Mumford Bar Trail, NF American River

[Wandering Daisy]

I used to do a lot of winter hiking and backpacking along the North Fork of the American River. It was a unique experience in winter to ski up the Forresthill Road, drop down out of snow, stash skis and then drop 3000 feet down into a lush forest and good trail 7.5 miles up river to the lower end of Royal Gorge. I have even been snowed on camping down on the river. The Beacroft Trail and Sailor Bar Trail lead back up to the Forresthill Road, making nice loop trips possible in the Fall and later Spring when the road is snow free. It is hot in the summer, but people did go down to swim or kayak in the river; I never have.

Unfortunately, a huge fire destroyed much of the trail network several years ago. Two years after the fire I tried to descend Beacroft Trail, which was basically gone, then down the North Fork Trail, which also was gone, and up the Mumford Bar Trail, which was littered with debris. The entire trail system was badly damaged. I do not think the trails lower downstream, such as the Italian Bar Trail were burned. There is some very interesting old mining equipment near the river on Italian Bar. The FS is currently restoring the old cabin at Mumford Bar. There are also several trails down from the I-80 side that connect with the trails down from Forresthill.

A trail crew has worked on the trail system this summer. Today I hiked down the Mumford Bar Trail and up the North Fork trail about a mile. The trail is cleared of debris and is quite good and easy to follow, however much of the forest has a long ways to recover. But it is great that this trail system is being restored. The river was beautiful and very low, typical of this time of year; one could easily cross it now at about any location. I was not expecting bugs, but there were a lot of annoying in-your-face gnats. I think once it gets colder and snows up on the ridge, these bugs will go away. Fall leaves are pretty along the river and it is just beginning to green up. The little side creeks are beginning to flow water. My "steps" recorded on my I-phone said we hiked 12 miles, but on TOPO I calculated 9.2 miles/ 2830 elevation gain/loss. It is a good trail for a hilly workout.

[tomba]

map

[FeetFirst]

Thanks for the update on trail conditions.