Pennyweight Trail

DATE: Friday, May 29, 2020
DISTANCE: 4.8km /  3 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 144m /  472 ft.
TIME TAKEN: 1 hr
AUBURN STATE RECREATION AREA
PLACER COUNTY, CA
SOUNDTRACK: Pennywise: Pennywise

PHOTO ALBUM
MAP

The Pennyweight Trail, out of Mineral Bar in the Auburn State Recreation Area, has historical significance, leading to classic mining and panning sites of California’s gold rush, along the North Fork American River. I had already stomped this trail in the summer of 2019, but I returned again, mainly to photograph and measure it, because I had not brought my phone last time. The first thing I did upon arrival, was go up into the woods, out of the south-west corner of the Mineral Bar parking lot, to check on a small waterfall I’d seen last year. It was doing okay. And then Pennyweight. The trail got me about a mile upriver from the Iowa Hill Bridge, where one can access further swimming holes, and have a view down to the river as you go. Quite nice. On the way there, I passed by a seasonal pseudo waterfall. The previous summer, there had been only a trickle of water in it, and I climbed up several levels up the rock and slime on an exploratory mission. This time, there was water in the falls, and people hanging out at them as well, so I socially distanced myself away from them and continued on the trail, soon passing an abandoned mine shaft. I hiked about three miles total, doing the trail out and back, then returning to the campground side again.

This day, Amber and I were on our way to rescue a friend from out in Herlong, CA, so along the route, we made subsequent stops on the south and north forks of the Yuba river as well, just sightseeing. I also witnessed Downieville for the first time. Eventually, our day ended at a campground up by Sierra City, the only one we saw all day that wasn’t closed due to the pandemic. I took pictures of everything as we went along, but there were no more hikes that day.

FURTHER READING
•Gold Country Media: “The Secret’s Out”
•CalEXPLOREnia: Pennyweight Falls analysis
•Alltrails: Details and map