Pole Mountain is a high and prominent summit on the Sonoma Coast of Northern California. Its a relatively recent addition to the public lands of Sonoma County and and a lovely for hiking. Hiking the summit from Jenner Headlands is challenging but rewarding; here's my trip report
Pole Mountain Hike Overview
Pole Mountain towers at 2,207ft above the coast just 3 miles away. The reserve is protected by the Sonoma Land Trust along with the nearby Wildland's Conservancy's Jenner Headlands. Both are managed by private, non-profit land trusts that are open to the public. The parks are free and don't require permits though both organizations solicit donations.
There's one parking lot right off of PCH/Highway 1. There's ample parking though I imagine it fills on summer holiday weekends. When I visited in November, there was scarcely a half dozen hikers.
Here's a map of the route I took. Note that it was not the most direct route
In terms of stats, my route was 16.10 miles with about 4,000' of gain/loss. The most direct route, using the Sea-to-Sky Trail, is 15.2 miles with ~3,700' of gain. In any iteration, you climb 950' from the parking lot to near Hawk Hill, then drop another 800' before regaining another 1,800'. Make no mistake, this is a challenging hike even for experienced adventurers.
Pole Mountain Trip Report
I hit the trail at 8:30 and noted the gates close at sunset- know the time before you depart on this long hike. After a short walk, I passed some fancy looking pit toilets then took a left on the Sea-to-Sky Trail. The climb was relentless; gained about 750' in 2 miles to the junction with the Raptor Ridge Trail. This part of the trail basically crosses active ranchlands. The views of the coast are phenominal though you share them with cattle.
At the junction, the trail flattens somewhat for 0.7 miles before beginning the descent into Russian Gulch. Its a bit demoralizing to know you have to climb this 800' descent at the end of the day. However it's delightfully shaded by redwoods and adds a nice contrast to the previously crossed ranchlands.
After 4.5 miles, the trail bottoms out at a crossing of Russian Gulch. The altitude here is 380', just 130' higher than where I started at the parking lot. Ooof... 1,900' to go
Over the next 2.7 miles, the trail gains 1,600' at an almost constant 12-15% grade. It climbs a somewhat maintained logging/ranch road so I had no problems with route finding. The challenging ascent was fortunately punctuated by ever increasing panoramas of coastal redwoods and the Sonoma Coast. Eventually I could see Mt Tamalpais and Mt Diablo in the far distance.
At 7.2 miles from the trailhead, the road flattens out a bit as it departs from the Jenner Headlands and enters Pole Mountain Reserve. Just a hop, skip and a short climb from there and I was standing on the summit. My GPS read 7.7 miles and I had covered it in about 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Variation on the descent
I could have just returned the same route via Sea-to-Sky Trail for a 15.2 mile trip but I decided on a variation.
From the summit, I dropped down to Russian Gulch, then began the arduous climb back up. After about 0.6 miles of ascending the road, I took the side trail (marked as "Russian Gulch"). Following this mostly flat trail for 0.9 miles, I then took the short-n-steep Logger's Lament Trail to rejoin the Sea-to-Sky Trail.
Back on the main trail, I followed Sea-to-Sky 0.9 miles back to the intersection with the Raptor Ridge Trail. Going left or right takes the same distance back to the parking lot- I did the full loop of Raptor Ridge just for variation.
Back at the parking lot well before sunset, I did the hike in about 6 hours, including stops. It was lovely though very difficult. Thankfully I still had some time to poke around the Sonoma Coast before sunset. Wish I was up here more often
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