Snow Mountain Wilderness, Mendocino National Forest, CA

Back in the beginning of August, we decided we wanted to go somewhere in the Mendocino National Forest, and the Snow Mountain Wilderness sounded like a great location.  We had picked this destination a bit hastily from “100 Classic Hikes in Northern California” by John R. Soares and Marc H. Soares.  We at least thought to call the ranger station ahead of time to make sure it was open and there was no immediate threat of wildfires.  The Forest Service employee I spoke with had to ask around the office and confirm with her supervisor before saying it was going to be ok; the Mill Creek Fire had just been contained... So with some hesitancy we went.  For those interested, the recommended route from Stonyford is rather long and challenging (narrow roads, large potholes, thick gravel and along cliffs).  There is another way, which we took on the way back; from the town of Upper Lake, CA (on the North Shore of Clear Lake) taking Elk Mountain Road to Forest Service Road M10, but this does involve driving through small creek (and officially for four-wheel drive only…). 

(view from campsite at trail head)

              We got to the trailhead just before sundown and met a couple of college interns with the Forest Service.  Being a recent graduate of the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences I always enjoy the opportunity to talk shop.  However, when we tried asking about the trail we learned their job was to go map it!  Well in the morning we set out anyway, noting the Jeffery Pine, White Fir and the fine sedimentary rocks.  We got to a point that finally seemed like the “toppish” of the mountain, where we had lunch.  When our new friends met us we asked if it was the top of the mountain, to which they replied they were going to ask us…  So we all continued on what we though was the path.  We dropped down into a beautiful area that appeared to be at least a couple years post fire.  My best guess is this was the area burned in the 2009 fire.  

On our way out we passed by a beautiful spring, incredibly refreshing to dip hands and head into on a hot day (of course not to drink without treatment, who knows where the spring actually comes from). 

            We finally found ourselves at a fork with the East Peak of Snow Mountain to the right and a trail back to the car to the left.  We decided to make our way towards the next adventure in Arcata, CA, rather than accompany our Forest Service companions on their way to map the rest of the trail.  I’d love to go back to this wilderness.  The forested areas all smelled sweet, faintly like cinnamon and sugar, we think due to the Sugar Pine and Incense Cedar.  Clearly a return is in order to verify these speculations.  I look forward to the improved maps from our Forest Service friends; they would be incredibly helpful for future adventures.  

"Clear Lake", CA

We thought we’d step out of the car for a breath of fresh air and a nice view as we passed by Clear Lake on Highway 20 on our way up to the Mendocino National Forest in Northern California.  Little did we know the air was not so fresh!  A putrid mass of dead rotting algae clogged the entire shoreline.  I unfortunately made the assumption that this must be an invasive species of algae out of control in the lake, but a little research proved otherwise. 

Over one hundred years ago Clear Lake was described “…covered with a deep, dense moss, which sometimes rises to the surface, and often to such an extent in summer as to seriously obstruct the passage of boats through the water” and “the plants and moss from the bottom float in great quantities in the water, and it becomes unfit to drink” (Stone 1873).  It has been presumed that the “dense moss… that rises to the surface” is in fact noxious scum forming blue-green algae, also referred to as cyanobacteria.  While present in the lake for thousands of years, these species of noxious algae have increased sense the late 1920’s and especially sense the 1940’s, primarily due to increased erosion and nutrient loading from mining and land-use change around the lake (Richerson et al. 1994). 

These species of algae form “scums” because they form colonies of individual algae cells and some cells fill with gas and become buoyant to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere (Mioni et al. 2012).  (This is a really cool ecological trick utilizing bacteria, do web search on “nitrogen fixing bacteria” for more info).  Anyway, because these algal scums are gross they bother the residence of the lake and reduce tourism at a cost of millions of dollars a year (Richerson et al. 1994).   For more information a report was released earlier this year investigating cyanobacteria blooms in Clear Lake and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River (Mioni et al. 2012).  This whole exercise has really highlighted for me the danger in making assumptions with little data and how “naturally occurring” components of an ecosystem can become disruptive through the unconscious consequences of modern development. 

References

Mioni, Cecile, Raphail Kudela, Dolores Baxa, and Meghan Sullivan. 2012. Harmful Cyanobacteria Blooms and Their Toxins in Clear Lake and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ( California ).

Richerson, Peter J, Thomas H Suchanek, Stephen J. Why, and Thomas Smythe. 1994. THE CAUSES AND CONTROL OF. http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/Richerson/CleanLakesReport1994.pdf.

Stone, Livingston. 1873. XX. -Report of Operations in California in 1873. http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Assets/WaterResources/Algae/Livingston+Stone.pdf.