Leave No Trace, Hungry Bears, and Out of Control Camp Fires

I’ve been gone from the blog for awhile and a lot has been going on here in the King Range that I would like to share with you. I just got back from a 5 day Leave No Trace (LNT) Master Educator course on the Lost Coast Trail. This is, in short, a course that thoroughly teaches the 7 LNT principles and how to effectively communicate them. It is, “designed for people who are actively teaching others backcountry skills or providing recreation information to the public.” In light of this, each week for the next 7 weeks I will be posting about one of the 7 LNT principles and how it directly applies to the Lost Coast – so stay tuned for stories, pictures, and information that will improve your skills/knowledge, entertain you and ultimately increase your enjoyment and safety in the backcountry.

First of all, the notorious fog of the Lost Coast has been hanging off shore leaving the weather sunny and beautiful (as seen above) – but often times hot and windy. Plan accordingly and make sure to bring sun block and a hat but also bring a jacket in case that fog does roll in.
1. The bears are out and about: We have had several reports of bears around the Big/Miller Flat area terrorizing campers looking for an easy meal. The Leave No Trace group and I camped at Miller Flat one night this past week and indeed, we were woken up in the night by a bear knocking around our bear cans. It would pick up each can with its front paws and slam it down hoping to knock one of the lids loose. This might frighten you but the truth is that you don’t need to be overly worried about bears during your visit as long as you have a bear can and use it properly.

PLEASE get a bear can if you are going to be backpacking in the King Range/Lost Coast. All overnight visitors are required by law ($150 fine for non compliance) to store all of their food and scented items in a hard-sided bear-proof container approved by the Sierra Interagency Black Bear Group (SIBBG). Traveling on the Lost Coast Trail you WILL NOT find a tree to hang food adequately!

We rent out the Garcia bear can here at the BLM Project Office in Whitethorn for $5 for your entire journey. You will need a credit card and a valid drivers license (if you don’t return the bear can you will buy it). We are open Monday-Friday 8-4:30. If your trip ends after our closing hours you can drop your can off in the after hours bear can return box next to our building on the front deck. Keep in mind that our front gate will be closed but you can still walk in. You can also rent from the BLM Field Office in Arcata which has the same hours as the Project office here in Whitethorn: Monday-Friday 8-4:30.
The Petrolia General Store on the northern end of the King Range also rents cans for $5. Their hours are Monday-Saturday 9-5:30 and Sunday from 11-5:00. You will also need a credit card but they take cash only. Their number is 707-629-3455 if you want to verify the hours or have other questions.

The bear can is for protecting the bear from your food as much as it is for protecting your food from the bear. You will notice on top of the Garcia Backpackers’ Cache it says, “Save the bears." So, what does this mean? When a bear starts to eat human food and learns that humans can be associated with an easy meal they will lose their fear of humans, come around campsites more often, and become increasingly aggressive. This is what you would call a “habituated” or “food conditioned” bear and they could eventually need to be put down if the aggression gets out of hand.

When you get your bear can, make sure that ALL of your food and scented items such as toothpaste and sunscreen fit into it. When you leave camp for a day hike and when you go to sleep at night make sure that the lids are closed and secured correctly. The last thing you want is for a bear to break into your food and ruin your trip that you planned so much for. Please, get a can to protect your food and most of all Respect the Wildlife of the King Range. If you find the can a bit heavy and cumbersome, think of all the multiple uses a bear can has: A seat, percussion instrument, cutting board and a water container. If you think of any other creative uses of a bear can let me know, I’d be glad to hear it!

2. There was an out of control campfire this week on the Lost Coast near Spanish Creek.
I was asleep in my tent when I was awoken by one of my coworkers telling me that there was a fire. Adrenaline immediately kicked in as I jumped to my feet, grabbed a bear can and ran to the scene as I had no details of the situation. Seven of us spent the next 3 hours trying to contain the fire that had consumed a driftwood shelter. Our only tool was to dump the equivalent of roughly 150 to 200 bear cans full of water on the blaze (yet another multiple use of the bear can). Thankfully, we were able to contain the fire and stop it from spreading but we were unable to fully extinguish it with out the necessary firefighting tools – Thank you to all those that helped. The next day we called in the professionals to finish the job. How did this happen and what can we learn from this situation?

Heavy winds, dry and dense fuels and fire are a recipe for disaster. We are not currently in fire restrictions in the King Range (we will be soon) but the danger for an out of control situation is ever present. The situation described above started in a driftwood structure that was built by people as a makeshift wind break. The heavy wind blew an ember amongst the jumble of logs and very quickly lit the whole mess into a blaze. The individual responsible for the fire had little to no time to react.

You don’t want this to happen to you so before you have a campfire:

• Know if we are in any campfire restrictions. This will be posted on our website, at the trailheads, on your permit, and on this blog. You can always call us and ask at 707-986-5400.



• If campfires are permitted assess the scene and decide if it is safe. Is it windy? Are there dry grasses or piles of driftwood near by? If so, it is a good idea to not have a campfire that night. Please don’t try to make the scene “safe” by destroying vegetation or digging into the ground. This will most likely make the camp unsightly for other visitors.



• If the scene is safe, be sure to always have someone present to watch over/tend the fire and have plenty of water nearby to extinguish any rogue flames.



• Keep the fire small by using only dead and down wood no bigger around than your wrist and no longer than the diameter of your fire ring (this doesn’t mean build a huge ring). This will help keep everything contained and manageable.



• When you are done with the fire put it out using the soak and stir method: Soak with lots of water and stir around the mess to make sure everything is cool to the touch.



• Sleep peacefully knowing that you didn’t accidentally burn down the Lost Coast.

These may seem like obvious steps but we can always use a reminder. Camp fires can be fun but it only takes one careless moment or poor decision to turn it into a disaster (it snowballs and happens faster than you might think).

Be safe out there
And remember, there were people here before you and there will be people here after you so please help keep the Lost Coast enjoyable for everyone.

Call me if you have any questions at 707-986-5405 or e-mail me at lostcoastranger@gmail.com. If I don’t answer I may be out on the trail so try our front desk at 707-986-5400.

Your Wilderness Ranger,

Paul

Water, water, everywhere

Ocean and creeks shape the landscape

Water is a very powerful force that shapes parts of the Lost Coast all year round. This was especially evident after this weekend’s storm. Creeks swell with water during rainstorms, giving them extra power to shift the sands. Here at Gitchell Creek, when the tide went out, the creek made its own path through the sand to reach the ocean any way possible. The raging creek can blast a new path through the sand or just seep through the sand and come out just below the water line (above).

Be sure to take a tide chart out on the trail with you. I recommend hiking the “impassible during high tide zones” when the tide is a) 3.5 feet or lower and b) on a receding tide (after a high tide has passed). To approximate the height of a current tide some math is needed but stay with me. First, find out how many hours are between the low and high tide, or vice versa, then subtract the height of the high tide from the low tide. Take those two numbers and divide difference in feet by difference in hours. That gives you the amount of change in the tide height per hour. For example: If a low tide of 0 feet is at noon and it will be high tide at 6 P.M. up to 6 feet, that’s 6 feet divided 6 hours then you can estimate that the tide level will increase one foot every hour until it is 6 PM. Another factor that contributes to high water level, and no beach to hike on, is swell. You can check wave height at the NOAA’s National Weather Service website: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ and click on the region around Cape Mendocino.

Plan ahead and take care of yourselfs,

Backcountry Ranger Brianna

The summer season has started!

Hello, my name is Brianna. I am one of seasonal backcountry rangers starting my season today. This will be my third season working for the BLM here in the King Range. I am excited to see what has changed since last summer as well as seeing some familiar places again. A little about me, I attend Humboldt State University with a major in Natural Resources Interpretation, I have a cat who loves to go camping, though you won’t see her on the trail with me and today is my birthday.

Trent is also joining me this summer. It is his second season working as a backcountry ranger. He will also be working part-time with Nick’s Interns. Nick was a student in the local high school who was passionate about habitat restoration. His parents started this program, Nick’s Interns, in his memory in an attempt to introduce high school aged kids to a variety of restoration jobs. They work with the local community during the summer learning about the environment. Trent also attends HSU with a major in Rangeland Ecology. A little about Trent, he usually backpacks with his German Sheppard, Reef, he enjoys surfing the west coast and is a very talented banjo picker.

Happy trails and hope to see you out there!
Sincerely,
Brianna, your seasonal backcountry ranger

Two hard working volunteers and I backpacked the Lost Coast Trail last week cleaning campsites, dismantling shelters, and pulling invasive plant species along the way. It was a great trip and we got a lot done to help restore wilderness characteristics and Leave No Trace values on the Lost Coast. We also got a great showing of wildflowers and saw 4 whales just off the coast from Shipman Creek, which was really exciting. Above, California Golden Poppies surround my brother and his lady friend at Spanish Flat.

At Miller Flat we hauled out more than 40 pounds of ocean garbage. All of this trash in the picture was hanging from trees and scattered throughout the campsites. I ask you to resist the urge to decorate your campsites with the maritime junk that you may find scattered along the shore. Let other visitors arrive to a clean and fresh campsite. Participating in “campsite decoration” is not in line with Leave No Trace ethics, which states that you should respect other visitors and protect the quality of their experience. Or, in other words, as I have been taught: always leave a campsite cleaner than when you arrived.

We continued our journey north dismantling shelters along the way the best we could. I will give you a few reasons why we try to stay on top of the shelters and take them apart when we can:

1. Wood structures are great habitat for small rodents, especially structures that bring in a new supply of food every night. Our last night out we camped in a large structure near the Punta Gorda Lighthouse (the first time I have done this) and just before I crawled into my tent for the night I noticed a small mouse running around checking out all of our gear. It seemed well adjusted to humans because it was pretty much unphased by my presence as it ran between my legs and crawled up my backpack. In the morning my brother woke up to find mouse feces inside of his pack. Also, more than just a nuisance is the possibility of encountering the predator of the mouse: Snakes.

2. Large structures made out of dry wood are a fire hazard. We have had more than one incident of driftwood structures catching on fire. Not only can this easily cause a forest fire, but it is also a very real danger to you! Below is a scene I came across at Cooskie Creek that used to be a large shelter. We were lucky that it was an overcast day with no wind.

3. Driftwood structures don’t fit with wilderness characteristics that we manage for or Leave No Trace ethics. Section 2(c) of the 1964 Wilderness Act (don’t worry, I’m not going to get to technical) states that:

“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the
landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are
untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of
wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land
retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human
habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which
(1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint
of man's work substantially unnoticeable…”

(You can look at the whole Act at http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=legisAct)

I understand that it can get very windy out on the Lost Coast. If you find that you need to build a small structure to escape the wind, ok. But, I ask you to please keep it small, don’t build onto existing structures, and PLEASE restore the site to its original condition by taking the drift wood back to where you found it. It is very easy for a small wind break to turn into a scene from Gilligan’s Island or Lord of the Flies as each visitor that camps at it builds a little more in an attempt to make some kind of “improvement.” Then, I get to come out there and spend several hours taking it all apart, restoring it to a more “natural” condition and often picking up pounds of trash that get hidden amongst the logs.

By practicing Leave No Trace you try to leave the most minimum impact possible.

Remember, there were people here before you and there will be people here after you. Do the right thing and help keep the Lost Coast clean and enjoyable for everyone.

Your Wilderness Ranger,

Paul

Call me if you have any questions at all: 707-986-5405.

If I'm not in contact Pam at our front desk: 707-986-5400.

PS, on a lighter note, check out great photography (above) and stories from Randy January who is a fellow backpacker and Lost Coast/King Range enthusiast: http://www.alwaysjanuary.com/2011/05/lost-coast-gloom.html

New Blog and Weekend Hike

This is now the new blog site for the Wilderness Ranger of the Lost Coast. The reason I have created a new blog is because the last one (kingrange.blogspot.com) was created by the previous Wilderness Ranger, DC. A mishap with passwords left me with only the ability to make posts and unable to change anything else on the site. After much failed attempts to get the password situation sorted out I decided to just create a new but similar site, which you are on now. I encourage you to check out the old blog if you have not been there before. It is now an archive full of tons of useful information about the Lost Coast and the King Range.

So, now that that is cleared up, let me tell you about my weekend on the trail. I did what we call here at the office the, “Saddle, Rattle, Buck Loop.” I started at Saddle Mountain Trailhead and hiked the King Crest Trail to Rattlesnake Ridge Trail which I took down to Big Flat to camp for the night. I then took the Lost Coast Trail to Buck Creek Trail back up to Saddle Mountain Trailhead.

There is still a lot of snow between Maple Camp and Rattlesnake Ridge that makes hiking a bit more difficult. You can see here that is fills in the trail at about a 45 degree angle. Use caution and plan for this section taking you a bit longer than your usual hiking rate. I counted more than 60 trees across the trail from the top of Rattlesnake Ridge down to the first creek crossing. Only a handful of these impede travel but you can still get around them with a bit of ingenuity. Our plan is to have it opened up by early to midsummer. Buck Creek Trail is steep, it gains over 3,000 feet in 3 miles, so prepare your trip accordingly. If you are going to do this loop plan to do it in a minimum of 3 days for maximum safety and enjoyment. Also, know that there is no water source on Buck Creek Trail so fill up everything you have before you start your ascent.

About 50 yards up Buck Creek Trail I had one heck of a surprise:

Yes, this is what you think it is (the image has been slightly edited so you don’t lose your lunch). I would like to believe that the person who left this for his/her fellow hikers had the best intentions. Proper Leave No Trace states that you should go 200 feet away from campsites, drinking water sources and trails to dispose of solid human waste. You then need to dig a 6-8 inch hole to make your deposit and cover it with soil. This stage is very important so the waste can break down and you don’t end up with the scene above. This is proper backcountry practice when you are on any of the upland trails in the King Range and most other wilderness areas. However, when you are on the Lost Coast Trail you need to actually go towards the ocean in the wet sand below the high tide line (or as close to the wet sand as you can safely get). This is because the narrow beaches and steep slopes within the major drainages along the trail make it nearly impossible to find a place 200 feet away from camp, drinking water, and trails, as the case above clearly demonstrates. You might be thinking, “I thought you said 200 feet away from water!” but that is for drinking water sources, which the ocean is not. Also, the microbiological activity in the sand, along with the daily tidal actions, makes it the most ideal place to do your business while you are on the LCT. It’s natural to feel a bit bashful about this since you are out in the open on the beach. I personally just go for a little walk until I can turn a corner or crouch behind something. Hey, think about it this way: how often do you get an opportunity to relieve yourself with such a beautiful view and exciting atmosphere? That’s something to write home about!





Remember, there were people here before you and there will be people here after you. Do the right thing and help keep the Lost Coast clean and enjoyable for everyone.

Drop me a line if you have any questions or need help planning your trip to the King Range.

Your Wilderness Ranger,
Paul
lostcoastranger@gmail.com
707-986-5405, This is my office phone
707-986-5400, This is the main line to Pam, our contact representative. She can also answer any questions you may have.