Lake County High Point Trip Report
Snow Mountain East
Date: June 17, 2003
Author: Ken Jones
I used the description from Gary Suttle's book, as well as trip reports by Andy Martin, Edward Earl, and
Peter Maurer. A few pointers I would add:
In the driving approach, don't use Suttle's route from Williams to Lodoga, unless you want to take a slow,
sometimes unpaved, scenic route. Instead, head farther north on I-5 to the Maxwell exit, and take the paved
road west from there to Lodoga - where you can pick up Suttle's directions. Also, the ranger station in
Stonyford seems to have moved from where Suttle describes it to a point a short distance up the Fouts
Spring Road. Finally, I was able to drive all the way to the trailhead in a rented Chevy Cavalier, though the
last piece of road was rough and steep in spots.
On the hike, it is pretty straightforward. I was briefly confused at the Fouts Camp junction, which is more
as Suttle describes it and not as mapped - there is no 4-way intersection. You keep left and drop ~50
vertical feet to a meadow (about 0.1 mile), then bear right. Signs indicate "Summit" fairly consistently.
On top, my map, compass, and GPS readings indicated pretty conclusively that the Lake county highpoint is
the highest point on the plateau (with the benchmark and the California Alpine Club register), and the Colusa
county highpoint is a separate bump a short distance to the south and east.