Moments in Dirt and Ink

A couple of outdoor sketches, including one with (abstract, through some bars) people. People are hard. Looking across to the east fork from the middle fork on Cold Spring . Checking out the salt marsh, and the houses on the private road that borders it. Sitting in Ortega Park listening to the old men chatter while waiting for tires .

Los Padres National Forest Map link. Had a plan to continue to the boulders on the west side of the pass, but managed to realize that the beach was also a target for my visitor so just went for one last quick spot so there would be enough time to hit the beach while it was still warm enough to stick our toes in the cold surf. The little loop of old campground road up to the lookout at La Cumbre Peak is a very quick stroll with the plus of having facilities at the top. A number of picnic tables are scattered in the old campground sites around the loop. We follow the arrows on the paved road and take the left at the fork to stay a little more in the shade on the minor climb, then turn the corner and there it is. Unfortunately, the lookout on top of La Cumbre Peak is also a ruin. There are a number of benchmarks on the peak. The easiest to find is the lookout itself. More ordinary disks are scattered around the area as well, with one right by the road. LACUMBRE statio...

Los Padres National Forest Map link. Knapp's Castle is actually a little piece of private property that will one day be rebuilt (I may be being optimistic here), but for now is an elaborate stone ruin of a large house that the public may walk around. One should not climb around on it as it would be rude to cause further damage to something someone wants to rebuild. It really is a castle only for those who have no reference point for what a castle actually is, but it has impressive features. The trail is actually a gated fire road that heads out quickly and rather flatly on the way to the ruins. The road forks and we pass a gate on the right side and find ourselves quite obviously on the property. We get down to the serious business of poking around. This must have been the main room of the house and quite a jewel of a room. In a more utilitarian area of the house, a tall chimney stands without visible cracks, although erosion seems to be getting the bigger stones...

Los Padres National Forest Map link. Up at the top of the often single lane Painted Cave Road is a small trail along the hilltops to a picnic table and views out over the ocean. It is an area bursting with spots to look out over the ocean or the mountains on the other side, but this is one with a place for lunch and no car noises. It does not, however, actually visit the spring. Besides a board marked with the current fire restrictions and mysterious numbered posts hinting at once being an interpretive trail, it is unsigned. Up a little hill from the start to peek out toward Cachuma Lake and the old San Marcos Ranchero. A well used trail splits off early on and continues straight, but the official trail turns southward. A little trail that dwindles into animal tracks wanders off next to a post not quite a foot high with a "2" on it, already halfway to the end. A little further, and there is the table, the view, and a second post not quite a foot high with a ...

Painted Cave State Historic Park Locate the place. There are many Chumash art sites in the area, although it is getting fewer as our rocks are generally sandstone and erode quickly. Paint has to have been applied to a sheltered spot with an overhang to remain today and vandalism has been quite enthusiastic at the sites at times. One particularly well sheltered site under an extremely large overhang is simply called Painted Cave and is only a few feet from the often single lane road named for it. A heavy fence protects the opening from the casual passer-by and the vibrant panels, especially where there is a large area of a single color, shows why it is needed to protect the site. The largest painted area in the cave. Old paintings are covered with new ones in these three colors. The scratched in names of more recent visitors can also be easily seen.

Santa Barbara front country Map link. I decided to go up Romero Canyon again to get in a more substantial walk, but this time go wide instead of deep. Everything connects with everything else, generally, so there is much opportunity to go east-west instead of north to the top. I thought I would go along the catway to the top of Buena Vista stopping by the two benches that occupy little peaks on the way. After that excursion, I'd climb the road until it crosses the trail, then drop down the trail. Finding a parking spot is easy even though it is lunchtime since the trail is just far enough outside of the main city areas. There is a little wooden sign for the trail, but it is hard to see from the road and serves more as confirmation than guidance. The road is tightly locked up, but off to the side is a hiker entrance. It climbs quickly to a bridge with no water below it and the split with the Edison Catway. If I had not seen the grader sitting at the end of the road and...

Land Trust for Santa Barbara County Map link. Where Franklin Creek meets the ocean, a salt marsh once stood. It was abused for many years because people did not see the value of swampy land then, but now has been generally restored to allow the animals to return. Now the greatest need for restoration is a connection to other types of habitats since many of the predators for creatures in the marsh come from other places, thus prey animals can become too numerous now. A short series of trails with multiple entry points from Ash Ave. Beach access parking can make parking difficult at that end, but I find parking easy near the northern entrance. Dogs and bicycles are prohibited, says the sign. Taking a slight jog right, the trail passes along a line of mobile homes with small water channels visible to the south. A couple gardeners are working along the edge of the trail and below, there is an egret fishing. Quick jabs into the water seem to be coming up with some sort of fish....

The date stamped on the edge of my first Platypus bag is 12-1-00, and since getting that one I have only had them fail on me four times in three different ways. The first way is that the edge has become delaminated at a common fold spot and has happened twice. The first time, I had filled the bag and set it on a counter and it started making the oddest noise as it poured out a little water from the edge and then sucked in air to replace it. The second time, I had filled the bag in the evening before heading out and it was half full in the morning. Both of these failures were simple inconveniences. I inspect the bags sometimes before using them, but usually I just do not fold them anymore. The second way one has failed is when I managed to get the hose tightened onto the bag a little crooked. This left the bag draining very slowly into the bottom of my pack and I felt I was sweating a bit more than expected until I found the problem. At the end of the day when I watched the sunset from ...

Los Padres National Forest I joined the crew of ForestWatch volunteers, which with the expected heat had dropped to two (including me) plus a ring leader, to play search and destroy on tamarisk. This is the dreaded "salt cedar" that was used for wind breaks and decorative plantings at one point, but is now an invasive plant that pulls extraordinary amounts of water from our small creeks and salts up the land around it until nothing else can grow while offering very poor habitat for birds. It displaces everything, so we are trying to displace it. We headed up to an unnamed drainage that is small but was full of them. Most of the removal work has already been done on past trips, but we make sure it is staying done. We hike up to a cute little water fall which is flowing ever so slightly to check that the piles of cuttings are not putting down roots. Somewhere above a spring makes this a very attractive little canyon to these tamarisk. There is a giant root ball from on...

Santa Barbara front country Map link. Humboldt lilies are the big, showy flowers dangling from five foot and taller stems, sometimes referred to as tiger lilies. They are hard to miss when they are blooming. I have sometimes come across stems with 6 or 8 flowers bigger than my fist between buds and wilted. I spotted a couple single blooms along San Ysidro on the Friday hike, just short of the falls. It seems it might be time to visit the spots I know to have a good number of stems that might be blooming. I saw plenty of stems along Murietta Canyon and Valley View along Pratt Trail is a reliable local for blooms. Locally, I have seen quite a few stems along the Cold Spring middle fork above Tangerine Falls and in the little canyon down the trail on the other side, so that is where I will start looking for a good show. Since the middle fork is unmaintained, there are no signs for it. I start at the main trailhead at the bottom and turn up the west fork by the sign and the ...

Los Padres National Forest Map link. My last little goal in the Wheeler Gorge area is to locate HORSESHOE, a benchmark on a random hill near the Ortega Trailhead, which is at the end of the big loop just up the road from Holiday Campground. It is marked only with a slapstick labeled "trail". I have seen motorcycles staging here before, but there seem to be none today. Motorcycles may make up the majority of traffic along this trail, but I can see a set of shoe prints on top of all the motorcycle tracks in the dirt as I start. The trail is wide and rocky as it climbs in an easy manner to a bit of fuel break. Here the trail goes right and there seems to be a shooting gallery to the left. Somewhere above this mess is the benchmark. I climb past a ruined railing, Santa, a half dozen surfing trophies, and the surprisingly singular computer to the top. There's no benchmark until I start down the other side, and then there is a large piece of cement, looking like e...

Los Padres National Forest Map link. Wheeler Gorge also has a small nature trail. It starts on the west side of the highway next to the campground. A large sign shows a map, including where interpretive signs will be and has a small bin to hold informational brochures. There are none in it now and it looks like that has been the case for while as other items have been placed inside. There also does not seem to be a link to download one on the forest web site for the trail so that the prepared can arrive with a copy of their own. It immediately dives under the nearby bridge over the north fork of Matilija Creek (not to be confused with the upper north fork). The bridge is low enough that one needs to duck to pass. I am already dodging poison oak leaves reaching out onto the trail when I arrive at marker #1, poison oak. There is a picture of the leaves and it seems a good place to start, perhaps even already too late. Marker #2, white alder, is placed high on the side of ...

Los Padres National Forest Map link. I headed up to Wheeler Gorge for a seminar on light backpacking put on by Los Padres Forest Association, which helped me get a handle on what I need to do with my pathetic first aid kit and gave me some ideas on topics I have not thought about yet, but which also left me with an open afternoon in a stone's throw of some trails I would not have come out for on their own. The first is a stretch of dirt next to a sign behind Firehouse #55. The driveway splits and the trail leaves from the left side split while the actual firehouse is on the right side. Fire hoses drying out behind the fire station where the trail starts. The trail curves around the side of the hill at a gentle slope and then joins what looks like a ridge line fuel break. To the left, an apparent old trail tread proceeds back toward the road, but it may just be the edge of their defensible space. All the feet go up the edge of the ridge. As I start up the steep slo...