In my last post midday Friday sent from Downieville I thought I still had time to drop my backpack off at Wild Plum, drive up to the Saddle north of the Sierra Buttes and bicycle back down to WP and start my hike that day. But heading back to the car I noticed some kids rinsing themselves off with a hose provided by the town, presumably after a dip in the North Yuba River, and then just before arriving at Wild Plum CG to drop off my pack I saw more people cooling off below the bridge across Haypress Creek, one of Yuba's tribs, and then, further up hwy 49 toward Gold Lakes Road, I again passed that intriguing roadside falls, (here: 39.596716, -120.610646) labeled "Big Springs" in Delorme's N Ca map book which seems to just flow out of the rock layers like a miniature Burney Falls, though in this case I think it's just the road cut that exposed the flow. This time I stopped the car and looked around. There seems to be a fen or mire in the steeply sloped forest just above the fall which might have some interesting plants to find, but it would be a scramble to scale the road cut in that area and I "saved that for later". Instead, I crossed the road looking for the outflow which I hoped I could just stand beneath for a cold shower. Not quite such luck. The flow actually split into two culverts one of which spilt onto a slope of riprap and the other a 3ft drop onto some algae-covered rocks. Not convenient enough. And the North Yuba on closer look was quite nutrient-rich with brown algae coating everything thickly and loosely. Moved on.
...thisWasAdraft-rest2BeReconstructedFromPhotos...
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