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Elk Mountain Hotshots Location
The
Upper Lake
Ranger District is the south western district on the Mendocino. It
is located 2 - 2 1/2 hours north of San Francisco and 1 1/2 hours from
the heart of the Napa Valley Wine Country. The district manages approximately
260,000 acres and offers a comfortable rural lifestyle with the convenience
of easy accessibility to the shopping and other amenities available in
San Francisco and the North Bay area. The District offers a vegetative
mosaic including dense stands of brush, open glades or meadows, oak woodlands
and mixed conifers. Annual fire activity on a five year average is 12-15
fires in the 2-5 acre class with a project size fire every other year.
The town of Upper Lake is not a full service community. The population is approximately 2,000. The nearest full service community is Lakeport, which is located 9 miles to the south on State Highway 29 and has a population of approximately 5,000. There are several other communities located around Clear Lake. Clear lake is the largest natural freshwater lake in California and is known for excellent bass, and other warm water, fishing and water skiing and other water oriented recreational activities. The average temperatures for the area are: winter 55 and 31, summer 93 and 55. The cost of homes in the area ranges from $75,000 - $120,000 for a three bedroom home and rentals range from 350-900 per month.
The recreational opportunities are hard to beat. Just 70 miles from the Cape Mendocino Headlands, sightseeing, salmon and steelhead fishing and excellent seascape photography are just a few of the many things to do here. There are also a variety of hunting opportunities available throughout this portion of California.
Housing
The Elk Mountain Hotshot barracks is located at the Upper Lake District Office, this serves as the base of operations for the Elk Mountain Hotshots. The barracks consists of living quarters for approximately 15 seasonal employees, kitchen facilities and a communal area. The cost per day in 2009 was $7.20.
