Moments in Dirt and Ink

Los Padres National Forest Click for map. I've been thinking I should go back to Cozy Dell for years now, then Thomas came roaring through, but I still kept thinking it. Thomas is a fire, of course. It stayed California's biggest for 6 whole months. That was just over two years ago and the forest was open again before it was officially out. Bernard's somehow never been on this trail, so he wanted to come along. It's not that he's never noticed it when passing along on CA-33 to somewhere further by a little or a lot, just that he's never stopped to see where it goes. There's a bit of potential for exploration, but I only plan to take the official trails to check on Valley View Camp. If I lived in Ojai, I would know all the little tracks up here and have got myself to Nordhoff Peak by a half dozen different routes including some from here, I expect. I've done it by a quarter dozen others anyway. The trail is well signed at the highway and ther...

Los Padres National Forest Click for map. I popped around to Santa Barbara and visited Bernard, who was skipping the holidays for the Wednesday night hikes, but out for the very short Lizards Mouth hike for the weekend. We hiked a mile extra along Camino Cielo on the way in and got that shortened for the way out. That meant passing the Playground, which wasn't so busy, before getting to the rock, which was bustling and humming with all the folks out for the last weekend of the year. Clear, but that doesn't mean there's much to see of Carpinteria on down the coast. The last couple storms through actually dropped some snow, at least on the stuff that's 5000 feet high. Some fell lower, but it's gone now. Some rocks of the Playground below. Further is a reservoir, the lagoon at UCSB, and the Channel Islands. The separation between Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa can just be seen from here. I take the first trail into the exposed rocks around Lizards ...

Barstow BLM San Bernardino National Forest Click for map. When I realized I'd have extra morning chores before the hike up Granite Peaks, I probably should have turned my attention to the shorter Silver Peak hike, but it does seem a little less romantic a thing. This is another Hundred Peaks Section listed peak and it seems more straightforward. There's a couple of ridges that present themselves as likely start points to connect to a road over the top. Yep, that's right, it can be done as a drive up. I ain't counting no drive ups. Most people have hiked up it from the south side when they engage a similar ethos. The road is open to there, but I'm here, so I'll try it from the east, give or take some degrees north. I did stop a bit short of my previous parking spot because I felt I was almost there anyway only to find I still had a mile to go. Whatever. It's a much shorter hike. I can do another mile on the road up. Silver Peak and just this plai...

Barstow BLM San Bernardino National Forest Click for map. I managed to drive up with less beating on my car than the day before when I was only seeing if I could. The road has plenty of wide spots and I took one just before an intersection. I'm going down the road at the intersection and expect it to be worse. With a higher car, I could probably get a mile closer. With 4WD, I could get two miles closer. To further slow down my start, I had to make some pancake mix before I could turn it into breakfast. It's no use fretting about such things. I get moving along. The side road is narrower, but generally not so rough except for a couple nasty dips. The road is not so bad here and has plenty of parking on the weed covered side. Round Mountain on the right has a few little mines that weren't noticeable in comparison to the huge mass of tailings on the left. Somewhere out there is another road that I also considered for my approach, but could not determine if it...

Barstow BLM Click for map. I came up the road first to see how far I can get on it and second to grab the benchmark on the hill. I decided that if I'm going to beat up the car, I should only do it once and turned back. This is just a little hill, but the contours look very tight on the map indicating a very steep terrain. To the point I stopped for the hill, the road is fine even for little cars although there are some deteriorating parts. After this, it hits a wash and becomes full of medium rocks. I seem to have stopped in front of a couple prospects. They're a smaller version of the larger mine workings around the place. Those larger ones have foundations and a few other artifacts surrounded by audits and holes. These are just little holes with some tailings. Meanwhile, the hill looks very doable. At second glance, those contours are actually 20 foot contours instead of the usual 40 foot. Not so much up between each, so not so difficult. The Old Woman benchmark i...

Needles BLM Click for map. A week has already passed and there's a hike with some Hundred Peaks Section folks, but they're actually doing a couple things off the Desert Peaks Section list. The one on Saturday made me pause. I think I could do it on my own, but with a group I'd be slowing the rest down. The Sunday hike looks much easier, although the stats are a little worrisome. Only 4.5 miles and 2100 feet gain, but it'll take "5-7 hours, possibly longer." (I can find this out because the DPS peak guides are now available to all online, not just members. I don't even have enough DPS peaks to become a member yet.) Yikes! But it is nearly 1000 feet a mile with class 2 climbing and no trail. Well, there could be the tiniest bit of old prospector trail at the start, but then nothing. With a 7AM start, we have plenty of time to get up and back in the day. Unfortunately, after an in car navigational problem, we're actually starting at 8AM. Still mor...

Barstow BLM Click for map. Copper Mountain is north of the college named for it and its peaks wrap around the east side of Coyote Lake or Sunfair Lake depending on what map one is looking at. This generally dry lake bed is a better known spot to get some free dispersed BLM camping while visiting Joshua Tree National Park. It and Copper Mountain are also quite popular with the off roading crowd, so I expect this hike won't be quite as nice as the last one. The climbing might be easier. I've spotted a rough road up this side of the high point to aim at. It is a little hard to see when looking directly into the sun in the morning, but I'm sure it's still there. The high point of Copper Mountain with a radio antenna and a few other bits and bobs is at the south end of the chain that make up this mountain. A long, narrow bulk is at the north and some smaller bumps pop up in between. Setting off across the flats, there are distinct vegetative zones. I expe...

Joshua Tree National Park Click for map. I wanted to be sure I stopped by an oasis while around Joshua Tree, so made my way to Fortynine Palms. The trail outside of Twentynine Palms starts just inside Joshua Tree National Park, but does not have an entrance fee. Again, there is a sign detailing the statistics of the hike and stressing that it might be too strenuous for you. Here it gets particularly worried about the passers by because part of the trail on the way out is uphill. Mounted on the side is a huge thermometer so people can know exactly how hot it is out. Today, that isn't even all the way up to 60°F. Signs at the start of the trail. The first bit of the trail is climbing. It doesn't actually start in the canyon with the oasis, so has to climb up and over to the correct canyon. Twentynine Palms comes into view below, stretching far and somewhat obscured by fog. The desert terrain to hike through. The rocks take on odd shapes. This looks over t...

Joshua Tree National Park Click for map. The second hike I signed up for was originally going to be Mineral and Tip Top, two on the far northeast side of San Bernardino National Forest, but there was a report that the road was more impassible than usual after the recent rain. Instead the group decided to do a loop over Ryan Mountain and Lost Horse Mountain as a shuttle. I'd been trying to get some interest in doing this as a loop on Sunday, so that worked out for me. Well, discounting that I'd have liked to do both. Again, the $30 entrance fee is taken care of by flashing a senior pass belonging to someone else in the car. Then we're off to the Ryan Mountain Trailhead and setting up the shuttle. Then we're off! Almost. We have to jog over from the "Indian Cave" trail we actually end up starting down. We're a little eager. The trail to the "Indian Cave", which seems to be the rocks resting with a space between up ahead and not a cave....

Joshua Tree National Park Click for map. I decided to be social and signed up for some hikes going on as part of the Holiday Hooplah. This is an annual party put on by the Hundred Peaks Section of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club with hikes in and around Joshua Tree National Park. I've been to a bunch already, so am running out of new peaks to climb. (For more Sierra Club outings including these past Holiday Hooplahs, click the "Sierra Club" tag.) Today, I am up for Queen Mountain and Mount Inspiration in two separate hikes. I get to save the $30 entrance fee because I can sit in a car with someone with a senior pass. First is Queen Mountain, which is going to be a little bit further than usual because the roads were closed after the recent rains. Parking is at an interpretive turnout instead of the usual small loop of dirt at the end of a road. We can see Queen Mountain right away. It is a lot of flat and a deceptive amount of up. Of the two taller bu...