Welcome to The Marble Mountains
The Marble Mountains
For an ultimate wilderness experience in the lower-48, the magnificant Marble Mountain Wilderness of my early boyhood jaunts is the place to be....even in our ever-changing world of today.
Please pack-in with me for a stay and lets explore one of the few remaining wilderness areas that will heighten ones experience within the confines of bountiful natural wonders and the definable magic of wilderness.
The Marbles
"The whole landscape appears to have been formed by some mighty convulsion of the earth that has thrown up numerous spurs or broken ranges of mountains to the height of from 7,000 feet to 9,000 feet, and piles them together in mass confusion.. [There are] craggy heights, towering upward from amid deep, dark forests of evergreens, that hang like shadows around their bases and sides. Lonely and unfrequented lakes hemmed in by walls of rocks, nameless and untrodden valleys, where deer, bear, and elk still roam in all their native freedom. Wild and foaming streams, winding downward from their native tarns, now plunging over steep and rocky cliffs, forming lofty cascades, whose voices awaken the echoes far and near, and again winding in solemn murmurs through the deep recesses of the mountains. A golden glade and glen robed in a mantle of verdure, in which are mingled the choicest of wild flowers."
I.A. Reynolds
Yreka Journal, December 1, 1875
Little Change Since Reynolds
Indeed there has been little change in this small corner of the wilderness wolrld known as the Marbles since Reynolds so richly praised it over a century ago. True, the lakes are not so quite, so lonely and unfrequented as they once were. The valleys are not so untrodden but this wilderness area of the Marbles offers a setting bountiful with natural wonders and indefinable magic of wilderness.
The Marble Mountain Primitive Area was established on April 18, 1931. Wilderness designation came much later, in December of 1953.
It is somewhat remarkable that it became a wilderness area at all. Had it not been for Herbert Hoover, who enjoyed the pleasures of Wooley Creek in the southwestern part of the Marbles during the 1920's.
Up until the early 1950's the Marbles were a forgotten wilderness. Without a large metropolitan area to draw on or a Sierra Club brochure to promote it, it remained a backyard preserve for my family and I, as well as for other locals of Scott Valley and the adjoining river communities.
Within the Marble Mountain Wilderness, however, usage is severely skewed. The high access Scott River district on the east side of the wilderness receives over half of the back country travelers, through less than one third of the trail miles.
Twenty-six trail heads encompass points-of-entry into the Marble Mountain Wilderness area. While the Sky High Valley, the Marbles most popular area, will swarm with several dozen visitors on any given summer weekend. There are ample pristine lakes, panoramic ridgecrest vistas and flower hued meadows elsewhere in this wilderness that won't be seen by a quarter of that many people in a full year.
Where Are The Marbles
The Marble Mountain Wilderness lies within the grand jigsaw of ranges of the Klamath Mountains, which includes the Trinity Alps to the south and the Siskiyou Mountains on the Oregon border to the north.
This wilderness was named for Marble (6880') and Black Marble (7442') mountains, the gleaming marble jewels that crown the juncture of the two major ranges within the wilderness.
The Marble Mountains, which extend north from these peaks, and the Salmon Mountains, which describe a great horseshoe with southward pointing arms and an apex at Marble Mountains.
The heavy use season in the Marbles is between the fourth of July and Labor Day with a surge of us deer hunters from late September through mid-October. Fall time is the ideal season for exploring this wilderness. At this time the fall colors are exploding, and the hatch is off so the Rainbow and Eastern Brook trout are as hungry as ever. The nights are usually pleasantly warm, with an occasional flurry of late season thunderstorms.
A word of caution: The Scott River Ranger Station at 2720 feet, has recorded freezing temperatures in EVERY month of the year and the high country has experienced fresh snowfall in EVERY month of the year. The threat of hypothermia to the back country traveler is perhaps greater during the warming months than in any other season for the very reason that it is least expected then.
I personally would recommend that a wilderness traveler carry wet weather gear, and a full change of clothing, regardless of the season, in conjunction with a little common sense.
Simple Rules
There are a flurry of simple rules governing the use of the Marble Mountain Wilderness area that are reproduced here, since they can benefit us all upon proper implementation:
1.) Obtain A Capmpfire Permit
2.) Respect The Solitude Of Others
3.) Pack-out All Unburnable Refuse
4.) Motors or Motorized Equipment Prohibited
5.) Protect Live Vegetation
6.) Proper Disposal Of Human Waste
7.) Use Existing Campsites, If Possible
8.) Limits On Party Size (25)
9.) Grazing Of Livestock (After July 1st)
10.) Tie Pack And Saddle Animals Away
Simple Rules I know. The most notorious infractions involve livestock (saddle and pack stock) being tied in close proximity to open water sources and camping sites. This will be evident upon ones first excursion into the this wilderness area as well as other adjacent wilderness areas. This stems from the lack of common courtesy and the lack of wilderness enforcement on the part of the U.S.F.S.
The Caves
There are numerous caves within this wilderness area. As ground water percolates through the marble, it washes the rock's calcium carbonate into solution and carries it away, leaving a sinuous system of underground caverns and tunnels. I have located several in my search for ore and placer deposits.
There are two cave organizations that are presently mapping this underground system for the last several years with new technology as it become available. It has been relayed to me that over 33 miles of caves have been recorded to date. Some, due to the tilt of the marble layer, descend over 1250 vertical feet from the cave openings. It has been documented that skeletons of elk, timber wolves, and big horn sheep have been found within these "Death Traps".
I have had the opportunity to have accessed a small number of smaller caves with certified professionals. Even though I have a working knowledge of "caving" I would under no circumstances attempt such an undertaking on my own and/or without professional instruction and/or without the immediate presence of on site professionals. One small mistake, and it is almost certainly a wilderness trip without a pleasant ending.
If indeed one is interested in caving, there are several well known organizations and schools that are available. I believe the Humboldt State University (Arcata, California) on occasion offers an extra curricular course on basic caving. The U.S.F.S. pretty much discourages caving but will make available current caving information if one is persistent.
The proper contact might be:
United States Forest Service
-Supervisors Office-
Klamath National Forest
1312 Farlane Road
Yreka, California 96097
(916) 842-6131
Hours: 8:00a.m. to 4:30p.m.
Monday thru Friday
note: Do not be intimidated by U.S.F.S peronnel. Remember they are serving basically at the will of the American public as custodians of our valued natural resources. In previous years, I had the honor of working for the U.S.F.S. in a supervisory capacity and have viewed how some custodians become "tainted" in their duties and attitudes toward the general public while attempting to implement their own rules of wilderness land usage.
Reality Check
It is easy to forget that life is measured in heart beats. We create our own realty. The paths we choose, the ease with which we follow them, and ultimately, our entire wilderness experience, lies in our own hands.
As a personal note, from deep within my inner sole, my return to the wilderness areas of North America, each and every time, is indeed a renewal of my mental resources.
Marble Mountain Trail Maintenance
There appears to be an extreme range/level of trail maintenance within the Marble Mountain Wilderness based upon my extensive use of it.
During the period that the pack horse reigned in the Marbles, the trails were either scrupulously maintained to accomodate stock travel or were left unattended. However, the escalation and diversification of recreational use of the wilderness in recent years has demanded a more flexible maintenance schedule than the all or nothing approach.
The U.S. Forest Service in their ultimate wisdom has adopted a four level maintenance system, ranging from low level, custodial care to thorough manicuring of paths providing access to recreational population centers.
Fortunately for myself, having been raised in close quarters to the Marbles, I am aware of the natural trails that nature has provided plus dozens of non-mapped areas of recreational opportunities known only to a few locals over the span of many years. These areas are not even etched onto the enforcement and/or unpublished U.S.F.S. maps to date.
All Things Considered
Basic considerations for a trip into the Marble Moutain Wilderness might be as follows:
Hike Distance is basicly a self explanatory item. High and Low Elevations the same, with exception to individuals on various types of medication.
Best suited for category might be accomplished by pretrip research and has many variables to be considered. Generally hiking 6 to 9 miles a day is a good rule of thumb. I believe that we have forgotten that we have come to the wilderness areas of the northwest to experience the wilderness and all she has to offer, not to simply pass through it.
The pretrip research will provide the wilderness traveler with an idea of the trail/lake usage i.e. rare, low, moderate, high and extremely high.
The degree of difficulty is to be considered and this will certainly have a wide range of variables to be considered. Most trails within the current system are rated by the U.S.F.S.
The degree of difficulty be it easy, moderate, or strenuous is the most subjective of all U.S.F.S. descriptions. It is based "soley" on trail gradiant, disregarding trail surface, maintenance, and the like.
The most common label is "moderate", since the most common trail is one that makes its way up from a valley bottom before a "hellacious" climb to the lakes at the head of the valley.
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