Heads up for those of you working on the California Coast Peaks list.

http://www.climber.org/wsc/CoastPks.html
http://www.snwburd.com/dayhikes/list/6

It's looking like Pole Mountain (2,204 ft) on the Sonoma County coast may soon have public access.

Press links:
Sonoma County OKs $1 million for coast wildland deal
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20 ... /140529957

Sonoma Land Trust could purchase Sonoma Coast's highest peak
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20 ... /130719802

Very good news indeed. The view from there is really quite stunning.

FWIW:
More info on the Pole Mountain area via the California Coastal Conservancy's website:
http://scc.ca.gov/webmaster/ftp/pdf/scc ... sition.pdf

At 2,204 feet, Pole Mountain is the highest peak of the Sonoma Coast range with an extraordinary unobstructed 360-view of Sonoma County and beyond. The 238-acre property contains several elongated ridges and saddles that extend out from the Pole Mountain peak and provide variable topographic features ranging from gentle rises to steep drops to the properties below. These topographical variations contribute to diverse and high-quality habitats and form the headwaters of three important salmonid streams within the Russian River watershed: Kidd Creek, Pole Mountain Creek and Russian Gulch Creek. The Pole Mountain property connects two large tracts of rich diversity and protected lands, the 5,630-acre Jenner Headlands property to the south and the 500-acre Little Black Mountain Preserve to the north. Pole Mountain is also home to one of the last remaining volunteer fire lookouts in California, which serves an extremely important community service during the fire season.

With the exception of the fire lookout, the site is vacant land and has experienced limited human use since prehistoric Native American habitation. There was logging in the pockets of coniferous forests, similar to the intensity of other redwood/Douglas fir forests on the North Coast. The entire property was burned in the 1978 Creighton Ridge fire, but many of the ancient oaks and other trees survived. Currently, a local rancher leases the land for low-intensity cattle grazing, which has led to very robust oak regeneration beneath the mature oak trees.

The majority of Pole Mountain is a mature oak savannah with ancient oaks, bays and madrones. Other habitats include oak woodland, open grasslands, pockets of coniferous forests, and wetlands, ponds, seeps and streams with associated riparian habitats. While a biological assessment has not been conducted on the property, the landowners have confirmed the presence of mountain lion, deer, bobcat, badger, fox, golden eagles, ground squirrels and many other birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and insects. Recent stream inventories of Pole Mountain Creek and Kidd Creek have found Pacific steelhead, sculpin, crayfish, pacific giant salamander, newt, and Foothill yellow-legged frog. Likely special status wildlife species include Northern spotted owl and Willow flycatcher in addition to the confirmed Golden eagle and Foothill yellow-legged frog. Special status plant species found on the property will most likely include Serpentine daisy and Pacific gilia.

Also:
Lighthouses of the Land
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonom ... -0328.html

Zoom-in map link here:
http://www.summitpost.org/pole-mountain ... map/996792

The California Coastal Conservancy's internet site neglected to list the plant species most important to hikers, which proliferates in this area - poison oak.