About a mile farther on, a spur trail leads west about 0.5 miles to a small lake, locally called Church's Pond. James E. Church was a professor at the University of Nevada Reno who established the first winter snow survey in the world. He devised his system on Mount Rose early in this century. Snow surveys are used to predict the amount of spring runoff that fills the reservoirs that supply water to lowland farms and cities. The main trail continues east, switchbacking down into Jones Creek to complete the loop.
Mountain mahogany is found here and is common throughout most of Nevada's mountain ranges.
Not related to the tropical mahogany used for cabinet making, mountain mahogany is a fifteen to thirty foot evergreen tree with narrow, shiny, dark green leathery leaves.