Moments in Dirt and Ink

Vandenberg Village I returned to the reserve. These photos are from walking around the area north of the highway.  There are various entries at the edge of the village. As with the area to the south, there are large meadow areas of short, leafy ground cover. Stands of short oaks sport Spanish moss.

Marr Ranch Open Space There seems to be quite a bit of hiking to the northeast of Simi Valley. For another foray into this territory, I have chosen another long loop with elements of canyon and ridge. This time, I am starting with the canyon so have arrived at the locked gate of the Las Llajas Trailhead at a break along the edge of a small house farm. There are a large number of other cars already here. Disappointingly, the road is paved. It drops gently down into the canyon past another paved road entering from the west. The pavement stops, for the most part replaced by mud, at the bottom before a second road enters from the west. Information and rules at the trailhead. Surveying the canyon ahead from a small hilltop beside the road. Trail up the hills seems to be public, but connects behind a "no trespassing" sign on the gate below. My route is up the canyon to the right.

Angeles National Forest (map link) Every once in a while, I hike a little bit more of the Pacific Crest Trail. I got a few more miles of it recently and decided on 0.25% more of it for today. Well, actually for yesterday, but the weather man said today would have a few more hours with the air temperature above freezing. The plan is to make a loop with fire roads. As much as I like a loop, it does come with some bad: about a mile along major roadway to close it. No road signs mark the trail here, but there is a crest on the south side and a large turn out to park in. The sun is giving serious thought to rising as I climb out onto the gravel clearing. The surface is solid under my feet, held together by the last rain which sank in a little and froze. Already a half hour past dawn on this very short day. Behind the crest, a sign notes the distance to Mexico. Just 465 miles to go for any southbound travelers. There is no listing for Canada on the other side although ...

Corral Canyon Park Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy The whims of a day settled on another peak, but one much closer and lower and probably a bit warmer than the last few. Suspecting Scott, a geocacher, might be happy to go along with that whim, I sent him an email. He sent out another email for two more that might be similarly inclined and we ended up three strong standing at the side of highway 1 ready to climb nearly every foot of Mesa Peak's 1844 foot height. The sign at the trailhead tries to give credit to all the agencies involved. Parking is in a fee lot or one of a few spots beside the highway, but public transportation is convenient. The trail quickly divides, but it just loops around so all trails lead "up". We head left, which is the slightly longer way around. This takes us past some garden variety yucca and then the remains of the home that went with the garden. The foundation is not evident, but the chimney still stands tall. After th...

Bighorn Mountain Wilderness We drive a little further into the maze of dirt roads, including along the extra hiking length, through sand traps and up to a spot a little short of where the road deteriorates. This is our start to a high point that the Hundred Peaks Section lists as "Bighorn Mountains". I dump the dead weight of my camera without any charged batteries and we continue along the road on foot. It does not seem bad at first, as it drops down through a wash and up again. Then it drops down much more steeply past a fallen tree where it looks like some slip just a bit. On foot, it is fine. After a few twists, we start climbing the mountain itself. It is an easy and steady climb interspersed with sudden, but short, steep climbs. For the most part, it is just a long wind through hills. Barren, tan hills. We are regaled with a story of meeting a few cows including a long horn along this route before. Prints on the road today show some cows have been ...

Bighorn Mountain Wilderness The second day of peak bagging with the Hundred Peaks Section hikers begins with a more through maze of dirt roads just a little bit north of the ones from yesterday. The first hint that we are about to have a somewhat longer hike than advertised comes when our leaders, who are driving an unfamiliar car, are discussing if the junction we have arrived at is the one they mean to park at. Whatever the answer, we are parked and start off down the road on foot. After a flat and easy mile, we have our answer when we come to the usual parking area. We continue on on roads for a short while before deciding to cut across the desert for a wash and a little more direct climbing than can be found on road. And as the view opens up, the camera proves to have managed to drain its battery overnight even though it was off. The backup, which has not been charged since June, is quite flat as well, so there are no photographs for these Sunday hikes either. We ...

Pioneertown Mountains Preserve We backtracked out of the minor maze of dirt roads and down another dirt road past only one unsigned intersection to a well graded parking lot to start the second peak of the day with the Hundred Peaks Section hikers. This one is a little longer a hike, but entirely on trail. It is curious how much a difference this makes even on terrain that is simple to cross. Some make use of the facilities before we start the experiment to see how much of a difference it makes between the routes to the peaks today. The trail starts from the south side of the overflow and bus parking area. And we are off. The sign spells out the entire mileage for those who find math very difficult. We start off on an easy, flat trail, then flirt with an old driveway and drop down steeply into a wash. There are two more quick, steep, and seemingly arbitrary crossings of the wash before we start a steady climb to an old road. A long line of spires to the south ...

Bighorn Mountain Wilderness It is the season for peak bagging, at least if not too high up, so I headed down south again to join the Hundred Peaks Section hikers for another weekend. Today we navigated a minor maze of dirt roads to a seemingly random spot on Bureau of Land Management land surrounded by scattered inholdings. I am glad to not have been trying to navigate my little car over the last quarter mile or so and especially glad not to be trying to get into the parking with it. We are surrounded by shrubs, little road, and no trail. We simply set off in a rough direction toward higher things to the east. In the desert, the plants cannot grow very densely, so this is just a matter of choosing a path of many. Preferably, not too close to the cholla. Setting off into the morning sun. Just pick a direction. The hills ahead, which almost entirely hide the mountain.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park The third day of peak bagging with the Hundred Peaks Section hikers finds us carpooling down a pretty good dirt road to a widening at a crossing of the Pacific Crest Trail. I did not drive, so as I take stock of my pack at the trail and notice my camera missing, I cannot just walk over and grab it. There will be no pictures. We gather beside a sign where the destinations are the county line and the highway beyond. We will not get as far as either of those. Our destination along the trail is just the next saddle. We head north and curve around the hills. Some snow remains here, but only behind the most sheltering of steep northern slopes. There are quite a lot of dog prints in the snow. We start to climb, but it is at a very easy pace. The peaks to the east must be some favorite ones for some of my fellow hikers because as they become more visible, there is talk about this bit of ridge and that bit of climbing. They seem to be Village...

Beauty Mountain Wilderness Area For the second day of peak bagging with the Hundred Peaks Section hikers, I head a little bit south and down a maze of paved and dirt roads to a spot a certain distance from the last corner that provides sufficient parking. Both sides of the road are a wilderness area preserved by the county. The only thing that is distinctive here is the gate and road traveling to the north, but we are not going that way. There is a second road to the north a little way up the road, but that is not our route either. Instead, we backtrack from our parking area a couple hundred feet and turn down a third road road heading southeast that is hard to even notice after many years of abandonment. I can sort of imagine where the road was, once, but the occasional fading pink ribbons in the bushes are much easier to follow. It does not last long anyway as we turn off in our own direction. Plunging into the chaparral along use trail. We head down into a canyo...

San Bernardino National Forest Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument (map link) Three days in a row of outings planned in the same general area inspired me to come out and join a group of Hundred Peaks Section hikers, AKA "those crazy peakbaggers", for a few distant hikes. (Their outings are open to the general public, not just to members of the Sierra Club.) It is cold, somewhere around freezing, and the very last flakes from last night's snow are still fluttering down as we collect in the dirt lot next to the Pacific Crest Trail. A blanket of a few inches covers the ground but the roads and trails are just wet. Ignacia is worried there might be more behind it since it was supposed to be finished by now. The clouds to the north do look imposing, but to the south there is a patch of blue. As we fret, the blue increases and we all decide to trust the weather. Packed for the day hike, we head off. Peter is still worried about the higher eleva...

Los Padres National Forest We meet in Fillmore and travel up to Dough Flat with a simple goal: to place signs along the trail marking the Sespe Condor Sanctuary that the trail travels through. It is a quarter mile wide corridor through an area that is otherwise closed to the public. We have a few tools to make sure the area around signs is clear, a tool to establish a pilot hole the signs will go into, and a second to drive the signs into the ground. The clearing tools are just loppers and a pick mattock, but the driver is some 26 pounds and the pilot is another 35 pounds. We also have to carry the signs, but only in one direction. The group sets off lugging the tools. The orange block is one of the drivers. A little way into the sanctuary from the parking lot, we get a demonstration of how to use the tools. It is a simple procedure with a slight hiccup when an underground rock strikes the first placement attempt. We split into two groups, one that will drop signs ...

Los Padres National Forest I was wondering what the state of the part of Franklin Trail that was never closed was and thinking that since I hiked the newly reopened part, I should finish the job. Dreading the step at the end of the pavement, I kept putting it off. I was informed that it has been improved, though, so there were no excuses. I heard rain drops on the roof last night, so was worried the gate might be closed. I checked it online, but found no problems. Still, I made a contingency plan and started the long drive over the top of the mountains and down to the river on the other side. The step was not large, the gate was not closed, and the parking is even more clear than it was before. Today is the day for the rest of the trail, then, so on with the shoes and off onto the easy stretch up to the reservoir. The Santa Ynez River is wide and flat and devoid of water. Of course, the dam a short way up helps with that. Sycamores give a bit of color. Finally...

Moorpark I have wondered if the areas south of 126 could be hiked. Many areas certainly look like they would allow some rambling. Well, there is at least one area called Happy Camp Canyon Park. It sounds mildly menacing somehow. I am planning to do a loop and the park has a canyon trail and a ridge trail that connect toward the far side, so that is easy to do. I want to do the ridge first, which should be on a trail off to the right. Not finding a map near the parking, I head off on the best trail off to the right I can find, which cuts across the local golf course. This must be a perfectly okay place to walk since it elicits no reaction whatsoever from the course with someone playing every hole. Horse prints are along the route traveling in the other direction, and none of the golfs seem to have a horse as their golf cart. This soon connects with the trail from the eastern parking area and satisfies my irrational need to be on a trail heading off to the right to satisf...

Plenty of hikes this month and a few even included sketching. I could find a bunch of horsetails and some water at the spring up Boulder Canyon. Nature taking it back in Solstice Canyon. Hidden mountains along the ridge above Ojai. A deep pool along the Santa Ynez River.

Angeles National Forest Following the previous day's peak bagging in the cold, I thought I would go after a somewhat lower cluster of Hundred Peaks Section listed peaks . Parking at Eaton Saddle for the easier access through the tunnel to the peak trails. There is only one other car, but a group of hikers pop out from the trail to Valley Forge and head off around the corner where I want to go. They are still waiting there as I pass by and so on for a little bit of leap frogging. Mount Markham greets everyone as they come around the corner form Eaton Saddle. One of the mountains I am going for, but not the side I will climb. Exiting from the Mueller Tunnel. The Mueller Tunnel is a bit of fun for kids of all ages. At the next saddle, there is a curious bit of animal trail heading toward that steep side of Markham. Here, there are also two trails heading off to the various peaks while the fire road continues slightly downward toward a campground. I am going a...

Angeles National Forest There are a number of places to start hiking up Waterman Mountain and I chose a more conventional one this time. The day is a dreary grey that I am sure will burn off and I have let the start go a little late waiting for some of that to happen. My previous trip up to the top was an exploration of an abandoned road, and while I managed to put a loop together in the end, it did have a bit of road walking in it. This time, I am starting at a turn out just east of one of the ski resort roads. An unmarked trail climbs the hill a short way and splits, one side heading off east somewhere and one crossing the road to head west. I am going for the west part first, so I take that. Without a lot of ceremony, it delivers me to a second trailhead at the next turnout west, where information boards have been nearly wiped clean by the weather. The well marked trailhead. Sort of. There is no other well used trail from here, but there is a lesser used abandon...

Los Padres National Forest We had a dinner that could not be beat and did not get up until a late in the morning, at least that was the plan. Most people were up only a little late and having a breakfast that could not be beat. Plans to hit a peak in a short hike got scuttled, so we ended up back at the start a little before noon. On the way out, I turned left instead of right and headed to the end of the road because there is just enough time for an afternoon hike looping around the river. There are lots of spots open today, especially by the road. I grab one and start the easy climb. Down below, I can find a bit of trail, but not a lot of river. There is a trail a short way up marked only with who is allowed on it. This would shortcut part of the road, I think, but I stick to the road. The climb is easy and there are lots of places to look out over the river bed. Sometimes, I can even see a bit of water down there. A bit of the complex beside the dam is visible ...