Snow Mountain
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How to get there:
The trailhead for Snow mountain is quite some ways off the beaten track.
From the Bay Area, head north on I-80, then I-550, to I-5 and continue north
to Maxwell. Take exit 586 and measure from here. Head west following signs for
Stonyford, arriving there after driving 30.8 miles. The place has a stop sign
near a small convenience store. Turn left here. Already at mile 31.0, one needs
to navigate carefully. Two roads fork left, the correct road to take is the
second one. It is signed Fouts Springs Road. Continue to mile 37.1, where
the road forks. Forest road M5 goes left while forest road M10 forks right.
Take the right fork (M10). Contine straight ahead at mile 39.2, at mile 43.7 the
pavement ends. You should stay on road M10, this means keeping right at
mile 45.2, 50.5, and 52.6. There are some signs saying Summit Springs and/or
Summit trailhead, these are both good. At mile 54.4, you arrive at a 5-way
forest road intersection. At this point you should leave M10 and head uphill
on the road signed for Summit Springs. This road ends with a small loop and parking
at mile 56.0. This is the trailhead,
location N39:20.749, W122:45.127, elevation 1605 meter.
Route description:
From the trailhead, start out just left of the outhouse, proceed a little
downhill, before you locate the trail register where people sign in/out for this hike.
Next the trail heads uphill and quickly forks. Either fork is fine, the right fork
is likely the shortest path to the location slightly higher up where the two trails
merge back together.
The very nice trail climbs higher, then heading slightly left, zig-zags as it gains
elevation before reaching a plateau, Fouts Camp, a pretty nice location for
camping.
Continue slightly downhill as you arrive at location N39:21.761, W122:44.660, elevation
approximately 1915 meter. The trail bends right at this location and enters what looks like a very
small valley. A very clear trail will take you uo this small valley and across to fairly level
area where the east summit of Snow is ahead while the west summit is up to your left side.
Shortly, the trail forks at location N39:22.355, W122:44.901, elevation 2000 meter. There is an old
wooden sign pointing straight ahead, that says Snow Mountain summit, thus stay left at this fork.
After crossing the basin, the route climbs to a col on the main ridge, signs here says East summit
right and West summit left. From here, a very short uphill will take you to the east summit where
a trail register is placed on the leftmost of two similar looking highpoints.
Comments:
Most of the day had been spent climbing South Yolla Bolly and
Black Butte, followed by a nice dinner in Willows. I then set
out for the trailhead of Snow Mountain.
After a pretty long drive in the dark, I arrived at the trailhead around 2000. I quickly put
out my sleeping bag and
laid down to feel the silence and observe the stars. No moon at this
time and a brilliant Milky Way. There were more shooting stars and I had a nice evening before
falling asleep. I woke up around 0400 with Orion standing big in the sky above me. After more
star watching, I left around 0530. The hike was easy and pretty soon I was at Fouts Camp. Slight
trouble here, since it was still dark and the trail sort of vanished since people clearly walk all
over the place. I did not appreciate the downhill slope, turned back and started going uphill.
No trail, but pretty soon I topped out at a small, local top above the camp. From here I could
see the contours of the higher west ridge right across. Descending in that direction made me
cross the trail where it ascended the small valley between the two hills. As I came to the next
trail fork, daylight started to come. I arrived at the East summit shortly before 0730, ie. about
two hours including my small side trip to a local summit.
I signed the register and watched the arrival of a new day. Somewhat concerned, I became aware of a pretty
dominant summit further north-east. I had not seen any of the signs telling me that I definitely had arrived at the
highest summit of Snow Mountain. Still, it looked unlikely that the seemingly equally high peak to the
north-east should be the east summit. It looked as if it was separated from me by a pretty deep valley.
The day was nice and I decided that I might as well explore the ridge that descended in the direction
of this mystery peak. My forest map did not indicate any peak in this direction and that worried me
slightly.
I started out and walked the ridge system until a point where the slope became much steeper. From
this view point it was clear that the peak was indeed
separated from me by a very significant canyon.
No way, that I would try to cross it - it looked like a major undertaking. My GPS also indicated that
I was already further from the east peak than the map distance between the two summits and I had descended
more than 200 vertical meter. My forest map was good for navigating forest roads, but without any contours
not really suitable for hiking. I returned back up to the east summit and descended to the col on
the ridge where I now read the signs for
the west and east summits poining in opposite directions. Good.
(The mountain I had been looking at was Saint John Mountain, 2056 meter.)
I decided to visit the west summit, then
continue the main ridge and descend directly back into
the small valley near where I hit the trail before daybreak. This was a nice loop and can absolutely
be recommended.
I was back at the trailhead around 1045, a bit more than 5 hours including my long ridge exploration.
My plan was now to drive further west, explore a possible route to Hull Mountain
and then find Hwy. 101 for my return to the Bay Area.
Here is a map with an overview of all my travel in Mendocino on this trip.