Moments in Dirt and Ink

Los Padres National Forest Locate the trailhead. When everyone else went on down the mountain, I went further up it to see if I could get to the peak. The road did not actually go there although it was rather obscured by other details on the forest map. There was a trailhead instead. A short way down the trail splits one side heading off to one side of the mountain, the other to the other side of the mountain and a usage trail splitting the difference heading up the mountain. I met a man walking along with his kids that looked like they weren't more than five coming down the usage trail. He said that the trail started off quite steep but got quite flat above. Although I didn't actually see little footprints all the way up, it was pretty good for a usage trail. It was especially good for a usage trail that travels along a ridge passing about four false peaks. It looked like a lot of people don't actually get all the way up to the peak. There was a wide, fla...

Los Padres National Forest Locate the trailhead. We spotted the sign for Raspberry Spring on our way to Chorro Spring the day before. It was a little way down the hill on the near side of Reyes Peak campground where trailhead parking could easily be mistaken for campsite parking since a campsite was also there. The trail was a little harder to see from the road but easy enough from the sign. It is only 0.4 miles down to the spring. Finding the spring itself proved a little harder. We came upon a campsite, since this is also a campsite like the other spring complete with campfire grills, and then another one but didn't see a way off to a spring or any sign of a spring. I followed an animal trail a little ways figuring it would go to the spring. It probably did in the other direction but I found a third site up from the animal trail a little way instead. Then I found myself at the first site again and spotted a people trail that headed to the spring. The spring on...

Los Padres National Forest Locate the trailhead. The trail down to Chorro Spring started at the far end of Reyes Campground. It had a large road sign to mark it so was easy to find. The first few feet looked like road and had a road block on it, but shortly after that it was only trail sized. The trail actually goes past Chorro Spring to Oak campground and then on to 33. On the way to the trail head, we found a former bee hive. A little bit of honeycomb is still visible in the hole that was once occupied by a bee hive. The hole still smells strongly of honey, too.

Los Padres National Forest Chorro Spring | Raspberry Spring | Reyes Peak We headed out looking for a place to camp. The main plan was somewhere on up highway 33 near Wheeler Gorge. First we looked for a spot in the valley, but the Gorge campground itself was full with people reserving spots and had weird rules for weekends. Middle Lion and Rose Valley were both quite full when we went by, so we climbed the mountain. Dropping into Pine Mountain and found one site empty. I dropped off my passengers to hold it and wait for the second car while going up to see if there was something in Reyes Peak, our preferred spot, but there wasn't. It was quite nice, though, and I found the trail down to Chorro Grande. After setting up and getting ourselves fed lunch, we headed over to Chorro Spring on foot. Then back for lovely dinner and a bit of star gazing. The stars were nice and crisp and plentiful. Then along came the very annoying not quite teenagers who felt the nee...