Recreation / Hiking / Independence Trail
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One of the adapted aquaducts (called flumes by the miners) that now carry wheelchairs and hikers across the gorges along the Independence Trail. This photo was taken in winter when the water was really roaring, but in summer the scene is placid, and wheelchairs can safely descend a gentle switchback to the pools below the flume pictured here.
| Independence Trail
Off Hwy 49 just North of Nevada City is a remarkable trail which provides wheelchair access to nearly five miles of the Yuba River Canyon. Exploring mountain trails is an experience that always yields pleasant surprises and spectacular beauty, but the effort involved in creating level, wide trails traversing such rough terrain is usually prohibitive. What makes this trail possible is some remarkable engineering from the last century. When miners had to get water to the mines, it wasn't for drinking (most of them drank stronger stuff). It was for hydraulic mining. When gold fever strikes, it is remarkable how much work you can get out of a man. The miners built hundreds of miles of canals and aquaducts along the ridges and over the gorges of the Sierra Foothills. The ditches led to pipes (called penstocks), and the pipes led to water cannons (called monitors). The water shot from the cannon was aimed at hillsides, that in turn were washed away by the blast. The water carried the soil, sand, and gravel downhill to sluice boxes (wooden water channels) that had riffles across the bottom. The gold, which was heavier than anything else in the mix, settled to the bottom and was stuck in the riffles. It was a very efficient way to get a small amount of gold out of a large amount of dirt. The legacy of Hydraulic mining, aside from some scarred land and a lot of mud down around Marysville and Yuba City, was the ditches running along the hillsides, with the most gradual descents and wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair with room to spare. This particular ditch called the Excelsior Canal carried water from the Yuba River 25 miles down to the diggins at Smartsville. A joint project of the California Department of Parks and Recreation and the Sequoya Challenge (a Nevada County United Way Agency), and with the help of numerous individual and group volunteers, The trail is now a reality, and it continues to grow in length and improve. The wooden aquaducts (flumes) have been rebuilt to accommodate wheelchairs as well, and the engineering and construction was quite a feat. The trail features waterfalls, scenic vistas, and a gentle switchback descent to a lovely mountain stream. There are restrooms with full wheelchair access at several points along the trail. The trail can become muddy and impassable for wheelchairs in winter and spring so call ahead if the weather has been wet.
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