COVID TESTING & VACCINE INFO: For more information on COVID-19 vaccines, testing, and masking, contact the Mendocino County Public Health COVID19 Call Center at (707) 472-2759 or visit their website here. You can read our ongoing coverage of the pandemic here, and find the current county COVID-19 data here.
LAKE MENDOCINO, 6/2/2020 — Just in time for the beginning of summer weather, Lake Mendocino is opening up. The areas of the lake now open include: the South Boat Ramp, the Dam Parking Lot, the North Boat Ramp, and the day use areas Pomo A, and Pomo B. The Shakota trailhead is accessible from both Pomo A and B. The Overlook and Joe Reilly are also open for walk-in and bike-in traffic only. Some restrooms are also open at this time.
Oak Grove, Pomo C, Kyen Campground, playgrounds, and group picnic areas remain closed. Army Corps of Engineers Supervisory Ranger Poppy Lozoff said that she does not foresee camping opening up for the summer 2020 season.
This afternoon, Michelle Ryan came with a friend to escape the heat and enjoy the lake for the first time this season. She has lived in Ukiah for six years and visits Lake Mendocino at least one a week in the summer months. “It was a good day to come,” she said as she packed her inflatable kayak into her car.
Asked if she was nervous about being at the Lake during the pandemic, Ryan said she felt fine because people were keeping a safe distance from each other. “You’re outdoors and it’s easy to stay six feet apart,” she said.
Safety precautions are being taken as the area continues to open up. The single use picnic tables are open and available, but the rangers are discouraging even that because it is high-touch, said Lozoff over the phone.
“At this point we’re just following guidance from Mendo Public Health,” she said. Masks are advised, but not mandated. All rangers are carrying masks with them so if they have to get close to someone then they can put them on.
Lozoff suggests using information from the public health order and best judgement when deciding whether or not to sport a facemask in the area.
Lozoff suggests using information from the public health order and best judgement when deciding whether or not to sport a facemask in the area.
“If [Lake Mendocino] started getting way too crowded, we would start looking at closing things again,” said Lozoff. “We have conditions we have to meet to keep our staff and public safe so if we must we will enforce them and have to consider closing again. However, that is not a problem now.”
This was so misleading as to be absurd. i swim a1 1/2 to 2 miles off the south boat ramp. I’ve been doing that activity for over twenty years at that location. As long as your in the water you’re okay but the shore is absolutely disgusting. One twenty gallon trash can with sixty gallons of trash on the ground. Food scraps, fast food containers, and water bottles floating spread along shore. Fishing tackle cut and left to lie on the ground.
Maybe social distancing in large groups of four to fourteen. Keeping the picnic areas closed just pushes people into one spot. So obvious as to be ridiculous. Anyone could have seen that coming.
Absolutely thoughtless public policy although I’m glad to have access to water in light of the Starr center closure.
The same people not wearing mask are the same people trashing the beach and parking lot. You can read into that anything you want.
It will happen here on the coast soon, already the coastal trail has been trashed a number of times,
Ask the people who work for Fort Bragg corporation yard.
HI Jamie,
I am attempting or on the fence to swim in any lake that is open. Have they cleaned up the trash yet? the fishing lines sounds worse than the covid.
Where are new posts re;the lakes?
Guess I will drive up & find out for myself. If the pools stay closed all year then a group up volunteers on the lakes may be a grand idea & a necessity for our health and well being.
I need to swim!
Glad I can wear my ‘Ghetto Sweeper’ Industrial N95 Mask with exhaust valve to the lake, up close and personal projecting virus particles to others, fully compliant with CDC and Mendocino Public Health Officer Order, but banned by six Bay Area counties. No wonder Mendocino Officer is in San Diego, as dysfunctional bureaucracy here, perhaps because the mountain ridges shorten our daylight and learning comprehension.
Politco Headline: “Suddenly, Public Health Officials Say Social Justice Matters More Than Social Distance”
“We should always evaluate the risks and benefits of efforts to control the virus,” Jennifer Nuzzo, a Johns Hopkins epidemiologist, tweeted on Tuesday. “In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus.”
—
You’ve been CONNED, boys & girls, on a level unimaginable to any sane mind. The destruction of America’s economy? Unnecessary…and deliberate. The House Arrests? Just testing you, to see how much you’ll tolerate.
There have been significant improvements at Lake Mendocino over the last few months. If you haven’t noticed Jamie, there are brand new buoys all over the water surface to warn boaters of hazards, wake zones, and areas to keep out. The roads. and parking lots of been re-stripped. There are new signs. There has been tremendous vegetation management work done on the north side of the lake. There are more Rangers. The Army Corps of Engineers needs to be commended for all the work they have been doing. Just remember what the lake looked like in the summer of 2017. There have been significant improvements at the lake in the last 2 years.
I’ve been using that lake for thirty years. The last two years are a snapshot in a bigger picture. The corps also decided to eliminate all the boat docks requiring everyone to haul boats back and forth. Good idea, I’m not sure. Then the sheriff department quit patrolling the boats and removed their dock. People use those new bouys for a jet ski course . I notice everything that happens there. I noticed you didn’t disagree with one thing I said. People are pigs and it shows big time at Lake Mendocino. More Rangers and new buoys aren’t going to fix that. And the corp also allowed the lake level to drop to the point that boats won’t be able to launch period in a matter of a month.
That’s one way to implement Covid distancing. I find it hard to commend people for doing there job. Although I appreciate it when they do.
I agree Jamie, plenty of pigs from the community and surrounding areas coming to Lake Mendocino, leaving a mess and vandalizing it (basically trashing it). You cannot blame the corps for that at all. In fact, if you see some trash, pick it up and put it in the bin. If everyone did that, it would help a lot. The corps are not peoples maids. It is not their job. If the lake continues to get trashed and vandalized, I think the corps should shut it down for a few months and see how people respond. I can’t believe how people treat their recreation area. It’s mind-boggling. Other recreation areas in surrounding areas are so much more respected by the public…..look at Lake Sonoma or Lake Berryessa. It’s time that people start caring for Lake Mendocino. Regarding the Sheriff, I see them out there regularly around the lake. True, they are not on the lake (on the water), but that is out of the corps hands. I am sure they have requested the Sheriff to be out there.