A Wild Independence, directed by Alden Olmsted and produced by Bear Yuba Land Trust, tells the story of the first identified wheelchair-accessible hiking path in the United States. It was built by Olmsted’s father, John Olmsted, in the 1970s and 80s along Excelsior Ditch, a product of the Gold Rush that diverted water from the South Yuba River for hydraulic mining.

The trail consists of several wooden flumes, but the focal point is Flume 28, which is over 500 feet in length and crosses Rush Creek above a waterfall. A decaying, switchbacking boardwalk leads to the creek for visitors to picnic, cool off, and take photos of the historic flume. At least, all of this was the case up until August of 2020, when the Jones Fire ripped through the Rush Creek area and destroyed every flume on the Independence Trail.

These are the flames in which the film begins.

-- courtesy Sierra Nevada Ally

Premiering on KVIE 6 PBS Sacramento - Stream it here

An Agnostic and a Christian walk into a bar

And the real reason I just drove to Florida