Story:
This was Ruck-A-Chucky Rapids - the hard way.
This was Ruck-A-Chucky Rapids - the hard way.
We were planning to do the Ruck-A-Chucky Rapids Hike according to the book "60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Sacramento". We headed out down I-80 to the Foresthill Road exit and then took the narrow and windy Drivers Flat Road, expecting to drive for 5 miles - passed the Ruck-A-Chucky Campground, across 2 forded streams, passed the remnants of the Greenwood bridge and the day use parking area, to finally park at the gate marked "Gate 101 - Ruck-a-Chucky Falls", where the trailhead would be. It didn't work out that way.
Shortly after turning onto Drivers Flat Road, the rest of the road was closed for the winter. We could have parked at the first day use parking area and walked an additional 3 miles (6 miles down and back), which would have turned our original 6 mile hike into a 12 mile hike. Looking at a map, it seemed like we could get back on the highway to McKeon Ponderosa Road and take that down to about the same area, maybe adding an additional 2 miles, depending how far we could drive on McKeon before having to park. It ended up being 3 miles all downhill, which meant we'd have 3 miles all uphill on the way back. And then there was a confusing fork in the path and we took the wrong trail (the left one) and had to double back (I should have listened to my to wife and taken the trail to the right).
We finally got to the bottom and there was a picnic area, so we sat and ate our peanut butter sandwiches. From here there were 2 trails, each heading further downhill, but we decided to give up and walk the 3 miles back uphill to car. Then a couple of rangers on horseback came by and told us that the Rapids were less than a mile away, so we changed our minds again and continued on the trail that the ranger pointed out. True to his word, in a short time we were at some rapids, but it wasn't the Ruck-A-Chucky Rapids. We later looked on Google Maps and decided that we had hiked to Oregon Bar.
We did get to see the remains of the Greenwood bridge, which was one of the casualties from the flooding when Hell Hole Dam failed. The dam failed in December 1964 during construction when the partially completed embankment was overtopped by a flood that was twice as big as the maximum flood of record.
The Middle Fork of the American River was very scenic and in the end we were glad we continued down to the river, and we felt good afterwards that we also got a good uphill workout (from river-level it was a 2100 foot climb!). It ended up being about 7.2 miles total.
Tips:
If you look at my GPS track, from McKeon Ponderosa we head down and then turn east. DON'T DO THAT! That trail will dead end at some private property. Only do this trail the way we did it if you want a really good uphill workout at the end. It's probably better to do this hike the way the book suggests, but not in the winter when the road is closed (the restrooms down by the Oregon Bar were closed too).
If you look at my GPS track, from McKeon Ponderosa we head down and then turn east. DON'T DO THAT! That trail will dead end at some private property. Only do this trail the way we did it if you want a really good uphill workout at the end. It's probably better to do this hike the way the book suggests, but not in the winter when the road is closed (the restrooms down by the Oregon Bar were closed too).
Tags:
Oregon Bar, Ruck-A-Chucky, McKeon Ponderosa Way, Auburn State Recreational Area
Oregon Bar, Ruck-A-Chucky, McKeon Ponderosa Way, Auburn State Recreational Area
Comments (0)
Facebook
