Upper Sisquoc trail work

Los Padres National Forest

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I signed up for a little more trail work, this time along the trail I bailed along when it got just a bit cold and snowed on me. At the time, I hopped over, around, and even under quite a few trees in just a few miles. Since then, there have been a lot of work to clear them all out. They said 300 trees have been cleared. Surely it was not quite so much? Then again, maybe it was. Another 20 remain and that is what we are out for today along with plenty of brushing and a little tread work. (It isn't that I have any influence. I'm just lucky to have hit the trail shortly before the work was done.) We drove the 20 miles behind the locked gate up to Bluff Camp for the night yesterday afternoon, so had a few miles drive still to get to the trailhead at Alamar Saddle. Safety talk and tool grabbing is quick with a group that mostly has been around and done this sort of thing. So we head down with a plan to make the trail nice from Upper Bear to Lower Bear. The tread above Upper Bear will have to wait.

Checking the register and getting pictures with the sign displaying plenty of bear sign as we start down the hill for the day's work.

The trail down to Upper Bear is narrow, but not that bad. It feels steeper than I recall. I was at the end of a longer day with a heavy pack then. Surely it should feel easier now that I am hitting it fresh in the morning. Maybe the urge to get down out of the wind and exposure in the freezing temperatures then was working in my favor.

Following the trail down. The tread is narrow, but clear enough while walking it.

There are a couple bushes in need of a trim on the way down to Upper Bear, and I go for a few just short of it, but it really is very close to the delineation between work needed and not. Beyond it, we get into areas where the big trees burned in the Zaca Fire and died and now let in the light for the little scrub. Oh, yes, and they fall.

Scorching from the Zaca Fire on a survivor. It sure was reaching high up through here.

This tree may not even challenge a horse, but it still has to go. Besides, nothing says "trail is here" in the indistinct grass like a cut log.

A little before and after. We cleared out a lot of brush and it can be rather hard to find the same spot for the after picture, but if my pack didn't move, these were from within a few feet of each other.

More trail brushing before and after pictures. The trees in the background are the only things that remain.

We hit Bear and even with the memory of that faint thing with three trees across it being the trail, my instincts are saying to look somewhere else for it. There are two trees down next to the junction and one more in a few more feet, then more beyond that. They are all different sizes leading to the rather illogical suspicion that they fell at different times. I poke around the camp, then come back to find that I'm not the only one with those instincts. My fellow trail workers have been clearing the brush from the trail into camp and half of it has landed right on the main trail. I have to make sure, so edge around the pile following the thin line. It does go, it is the trail. This is a particularly important one to get.

I seem to have neglected a before picture, so here is the one looking back over the "more beyond that" (I think) from April. (Definitely in the area of the camp.)

But it is lunch time and we are not too keen on having it in the burned camp. Those who have actually stayed here say they went far down into the meadow, such as it is, to find somewhere safe. It has a few trees too, but thinner, so the challenge of finding a safe spot is less. We head down toward Lower Bear to find a nice waterfall for our lunch spot. Leaving those trees that so clearly must go.

One of the waterfalls on the way. Rejected for being too small or too without a safe route in or too without a lunch spot.

The worst section of tread is along here.

Found our waterfall for our lunch spot.

Quite a nice pool carved down deep. No one partook but one did go for an odd sit spot that almost resulted in accidental partaking.

My comment before was that one comes through this section of trail for the waterfalls. I stand by that. The water carved cavities along the left of this one are particularly interesting to me.

Of course, lunch cannot last forever, not even beside an interesting waterfall. We fill up on water and pack up and head on up, except for a few who head on down to Lower Bear where there is a little bit of tread work to be done before we go. I stop for one last small tree just at the top of the bad tread section we can do nothing about. No need to leave it even worse. There is plenty of brush work as well as we climb. Oh, and there is a reason these camps are all called Bear. (Although the lower one is also called Fall Camp. It fits too.)

Just one of the marks on a tree absolutely covered in bear sign.

The scratches go up much higher than we can reach.

It is getting late as we arrive back at Bear Camp, but we are not going to leave those trees. It is too important. The brushing has run out, so we set about them a little like sharks smelling blood. The smaller trees look just a little too big for the Silky big boys we have for the brush, but the big saw is occupied, so we may as well try. And succeed. The logs all fall to our saw teeth.

The last log. The Silky sawn logs are the two at the front that were next to the junction. Good thing Mike makes those signs out of metal thick enough to last through hundred of years of rusting.

As we roll out the last section of the last log, I (for I can only speak for myself) have a greater sense of accomplishment than I can recall ever having had after a bit of trail work. Now the trees that indicated "probably not this way" are making the trail obvious instead. For one last task, we move the camp sign from where it was behind some bushes to be next to the trail, then head on up. Every inch of what we came out to do has been done and has filled the day. Now we do have to hike back up and out of the canyon.

Stopping by that crazy huge ice can stove with oven that is at Upper Bear Camp. The nettles are out on the trail.

Back at the top and taking in that new view. East from Alamar Saddle.

One fellow brought watermelon and passes around pieces at the top. It is delicious and perfect. We sort out a little differently for the drive back to Bluff because many will stop by Big Pine Mountain to climb the county high point on the way. I dither shortly and decide against.

Stopping on the drive back to take in the view south all the way to the faint island. Bluff Camp is at the bottom along the road to the right. The Indian-Poplar Trail can just be seen tracing a route to it below.

I second guess a little my decision to not take the easy way up Big Pine just because I have recently been there. It is a little bit clearer day today than it was then. Too late now. Those who did really enjoyed it except for the moment when the fellow who took the lead decided to push through some ceanothus. None of them had been up before and they didn't find the register, so I could have been of some help.




©2018 Valerie Norton
Posted 7 August 2018