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.

Redwood Valley to Leonard Lake, showing teh lake loop

OK, there’s a little glitch on the elevation profile, there really is no 800′ cliff in the road, my GPS unit was “improperly oriented” (i.e. upside down) until I corrected the issue there at the top of the cliff. The main point of interest in the profile above is that 3.56 mile set of bumps at the high point. That’s the Lake Loop route that those willing will ride on Sunday. The views are spectacular, the forest is dark deep and ancient, the road is vehicle width but very steep and extra rough in places, and the mushrooms? There’s only one way to find out.

Emerald Empire Adventures will get you there, keep you from getting lost, show you where to pick and what not to pick. We will cook dinner, breakfast and lunch and show you how to pick, cook, eat, and store the mushrooms. You will bring your sense of adventure and clothing suitable for a temperate rain forest in the fall, i.e.; waterproof boots, rain pants and waterproof jacket, at least 3 changes of inner layers. This is wet work, but ask any mushroom picker, well worth it. We do have some of these items and can provide backups or spares for a limited number of people, but best to bring your own. For those who’ve never picked and don’t have their own equipment, fear not. All you need is a collecting “basket” a small knife and a 2″ nylon paing brussh. Tape the paintbrush handle to the knife handle, et voila, you are a mushroom picker. Why the brush? Because the more moss, bracken and soil you leave in the forest, the less you get in your sink. The knife is  for cutting the stalks, much better and cleaner than pulling or tearing.

Yours truly, your guide, has been picking, eating and not dying from wild mushrooms since the age of four. I’ll befuddle you with learned discourse and arcane mushroom lore, and, if you pay attention, not a single poisonous or even bad-tasting sample will go in your basket, and NONE will pass muster at cleaning time. I use the word “basket ” loosely, but in general I’m referring any more or less rigid-sided container with a capacity of at least one gallon and some ventilation (like holes) for collecting specimens (AKA booty). Mushrooms are relatively fragile beings and do not like the way a bag tends to squash and macerate them while being carried about through the brush. And when the proper stars align, its not unusual to bring out 20-50 pounds of chanterelles per person. They are very easily preserved by dehydration, freezing, canning or pickling and are a wonderful flavoring agent for stew, gravy, casseroles, rice etc. etc. Your mushroom questions will be answered, and I’ve got the book for reference. There is an abundance of edible species here, and a few not so edible (with the liver transplant!), and discrimination is the key, but its pretty simple, really, and I’ve successfully taught children as young as 4 how to tell the good from the bad, so even the timid among us can do this.

This is a great opportunity to bring out the kids for an educational and interesting adventure in an old growth redwood forest, one of the very few remaining intact ecosystems abutting Redwood Valley, and just ten miles off Hwy 101.

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. Special menu arrangements are available for those with restricted diets.

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

Weak-Moderate El Nino Developing
Solid Warm Pattern in-Play Over the Equatorial East Pacific

Overview: Early 2008 saw a marginal El Nino try to take control of the tropical Pacific from March into July, fueled by several active phases of Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO).  The MJO faltered and La Nina returned, cutting the legs off the developing warm pattern. But the MJO was strong enough for long enough to cause anomalously warm warm to appear off Central America and change the atmosphere creating momentum that fueled the development of a decent Fall storm pattern, holding on into late November 2008.  But right when things were starting to get in a groove, the upper level (jetstream) winds that were driving the machine and fueled by the warm waters off Central America during the summer months, disintegrated.  A split jetstream flow took over totally shutting down the storm pattern.  The remainder of the Winter and Spring 2008/2009 season were completely placid.

With that in mind, we moved into the Spring of 2009 seeing a similar pattern. That is, the MJO came-on strong again with a solid series of consecutive Active Phases and a marked increase in westerly wind anomalies in the West Pacific resulting in anomalously warm subsurface waters tracking east towards Central America (Kelvin Waves). As the Kelvin Waves erupted along the Central American coast, warm surface waters began to appear, much like the year previous, but with more vigor. It is with that background scenario that we look to the coming Fall and Winter of 2009/2010 with higher expectations and the hope for real surf for the first time in over a decade for Hawaii, Canada and the US West Coast.  The paragraphs below describe the state of various indicators used to assess long-term global weather conditions (be it either El Nino or La Nina), followed by a revised set of criteria for assessing it’s impact on surf generation potential for the future.

read the rest here

Al this means we can expect more rain than usual and more rain, up to a point, means more mushrooms. Emerald Empire Adventures is currently developing exclusive two and three day day guided mushroom picking at the secluded private reserve at Leonard Lake. This your chance to learn how to pick, what to pick and most importantly, what not to pick. You’ll spend the night at one of the five lovely cottages overlooking the largest natural lake in Mendocino County and you won’t be running into any territorial individuals since this is entirely within the 4400 acre private reserve. In the evening we’ll clean, process and prepare the day’s take, pair the dishes with selected local vintages and tell war stories around the fireplace. Check back soon for prices and availability. the Images below are taken along the way to Leonard Lake on Reeves Canyon Road.

Upper Ranch to Mongomery Woods
Anyone having specific objections, corrections, comments or warnings is encouraged to comment below of email me at webmaster@emeraldempireadventures.com

The route as ridden

Well, that was one heck of an adventure. I “rode”, that is mostly pushed my way up the logging road along Dark Gulch, going the opposite direction to the route posted above, on Saturday, August 24th, keeping faith with the planning. The first couple miles are hard uphill slogging on an engineered timber road. In this country that means that there’s a cross swale, or “water bar”, often with 2′ to 3′ high embankments on the downhill side that cross the road at an angle every couple hundred feet to drain off storm flows and prevent erosion. Those and the generally steep grade make for some pretty vigorous cranking and also prohibit the passage of any vehicle without very high suspension. It also means that the road is generally in very good condition for logging access in the future. The entry gate was posted with a sign I hadn’t seen before, saying “No plantan sy mota aqui”; “Don’t plant your pot here, we will destroy it.” The sign was somewhat reassuring, together with the untraveled road surface. The very LAST thing I want is to come across illegal activity when I’m out in hell and gone.

While struggling up the mountain, and especially around the top where I found myself pushing through some very dense brush along a very degraded road bed, I found myself asking a question that’s occurred to me a number of times “what do you call what I’m doing here?”. One obvious answer is “slightly crazy” but that’s just not specific enough. I’ve been calling it “hybrid touring” for lack of a better name, but it came to me in a flash up there in the pucker brush, that whit I’m doing, the way I ride and sometimes get off and push, occasionally through waist high brambles and poison oak up 40 degree slopes, maybe a better name is “bike hiking”. As can be seen from the other posts on this site, I spend a considerable amount of time on actual paved roads, a lot of time on gravel and “sub-standard” surfaces, a lot of time on bare dirt, add some time shoving through the pucker brush. I guess that what lights my fire is having the ability to experience and pass efficiently through many different environments, using a single kit of equipment.

Sitting in a chair typing, these questions are less pointed that when you’re out there sweating like a horse, miles from the nearest human, checking out the bear scat and picking up osprey, owl and turkey feathers. But when you’re out there, questions arise. Maybe its all the oxygen and endorphins pulsing through the bloodstream, and the absence of the constant background hum of civilization, but many questions arise; “why am I here, in this place at this moment?”, “what am I doing?”, “why am I doing it?”, etc. These are the things that sometime occupy the mind of your wilderness cyclist. Hey!, an even better name “Wilderness Cycling”. No doubt there are others out there doing this as well, but its definitely the few.

But back to the story. At the high point, marked on the map above by several map pins called “PUnk” for “Path Unknown” I found, as I mention above that the two roads visible on Google Earth are, in fact, connected by a very degraded, as in covered in dead-fall and quite overgrown, old roadbed. I had guessed that there would be at least a game trail and hoped for an actual roadbed, but the trees are too thick there for one to show in the satellite imagery. I mapped a path through and lo and behold, the route I found matched my “Path Unknown” pretty well. So the Garmin Edge 705 proves its worth one more time, giving me the confidence and sufficient background information to go boldly, knowing just how far and in which direction to go before finding the next known point. I’ve been doing seat of the pants wayfinding in the back country my whole life and am capable of navigating “old school” but there is much to be said for not spending a lot of time calculating your position and resources without a firm knowledge of the terrain between you and your objective. You can go farther that you could, safely, otherwise, knowing just how far it is to water.

Route as ridden 8/22/09

Orr Springs to Leonard Lake through the back country
So there’s how I rode/mostly pushed it. Up at the northwestern-most hairpin turn, after passing along the Path Unknown, there is a promontory with a peak, like a smooth golden nipple, perched the swelling golden breast of the mountain, just begging to become an earth sheltered home with round windows looking all directions. To the west the hills roll away toward the coast in descending folds of velvet blue and green. To the east the land goes down steeply into the Greenough Roughs which is a land of enormous boulders and soaring basalt domes at the head of Dark Gulch. No “Road A” out here. These names have stories begging to be told, and the landscape is wild, stunning and visceral.

Beginning there at the high nob, the route heads downhill at a steepening grade for nearly 2 miles and, much to my dismay, the dirt surface is terribly degraded, especially at the lower elevations, by cattle. A small herd of beautiful, sleek, shiny black Angus has the run of the country out there and, judging by the adobe hard pockmarks in the road, they love nothing more than dancing in the mud during the rainy season. The result is worse than any cobblestone lane on the Tour de France, a bone shaking, rim battering ride that is really only doable on a fully sprung mountain bike, and probably not much fun even then. Nothing quite so frustrating as walking your bike down the hill because the surface is just too rough to ride. Not fun, but rally beautiful, this stretch of country should be made known to Hollywood location scouts, it would make a stunning film backdrop.

There is a lovely little spring-fed pond about a third of the way down, past the second switchback, that would have been most welcome to a thirsty traveler (note to self; next time bring 3 litters of water for this trip). Too bad that the pond is unfenced and every cow in the neighborhood has tromped, trampled, and relieved itself, turning the water bright green and soupy, rendering it unfit for man or most any other beast than a cow. Nasty! The same is true of the spring that rises from the base of a 500 foot high basalt monolith that plugs this end of Dark Gulch. This once limpid pool is now a bovine toilet and really a damned shame. It can’t be good for the native species either. The owners of the property are aware of the problem and have harvested some of the cows in response, but, in my humble opinion, it would be a real benefit to the environment (and to the road surface and thirsty traveler) to comprehensively eliminate this destructive (and tasty and grass fed and organic) pest. I would be happy to assist in any way appropriate. Ahem…..

The road surface improves gradually as you head east toward the Upper Ranch, rising from 940′ to 1900′ at the high point and leading through more spectacular rugged country to water and a long downhill with a navigable surface from the Upper Ranch and back down into Redwood Valley. My sincere thanks to the folks at Leonard Lake Reserve for permission to pass through and enjoy this fabulous landscape.

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.