Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Dave Moore Nature Trail


Dave Moore Nature Area


March 2018

This trail has been on my radar for at least a year when I first read that it was at least partially accessible. It's a 1.1 mile loop trail with the first half being accessible down to a beach area along the South Fork of the American River. The trailhead is only 33-miles from our house. Kellisa and I have been desperate to hit a trail, especially after driving to a different trail yesterday, only to find the park closed due to a special event.

The nature area and trail is named after a Ranger Conservationist for the Bureau of Land Management who was diagnosed with MS at 35-years-old and forced into an early retirement due to his disability. The trail was dedicated on June 4, 1994. We were hoping to be able to pushike the entire loop, but quickly found the accessible trail to be far from what we expect when out on an accessible trail (pictures below).

The trail was narrow in some areas, filled with roots in others, and had rocky sections along with running water down some parts of the trail creating some serious erosion issues, especially for those on wheels. Lastly, a few of the footbridges were far from level with the adjoining trail. I'm not an expert on motorized wheelchairs or wheelchair hikers who propel themselves, but I would guess they would find this trail very difficult at the very least. My guess is the trail met the standards back in 1994 and has been neglected (at least as far as accessibility is concerned) ever since. The non-accessible section was definitely not accessible, even by our standards do to large rocks blocking a narrow trail. That said, we thoroughly enjoyed our 1+ mile out and back hike on this trail. 
































End of the trail for us:




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