Yuba Gold Trail Runs

“Not your mama’s trail race!”

Come see the historic gold rush town of North Bloomfield and the hydraulic mining site of Malakoff Diggins! At it’s operational peak, Malakoff was outputting 100,000 gallons of water per day via hydraulic mining. The damage to the terrain is still obvious today and the ventilation shafts for the drainage tunnel can still be seen along Humbug Trail. 50K runners, keep an eye out for these on your initial descent!
More history of the area can be found here.

Presented by SkyBreaker Racing, Yuba Gold 50K is Nevada City, and west Nevada County, California’s only Ultra-marathon. Yuba Gold gets it’s namesake from the beautiful South Yuba River as well as Nevada County’s rich gold rush history. With 6,000 ft of gain, from the technical Humbug Trail, to the deceptive rollers of South Yuba Trail, to the Missouri Bar Trail climb, these are not your mama’s trail races!

Just outside of Nevada City, CA, in the heart of gold country, the 50k course passes thru Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park. It includes a descent of Humbug Trail, following Humbug Creek down to the beautiful South Fork Yuba River, the forested single-track of South Yuba Trail, climbs of Missouri Bar Trail and a series of Tahoe National Forest fire roads, with a max elevation of 4,700 ft.

While the 35K excludes the western Humbug portion, it acheives the same max elevation and traverses the same Missouri Bar Trail, fire roads, and a large section of South Yuba Trail. Keep an eye out for the abandoned 1967 Ford Galaxie 500 on your way back down to South Yuba Trail (You can’t miss it)!

Est. 2025