Nevada County Life

Yuba River at Bridgeport

This week we had a nice stroll on the Buttermilk Bend Trail at Bridgeport, part of the South Yuba State Park system. Each season is different at Bridgeport. In a couple of months, the Buttermilk Bend trail will be the most beautiful place to find wildflowers in Nevada County, and the flowers will bloom in waves throughout the Spring. In Summer, there’s nowhere more relaxing to spend a Summer day than at one of the swimming holes along the South Yuba River. For now, Winter at Bridgeport has its own charm. It is quiet with fewer visitors, and all you hear is the sound of the river flowing by and the gentle sound of the wind. The pools in the river are deep emerald green in the Winter light. And if you’re a dog person, you are only allowed to take dogs to Bridgeport October-April, so now is the time. Our dog loves to walk there and take a dip in the water.

So, if you’re looking for a nice place for a Winter hike, hed down to Bridgeport. It’s at a much lower elevation, so you won’t have to worry about snow making the trekking difficult! See more photographs of Bridgeport at thisisnevadacounty.com.

There are so many people who have chosen their dream town here in Nevada City or Grass Valley and then made their jobs work around it. People say it’s been great and they would never look back since moving here from the Bay Area or other places!

As cost of living and traffic have risen in cities around the country while technology is advancing, more and more people have been looking at working at home as a great option for a healthy work and home life. Many people are enjoying the quiet life here in Nevada County while still making their big-city money from their home office!

You find telecommuters – professionals who have moved here, but kept their jobs by traveling or by working remotely from a home office.

But even better, you find entrepreneurs! It’s amazing the range of small businesses we have here in Nevada County – retailers, web designers, inventors, writers, artists, ranchers, and the list goes on. It makes for great diversity.

In the past, young professionals would look for the the right job and assume they might have to move around the country to find it. These days that’s changing. Many young adults are feeling that where they live and their quality of life is the first priority, and then they’ll worry about a job.

In Nevada County, we have quality of life – one of the best school systems in California, amazing Sierra foothill scenery, a cultural scene including art, wine, and good restaurants, and most of all, friendly people!

Sometimes people are looking for something original from Grass Valley, Nevada City or Nevada County at large, but don’t really have the time to go mooching around all the shops or visiting street fairs such as Cornish Christmas or Victorian Christmas.  Well some of the local artisans have discovered a web based outlet for their work in the form of Etsy.com (http://www.etsy.com).

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Serving Pilot Peak wine

Another in our random series of items that may make good gifts during the holiday season.  Today we’re looking at Pilot Peak, a local winery in Penn Valley that’s been crafting some really good wines in recent years and generating a fanatical following in the form of the “Peakers” wine club.

We stumbled on Pilot Peak by accident during one of the wine events and we’ve been going ever since.  We’ve also been taking people from out of town there because of the warm welcome these people get, and also because of the ambience.  They have created a small mediterranean garden that is just the place to enjoy the samplers, or, enjoy a whole bottle of the wine you liked best during the sampling!

And their wines?  They have a wide selection (see the wine list at http://www.pilotpeak.com) with our personal favorites being their Cabernet Franc, Zinfandel and Viognier.  Alas the latter two were the favorites of so many people that the current vintages sold out earlier this year, but not to worry, the PrimoZin is an excellent substitution for the Zinfandel, and we know they have other wines coming in the future that will satisfy our Viognier habit.  

Anyways, we have often given bottles of Pilot Peak wine to people for occasions and have never had any hate mail sent back to us.  In fact usually we’re asked if “the winery will be open for tasting when we come”.  Now if someone asks us to tell us the dates the winery is open so they can plan their trip around them maybe we’ll get a little suspicious about why they are coming to see us….  We’ve also given the wine as corporate gifts too.

One word of warning, if you are sending the wine out of state, do check the rules on shipping.  Not all states welcome wine shipments from California!

Want to add some Nevada County photographs to your site?  Want to have them change regularly so your visitors get new scenes from the local area?  Well install the Nevada County Photograph Widget on your website, and entertain your visitors with views from Bridgeport, Grouse Lakes, Nevada City and more.  Simply click the “get widget” link underneath the widget below and follow the instructions.  The install process will give you some code to enter into your website and instantly you’ll have a slideshow of Nevada County photographs embedded on your site.