Edwards to Purdon

Thirteen of us headed off to a more challenging hike:  the South Yuba Trail from Edwards to Purdon.  The trail was mostly shaded and, at the beginning, slightly icy.  At one point it is washed out, requiring hikers to step down onto some rocks and back up to the trail.  The steep slope afforded almost constant view of the Yuba below which was alternately roaring and quietly rushing on it's winter flow.

No, we didn't cross the river but we did explore the beaches a bit.

As the sun crept behind some trees our lunch crowd migrated closer and closer to the river.

Fungus a-plenty on downed logs.

Above photos from Frank.

Four Hikers cut out about half-way and went down to eat by the river while the rest of us plowed onward downriver.  Although we stopped for lunch a bit upriver from the old Purdon cabin, we continued downstream to explore the cabin site afterwards.  "Farmers" (squatters?) had changed the landscape some, bringing beach sand up between their quasi-fenced gardens.  Various art artifacts were in evidence as were two shovels with recently turned-over earth.  The cabin itself had burned, sometime in the past year as we understand it. 

Bright green mosses and succulents covered orange and black slabs.

Milkmaids - earliest flowers of Spring
 

Barbara, Mary, Priscilla

Above pictures from Maureen.

Next week's weather forecast calls for rain, but if it proves to be wrong, perhaps we'll do the Hidden Falls hike near Auburn.