my brother and i had a slightly more ambitious backpacking trip in mind—at a minimum we had our eye on lake margaret near kirkwood, california at 8,000 feet of elevation 2.5 miles hike in. or we looked at horseshoe lake near lake juniper in lassen volcanic national park further north—that’s about a 2 mile hike in. but as we got shorter on time and cartilage, we decided to try the shortest “backpacking” we knew about—illinois crossing on the south yuba river.
the camp & the trailhead
it did not disappoint. to get to the trailhead, navigate to the south yuba river campground. on the way, n. bloomfield road becomes essentially one lane, gravel and unimproved. you can drive it in a 2 wheel drive car but its slow-going for a little while. you go over the narrow edwards crossing bridge where on weekends and during pandemics folks crowd the road parking and going straight down to a beautiful part of the river. we saw tons of cars with parking tickets on the way out.
continue up that unimproved road for about 10 minutes past nothing at all for a while (and you’ll probably lose internet contact on it) and then you see a couple of houses on the left and right after that is the south yuba river campground on blm (bureau of land management) land on the right. follow the signs for “parking “ to the left not “camping” to the right. because it’s blm you can park for free—even on two different busy weekends, there was space in the lot.
the rest of what you need to know is mostly on the link above. it’s a short hike to illinois crossing lined with poison oak.
the mayor
what you don’t know, and what we were surprised to find no internet references to, is that illinois crossing has a permanent resident. we met the mayor or “benevolent overlord” of illinois crossing as he’d prefer to be known while playing cribbage on our picnic table after dinner. unlike most visitors to illinois crossing, my brother and i preferred (possibly because we’re in our fifties) to camp in the shady flat area with a picnic table near the pit toilet, rather than down by the river.
the level shady area has a great view of the river and is protected from the relentless sun on a hot day. it’s a short scramble down the hill to the rocks near the deep clear swimming area. we spent several hours each day down by the river but were glad for our retreat to the shade of the hills. you can see a good picture of this spot on this link about illinois crossing
the overlord says he has pitched his blue and white tents at illinois crossing for 11 years. mostly only in summer. he lives in someone’s house in the winters. he doesn’t recommend winters at the crossing, says there’s no sun for months. as he emerged from his blue and white tents to talk with us near our table, he looked the picture of a long term hill dweller. shorts only, long white beard.
he introduced himself as gold miner and he seems to be serious about it. the next morning he headed out relatively early with prospecting equipment, cheerfully chirping “good morning, off to work.”
despite his off the grid existence, he knew all about covid-19 and what was going on. he kept a 6 foot distance from us, no mask though, and speaking quite forcefully. he seemed upset at how many more people camp at illinois crossing during the pandemic. he said that pre-pandemic, he never saw a soul midweek and now there’s someone there every night.
what he particularly hates is the people who set fires. one can hardly blame him. the whole valley is a tinderbox. on our table, he had written on the official park sign “what part of no fires, don’t you understand?”
we certainly didn’t need or consider a fire on friday night when the low was 69 degrees.
i’ll be back to illinois crossing. prior to meeting the mayor, i was even thinking of going out there by myself midweek and just having a free retreat. he did seem nice and generally a protective influence on the ridge, but not sure if i want to cohabit with him when the crowds are down. then again, maybe i do.
[note: there’s a good chance you don’t care or haven’t noticed that i’ve moved from a “snout-based” to a “mask-based” rating system during the pandemic. i reserve the right to revert to snouts at any time. at first i was just using masks for reviewing public in person things but then i realized, we also need to review our online content from a point of view of not only physical but emotional safety. so the masks are an indication that i highly regard the physical and emotional experience of what ever i’m reviewing from the point of view of me during this pandemic.
5 masks = outstanding, the best possible
4 masks = good
3 masks = ok but falling short in some respects
2 masks = poor
1 mask = awful]
