Nevada City, Calif. November 23, 2016 – Get off the couch, grab the kids and meet up with friends and loved ones to work off Thanksgiving dinner during Bear Yuba Land Trust’s (BYLT) 7th Annual Turkey Trek on the new Yewei’im Trail.
This free, self-guided hike on BYLT’s newest one-mile loop trail takes place anytime between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 25 at Burton Homestead Preserve, 16200 Lake Vera Purdon Road, about a mile from downtown Nevada City.
“With acorns and madrone berries in full Autumn splendor, now is a beautiful time to take a walk on the new Yewei’im Bom Trail,” said Outreach Coordinator Laura Petersen.
If weather permits, BYLT set up shop at the trailhead to provide maps and sell the popular sets of trail cards at an information table.
The Land Trust challenges locals to avoid the commercial madness of the busiest shopping day of the year (Black Friday) and instead encourages people to “Opt Outside” to encounter nature. In 2015, outdoor sporting goods giant, REI shocked the retail world when it closed its doors and paid its employees to take the day off and go play outside. Locally, besides BYLT, partner organization Folk Trails Hiking Club plans to lead a free walk on the South Yuba Trail from Edwards Crossing to Purdon Crossing.
Yewei’im Bom Trail
Completed in the spring of 2016, the trail traverses a variety of landscapes such as meadow, chaparral, mixed conifer and riparian areas.
In the celebrated book, “Diary of a 49er” documents the Gold Rush history on what is now BYLT’s Burton Homestead Preserve. A type of mining known as ground sluicing was practiced on the property.
“You can still see some of the linear features where they ran water across the hillside and then let it go to help them access the gold,” said Land Access Manager Shaun Clarke.
While on the trail, look for ditches and gullies from that bygone era. Evidence of Native American people on the land dates back to 5,000 years ago. Today, Burton Homestead is home to Sierra Harvest’s educational farm called “Food Love Project,” Four Elements Earth Education Foxwalker program, and the Tsi Akim Maidu Cultural Center with traditional bark houses called “Pata Panaka.”
A walk on the Yewei’im Bom Trail provides a glimpse of a variety of botanical interests including: Blue oak, black oak, canyon live oak, sugar pine, ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, incense cedar, Pacific madrone, white alder, Oregon grape, whiteleaf manzanita, buck brush, wild rose, mountain misery, white bark raspberry, toyon, chain fern, bracken fern, soap plant, mugwort, California poppy, English plantain, shooting star, buttercup, common bedstraw, narrowleaf cattail, and Shelton’s violet.
Walk lightly on the land and listen for wildlife such as Mule deer, Pileated woodpecker, and Sierran Tree Frog.
How to get there:
At the traffic light on Highway 49, Nevada City, turn right onto North Bloomfield Road. At the top of the hill (three-way intersection), turn left onto Lake Vera-Purdon Road. Stay on Lake Vera-Purdon for approximately one mile. Look for the Burton Homestead Preserve sign on your left, then turn left into the gravel parking lot. The trailhead departs from the parking lot at the kiosk.
For more information or to download maps from BYLT’s online Trails Portal, visit: www.bylt.org