My Hikes: American Canyon trail to R-a-C

4-25-09

Red Line is a hike in February to the falls that we got lost on because I forgot the map.
Yellow line was a hike we took in March on a whim so we had no map either
Blue line is the path I took on the 25th
Blue circle is the bridge
Yellow circle is the falls
red circle is where the Wendel T. Robie/ Sliger Mine rd. junction is.

The purpose of this hike was to find a waterfall on the American Canyon trail that I could not find on two previous hikes and to also make it to the other side of a broken bridge that was used by stagecoaches near the Ruck-a-Chucky campground as seen here.

I arrived at the trailhead (Third Gate) at noon and the weather was a beautifull 68 degrees outside.

The sign at the trailhead indicated that I had 6.7 Miles to Ruck-a-Chucky campground on the middle fork of the American River.

The begining of the trail starts off rocky and uneven but soon widens and flatens out

while being mostly shaded for about the first mile and a half

after the first .8 of a mile I followed the sign to R-a-C.

after another .1 of a mile I came to another sign and again took the trail to R-a-C

Well after about 5 minutes of hiking passed the sign you come across American Canyon creek and the dogs and I used this as a place to cool off for a minute.

after about 5 minutes we took off and we finally ran into a non-shaded area!

Once in the sun it started to get really warm. And just when I was wishing for some shade i ran into this little area that I had visited on a previous hike (red line on map). The area isnt very pretty at first

but if you hike up the creek a little bit it is very relaxing

after a rest and some tree climbing by Nala

we headed out and soon found the Dead Truck Trail (left) and Wendell T. Robie Trail(right) junction.

Last time I was here we took the Dead Truck trail until the desent was too steep, turned around and went back to the car. This time I continued along the Wendell T. Robie Trail towards Sliger Mine road. This part of the trail was mainly sunny

and flowers were all over the place. The trail must not have been used for some time as these flowers where growing up right out of the trail.

and was along the canyon edge but could not see down below the tree line to see the river

but i ran into a very interesting old building that was almost invisible below the trail. The only reason I found it was because the dogs ran down this side trail that I did not see.

after coming down the almost invisible side trail it led to a little meadow

with to the left was this (directly below the trail)

and to the right was this

and the view over that wall

and a video of the larger part

Im not sure what the structure used to be but these trails were heavily used in the mid to late 1800's.

Just after the old structure I cought my first glimpse of the river

ran into the back of a sign that said no hiking (?)

and then finally came to Sliger Mine road which you can drive down to the river on.

This road was all downhill but had some nice views of the canyon, wildflowers and plenty of hawks.

and on the way down I came across and old building but there were already some people in it taking pictures so I decided to let them check it out.

Well i got to the junction where you can either take the road to the Cherokee day use area (straight ahead, I had jsut come from the left) or follow the old Sliger Mine road (directly behind the picture) that was heavily overgrown. I chose the overgrown road that looked like it hadnt been walked down for quite a while.

Here is a first view of the R-a-C campsites on the other side of the river

and a view of the river (the mini rapids is where I ate after finding the bridge)

Here is the junction to continue on Sliger Mine road or go Right on the Wendell T. Robie Trail.

After about 2 hours I finally ran into the other side of the bridge! (Straight)

after hanging out at the bridge we saw a side trail to the right and decided to explore

which led to this

which led to this nice spot where the dogs and I had some lunch. The time was now 2:30pm

I put on an extra pair of socks and started back up the hill. once reaching the road I found a quarter (heads up!).

On the way back up the hill the people taking pictures were gone so I took some of my own of the old house, trading post, or whatever it used to be.

an old fireplace

I used to opportunity to use a wall for a self portrait (thanks for the hat reccomendation Uncle D)

and was trying to get the river behind me but failed

and one last picture from the side

after the old building I saw a neon orange catapillar on the ground and went to take a picture but my camera said the batteries had just run out. So I took the batteries out and hoped they would work once I got to the falls.

After about a 3 mile trip uphill in the sun I reached the Dead Truck junction and followed the Dead Truck Trail. At about a half mile in you can see why they call it Dead Truck Trail. There is a truck that has fallen over the edge and was caught by trees.

just after the truck I came to this sign telling me where I just was (taken with camera phone but it ran out of batteries right after this picture)

From this sign I could see the side trail leading down to the falls. After i was halfway down this very steep and slippery trail i took a picture looking up to the main trail.

then got to the falls but the lighting was pretty bad to get a good picture of this 15 foot waterfall hidden behind some rocks. This picture does not do it justice.

Here is the creek leading away from the falls

after the waterfall I wanted to see some more of the falls so in the above (3rd pic up) side trail picture I cut across and over some rocks where Nala is.

Here is the little area just before the falls (very calm and relaxing)