MENDOCINO CO., 9/12/26 — Walkers leave Chico on Sunday to trek to Covelo, 100 miles west over the north coast mountains, with a wildfire burning in the county they’re headed for. They’re going anyway.
“We’re over in the Chico area, and the Lucas Fire is more towards Lake and Mendocino counties,” organizer Charlotte Bauer told the Voice in a phone interview Saturday.
The Nome Cult Walk retraces a forced march. In 1863, 461 Concow Maidu people were forced to walk 100 miles from Chico to the Nome Cult Reservation in Round Valley through the Mendocino National Forest. The records say 277 of them arrived. The walk is held every September, and in past years it has run seven days, Sunday to Saturday, before finishing at the Round Valley Indian Reservation.
The fire question turns on geography, and a map of the two towns makes it look worse than it is. The Lucas Fire is burning in the Potter Valley area near the Lake and Mendocino county line, about 40 miles south of Covelo. The walkers never get near it, because they don’t take the road.
“It’s from Chico to Round Valley, but we come over the mountain,” Bauer explained.
In past years the route took three roads — the M4, County Road 55 and FH7 — a climb west out of the Sacramento Valley, over the Coast Range and down into Round Valley from above. That crosses the forest’s Grindstone and Covelo ranger districts. The fire and the forest closure it triggered are in a third district, Upper Lake, in Lake County.
That closure took effect Friday and runs through Sept. 20. It shuts every forest road, trail and campground between Sam Alley Ridge, Elk Mountain Road and McCreary Glade, including the Middle Creek, Penny Pines and Deer Valley campgrounds. The fire started at 9:18 a.m. Thursday and had burned 3,466 acres with 15% containment by 8:33 a.m. Saturday, according to Cal Fire, which is fighting the fire along with Mendocino National Forest crews. Both counties have evacuation orders and warnings in effect.
The Nome Cult Walk participants will walk under a red flag warning of their own. The National Weather Service issued the warning at 3:12 a.m. Saturday, and it remains in effect until 11 a.m. Monday, covering both halves of the walk’s first leg — the northern Sacramento Valley through Glenn and Colusa counties, where the walkers head toward Orland and Newville, and the Glenn and Colusa Coast Range above 3,000 feet, where they start climbing. Forecasters called for gusts of 20 to 35 mph and relative humidity between 10% and 25%. “Any fires that develop will spread rapidly,” the warning said. “Outdoor burning is not recommended.”
Fires have been banned across the whole forest since July 28, under an order that runs through Dec. 1. A California campfire permit allows a gas or pressurized-fuel stove anywhere in the forest, but a campfire can only be enjoyed in two kinds of places: campgrounds the order names as fire-safe and the forest’s designated wilderness areas. Three of the four spots the walk has camped inside the forest in past years are on the named list — Black Bear and Wells Cabin campgrounds in the Grindstone district, and Eel River Campground in the Covelo district. Log Springs, the midweek stop, isn’t on it. The forest rates its fire danger very high.
In past years, the forest has asked drivers on those roads to slow down for the week and posted caution signs at the boundary. The walkers’ support vehicles carry caution signs as well. Walkers cover 15 to 25 miles on an average day.
They come from tribes across Northern California. The forest has listed descendants of the Concow Maidu, the seven Round Valley Indian Tribes, the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians, the Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California, Redding Rancheria, Grindstone Nomlaki, the Mechoopda Tribe, Pit River, Wintu, Nisenan and Greenville Maidu.
“[The fire] shouldn’t interfere, but we are working closely with the Forest Service,” Bauer said. She said the agency will be with the group on the route. They’ll be watching the fire anyway.
“As far as we know, we’re far away from it for now,” she said.
