On the last of a four-day trip to California's North Coast, I switched from chasing CC-listed summits back to P1Ks. The trio of peaks today had a bit of everything the lush coast area has to offer - a long, easy cruise on old logging roads, a short but steep scramble to a rocky perch, a formidable bushwhack. I had half-decided to drive home early after the first summit in order to beat Bay Area traffic before rush hour, but eventually persevered and went on to complete the day's agenda and was glad I did. The weather was really nice today and it seemed a shame to waste an opportunity to enjoy the area to the fullest.
Mail Ridge North
Mail Ridge runs for more than 40mi, separating the South Fork Eel River from the Eel River. Three days earlier I had climbed Mail Ridge South at the southern end which is the highest point on the ridge. Mail Ridge North is quite a bit lower but is the most prominent point on the ridge. It lies entirely within private timber lands, not open to the public. I had spent the night camped near the Eel River and the Dyerville Trail Trestle, about three miles from the morning's starting point. I found
a locked gate at the start,
signed for No Trepassing. I parked outside the gate and started off on foot just
before 6a. A 
wide gravel road winds its way through dense second-growth
forest, steadily gaining elevation as it makes its way in a circuitous manner to
the summit in about 5mi. The morning fog 
began to clear as I neared the
summit area, though it would be hours before it cleared down in the valleys. The
road passes within 1/3mi of the summit. At a point southeast of the highpoint I
left the road to climb up through mostly 
open forest understory
which made for easy cross-country travel. It took a little more than two hours
to reach the summit where I found 
the highpoint buried in trees among a
couple of stumps from some very large redwoods that had been cut a century
earlier. Some of the second growth trees are already quite large and it may not
be too long before a second harvest gets under way. I left a register here under
a crude 
log cabin
I built atop one of the stumps. It might be a small rotting mess before the
next visitor finds it. Upon my return to the start a few hours later, I was
surprised to find the gate 
wide open.
Judging from the tracks in the road, it
seems the main work is going up a left fork about a mile up the road. I was
glad no one had seen me. I also wondered if I had started an hour or so later,
would I have been able to make this a drive up? Probably, but glad I didn't,
because there was the equal chance I might have found myself stuck behind a
locked gate. That would suck. Anyway, it was a very quiet morning hike that I
enjoyed very much.
Bear Buttes
Bear Buttes lies about 11mi almost due south of Mail Ridge. I spent an hour driving from one TH to the other. The peak lies in an area of dispersed homesteads. I left US101 at the Redway exit north of town and went over a bridge on the South Fork Eel River that leads to the Eel River Conservation Camp #31, a cleverly-worded description for a state prison. Before reaching the prison, Wood Ranch Rd forks right. I followed this gravel/dirt road and various forks for five miles through the rural community distributed about the slopes on the west side of the river. I eventually
parked in a
small clearing
at the base of the mountain on its southeast side, about 0.4mi from the summit.
The climb is very steep, almost from the start, rising 1,400ft before the top is
reached. Though the satellite view shows trees and what might be a very brushy
affair, the forest understory was 
remarkably clear. The biggest
challenge was the severe gradient and 
rocky cliffs encountered along
the way. It would take me just over 45min to make my way up, all class 2 with
convenient chutes to get through the cliff areas. the summit is a
large, rocky perch that has an easy class 2 route up 
the west side
through a small oak grove before popping out onto the 
wide-open summit
with fantastic 
views in 
all directions. Knowing that Barbara
and Gordon had climbed this in 2001, I expected to find one of their register,
but found none. I 
left one of my own, and because there were no
decent-sized rocks to be found anywhere at the top, I left it under a small
pile of gravel to protect it from the elements. After returning to the jeep,
I had just started driving back down when I was stopped by a truck coming the
other direction. The driver had come up to investigate reports of an unknown
vehicle
parked near one of his neighbors' homes, obviously me. When he asked me what I
was doing in the area I told him I'd come to climb Bear Buttes which seemed to
offer him some relief. He was extremely polite in explaining the whole area is
private property, even though it wasn't signed as such. I had seen a gate on
the north side of the road that leads to a property on the west side of Bear
Buttes, but there was no fence and I simply avoided using the gate or the road.
It's clearly not properly signed for No Trespassing, but of course I didn't
press the point, nor was it necessary. We parted on good terms with a wave and
I continued down the road and back to the highway.
Bark BM
Another 11 miles south of Bear Buttes, Bark BM also lies on private property. Dean Gaudet has a TR on PB describing a route he pioneered up from the east through Richardson Grove State Park that is a tough bushwhack. There is a road climbing up to the summit from the south, a route I had checked out a month earlier on a previous visit, finding it gated, locked, and signed for No Trespassing. The road travels up through dispersed homesteads and it seems impossible to not be noticed by several neighbors. I decided to use Dean's route as a safe and known route, even if a tough one. One can pay the $8 fee to enter the park as Dean did, or simply
park just outside the entrance and
walk in. There is 
a mailbox at the road that connects with
a trail down to the freeway underpass, connecting with Dean's route -
slightly shorter, too. After wandering through 
the campground, I found
the start of the trail network. There are 
multiple ways to
reach the 
Tan Oak Springs Trail, any will do. Once I reached this
junction after about 20min, the route begins climbing up out of the drainage
through delightful redwood forest with some impressive specimens. I came across
a couple of snakes, the first 
a racer that zipped out of view almost
before I could snap a picture. 
The second was much larger, what I at
first thought was a rattlesnake that I almost stepped on. This had me jumping
sideways to avoid it, my heart racing, only to discover it had no rattle. The
gopher snake seemed in no hurry to get away, so I picked it up and hung it
on a tree branch for a better view. After an hour's effort I reached
the top of the trail and 
the start of the cross-country with about
half a mile remaining. As Dean mentions, there are numerous
old logging roads forking off from the ridgeline one ascends. These
helped in places, but diverged from the route in others. I had Dean's GPX track
with me that I found helpful, noting where he had wandered off and returned
after finding the going tough. This saved me much time and I was able to follow
a more efficient route to the summit. There were some of the expected tough
sections of overgrown brush that slowed me down, in one place
I crawled under
the manzanita, but for the most part it wasn't too bad, certainly not as tough
as the previous day's bushwhack to Hadley Peak. The upper part of the route
diverges from the ridge onto the north side, following a very useable
old road. Where the road becomes choked with brush, I got around the
blockage on the right through and 
old slash pile (with a truck tire
lying oddly at the
bottom), and made a bit more progress to where Dean had left the road to climb
to the summit. This last part is steep but mostly
open forest understory and
it takes only a few more minutes to reach the top. It took me an hour to
get through the cross-country portion, two hours all told from the start. The
summit opens up to grassy slopes with views looking 
south and
west. I found the same 
reference mark that Dean described,
but had no better luck than he in
finding the benchmark. Taking Dean's advice, I skipped the Durphy Creek loop
and returned back down the Tan Oak Springs Trail, this time stopping at the
Lookout Point
near the bottom. There is a bench and a partial view to the South
Fork Eel River, just visible through the folliage of the trees. Not what one
would normally consider for a lookout, but not bad for a dense forest landscape.
It was almost 4:30p by the time I returned to the jeep on US101, with another four hours of driving to get home. It had been a very successful roadtrip with only a few peaks I was denied. My next trip would head north of Eureka along SR96, a longer trip to compensate for a longer drive...