| Buttermilk Bend Trail
Leaving the Visitor's Center go through the covered bridge, follow the trail under the new bridge, through the North parking lot to the trail sign pointing left up the hill. (One could alternately park in the North lot and leave from there, making this hike about 1/4 mile shorter.) The trail continues for about 75 yards up a moderately steep hill, then levels off for the remainder of the hike. Stop at the top of this hill and look to the left. It is overgrown with grass, but clearly was a miner's ditch used to carry water for their use. This ditch goes all the way to Englebright where it is lost in a large stand of blackberry bushes, and in fact the Buttermilk Bend trail is simply the upstream portion of this ditch. About .7 miles upstream the trail crosses French Corral Creek over a footbridge. Just before the trail drops down to the footbridge look across the stream and notice some substantial stonework. This was probably where a flume crossed the ravine, and by continuing past the bridge to where the trail returns to about the same elevation, the other flume abutment can be seen although not quite as clear.
About .4 miles past the footbridge a good path leads to a stone fireplace approximately four feet high which is fifty feet off the trail downhill to the right and is quite visible. This was a substantial encampment for the time, considered to be more than a mere miner's camp, perhaps even a boarding house.
Continuing 50 yards up the trail notice the piles of rocks off to the right of the trail down by the river. These were once river bottom and were removed to get at the gold. Also in this area there are two large pipes laying on the ground at right angles. Close examination reveals that they are not water pipes, but are in fact part of a hoist or lifting mechanism which, when placed in an upright position, was most likely used to carry rocks out of the river or move large boulders to get to the gold.
Approximately 80 yards further is the State Boundary marker which ends SYRP jurisdiction. The trail continues into Bureau of Land Management land which is administered by the Army Corps of Engineers. 115 yards past the SYRP boundary the trail takes a significant dip, obviously not what a ditch would do. Stand at the bottom of this dip, look back and notice familiar stonework where the ditch actually curved around this gully. More interesting still is the fact that you are standing on what was the site of more than one generation of structures as evidenced by the different ages of hardware that have been found in the area. Step down a path directly to the right a few steps toward the river and the extensive stonework which held this level area together comes into view. Total hike from the Visitor's Center is 2.7 miles round trip or 2.2 miles from the North parking lot, an easy hike except for a moderately steep 75 yard climb at the early part of the trail.
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