Moments in Dirt and Ink

I got out the watercolors to play with this time. They really can be extremely fun to work with. They are my traditional kit to carry backpacking because they are a little bit lighter. Seems these days I keep trying to fill my days with the hiking while backpacking, but I had a few moments at the end of the first day of the last trip. Singed, but still growing, cedars at Madulce Station .

Woodridge Open Space Lang Ranch Open Space Click for map. Down into the Thousand Oaks area for one last set of trails that are part of the COSCA Open Space Challenge with whoever is in the group. Trouble is, with Geowoodstock on and it being Memorial Day weekend, it looks like all the social geocachers have wandered off somewhere (or caught a cold) and the "group" is me. Well, that is just sad for me. The required trails to be hit today are the Woodridge Loop and Rocky Incline (marked as Hidden Canyon on some maps). The first wraps around a gated community in the hills near it, the second touches into the loop I did while popping up to the top of Simi Peak . The loop has a small parking lot area that is mostly gravel, but paved on one end. The end heading south is obvious next to the paved portion of the lot and the end heading north has a gravel path leading to a spot across the street from it, so is not too hard to find. My plan was to start south, so south I go...

Los Padres National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Click for map. Finally, a night that was as promised by the weather predictions: not cold enough to freeze, not even in exposed places. There was still a bit of wet wrung from the air overnight. Clouds rush in once again as the sky brightens, but they are weaker today. There are open spaces behind them. The cows did not come around in the night, so the closest large animal is still the probable bear that thrashed past the edge of camp at Madulce Station. By the time the sky is getting a bit of color, there have been a few clouds flowing overhead. Since it is only 6 or 7 miles out, I am in no hurry to get started, but since the morning is an easier temperature to live in, getting breakfast and packing up flows along quickly. With everything tucked away again, I head back up to Sierra Madre Road and then turn down it toward the car. Many of the cows are hanging out at the jun...

Los Padres National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Click for map. Clouds rush in at the first light of the day again, but this time it is happening down below me in the valley and not threatening to encase me as well. The picnic tables got soggy in the night and I avoid so I do not want to touch them or sit on the benches at all. It feels a little too chilly for getting wet. After breakfast, I put out one finger to find that the water is quite hard. All the dribbles and blobs of clear water is an illusion, it is all frozen. There are no air bubbles within to give it away. When the sun finally hits it after hiding behind the mountain for an hour, it simply transforms from matte to glossy. I am on my way out, so do not get to see the change finish. There are miles to walk and one more peak to bag. The morning view from the toilet, which is probably quite the selling point for Alamar Camp for some. The clouds are rolling in from t...

Los Padres National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Click for map. The bear did not come back in the night, or at least not while I was awake enough to notice. When I woke, it was clear, but first light comes with an inrushing of clouds. It is not a weather pattern I am familiar with. Clouds build at night in my experience. My bag is as dry as it will ever be once the clouds become fog, and I stuff it away quickly. Although unexpected, the clouds do not worry me. I will climb above them or they will burn off by the time I am on the first peak and ready for the view. An absolutely clear crack of dawn quickly fills in with cloud at the Madulce guard station site. The trail is less obvious above the camp, but still easy to follow. After the first creek crossing is another camp site with a pair of stoves and a shovel. Another patch of mules ear on the way through the Zaca Fire burned trees and little meadows in this high v...

Los Padres National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Click for map. Those three peaks of what the Hundred Peaks Section call the "big four" still need climbing. Well, maybe not need , but I do want to go up them and one of them is the county high point. I have visited all these surrounding county high points, it is time I got my own. Besides, I am feeling a little bit of pressure to go ahead and do it. I have little idea what my near future holds, but I am fairly certain that it will involve leaving Santa Barbara. This time, I headed out to the more traditional starting point for them in Santa Barbara Canyon. I am planning four days with easy ones at the start and end. That way, if I cannot get my car along the road, the last couple miles of which are technically only 4WD maintained and the rest of the dirt miles cannot be expected to be much better. Not that I left early enough to do the road miles if I had to. I actually only pac...

Carrizo Plain National Monument Click for map. I have been thinking I might return to Caliente Mountain for a climb of it rather than a walk over from the side of it . I am not too keen on the traditional really hot day for it, though. I signed up for another Hundred Peaks Section hike, this time lead by the Doggetts and Jin Oak. At least one Simpson did it the week before, but I did not get signed up to that one. The weather promises to be stunning: a little cloudy and cool although with just a touch of a possibility of a chance of rain. Well, maybe a little more than that. It might rain. The early morning drive started into a stunning sunrise full of clouds and the spaces needed to let the light hit those clouds. We parked a little further from the mountain than expected at a new locked gate that sprang up a few years back, not quite using the parking area designated by some pipes on the opposite side of the dirt road. The gate across the fading road at our start. Caliente...