Complaints nix sauna in a trailer on Big River Beach parking lot- We need to create a ‘Blue Economy’ which has a coherent and much more local process
At Big River Beach, a striking redheaded woman and a muscular black haired man on their Mendocino Coast vacation emerged from the warmth of the sauna in their bathing suits. After a quick scowl by the lady at this cameraman who was pointing the Nikon the other way anyway, the middle-aged couple walked down a green carpet to the sands of Big River Beach, where they reclined together on a towel. Cooling off was more difficult than usual on a Mendocino County vacation on this warm and sunny mid-October afternoon.
She did offer a comment— “that sauna was Incredible”
Thursday will be the last day for MendoSauna at Big River Beach, where the mom-and-pop company had negotiated a trial concession period with state parks. They were paying State Parks 10 percent of their daily income. The concession was to last into next week, but an uproar of local protest has shut down the spa on wheels on Thursday.
“We will have to wait until the Coastal Commission approves it,” MendoSauna’s Paul Snowdy said.
For Snowdy and Elika Freeman, it’s their dream business.
Opponents have raised environmental objections and raised issues about the smoke created by the wood stove that heats the sauna. Fires are common on Big River Beach, from bonfires off the parking lot to the larger fires to the much bigger traditional fires up on the beach.
The Marine Conservation Area is not a sanctuary. Among the uses allowed in the Big River Marine Conservation Area are waterfowl hunting (under state seasons) and fishing for perch.
Big River Marine Conservation Area
Motorized boats are prohibited in Big River. People can back down the boat ramp onto the beach with their trucks and launch non motorized boats.
The biggest issue is who is who is allowed to operate a business on State Parks property? What are the rules and opportunities for public input? What kind of business should be allowed? Can we keep it local? We need a process we can all understand. We don’t have one now.
A better-known vendor is Kayak Mendocino on Van Damme State Park Beach parking lot.
There has been another spa vendor who operated a party tub, actually on the beach. (photos coming). Wedding planners often use Big River Beach for parties as well as the big event.
Paul and Elika had been opening MendoSauna as a pop-up for several years, since their first trailer was completed.. They found a big audience at birthday parties on private property and in other places like Van Damme State Park’s Beach Parking lot.
There have been other pop-up party vendors at many beaches, especially Navarro Beach. Plus, the entire issue of the Blue Economy relies on repowering our Coastal economies with sustainable use. Most of those uses are destined to run afoul of different state regulations.
Paul and Elika started out less than a month ago with a temporary event type. permit on Big River Beach, offering Mendosauna sessions from 7 a.m to 5 p.m in the parking lot. Their rig never touches the beach. Visitors could exit the hardwood sauna inside the trailer and go down a green runner outdoor rug to the beach. A footwash station was placed there so they could come back up.
That plan only lasted three days. After complaints by neighbors, they changed the hours to a start time to 9.am, although early swims, including by a skinny dipping club, are popular.
Paul and Elika went for the Tues-Thursday schedule because their idea is more to serve locals and they didn’t want to be in the way on busy weekends, even though that would mean more business.
Paul grew up on Avila Hot Springs in the San Luis Opbisbo area, which his grandparents purchased in the 1960s. Avila Hot Springs is the old school complete spa, country club, and everything else on and at Avila Beach.
After input from neighbors, MendoSauna changed the wood they were burning in the stove from oak to madrone, to have a better-smelling smoke and the most efficient burning wood. Paul is from Laytonville, where madrone is common to cut or buy. He met Elika 19 years ago when she worked at the Westport store and he was escaping Laytonville heat to come to the beach. Their goal became focused on the mobile sauna when a friend married a Finnish woman who taught them about the fun and health benefits of sauna.
Their journey began in 2020 when they purchased a horse trailer to make the first sauna into. After that build they tried it out and found the idea very popular and people everywhere suggested it would be a great business. The next move was to save up and go back to Minnesota (the center of Finnish and spa culture in the USA), where Paul bought the bare bones model of the trailer sauna for $20,000 and drove it back here, where they did bookings on different properties including Van Damme and Big River Beaches, always planning to get a permit and operate like the kayak guy on Van Damme. Paul had Big River Beach in mind when he picked out this trailer.
They went unnoticed till this week when protests began circulating after someone learned about their temporary permit or saw them there on a weekly basis.
The sauna was in use for several people coming and going when Mendocinocoast.news went to the beach Tuesday. A wisp of smoke came out the top along with a lot of heat sign. It was about like a small campfire. When Paul went inside and stoked the fire, the smoke pretty much disappeared.
Paul picked up a Kuuma sauna on his trip to the factory in Minnesota. Kuuma stoves are near the top of efficiency ratings for their sauna stove, which rates about 84 percent efficiency.
Here are two viewpoints on the Sauna being on the beach
Letter to the Editor- Robert J
Viepoints were wide-ranging but more came to us against than for. Everybody worried what might be next. We contacted the Coastal Commission and are expecting an answer by the end of the week. We have also contacted the state parks superintendent here, and expect an answer and follow up story soon.
In a letter to the MCN Listserv, Rebecca Aum wondered what the input from indigenous people would be as they built fires to tell the salmon when it was time to come in. She said the biggest problem on the beach was off-leash dogs.
“Saunas with a cold plunge are known to be very healthy, supporting the
immune system. They also promote mental health and are used for
depression. I was so happy when I realized that the lovely wooden trailer
next to the river was a sauna. $40 spent on a sauna could be cheaper than
buying unhealthy food and spending a lot of money on doctor bills.
I realize that inhaling a lot of wood smoke is not healthy. But fire is a
natural thing and possibly the mental health benefits from campfires and
other fires outweigh the negative aspects of inhaling a little smoke. I
feel happy to think that more people are interested in the healthy aspects
of saunas, cold plunges, swimming and nature. As someone who donated to create this park, I would like to see people and wildlife respected there.”
While Paul and Frank talked a man in a pickup pulled up and expressed his dissatisfaction with the sauna having to end its run
“Tell them this all used to be a gigantic lumber mill, he said, pointing around the entire beach.”
“Woe to anybody who wants to do something that will provide jobs.”
Indeed the Big River timberlands along the river once was home to what many say was the finest old-growth forest on planet earth. Our forefathers had clear-cut it out of existence by the early 20th century. Mills of those days filled the mouth of every river and most streams with buildings. Soon there was nothing to mill on most rivers and streams.
(There was some, but very little responsible forestry back then, almost all on private, not corporate lands. )
Then one of the biggest environmental purchases happened in the early 21st centry, moving the now mostly exhausted timberlands through land trusts to State Parks.
Now an old logging road is open to cyclists and walkers heading up into the old forest and along quarries, at least one of which stayed open after the land became part of parks. Its all uphill going in, so not the best for Sunday bike rides but a spectacular walk.
Most of the income for economic projects on local beaches and forests is grant money for projects that go through government channels. Those channels are closed to local jobs in neary every case. And the highly paid folks who get the money have not impressed Mendocinocoast.news, for the most part. The money could be spent here on local young people trained here, but the whole thing is a racket that does benefit the local governments that get the grants. But it could be done differently. We could create ongoing and sustainable work and jobs.
To us at Mendocinocoast.news, this controversy over Mendo/Sauna seems to be a great opportunity to explain and possibly reset the boundaries of commerce within California State Parks. Proponents of ideas like beach wheelchairs, pop-up food, and parties are traditionally likely to do it off the radar, not go in the front door and get permission like Elika and Paul did. Many environmentalists and NIMBYs are likely to attack anything proposed with full force, so nobody wanting to do anything at all is unlikely to want to bear the firestorm or face lawsuits they couldn’t afford, win or lose. Nobody is the victim here. Commerce is not a traditional part of the local beach experience. Think of vendors lined up at the entrance to Glass Beach and how much could be made and how much would be lost. Is bottom-line-driven modern commerce now destined to ruin and cheapen everything it touches?
What would you like to see in a Blue Economy?
To comment on the sauna proposal, go to Mendocino Headlands State Park
These are discussions the community should have. Environmentalism has evolved beyond the “exclude everything” approach to include the knowledge that humans are part of the solution, as well as the creator of the problems. The big problem is that if a public process is created, corporations with zero values and deep pockets will barge in and take any concession. That’s why it has been better to do things off the books in so many areas. The Blue Economy measures we have seen have funded a lot of fly-by-night consultants, such as the ones who did the Noyo Harbor traffic flow study and clearly had no knowledge or interest in the area. We have to change that if there is any use to doing it at all long-term. We need to work towards turning that around, perhaps working with Cal Poly Humboldt and a company like Wynn Coastal Planning to create a certification that could be used to have young people from here or who at least spend a year here learning, be eligible to do this local work.
The combination of the woods inside the sauna give a pleasant smell and feel.
Things are getting real in the outside world. Doing local and together will become critical to survival in the coming years, we believe.
