Moments in Dirt and Ink

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...