Monday, April 18, 2005

Green Valley Trail

One of the larger Gold Rush-era mining camps of the North Fork was in Green Valley, just upstream from Giant Gap. Two newspaper articles from the 1860s assert that two thousand people lived there in the early 1850s. Supplies came by mule train from Illinoistown, near today's Colfax, so the Green Valley Trail was graded for loaded mules, i.e., some care was taken to make it broad and of a gentle gradient.

In part because of our letters, Placer County Supervisor Rex Bloomfield directed the Placer Legacy to negotiate the purchase of an easement across private lands near the head of the trail, the easement extending well down into the canyon, to public lands there.

It happens that the County owns ten acres of land near the trailhead on Moody Ridge Road, and a parking area was built there.

It only remained to connect this parking area to the Green Valley Trail road. Last Friday, a California Conservation Corps crew was at work on this short new section of trail. Yesterday I took a tour of the work in progress, and it bids fair to be ready for use later this spring. The parking area remains closed for the moment.

So, some good news.

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