes. Most of this trail is cut into a fairly steep canyon slope from which you can see and hear the river (especially in winter) almost the whole way.
There are actually two parts to the South Yuba Trail. The upper part is on the north side of the river above Edwards Crossing, while the lower part is on the south side of the river running between the bridge and downstream Purdon Crossing, a distance of 4.5 miles. They are connected by a trail from the South Yuba Campground to Edwards Crossing. It doesn’t get much use because those hiking upstream generally park at the South Yuba Campground trailhead and those headed downstream park at Edwards Crossing.
The trailhead is on North Bloomfield Road, about 9.5 miles from Nevada City. There is a prominent sign just as North Bloomfield Road turns away from Grizzly Hill Road. Historically Grizzly Hill Road connected the mining settlements of Grizzly Hill and North Columbia. At the trailhead. there is a toilet and adequate parking for trail users. Nearby, in the Grizzly Hill diggings, camping is available.
Here are the directions to the upstream trailhead on Poorman Creek, near the town of Washington: Washington Road is 13 miles east of Nevada City on State Highway 20. Turn north (the only option) and descend 6 miles passing through the town and crossing the bridge over the South Yuba. Keep to the left as the road rises a short distance and there will be a clearly marked road to the trailhead. It's about 2 miles downstream, just after you cross the bridge over Poorman Creek.
Upper South Yuba Trail (I'll describe the lower South Yuba Trail segment at the end of this post).
The South Yuba Trail was constructed on public land in the mid-1990s with the Forest Service as the lead agency. They did the necessary land exchanges, the environmental analysis, built new trail and constructed a trailhead with a parking lot and toilet at Poorman Creek. The design and construction of the trail involved linking existing recreation and historic trails and remnants of historic ditches and connecting them with new trail construction, some of which involved blasting to create ledges on sheer rock faces.
Humbug Creek / South Yuba
This is primarily a hiking and mountain biking trail. Few people walk very far in this hot canyon just to access their favorite swimming hole. While the river can be seen below from many places on the trail there are not many easy ways to get there and back. Most of the upper South Yuba Trail follows the contour above the Yuba on the north side of the canyon slope. It's a low elevation trail, typically below the snow line, with one sustained climb via switchbacks.
I walked the trail last week to assure that this post is up to date. My preference is to walk it upstream from the South Yuba Campground because I think the views are better while moving eastward but there's not really that much difference. Although I must admit I do like to end up at the Washington Hotel where there is refreshment and local flavor. It's April and the weather is perfect. There are lots of new shiny leaves, the ground cover is green, the moss is still glowing and the lushness lingers. In the summer it's typically hot and dry. The increased heat can sometimes be a problem on a long hike like this – adjust for it by dressing appropriately and bringing enough water.
Part of what's good about this trail is that it's not over-managed despite passing through public lands overseen by three different agencies. Those agencies are the Tahoe National Forest, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and California Department of Parks and Recreation. There are a minimum of mileage signs and they are refreshingly low-key, nor are there signs touting sponsors and benefactors. Also, there are no interpretive signs with their perky graphics and eager messages, instead you're stuck with the simply gorgeous flora, fauna and land forms of this place.
Flicker Bones
Grizzly Hill was a small hydraulic mine owned by North Bloomfield Mining & Gravel Company. It's a short walk from the trailhead to the BLM campground where you'll be at the base of a 100' gravel cliff created by pressurized water. There are also bedrock mortars nearby where the local Nisenan Indians pounded acorns, pine nuts, grass seeds and plants into nutritious foods.
As the trail veers away from the road you start into a forest dominated by Douglas Fir, Incense Cedar and Black Oak. You'll soon come to Kennebec Creek, a perennial stream, probably named for the Kennebec Company of New Bedford, Massachusetts who mined on the lower Yuba in 1849-1850. In the 1860s there was a Kennebec Company hydraulic mining on "the ridge" near French Corral.
Beyond the creek the trail uses a remnant of the former Illinois Bar Road, created in 1856 to connect Nevada City with the San Juan Ridge settlements of Orleans Flat, Moores Flat and Snow Point. The Sugarloaf to Orleans Flat Road used a toll bridge on the South Yuba owned by Cooper & Company. In the fall of 1866, J. L. Cooper's body was found on the bridge and J. Kyle's body was found in their cabin. According to newspaper accounts both men had been "hatcheted" and robbed. Despite a $2,000 reward no arrests were made. As if that wasn't enough in June of the following year the bridge at Illinois Bar collapsed drowning a team of six horses and their driver along with 8,000 pounds of freight. It was rebuilt but was never as popular as the bridge on North Bloomfield Road.
It's a short and gradual descent on the historic road to a junction where the South Yuba Trail leaves the road to contour the slope to the east while the road continues southeasterly down slope. The descending road is now called the Illinois Bar Spur Trail and it goes to the river where there is a picnic table and flat ground. You'll also see high banks of gravel that show how deep the gravels were when hydraulic mining was flourishing. What impresses me is the amount of road work accomplished by men using picks, shovels, pry bars, cables and some large animals, maybe even oxen. There are some beautiful dry stacked rock retaining walls, if you like that sort of thing. But be forewarned, rock walls make excellent habitat for poison oak.
As the trail breaks out into the South Yuba canyon you'll see two large gouges on the opposite slope. Those are the scars created by Sailor Flat and Blue Tent Diggings, both hydraulic mines that haven't operated for over 125 years. Here the vegetation begins to gradually change to predominantly Canyon Live Oak with occasional glimpses of the river. These corridors of big oaks have a unique feel, they're like tunnels under a leafy canopy held up by sturdy downslope leaning tree trunks.
In about two miles the view changes dramatically at a horseshoe bend in the river with a long dramatic ridge known as Long Point dominating the landscape across the canyon. This is a stunning view and it must have been appreciated by the Nisenan too because we found seven bedrock mortars down where the point meets the South Yuba. Nearby is a perennial stream in North Canyon and alongside it is a half-mile spur trail to the river.
It's hard to imagine but back in 1927 the Hydraulic Mining Commission proposed building a dam just below Long Point. They planned to impound tailings, or mine waste, behind the dam making it possible to resume hydraulic mining at Malakoff, Relief Hill and Lake City. A 290 foot dam could trap 68 million yards of gravel and function for 20 years when it would fill up requiring a new debris dam to be built 12 miles downstream at Jones Bar. What a short-sighted way to treat a river! Fortunately it was rejected because of expense. Shockingly, a similar kind of thinking is behind the proposed Centennial Dam on the Bear River – we can't let that happen.
Back on the trail it's about 1.5 miles to Humbug Creek and the Humbug Trail which climbs about 2.5 miles to North Bloomfield Road in Malakoff Diggings State Park. Mine tailings from hydraulic mines were dumped into Humbug Creek for a 30 year period in the late 1800s creating an environmental catastrophe. This is an important story that I'll address separately in a future post about the Humbug Trail.
Cheap Shoes Are Bad News
Continuing upstream you'll come to an area known as "Primitive Camp." It's overgrown with vegetation but it was once a small mining operation or camp – you can tell by the stacked tailings and a profusion of Black Locust trees, which were introduced. There are also remnants of concrete campground fireplaces and a former toilet suggesting this was once anexperimental BLM campground. It's not a bad campsite, with a volunteer work crew this area could be cleaned up and used for this purpose again.
The next landmark is Missouri Bar, about 3.5 miles upstream. Like the Humbug Trail the historic Missouri Bar trail originates in the North Bloomfield area. The trailhead is less than a mile south-southeast of the townsite, just off of Relief Hill Road – it's on Forest Service land and is well-marked. Missouri Bar trail is a straight forward 1.5 mile descent through a Douglas Fir dominated forest that gives way to Live Oak as it nears the river. In the fall it's quite colorful because of the Big Leaf Maple and Dogwood leaves. Another trail to Missouri Bar came from the south descending from Central House on the Emigrant Road, now Highway 20. In time the trail became a road that was used by many miners especially during The Depression. It was used until the early 1970s when it was blocked by property owners.
Tailings / South Yuba
Missouri was on the edge of the western world when gold was discovered on the Yuba and the Missourians who crossed the plains were for the most part rugged and unsophisticated. Scotchman J. D. Borthwick, an observant artist, wrote: "... till they came to California many of them had never in their lives before see two houses together, and in any little village in the mines they witnessed more of the wonders of civilization than ever they had dreamed of." On the other hand, "They could use an axe or a rifle with any man. Two of them would chop down a few trees and build a log cabin in a day and a half, and with their long five foot-barrel rifle, they could draw a bead on a deer, a squirrel, or the white of an Indians eye, with equal coolness and certainty of killing." In the Yuba basin alone there are three places named Missouri Bar, as well as a Missouri Flat and a Missouri Hill. Saint Louis was an early, and prosperous mining town near Slate Creek, a tributary of the North Yuba.
It's evident that there were mining claims and encampments on both sides of the river. In December of 1850, Clark Thompson, wrote a letter to his brother in Roscoe, Illinois, from his log cabin at Missouri Bar. In it, he claimed that "Yuba Gold is the purest that is found in California", but admitted "we don't average more than $3 a day." According to the Nevada County Recorder's Office there was a bridge here in 1856 and on June 22, 1859 The Nevada Democrat reported that three Germans were drowned while building a wing dam at Missouri Bar.
Missouri Bar is the half-way point. Upstream are Eastern Canyon and Union Canyon after which the trail starts upslope to avoid private property. Switchbacks make this 800' climb easier but it's still a climb and a chance to admire some mature and magnificent Douglas Firs and Ponderosa Pines. At 3,200', the highest point on the trail, the trail descends to an unnamed stream then on to Logan Canyon where there is a fine waterfall. Logan Canyon, and to a lesser degree Union Canyon, have exposed bedrock with lots of sand and gravel in the adjoining stream banks that was washed down from the Relief Hill hydraulic mine. In another mile the trail reaches the South Yuba where there's a sweet and obvious streamside camp site. After all that time hiking in a forest it's refreshing to reach water – everyone stops here.
Garter Snake / South Yuba
The trail upstream re-enters the forest and before long there are magnificent views down on deep pools below with outstanding views upstream. For the next two miles or so the trail meanders and, if you're paying attention, you will see evidence of historic placer mining both across the river and immediately below. A good part of this trail segment is part of a former ditch that supplied small streamside hydraulic mines. Before long the trail enters the Mc Killigan Creek drainage and comes back to the South Yuba where the canyon opens up and you can hear rocks rumbling in the river. You'll also see evidence of extensive mining on both side of the river. It's not the raw and ravaged, industrial view it once was – the overall landscape has been softened and nurtured by water flow, landslides, revegetation and the avoidance of highly destructive mining techniques.
After dropping down to a flat adjacent to the river the trail continues to Poorman Creek. There's nothing poor about this creek – it has reportedly produced over a million dollars in gold. As for the name, it appears on early maps as both Poorman and Poor Man. Ronald Poorman, in an 1860 newspaper article, claimed to have discovered gold on this creek and another with the same name in the Middle Feather River watershed.
Look around and you'll see an abundance of serpentine – this area was part of the Sierra Asbestos Company and serpentine was the ore mined here. They used a 20-stamp mill reaching peak production in 1917. As the trail turns onto Poorman Creek watch for black serpentine alongside the trail, this was considered the best quality ore. From here, it's only a short walk through an abundance of Bay Laurel to the trailhead on Relief Hill Road. Hiking the upper South Yuba Trail is a good workout and a spectacular way to experience a sizeable part of the designated 39-mile long Wild and Scenic segment of the South Yuba.
Lower South Yuba Trail
To connect from Grizzly Hill there's a half-mile trail in the campground that descends and ties in with North Bloomfield Road. From here it's another half-mile walk on the road to the Edwards Crossing Bridge. Cross it to access the trailhead of the South Yuba Trail that follows the river downstream for 4.5 miles to Purdon Crossing.
Depression City, 1934 / Purdon Crossing / South Yuba
(Photograph by H. A. Jensen)
This segment of the South Yuba Trail is on the south (mostly shady) side of the canyon and has a very different feel because of the dominance of Douglas Fir and Incense Cedar. There are several places where the trail is cut into rock with outstanding views. The river, especially just above Purdon Crossing, is very social. This is a swimmer's paradise with a lot of visitors who apparently heard about this place online or at a party (to be fair, I first heard about this place at a party in San Francisco in 1968). On most summer weekends it's way too crowded for me, there isn't enough parking and the cumulative turd load can get oppressive. Face it, if this many people continue to use the river, no matter how "lovingly", there will be serious degradation. Of course the greatest danger is fire. Visitors simply do not share the concerns of natives (or in the case of the Yuba, mostly neo-natives).
This used to be a favorite spot for locals to relax and swim with family and friends but not so much anymore. I avoid these places when the summer hoards appear because there are so many other places to visit if you're willing to expend the effort. Out of curiosity I looked this area up online where a "Yelp" reviewer had this to say about "The crowd." "There's nudists, beware. Mostly older men. For every 10 people you see there, there will be 1 old naked man. However, to their credit they are very friendly. There's a few of the locals, friendly nice as well. And then there's the wild hillbillies pounding their budweisers, they are loud and annoying." I'm afraid that if you want to experience that old time religion you'll have to visit here between the end of fire season and early spring, or try visiting someplace new.
Two-Tone Bedrock / South Yuba
