Malibu Creek State Park
Map link.
After the morning hike, I decide to go up to Upper Solstice Canyon where I can finish off the last bit of a loop I
started in 2009. Going past the entrance to Lower Solstice Canyon, I am reminded that it is actually a part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area by the locked gate across it. Some of the users of the overflow parking don't seem to realize the road does go somewhere and present minor obstacles to passage. Up at the end of the road, there is plenty of parking, so a grab a spot and start up Castro Motorway, the continuation of the road. At first the views are quite tame, but once up to the top and the north side opens up, they become excellent, if a little difficult to see.
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| The Backbone Trail passes through the parking lot heading over these rocks to the southeast and should head along the motorway, but it has to reroute down into the valley instead. |
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| Looking into the valley to the north. |
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| Lovely rocks litter the top of the ridge. |
At the junction with Bulldog Motorway, which drops down from the ridge, I stay climbing on Castro toward the peak. The road cuts deeply through the rocks as it goes. With a few turns, the road hits a fence.
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| The area is a patchwork of federal, state, and private lands, but you don't expect the signs to be mixed. |
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| Homes along Mulholland Dr. and N9 down in the valley. |
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| To the south, it is a little less populated in Upper Solstice Canyon. |
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| Looks like the bully on Castro is still doing his thing, although he seems to have given up the pretense that he just doesn't like park rangers and admitted he really doesn't like people. |
This guy feels his easement should allow him to put a six lane highway across land he doesn't own. Meanwhile, the public easement can be blocked no matter what the law says. How it works is, he has more money than you. At least they have managed to keep him from further abusing his easement. I decide to head back and skip the few trails that head up and to the south and head down Bulldog a bit.
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| Castro Motorway as it curves through the rocks on the ridge. |
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| Malibu Lake far below. |
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| Heading down Bulldog. It is definitely state park lands and they usually don't allow dogs on the "back country" trails. |
There's a road coming down from earlier on the Castro Motorway for the power lines and another one coming up from below. At first, I suspect that it might actually go through to allow a loop. Further examination of the bottom of the canyon, of course, shows that it does not go through, so eventually I just have to turn around and head back up.
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| Lots of roads to travel around this valley, but they do not connect. |
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| Looking again out into the hills to the north, it is clearing up and the view getting better. |
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| Rounded sandstone out in the hills. |
Coming back down, I take a diversion down a spur that intersects the Backbone Trail reroute and then follow it up into the rocks to finish poking around.
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| Looking back at the peak and the perfectly good road you may not walk along. (Many permits missing for putting all that up.) |
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| A few nice colors out in the rocks. |
©2013 Valerie Norton
Posted 14 October 2013
Comments
If you really are the current owner, then beware, you seem to have gotten so bored that you now troll rather unknown and unread hiker blogs so that you can paste insults into their unused comments section, not only "hiker and biker sites". Just for clarification, I am pointing out a perception, not somehow trying to make threats of boredom. The view count for this post is all the way up to 16 now, quite a good number for me, almost as many as were physically hiking the area already when I arrived.
The gate / fence you encountered is but the first in a series of many gates and fences designed to protect the facilities and equipment from thieves, saboteurs and vandals. My post to you was to caution you against trespassing. Trespassing is taken seriously and running regular internet searches for those that trespass, and even blatantly brag online of their exploits including how they have stolen or damaged property , has resulted in serious legal actions being taken. This has unfortunately become necessary to protect the several communications facilities located on Castro Peak from those who refuse to respect others property.
Landowners with trails on their land include those who give a cheery wave to hikers and bikers using a popular trail separated from their home by only about 20 feet of garden and people who have changed traditional easements into deeded easements and added severe restrictions to what can be done to the land around the trail. There is a wide range of reactions to trails. It would seem probable that those who expect to continue to be able to use a trail tend to be those who would allow a trail to continue to be used. There are undoubtedly a few who would not as well. Humans do have a distressing tendency to hypocrisy, but a wonderful tendency to variety.
I am well aware of the series of gates, even without stepping foot on the land, and I most definitely include those when I call the security comical. I hope a consultant wasn't getting paid for that. You are making my point for me that only those who do not wish harm are turned away.
LT-WR, L.L.C. v. CALIFORNIA COASTAL COM'N 60 Cal.Rptr.3d 417 (2007) 151 Cal.App.4th 427. You will find my LLC that was plaintiff in this case owns the parcel at the top of Castro Peak. You can also check out "Notice of Consent of Land Use" under Section 813 of the California Civil Code. The 813 notices have been filed on all the parcels in question. No easements can attach to the parcels.
I do want to thank you for the great picture of my gate which showed it had been vandalized. I had my crew fix it up with lots of rebar and more razor ribbon. The vandalism to the gate shows the absolute necessity for the gates. To date the security has turned away well over 99% of would be trespassers and most of those that were willing to expose themselves to the extreme risk of injury necessary to get in found themselves arrested or subject to legal action. Some had even been dumb enough to post the GPS track of their exploit on web pages - which my lawyers promptly used against them.
After this conversation I would hope you will respect the private property and advise any of your hiker friends to do the same.