Moments in Dirt and Ink

The month's few sketches. One upon reaching the top of Cherry Creek Road . And another while at Ortega Camp . The islands in a sea of fog from Little Pine Mountain .

Los Padres National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 There is a light frost to greet us in the morning, but it burns off quickly. The snow on the higher mountains is already gone. The gale force winds that make this Hurricane Deck never materialized. Yesterday was all sorts of pleasant and it looks like today will be, too. A bit of green far down beside the Sisquoc River. We make our way back down the peak to the trail. This side is a much shorter walk than the way up the east side. The trail does not drop much before taking us up the second peak that could be the highest. At the top, we look back and still cannot decide which is taller. USGS says it is the wider eastern peak we stayed on. My GPS seems to opine that it is the western one with the trail over it, but the barometer can change its mind easily.

Los Padres National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 Mark and I made our way to Nira with a simple-minded goal: camp at the very top. We are starting a day late because a small storm came through yesterday and the cool day after the storm seemed better than the rain on our heads. The creek is dry too often lately, so we are already enjoying ourselves just to get out and hear it running. We will not be near the water long, so we are carrying all our water anyway. Lifting my pack with 7 liters, I am wondering what important thing I left out because it feels too light. We set off toward Lost Valley into a world that is so delightfully wet. Mist rising from the landscape as the sun hits it all. The little drops in the sunlight give the leaves a halo.

Los Padres National Forest Little Pine Mountain is on the Sierra Club's "Great Lower Peaks", a list of peaks that do not reach the height of 5000 feet, but are nonetheless notable. The mountain has multiple peaks that ring Happy Hollow and the peak height listed indicates that they consider a shorter grassy one to be the peak. I have been there, but today I want to go to the highest peak, a chaparral covered mound east of Happy Hollow. This one is actually labeled as the mountain on the map. It is a fee free three day weekend, so there is no troll guarding the ford. Upper Oso is full of people making breakfast but there are only three cars in the lot by the gated road. The little gate is open, so there will be motorcycles. The air is cold enough to make my elbows hurt, but that will not last long. Past time to get moving. An hour of daylight has already been burned. Getting to the trail. The creek is flowing below, but crossing it will but just ...

Gaviota State Park It looks like the heat may be breaking a little as we continue through a season that is hard to call "winter", and it may be a good day to take in a short hike in Gaviota. Everyone else seems to think so too, as cars are parked around the entire lot leaving little space for new arrivals. A grandpa with a couple youngsters is finishing as I start. Behind them, a couple that look like they have been soaking in the hot spring are wandering down greeting the world with smiles. At the junction, a family is deciding which way to go. I turn up Trespass Trail, and the crowd thins out. The hills are still green from the rains and the flowers are starting to burst. White petals tinted with lavender are especially happy to pop up in the middle of the fire road. Since the freeway goes right up the middle of the park, it is hard to get away from. The oaks look a little better to me.

Los Padres National Forest At the Holiday Hooplah for the Hundred Peaks Section, we were asked to tell a truth with our name in introductions. I said that I was planning on hiking up the delisted Ortega Peak. It may be a lame truth, but it fit in with the rest of them quite well. There is no Ortega Peak, really, but a benchmark labeled "ORTEGA" is shown on a high point east of Ortega Hill on the 1942 Wheeler Springs map. Their name is based on this benchmark. I had been meaning to go to "the real Ortega benchmark" for quite some time, but was finally reaching the tipping point to actually doing it. ("Real" distinguishes it from the "ORTEGA" next to the road on the 1995 map.) The most sensible route is to start at Cherry Creek Road, a popular illegal target shooting area and the reason the peak was delisted. In particular, it was an incident in which someone ducked down for a good squat just in time for a bullet to whizz overhead. (...

Los Padres National Forest Having finished the trail work, but finding I have a whole afternoon left and a chunk of trail I still have not gone along, I drop off my tools, have a root beer, then head back out along the trail. The first mile is now very familiar and goes by quickly. It seems like there are fewer treacherous muddy spots this time. Memory really is a funny thing. Turning right to leave the spur to the camp, I continue downward. It is only a few hundred feet finishing with a short climb up the other side of the canyon to get to the next junction where the connector ends in Deal Trail. A familiar photo looking down the trail, west toward the wilderness. Just past the spur, the connector crosses a wide canyon, meeting Deal Trail at the head of a narrow slot.

Los Padres National Forest Just like last year, there is trail work on Deal Trail for Super Bowl Sunday this year. I signed up for it before the Pothole Trail work, but decided I could do both. A few others did as well. This time, the work will be done on the spur trail to a campsite left off of the most recent forest map. We noted it on the way past last year, but kept on striding to the wilderness. For the work today, we all meet at the Deal Connector at 8:30AM to pick up tools and hard hats and go over the Job Hazard Analysis. Mostly, it is brushing, but we have some tread work and chain saws will be in action as we are outside the wilderness. We have stock support and they are each decked out in pendants and paint, one for each team in the game. Heading out on the Deal Connector to find our bit of work for the day.