It's pretty easy to talk Beth into traveling to Northern California - specifically the Coast Ranges of Mendocino County and the coast itself near the city of Fort Bragg, where Beth had lived about 12 years ago. We had made a visit back in May of 2003 and we were again in the region, drawn there to attend my sister's wedding as well as another chance to explore the Coast Range peaks, some time in Fort Bragg and some hot springs visits as well. We flew into Oakland on Saturday the 23rd and spent the 23rd and 24th with family and friends in Berkeley, where my sister and her companion live. After the festivities and grub, Beth and I hit the road to beat the traffic and worked our way about 100 miles to the city of Williams on Interstate-5, where we stayed at a Motel-6. Nothing in Williams is very interesting, but it did put us close to our next day's objective, Snow Mountain, which straddles the Lake and Colusa county boundaries. We got moving reasonably early the next morning (the 25th) but the weather was looking to be bone dry so we did not feel the need to be hiking at sun-up. Even so, we still had nearly 60 miles of driving along scenic backcountry roads (some gravel) to get to the trailhead. We used John Garner's road log from his trip report of 2004.

The drive to the trailhead went well and it was quite scenic. Once off of the Interstate corridor, the roads narrow and the hills grow, encompassing a number of remote, bucolic ranches and ranchettes, most of which seem to function as intended. The towns out here - Lodoga and Stonyford - are small, quaint and interesting. At various points we could see a noticeable rounded hump of a mountain, still shrouded in coastal haze but evidently our intended peak. As we came closer we could make out considerable detail. Once past Stonyford we traveled to Fouts Springs, which looks to be a camp of sorts, then a long stretch of well-graded dirt road (Mendocino Forest Road M-10) that eventually led to a 4-way junction along the spine of the main ridge. The final 2 miles, going straight, were up steep road, but still passable in our Chevy Impala rental car. We arrived at the end of the road at a loop near a pit-toilet structure. We were the only ones parked there, arriving a bit after 8 a.m. in spectacular conditions. Beth was feeling kind of out of sorts so we took some time to relax. I walked up past the toilet structure maybe 400 feet to a more primitive parking area, where we saw one vehicle. I suppose we could have driven here as well but I figured it wouldn't be worth the bother. Back at the car I relaxed while Beth combated her malaise/fatigue with some yoga breathing and meditation. We relaxed, chatted, enjoyed one another's company. Then something came up. Suffice to say we added some time to our delay. Neither of us complained. Thank heavens the hood of the car can't speak otherwise it would have a story to tell! Feeling much, much, much better and a lot happier, we both got moving on the trail about 9:30ish.

We walked past the other car and to the trailhead. Contrary to Gary Suttle's direction from his California County Summits book, we went left past the sign, not right, up an obvious trail. (Just about the entire hike disagreed with Gary's directions but I believe there has been much reworking of the trails here, as well as the forest roads, in the last 10-15 years, so it's not Gary's fault.) Within minutes we had gained a small amount of elevation and had emerged from the trees to an open ridge. After passing a minor saddle we started up a steep portion of the trail as it entered onto a treeless slope covered in thick brush and chaparral. This section had been burned in a forest fire long ago (1970s?). Some tree hulks still stood in place, and the views, as a result, were wide open and expansive. The trail made one switchback then worked its way into a side canyon where the forest took over once again, dominated by large fir, ferns, brush and a running stream. Very nice. The trail made a number of switchbacks here, eventually working its way to achieve the main ridge of the range in an open section peppered with dead, bleached standing tree hulks, some weathered into beautiful, eerie shapes. The terrain itself was mostly good dirt, rubbly rock and sections of impressive rock outcrops. Shortly the trail begins a very gentle descent, once again in thick forest. It comes to the junction with the trail from Fouts Camp (written as "Foutch" on the sign), and eventually bottoms out at a pleasurable small marsh/meadow. Walking across this we re-entered the forest and started a long uphill section, paralleling a drainage. The final sm,all prtion of this grew steep as it gained its modest headwall, and re emerged onto another small saddle, just east of Snow Mountain West. For the first time we could peer across the small bowl to the north and view Snow Mountain East, our objective. To this point had taken us about 90 minutes at a moderate pace, with maybe 1,500 feet of gain. We took an extended snack break as a reward for our efforts.

After about 20 minutes we resumed the trek, descending into the broad bowl hemmed in by the two Snow Mountain peaks and the high ridges that connect them. To our minor surprise there were still some snow banks hanging on the highest ridges. The trail descended into a mix of meadow, spotty forest of low pine and a recent burn section of blackened snags. Past this the trail started its final uphill toward the summit. We hopped some small creeks, paralleled a running stream for a bit, and worked our way up the steepening path as it gained the low saddle separating the West and East summits. A profusion of flowers carpeted the slopes, and the trees gave way not long thereafter, leaving us a genuine sub-alpine ascent to the top! At the sadle we turned right, crossed a broad, gravelly pass, then up the steep, somewhat loose path to the flattish summit, arriving a bit before noon. The Colusa and Lake County boundary runs along the ridge and pierces the summit. The summit is about the size of a football field, with a bunch of rocky outcrops sticking out above. The highest of these is the summit of the mountain, and lies within Lake County. We found the register in a strong box affixed to the summit rocks, and signed in. This is a relatively popular summit, and sees maybe a handful of visitors on a weekend. Being here on a Monday, we had the mountain to ourselves. After a break for photos we walked about 200 feet southeast to the next biggest pile of rocks, marking the Colusa County highpoint. Although the 'accepted' elevation for this secondary pile is 7,040+ feet, it seemed to me this pile might be no more than 5-8 feet lower than the main summit. In both cases the rock scrambling was trivial with maybe 10-15 feet of gain. We took numerous photos and breaks; the views and the weather were gorgeous!

We finally started our descent after about 30 minutes up top, and made excellent time going downhill. We took an extended break near the Fouts Spring trail junction (and met a hiker coming up), and were back out to our car within 2 hours, arriving at about 2:30 p.m. For the drive out we opted to continue west along Forest Road M-10, not really knowing its condition and what to expect other than it's 'probably' pretty good. The first few miles went fine, and the road was good. I made one left at a junction with a sign saying "Upper Lake", the destination, a small town at the north end of Clear Lake. But we still had 30+ miles to go on forest roads. Shortly we came to a significant obstacle: a broad section of rocky river bed and a running stream at the far end about 12 feet wide and maybe 10 inches deep. In a truck or any large sturdy vehicle this would have presented no challenge at all. But we had a low-slung Chevy Impala, which up to this point had performed admirably but potentially was not capable of fording this stream. We had no desire to backtrack 70+ miles back east then make a long detour west to get toward Fort Bragg. I parked and inspected the entire length of the river section. Typical rounded gray river rock. I moved aside two or three nasty looking rocks and inspected the stream crossing. It was moving slow. So we went for it! Slowly we drove the 150 feet or so along the bumpy river rock, stopping a few feet short of the stream crossing. I picked up some momentum, entered into the stream, kicked up all sorts of water and for a moment felt the car lose traction. But momentum carried it forward and its front wheels found the rocks again, and just as fast, we were on the other side. Concerned about stalling the engine I drove on a bit until I felt we were okay and parked for an inspection. We had a disconcerting rattle on my front driver's side, and no amount of inspection could uncover the culprit. The car ran fine and after a few miles the rattling device - a rock - fell out of the wheel well! That's what that was! The rest of the drive went slowly and up and down over a bunch of passes, somewhat tediously, until we finally came out onto pavement and down into the town of Upper Lake, where we rewarded ourselves with plenty of cool drinks.

We spent the rest of the day driving on to Fort Bragg, arriving about 5 p.m. in cool, brisk weather - a huge change from the heat and dryness from where we came. We had a fine dinner at a local brew pub and an enjoyable couple of days exploring the region. Two days later we visited the highpoint of Mendocino County at Anthony Peak, before flying out home the next day.