Resources and Reflections

Emerald Empire Adventures is excited to announce the
1st annual Mushrooms and Mountain Bikes Adventures

at Leonard Lake Reserve for the fall season of 2009, a Winter Weekend Special Adventure

$165/person, all inclusive; food, lodging, guides and transportation from Redwood Valley included.

Saturday and Sunday throughout the season (October -??? depending on the rains)

Mushroom Pickers are TOUGH; we hunt with just a knife and a paintbrush!

The creek crossing very rarely rains out and becomes impassible so, as every mushroom picker knows, the forest can be wet and the trails muddy, be prepared!Email treasures@emeraldempireadventures.com, comment below or call us at 707-367-3299 or book on-line to reserve your spot now. We can accommodate groups of from five to forty and there’s a ten percent discount for groups of ten or more. Check us out on the web at http://www.emeraldempireadventures.com/

We depart Base Camp at 9001 C North State Street in Redwood Valery and after a 1o mile climb up to Leaonard Lake (for those who wish), we’ll take an hour to settle you into your guest house, whichever of the five classic craftsman style, fully equipped units best fits the group. We’ll have a light lunch and dinner will be started after we go out on our first picking expedition into the old growth redwood on pastures of plenty (Mushroom Gods willing), where no one has picked in man a year, if ever.After a long afternoon tramping the hills and picking, we will return to the lake houses with your bounty where our chef will incorporate it into dinner and pair it all with some carefully chosen local vintages for your dining pleasure. It will all be ready after you’ve changed out of those soggy togs, and we can swap stories around the fire after the meal, till the sandman calls you away.You’ll wake up Sunday morning to the smell of coffee and a hearty country style breakfast to warm you up for the Leonard Lake mountain bike loop, 3.5 miles of up and down (see map and profile below), ’round the lake through more untouched picking grounds than you can shake a mushroom brush at. There will be a vehicle for those who’d rather not ride, those 3 and half miles could easily take 6 hours to pick through and the truck makes it easy to pick for your freezer of dehydrator and not have to lug the whole booty bag back to the cabin! A picnic lunch will be served along the way and warming beverages will be provided.At the end of the day, we’ll load up you and your gear in our bus and bring you back to you car, booty and all. The true hard-core cyclists can ride back down that 10 mile hill they climbed on Saturday, and accommodations will be made for those who don’t want to ride at all.

Email treasures@emeraldempireadventures.com, comment below or call us at 707-367-3299 or book on-line to reserve your spot now. We can accommodate groups of from five to forty and there’s a ten percent discount for groups of ten or more. More »

Popularity: 78% [?]

Chanterelle mushrooms underfoot

Well, winter is coming to NorCal, and with winter comes the rains, and with the rains come the mushrooms; chanterelles, matsutake, oyster, etc., etc. I’ve been picking mushrooms since, as we say in Hawaii, “small kid time” and those many hours spent slogging through damp fern and bracken are fond memories, all the more so those many baskets, buckets and bags dragged up out of the woods of northwest Oregon, full to overflowing with a huge variety of delicious species, but mostly filled with glowing orange-golden Chenterelleses, preciousss, the King of wild mushrooms, we wants them precioussssss.

Riding on top of the normal winter season, this year, according to Stormsurf.com we have a More »

Popularity: 17% [?]

The route shown below was built in Google Earth for navigation purposes and is the first of two possible routes from the high point on Reeves Canyon Road at the Upper Ranch through the back country and in through the back side of Montgomery Woods State Park to Orr Springs Road about five miles downhill from Orr Hot Springs. Most of the route can be traced visually from the satellite photos, with the exception of the section designated by the group of map pins. At that location, the visible traces of the road are completely obscured by vegetation, and that’s where things can get dicey.
I’m posting this well in advance of riding it and will be posting notice on the Yahoo Mendo Community BB group to solicit any advice or warnings and hopefully avoid disturbing any activity out there. My purpose is solely to pass through, and absolutely NOT to find anything that others don’t want found. I’ll be carrying a penny-whistle and using it frequently to notify any folks who might be out there gardening that I’m coming through. In addition, just like hiking in Alaska, I’ll be giving frequent shout-outs to the forest so as not to surprise any aggressive wildlife. More »

Popularity: 42% [?]

For a peek at what the whole of “Redwood” Valley used to look like, if you’re headed north, take a left at the bottom of the Redwood Grade on the Redwood Highway onto Reeves Canyon Road. The road surface deteriorates rapidly from smooth pavement to quilted pavement to loose, dusty gravel. In the upper reaches some of the steeper parts range from 12%-20% grades, but by then you are in the dappled shade of big old trees and well down in the cool canyon.
The GPS data below were recorded on June 30, 2009;

Reeves Canyon Road to Leonard Lake and the Upper Ranch . Click on the link to download the GPX source file for your own navigation device.

Six miles from the highway you’ll come across a locked gate with a sign reading “End of Public Road, Private Property, Violators will be Prosecuted”. They mean it. The four miles from the gate to Leonard Lake is owned by the adjacent landowners and is operated as a series of private reserves, mostly for family vacations and special events. The facilities are very much 1930’s rustic, with small cabins, very lightly improved campgrounds nestled beside the clear cool waters of Reeves Canyon stream, and enveloped by old growth native forest.
The headwaters of the stream at Leonard Lake is the heart of the former Crowsfoot Logging family reserve, and uniquely in the Redwood Valley, has never been logged. To the west, the 4000 acre parcel backs up against Montgomery Woods State Park. Between the two, this area represents a significant remainder of our original ecosystem. Though somewhat altered by ranching, farming and habitation over the past century and a half, you will still find magnificent groves of Coastal Redwood and White Fire that have never suffered the saw or the axe.
Exclusively through Emerald Empire Adventures, the public may now gain access for cycling, hiking or equestrian adventures. Strictly by appointment, we will guide you and your party through one of the few remaining places in the Emerald Empire where you can pass lightly through a vision from a vanishing world, as if it were your own private paradise.
Having passed through to Orr Hot Springs, the natural thing to do is to relax those tired muscles in the 103 degree waters before riding up the final 100′ climb to spend the night under the stars at Mann Ranch, where the 360 degree dark sky horizon is truly stunning by naked eye, binoculars of telescope (which can be arranged as well).
In the morning there’s a 9 mile 6%-12% downhill back into the valley for breakfast at Club Calpella or Angel’s in Redwood Valley and then on to the finish at Base Camp on Laughlin Rd. There’s a 60 mile, three day weekend to remember.
So check back soon for more GPS tracks on the back side, Orr Springs and Mann Ranch segments.

Popularity: unranked [?]