Our final (scheduled) walk for the year! Windy Hollow Field Trip information from trip leader Mike Hagebusch:

 1. The Windy Hollow Field Trip requires a longer time commitment than most of the recent trips since the site is 120 miles NW of Reno in Lassen County, CA. Because participants will come from different places, there are several meeting sites.

 -- Reno area members should plan on arriving at the Lemmon Road McDonalds between 7:00 and 7:15 am to arrange carpooling. We will leave at 7:30 am sharp!

 -- California members coming from the south will meet our group at the Highway 395 Rest Area, 15 miles south of Susanville, 62 miles to the north of Reno along the highway. Please arrive between 8:00 and 8:15 am, so that we can arrange a final carpooling. This is the last place with restroom facilities. Departure from here will be at 8:30 am sharp!

 -- California participants coming from the north from the Central Valley (Chico, Sacramento) via Lake Almanor should take Hwy 36 to Westwood and then drive ca 18 miles N on County Road A-21 to Hwy 44. Windy Hollow is about one mile N, (500 feet) below the NW side of the road. Park at the truck pull-off. The other groups should arrive before 9:15 am.

 -- As usual, bring lunch, sun-screen, and insect repellent. I strongly recommend the newly developed Picaridin cream, (sold under the Sawyer brand at Walmart and elsewhere) since its ingredients are non-cancerous and totally effective against Windy Hollow’s mosquitoes and wasps. 

 2. Participants on this field trip will see flora they have not encountered before. In fact, this will be the first group ever to see Pyrrocoma anemophila under its proper name and to walk among the Windy Hollow Eriogonum now called Eriogonum ovalifolium purpureum.

 3. The playa is geographically part of the “Modoc Plateau region of the Southern Cascades.” Its local area (which I prefer to call the “Lassen Plateau”) lies between the Cascades to the west and the mountains above Eagle Lake just to its east, and follows the Highway 44 corridor from Susanville to its descent to the Pit River Valley in the north.

 -- Windy Hollow itself is one of the largest remaining vernal playas in its region of California. Most of similar ones have been converted to reservoirs, impacted by grazing, or used for agriculture. As a high-elevation (5600 feet), sub-alpine area reaching 1.5 miles in length and 0.5 mile in width, Windy Hollow has a completely different vegetation structure than the vernal pools in the Central Valley. It receives rain from the spring and summer storms that pass over Northern California before completely drying in late summer and autumn.  

 --Although many specimens have been collected in the “Lassen Plateau” area, it has not been thoroughly studied botanically, and has many other state-rare plants along the corridor. The same is true for its fauna.

 -- One unusual feature at Windy Hollow is a 50-foot vernal waterfall draining the higher elevations to the west, and is evident only at snowmelt during heavy water years. It is located NW of the smaller playa, 0.5 mile N of the

 -- The playa basin is relatively intact and is now “protected” by Lassen National Forest fencing during the grazing season.

 4. Windy Hollow has three California state-rare plants:

 -- Rorripa columbiae, a mustard which grows on the playa bottom and is uncommon and scattered over the bottom, most often near shorelines.

 -- The newly-named Pyrrocoma anemophila, which occurs by the thousands on the playa bottom.

 -- Eriogonum ovalifolium, variety/species not yet determined, covers large portions of the playa bottom and is abundant on many of the shores.

 5. Because of the longer drive, participants are welcome to leave as they choose. I am willing to guide those who wish explore the unique features of the vernal meadow 1.5 miles N of the Windy Hollow playa.