Moments in Dirt and Ink

These are the sketches I did "in situ" this month. A bit of falling water streaming over the rock . The main waterfall along the way . Rows of orchard trees from the hilltop . Loading ships from the pier . The seals hanging out later than implied. Some of the vine-like stuff on day one . Down at the creek at the start of day two . The table doesn't look so good at the end of the day . A nice warm bath, not that warm is much needed today .

Altadena front country Locate the trailhead. The plan was to take the three year old (and her mother) out for a stroll. I thought some of the lower sections of Arroyo Seco might be a nice place to go but since I've only ever gone hiking up the canyon, sometimes very far (but past the picnic area is still closed), I'm not entirely sure what one does in the park in the wash. Her mother had been wanting to go to Eaton Canyon, which is much more familiar to me and should be a reasonable distance. We actually stopped by the nature center the evening before and the wash is bone dry down there, but with hope we headed up to the start of the Mt. Wilson Toll Road and headed down into the canyon. Looking down from the bridge, we saw water entering the wash. There was hope for a waterfall after all. We looped around on the trail and got as far as the gauging station. The canyon was surprisingly crowded and the pools above and below the water gauge were full of kids. The thr...

Los Padres National Forest Locate the trailhead. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Lower Buckhorn turned out to be quite the cozy camp with wildlife wandering about in the near bushes all night. Not so surprising, since when I first looked at the camp on the way up, I heard the loud crack of a startled deer taking off through brush. I only knew there were so many animals around because of my poor sleep skills, not because they were worrisome animals. Getting up and breakfast.  I got a bit more water before heading out and found Buckhorn to be flowing through all the puddles that were there the night before and at least 4" higher.  I got packed up and headed down the canyon back to Indian Canyon and then down to the road below. Navigation didn't seem difficult at all for progressing down the trail. The confirmational ribbons were now informative and less required since I had passed that way before. Coming to the intersection I had missed, I found the ...

Los Padres National Forest Locate the trailhead. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Waking up the next morning, I had decided not to go up to the waterfalls. The water really wasn't that good and there is no particular trail up to them. Also, for unknow reasons, I was feeling a bit of dread about the canyon. Instead, I would have an easy day and eventually go down to Lower Buckhorn Camp for a little more easy day. That would make a much more managable final day than hiking out all the way, especially since I wanted to stop by Little Caliente. Before even getting up, I heard a crashing through the bush. While looking out toward the sound, a bear popped into view. It was probably going for the water, it did not come to check out the camp. After relaxing around camp and painting rocks with leaf shadows and water ripples, I decided to get packed up and going. A lizard that seems to want to be out in the air instead of on a rock. Part of a scattered and ...

Los Padres National Forest Locate the trailhead. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 I packed up my gear and headed for Indian Creek, or as near there as I could get. There's always a locked gate between here and there, and at this time that closest gate is at Pendola. It is nearly the same distance to head down from Cold Spring Saddle at the top as to walk in from Pendola, skipping a mess of rough road that seems to get rougher every time I take it, but it is summer and all that elevation sounds hard at the end of the hike, so I drove the road. I actually got there the night before, driving in after a regular dinner, and hiked into P-Bar Flats. I was hoping for Mono, but it occurred to me while searching for the biffies in the dark that the intelligent person probably stops now while it isn't too terribly late and gets a good early start in the morning. I pitched the tent (just the bug shelter part) and hung the food and slipped under my sleeping bag in the nearl...

Carpinteria Map link. Disappointed with Toro Canyon for being exactly what a reasonable person with the information I had would expect it to be, and not a way into Oil Canyon, I went down to the bluffs. Below the bluffs, the tar seeps out onto the sand and hardens. I parked in the dirt lot between two people enjoying the area by sitting in their cars talking on their phones. I headed west toward a farm on the end, then turned to cross the tracks at get to the cliffs. I stopped for more drawing on the clifftop, then took the old road down to the beach. A sign marked the beach to the west, where the seeps are, as closed for the harbor seals, but also said that closure ended with May. More pressingly, the tide seemed to be coming in and some of the points of rock were getting washed by the higher waves. With a little timing, I made it to the seeps. Oil hardening into tar on the rocks it seeped out of. When it is warm, it flows, but today is overcast.

Carpinteria Map link. I got it into my head to see Oil Canyon, which is behind Carpinteria. I had read that there's really no way to hike around at the back of Carpinteria. One day the Franklin Trail will reopen allowing local access to the backcountry for Carpinteria's residents, but that has to wait for the building of fences along some of the sections where it passes private property. But I see road on the map, I think I can go on road on the map. And this road included the Edison Catway, which is very accessible in Santa Barbara. Checking Bryan Conant's backcountry guide for Matilija and Dick Smith indicated that there's no hiking route up there except for a couple of small trails in Toro Canyon Park. It seems the county has a "private" inholding in the National Forest... It isn't very far, so I decided to poke around. I got to Toro Canyon Road and with ample warning for the turnoff for the park, turned down Toro Canyon Park Road. I went...

Los Padres National Forest Locate the trailhead. When I decided to go up the upper north fork of Matilija Creek and started researching the trail condition, I found that this was not the most popular trail from the trailhead. That seemed to be the middle fork, which has better pools and more interesting waterfalls but also has some private property issues. The trail passes through private property, first with an easement and then without. However, California law gives the public certain rights to continue accessing long used trails and there is said to be an easement for the Bald Hills trail, from which this trail branches up in the north part of the property. Either way, it is not yet a settled matter. Meanwhile, there is a road through the edge of the part of the property that is used along which one can leave the owner alone while following along a multitude of foot prints. At the time, I decided to stick with the original plan. Since finding all this out, I keep seeing...

Gaviota State Park Map link. The Sea to Backcountry trail was the 20 year (or so, according to faint memory) dream of, well, someone, and one Saturday for Trails Day nearly another 20 years ago, a mismatched group of volunteers and professionals gathered together to help make it a reality. The trail had been flagged, but it needed some tread and brush work as well as a touch of dynamite. As part of the unskilled volunteer force, I think I cut a bit of brush. Others scraped a line through the bright yellow mustard. I still haven't been to see what the final trail was like and would like to. This didn't turn out to be the day to see the trail, but, getting up to the wind caves, I did get to see what has become of our volunteer hours. Coming from the south on highway 101, I hung a left into the south end of the state park. The road splits and parking for the trail is very soon up the hill to the right while information can be found at the kiosk to the left. From the ...