Big River Hike

Looking up Big River

Remnants of the area where the logs were boomed, waiting to go into mill

Remnants of one of the main dams on Big River

A beaver chewing on a tree he/she fell

A Great Blue Heron takes to the air

Although Big River has always figured prominently in the history of Mendocino, it is only about thirty miles long. I've always wanted to take some long hikes up the river along the old lumber company 'haul road'. I have been taking longer and longer hikes around Russian Gulch & Point Cabrillo so I decided to tackle at least part of the Big River trail. Even though there have been mountain lion sitings up there, I set out (with my handy dandy air horn, of course) to go about 3 1/2 miles up the trail yesterday.

I had the trail all to myself early in the morning and what a treat the hike was. The nature viewing was terrific. I first saw a nesting pair of great blue herons and a couple of osprey heading down river to go fishing in the ocean. About a mile up river the redwoods started. Being this close to the river, these redwoods were probably third and fourth growth trees...meaning that the forests had been clear cut two or three times before these redwoods grew up. They were still big and beautiful. The rest of the fauna that I saw further up river were a red-tail hawk, a family of beavers, a family of quail with babies no more than an inch high and the assorted rabbits and chipmunks. It was a very interesting walk and yes, I was very tired when I had finished the seven miles.

Ain't life grand?
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