Continued...
On the second day of my tour of western Mendocino NF I awoke high on the
northeast flank of Hull Mtn where I had driven the previous evening to spend the
night. The road, M1, was not in great condition but I managed to get my
low-clearance van up the steep route from Lake Pillsbury, climbing some 5,000ft
over perhaps 8mi - that's one steep road. I found the engine's plastic splash
guard had been torn from the undercarraige and left lying on the road not far
from where I'd spent the night. I collected it into the back of the van and
drove a short distance to the
leading to the summit of Hull Mtn,
parking here to start my day's adventure. My plan was to drive the rest of M1
north to its terminus, tagging a few P1Ks, a handful of CC peaks and a whole
bunch of convenient bonus peaks nearby. It nearly ended before I could finish
the first hour.
Hull Mountain
A P2K and
CC-listed summit, Hull Mtn rises high to the northeast above
. A lookout tower once stood at the summit, but today
only the foundation and remain. A rough 4WD road leads less
than half a mile from M1 to the summit where are unobstructed and
outstanding. Big Signal Peak lies prominently to , Snow Mtn and
St. John Mtn to , with the lower Bald Mtn to
along the M1 crest. When I returned to the van 40min later I
found the car wouldn't start. This was .
Even if I had a cell signal, AAA would be of no service off the pavement, and
in this case some 10mi from the nearest asphalt down by Lake Pillsbury. This
was not a pretty place to get stuck. I might find another car come by once or
twice during the day. Then what? Get a ride back to town somewhere (if they
were even going that way) and arrange another $650 tow? I
wasn't alarmed initially. I had just driven a short while ago to reach this
spot and knew the battery was hardly likely to be drained. More likely, there
was some electrical issue keeping the car from starting. I wondered what switch
I might have knocked accidently and considered other possibilities, like the
steering wheel locking mechanism, but could find nothing. I pulled out the
owners manual and perused it, but it had no trouble-shooting section and was of
little help. I was becoming more alarmed after the first 15min.
I noticed the courtesy
lights were no longer working, nor the electric side doors. I opened the hood
and examined the battery and cables, but noticed nothing unusual. Back inside I
found the courtesy lights and doors worked again, but when I tried to start the
car all went dead a second time without even engaging the starter. It looked
like I had a poor connection somewhere, perhaps jiggled loose by all the hard
driving. I went back to the engine compartment and noticed the negative cable
to the battery could be moved by hand. I worked it back and forth to
seat it better, then tried to start the engine again. Success! A few moments
earlier I was working through how I was going to get back to civilization, and
suddenly my journey was to continue. Life is funny that way. I sure would have
been embarassed to call for a tow truck to the middle of nowhere to find my
battery cable was loose.
Monkey Rock
A few miles NNW of Hull Mtn is
CC-listed , just west of M1
and inside the that encompasses a large swath of forest
on that side of
the road. I didn't realize the Yuki Wilderness HP was only a hundred feet off
the road near Windy Gap on my way to Monkey Rock or I would have paid it a visit
as well. Monkey Rock is a large
that is prominent from the west
and though looks like it might be formidable, is an easy class 3 scramble. I
parked on the edge of M1 due east of Monkey Rock and took less than 10min to
find my way to the summit. A USFS dating to 1944 is found
there. The are similar to those on Hull Mtn.
Bald Mountain
A P1K and
CC-listed, Bald Mtn can be nearly driven to the summit by 4WD or
within half a mile for low clearance. There is a major fork in M1 just south of
Bald Mtn. I took the right fork signed M61 and parked at a
with a rough road climbing to Bald Mtn from the
southeast. 10min was suffice to hike to . As the name
suggests, the summit is mostly , offering
.
A mile to the northeast of Bald Mtn is this
CC-listed summit with modest
prominence. It probably has no real business being on a peak list. The more
adventurous can hike from Bald Mtn, but I chose the more circuitous 4mi drive
that ends with a short quarter mile hike to the top (4WD can drive nearly to
the summit). Not as bald as Bald Mtn, Little Baldy's
offers good views looking north. Three quarters of a mile SE, across Buckhorn
Creek is , and easy bonus peak that can be climbed from the
road for less than a
mile. I made a small mistake here in going cross-country to a false summit SE
of Dicks Butte, while the easiest route (which I used on the return) simply
follows the road from where I'd parked. A short bit of scrambling with modest
brush gets you to the rocky summit. There are nice views to
Anthony Peak and to Bald and Little Baldy.
Coyote Rock/Swallow Rock
These two named summits are located on the west side of Bald Mtn, not far from
M1. I drove back out to M1, then northwest a short ways to find a parking spot
between the two. I made a completely unnecessary cross-country hike north to
Coyote Rock through forest only to find a good road reaching to within 200ft
coming around from the north. is a modest outcrop and an
easy class 2 scramble. On the west side of M1 in the Yuki Wilderness is the more
interesting Swallow Rock. The side roads branching west from M1 have been
blocked to mark the , but I used one of these,
still quite serviceable on foot, to reach near to Swallow Rock. This is a
that makes a fun class 3 scramble, either from the north
or southwest sides, the best bit of scrambling on the day. Its not very
prominent from M1 as the other summits were, but well-worth a visit.
Haydon Rock
About three miles further north, just off the northwest side of M1, is
,
a prominent outcrop that takes all of 10min to summit. It, too, lies in
the Yuki Wilderness and the older road going near its summit has been
. Like Monkey Rock, it features a USFS
from 1944. are not appreciably different from those atop Bald
Mtn. The summit rocks are class 2-3 with some minor bushwhacking.
Buzzard Roost
Two and half miles further north along M1 is , the
shortest and easiest of the day's summits, taking but a minute from the car. It
sports little vegetation, making for , even if not very high.
Whitish on the summit rocks suggests it might even be a
favorite hangout for some of the many turkey vultures found in this area.
Etsel Ridge
With more than 700ft of prominence, it was a little surprising to find this
summit the least interesting of the bunch. At the turnoff west of the highpoint
is the Grizzly Flat Campsite, where I found 4-5 tents and gear set up but no
people. Out hunting, I guessed. I parked by the new-looking bathroom and hiked
up the deteriorating road no long suitable for low clearance. The hike gained
little altitude along a road that melted into the forest, then about half a
mile across a forest floor littered with downfall. The was
impossible
to find without a GPS and even with it became a randomized walk through the
forest. No views, nothing of note to find anywhere near the highpoint.
Poison Rock/Peak 5,580ft
Another three miles to the northwest, along a lower section of Etsel Ridge is
the named feature of Poison Rock, my last stop on M1. This is an exceedingly
, a from the southeast, but good
views. Just northeast of the benchmarked highpoint is
of what may have been a lookout at one
time. After visiting, I wandered east along the low ridge just above the
roadway looking for the highpoint of unnamed Peak 5,580ft with just over 300ft
of prominence. Not much to find here, but better than Etsel Ridge, to be sure.
Following my return to the car, I spent the next hour driving down the length
of Etsel Ridge to its terminus at the Middle Fork of the ,
also the northern end of M1.
Leech Lake Mountain
5,000ft above and about 7mi north of the Middle Fork of the Eel River is
another P1K. A not-so-bad dirt road leads up from Mendocino Pass Rd for 3,000ft
over about 8mi. The road continues for another 7mi to areas higher in the Eel
River drainage, but I
where the road starts a downhill stint in order to
hike the 3mi side road towards the summit from the south. This road is gated
shut so even 4WD will get you no further. A large
across the road
just past the gate ensures this. The hike is a leisurely one, a nice gradient
rising more gradually after the first half mile where it crosses Pine Ridge (the
South Ridge of Leech Lake Mtn) and traverses the west slopes up to the
6,200-foot level. from years past is plentiful on the west
side of the mountain. is a small body of water below the
summit,
completely dry this time of year. The road bypasses the summit on the west side
as it continues around the north side. The last 400-500ft to the summit are
cross-country via a number of possible routes. On the way up I followed a loose
gully for no other reason than the interesting of the
rock found there - it wasn't the best of choices due to the looseness.
I reached around 4:20p, a large redish-brown
with outstanding views. A collection of six
for various members of the Moore family have been
installed just below to the west of the highpoint. The 1943
has the spelling as "Leach" which makes one wonder if the lake and mountain
were misspelled on the maps (the blood suckers are not endemic to this area
as far as I know). Tucked away under a rock was a plastic container serving as
a . It was the only register of any type I found on any of
the day's summits. The to sign it back in May was John
Vitz, to no great surprise. On the descent I hiked a short
distance before dropping west to
pick up the road near where it goes over a small saddle, a much easier route
than the one I'd used on the ascent. I tried to take a
shortcut on the way back, attempting to shorten some of the meandering the road
does to keep the gradient reasonable. It ended up being no faster dropping down
a steep, for about a quarter mile, but it wasn't bad,
either. I got back to
around 5:20p, the whole outing taking less than 2.5hrs.
Buck Mountain
With a few hours of daylight remaining, I headed back down to Mendocino Pass Rd
and followed it west to Round Valley. North of Round Valley are two P1Ks near
the ends of two long, dirt/gravel roads. Heading north on Mina Road out of
Round Valley, the pavement soon gave way to very good dirt roads. Narrow and
winding, they are compacted and appear to be oiled to keep dust to a minimum.
Various homesteads are found along the roadway for many miles.
I took a right fork on Hull Valley Road and followed this for a number of miles
until I was at the base on the southwest side of Buck Mtn where the road meets
Hull Creek. I was sort of winging it at this point. Though the summit is on NF
lands, most of the route appears to be in private hands, at least by perusing
the maps. At the creek crossing where I found a
, but none
of the No Trepassing signs I expected. Just a single sign indicating No
Campfires and other fire restrictions. Judging from other signs, at least some
of lands I crossed appear to be part of a hunting club, but I saw no one during
my two hour visit and no signs that anyone had driven through recently. I
followed a good up for almost 3mi as
made its way to the western horizon before I could reach the summit. Around
7:20p I made it to a on the southwest side of the
summit with about a quarter mile to go. This last part was cross-country up
steep, forested slopes with mild bushwhacking and some poison oak to watch out
for. It was after 7:30p when I reached the summit where
is located and only partial views to to be had. I knew
I'd be racing darkness to get back so I wasted
no time in descending, following a different cross-country track (the ascent
route was better) back to the road, and then the same road back to the start.
It would be after 8p by the time I got back, but just light enough that I
didn't need to dig out my headlamp.
After rinsing, I spent the night where I'd parked as it seemed a
pretty remote, quiet and flat location. I would be surprised by several large
trucks rumbling by in the early morning hours while it was still dark - no idea
what they were up to or where they were going - I wouldn't have guessed there
was much commercial business of any kind out here in the sticks. I had hoped to
visit the other nearby P1K, Bald Mtn, the next day but was low on fuel and
thought I might
not have enough to get back to US101. As it turns out there is cheap gas in
Round Valley at the Indian casino and I would easily have had enough - good
information to know for a future visit...