In 2003, Beth and I were visiting Fort Bragg, the little fishing/logging/hippie community along the California coast (not to be confused with the well-known military installation back east). Beth had lived for a year in this hide-away town, located along highway CA-1 about 140 miles north of the Bay Area. During that trip we made our way from Sacramento across the Coast Ranges and visited the highpont of Glenn County, Black Butte. The plan was to hike Black Butte, then travel a few miles north and drive up to the top of Anthony Peak, the Mendocino County apex. Normally these two highpoints can be visited in a matter of hours, but on our 2003 visit we encountered much snow on Black Butte, and although we successfully nabbed the highpoint, we had exhausted ourselves completely in the process. The snow was still enough to block the access road up to Anthony Peak, so we passed on Anthony for now and drove down into Covelo and on into Fort Bragg. We knew we'd be back!

In July 2005, we were back in Northern California for my sister's nuptials, and we made it a point to swing by Anthony Peak for a rendezvous. This was toward the end of our trip, by which time we'd had a successful hike of Snow Mountain, the highpoint of both Colusa and Lake Counties, an enjoyable day in Fort Bragg, and another fun day at Orr Hot Springs, where we started our day. We got a late start since we had all the time in the world, and we left the lovely confines of Orr Hot Springs and drove out to Ukiah along US-101, then north a few miles to Longvale and the turn-off for CA-162 toward the little town of Covelo, tucked into Round Valley, which I learned is apparently the largest bit of flat real estate in Mendocino County. After getting gas and food in Covelo, we started up the long forest route to the top of the Coast Range. From Covelo we went north out of town, then east, following the signs to a Y-junction, where we went left. CA-162 officially ends here; the pavement continues a few more miles but soon ends, leaving the remainder good, well-tended gravel road. The drive up was enjoyable, and our little Chevy Impala passenger vehicle took the road with little trouble. It's about 20+ miles to reach the crest, which took us about an hour. The road is marked as Mendocino National Forest Road FH-7. At the crest we took a break and turned off the motor to let the engine cool. We enjoyed the views in both directions!

At the crest is a turn-off to Road M-4, which goes north toward Anthony Peak. We followed this good road as it gained steeply to top out on Anthony Peak, 5 miles from the crest junction. The peak is totally bare of trees and houses an active lookout tower, hence its good road access. On this day, Tracy was manning (womanning?) the post, and she was more than happy to have company to spell her tedium. She let us up to the platform and showed us around, pointing out her tools plus far-away landmarks. We spent about 45 minutes up top, in wonderful dry conditions, temps in the high 70s. She lives in Covelo and only mans the tower in daylight hours, acting as a back-up for the regular tower person. The visit up top was quite fun, and the views were tremendous. We could see Black Butte off to the south, and ever so faintly, Snow Mountain way off on the horizon. Lassen Peak barely stood out against the haze of the Central Valley, but we could make out its outline ... barely. Peaks in the Yolla Bolly wilderness loomed high to the north. Soon, we bid Tracy farewell and thanked her, and started down. The Chevy Impala was a champ and took these roads in stride. We decided to descend the range on its east side, making the long drive down into the hot Central Valley, arriving in Willows on Interstate-5 about 2 hours later. From here we drove south 90 miles to Sacramento and took a cheap and scary hotel in town, had a nice dinner, and flew out the next day for home, but not before bagging Sacramento County's highpoint, a re-visit for me but Beth's first time there.