Hank Meals on the South Yuba River

On April 17th, 14 hikers gathered at the South Yuba Campground on a glorious spring morning for SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic commemorative hike. Led by local historian, archeologist,

author and authoritative trail guru Hank Meals, the crew got off to a strong start (and kept it up!) to cover 16 miles along the 39 mile stretch of the South Yuba that won Wild & Scenic designation in 1999. SYRCL Executive Director Jason Rainey shared some of the history of Wild & Scenic campaign and what it accomplished, and also provided updates on SYRCL’s work to improve water quality and restore salmon through the current hydropower dam relicensing process.

Drawing upon Hank’s extensive research and direct experience, the hikers learned how to observe the many ways that humans have shaped the river and canyon, through both subtle and landscape-scale alterations. Taking a break where the South Yuba trail meets the Humbug Trail, we stood on steep bank of gravel deposits and looked downstream to envision the large coffer dam that trapped this reservoir of sediment during the hydraulic mining era over 130 years ago. The following spring, high flows blew out the makeshift dam and the river cut a fresh channel, abandoning the bank of sediment we stood upon.

A riot of spring wildflowers, verdant moss on oaks, yellow-legged frogs and the sonorous sounds of spring flows from the river were other highlights throughout the day. After a full day of walking upstream, we arrived at the Poorman Creek trailhead, where shuttles took us the last couple miles to the Little Town of Washington, where we rejoiced and relaxed with a hot meal and cold drinks on the back deck of the Washington Hotel overlooking the river. Participants referred to the SYRCL hike as “a terrific opportunity” to see new stretches of the river, while another simply noted that “it was a spiritually satisfying day.

The Wild & Scenic Hike marked the second “Yuba Excursions” trip for 2010. Our next Yuba Excursion, a backpacking with trail buidling service trip to the Yuba high country is scheduled for June 25-27. For more information http://yubariver.org/events/ (and click on June). To register, contact Miriam Limov at miriam@syrcl.org or (530) 265-5961.20 participants maximum.

Hank Meals’ excellent book entitled “The River” highlights popular (and little known) trails and covers a great deal of the history of the South Yuba. It’s available in local bookstores, and is also a gift with new or renewing SYRCL membership. Click here http://yubariver.org/become-a-member/ for details.

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Events by miriamlimov