My buddy Marty had relocated to Ft. Bragg on the Mendocino Coast five months ago
after retiring. He moved into a home in the redwoods on a large parcel with a
good-sized house and garage, both needing some work. He's a pretty handy guy and
likes to do stuff that most people would call in a contractor to deal with. I
offered to come up and help him do some work, things that a second set of hands
can help speed up. On my way there, I stopped off in Jackson State Forest and
Mendocino Woods State Park to explore the area and tag a few summits. I noticed
that Karl and Mason had both visited a few summits here on separate occasions
and was curious to see what drew them there (short answer, I think - they are
pretty easy summits). The whole area is second and even third growth redwood
forest, and though the old giants have been gone for 80yrs now, I still enjoy
wandering about these forests, immersed among these towering trees that have so
well adapted themselves to the northern coast areas of the state.
Peak 860ft
This summit is found just off SR20 on the north side. I used the exit road for
the state prison that is found in the forest. The signage suggested I
wasn't welcome there, but I figured since I was parking just off the highway,
no one would care that much. There is a transmission line and pipeline running
across the hill with utility roads providing relatively easy access.
There had been some work to clear the transmission line's path (no doubt in
response to the renewed interest PG&E has taken to be more careful about
starting fires) that has left slash all over the road, but it wasn't hard to
work through it. Like all the summits I visited today, there are no views to be
had from the top, really it's just the process of wandering through the
forest that I enjoy anyway. When I got back after about 30min, a
prison truck stopped to see what I was up to. I explained that I was
just hiking up to the unnamed hill above which just seemed to baffle him. "We
have lots of hiking trails you can use," he offered, but when I insisted I
wanted to visit the particular summit here, he just gave me a look like
I was a moron. Couldn't argue with him on that.
Jackson State Forest PP
This is the most prominent summit in Jackson State Forest, not all that
impressive. There is a well-graded dirt road that runs from SR20 south through
the forest, joining up with Mendocino Woodlands State Park. The summit is found
a few hundred feet off this road through
moderately dense forest. Again, nothing to see at the top, but it only
takes a few minutes.
Observatory Hill
One of the few named summits in the state forest, it doesn't have much
prominence, and despite the name, there's nothing to observe here. I suspect it
was a different story when the Coast Surveyors visited to place
the benchmark - the old growth had probably been relatively recently
removed and they probably kept the top clear for at least a few years to use
for the purpose of surveying and observations. Nicely, there's
a good trail that runs the quarter mile from the well-graded road to
the summit. It looks like surveyors had visited to reestablish the benchmark,
using flagging to mark the benchmark and two accompanying reference
mark locations.
Peak 891ft
Continuing south on the graded dirt road, I was surprised to find the road
become paved, evidently another entrance starting from the south in Mendocino.
To reach Peak 891ft, I used a gated spur road from the pavement, that
combined with a biking trail to reach the summit more easily
that I would have expected, about 15min each way. It wasn't until I'd returned
to the car that I discovered this was part of a whole network of trails in the
adjacent Mendocino Headlands and Mendocino Woodlands State Parks.
Peak 820ft
A nearby paved spur road leads down to Big River and Mendocino Woodlands State
Park. The park is surprisingly old, dating to the Great Depression when federal
dollars and CCC folks built recreational facilities here that were eventually
turned over to the state in 1947. The park is pretty low-key, staffed by an
all-volunteer organization. There is camping (though that part was closed for
the season) with miles of biking and hiking trails. There are no day use fees
in the park. Though the park itself has no summits, its trail network allows
access to Peak 820ft to the east and possibly other summits as well. I stopped
at the entrance station to pick up a map and ask a few questions about the
trails. Unfortunately the guy manning it was an administrative fellow who told
me he knew almost nothing about the trails. The map would suffice, and frankly
I'd have easily found the peak I was after without it. I had only enough time
for the one summit, a pleasant 5mi outing that took me across Big River on
an old log bridge (there are other ways across, but this
condemned one looked kinda fun) and then up the Ridge Trail (also called Steam
Donkey on the park map). The Ridge Trail intersects the
Big Tree Trail about halfway up, and I stopped to make the short
diversion to visit this lone old growth redwood that was left uncut by the
loggers. It may have been the largest one in the area, and perhaps in a measure
of guilt or tradition that they left this one standing. After a few
pictures, I returned to the ridge and continued up to the top. The
trail (really an old logging road) goes just below the summit, with easy
cross-country for maybe 100ft. I believe this route can be used to access Peak
1,235ft, a summit with nearly 900ft of prominence, a few more miles to the east.
Whether this would take me onto private property I could not discern - that will
wait for more research and a future visit. I returned back via the
Big Tree Trail, a nice alternative, finishing up well before
noon. It was time to get myself to Ft. Bragg so I called it a day, but this
whole area is well worth a few more visits, at least.