Rain, snow nicely deliver in the clutch
Nature bats last and the weather in March is hitting a grand slam for the outdoors.
The latest storms to sweep across the Bay Area, Sierra Nevada and Northern California are a game changer for the snowpack, reservoir levels — and the imminent blossoming of spring across the parklands and greenbelt in the Bay Area.
In a two-week span, the bottom of the ninth for winter, the storms arrived in time to transform the prospects for camping, hiking, boating, fishing and wilderness for the spring and summer recreation season.
It’s predictable that some people will look at one of the lakes still low, talk drought, and then say something like, “The storms didn’t really put much of a dent in it.” These folks do not take into consideration how much water is taken out of the lakes, rather than how much is going in.
Snow: The latest blasts put up to 48 inches of fresh snow on the western flank of the Sierra crest, from Yosemite to Tahoe. In many areas this month, this adds up to 100 to 125 inches of fresh snow. For the rest of March, this will open up terrain for spring skiing. Even Homewood, perched just above the shore of Lake Tahoe, not known for high snow totals — and with a sensational run where it can feel like you are sailing down into the lake — reported base depths of between 90 and 130 inches. On Friday, Sugar Bowl near Truckee topped 250 inches for the year. Lakes: In a review of 98 recreation lakes, levels at 86 of them were at or above 85 percent of average for the date. Most were at more than 100 percent of average — and the latest numbers available were before the past 10 days of storms. In the greater Tahoe area, for instance, Lake Tahoe (176 percent of average), Stampede (149 percent of average), Boca (171 percent), Donner (106) and Prosser Creek (101 percent) reservoirs are setting up for a great summer. In the long run, the recent snowpack will melt in late spring and summer and keep these lakes in good shape. The numbers were attained via the state Department of Water Resources, federal Bureau of Reclamation, PG&E and regional water district lakes in the Bay Area, Central Valley, Sierra foothills and Sierra, Cascade and Siskiyou ranges. Spring: Rain in March and early April across the valley floors and foothills, followed by warm weather, creates the matrix for the neon greens and wildflower blooms. It’s setting up to peak April 5-20 at parks, open spaces and greenbelts in the Bay Area. It already has started on the coast, and I’ll have details and a spring forecast in Monday’s Chronicle. Mountain model: Bucks Lake, nestled in forest at 5,167 feet in northern Plumas County, provides a classic model of the summer to come. The lake has cabins, a lodge, campground, boat rentals, trout fishing and nearby wilderness hiking. According to PG&E, the lake is about 70 percent full, 112 percent of average for the date. This weekend, the weather station there is approaching 55 inches of precipitation, including 15 in March. The access road usually clears of snow in early May, and conditions, like at so many lakes, are lining up to be stellar this spring and early summer. Swing Effect: The theory of Swing Effect is in full gear, it seems, where severe in one direction then leads to severe in the opposite. Across much of the High Sierra, it snowed about 4 feet total from December through February then, in two weeks, double that. Grim scenes: The bigger lakes in Santa Clara County, Coyote (26 percent full), Anderson (27) and Calero (38), remain very low; just one winter ago, they were full. On the Central Coast, the two big rec lakes — San Antonio (32) and Nacimiento (44) — still look barren at their upper ends. On the west side of the Sacramento Valley, Black Butte is at 28, and in the central Sierra above Sonora near Pinecrest, Beardsley is at 35. Delayed salmon opener
The most likely scenario for this year’s salmon season is an opener delayed to June 11 for the Bay Area coast. The season would run June 11-17, Aug. 1-29 and Sept. 1-30. Other options, as announced by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, would delay opening day to Aug. 1, and another to Sept. 1. The goal, the council said, is to allocate more salmon to commercial trollers and less for recreational anglers, to even out what many thought was an imbalance last summer. Letting ’em go Catch and release: This is the time of year when some of the biggest striped bass, the big female spawners, are sometimes caught in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. In the outdoorsman’s newspaper Fish Sniffer, editor Dan Bacher, a longtime pal, passed along the tale of Chris Tocatlian, who caught and released a 42-pound striped bass on the Sacramento River. That one fish could produce 3 million eggs this spring. In the eyes of a lot of anglers, that makes Chris a hero. Mountain lions
Through Facebook and email, I received more than 100 responses about my encounter with a mountain lion reported last weekend, and these were my favorites: Party lion: “I know someone who lives in Palm Springs near an open space. One night he was giving a party with about 20 people when someone noticed a lion sitting on a 3-foot-high retaining wall and curiously watching just six feet from the living room full of people.”
— Gregory Zompolis Horses always know: “My horses, living in Woodside, always let me know when a lion was in the neighborhood of Cañada Road. Tense, snorting, staring fixedly at the hillside, which formed the natural pathway from Filoli through into Woodside. Standing at the gate, pawing and neighing, then eager to come into the barn and not just for their food . ... I know many stories of encounters with these horsey-lion hot spots . ... I am sure that from your article you will understand the concept that ‘natural behavior’ of modern mountain lions includes staring through patio windows at the people inside cooking bacon for breakfast.”
— Lesley Pickford