Moments in Dirt and Ink

Los Padres National Forest Click for map. Matilija has been a place that seems to suck in the rain. There have been a few times it has come down 15 or 18 inches in a single night and the creek surged for days, but the canyon took it. After the Thomas Fire, when the rains came heavy, Matilija got at least its share. This time the canyon itself flowed although just a third of the big dumps it had withstood before. We came up it for a day of trail work aiming to get up to Matilija Camp. That is a brief one mile from the trailhead. Since we are working, we got to park at the trailhead instead of behind the gate, which turns out to be at Murietta a little further down the road. The trail is obvious, but there is no evidence of the sign with a map in it. We gather up tools, mostly little saws and trail Smiths and Pulaskis, get a safety talk, and gather into three groups to see what we can accomplish. Quite a big group: about 30 volunteers. Standing within the burn. There is a l...

Los Padres National Forest After the distant waterfalls, I started thinking of my local falls. How are they doing? Well, Mission Falls only runs in a storm, so that does not count. Tangerine has water above and below but never seems to have water moving between. The hard rock layer that forms the top of a waterfall is supposed to bring out the underground water, but it must have let a tunnel form somewhere. San Ysidro is wet, but you practically have to reach out and touch it to be sure of that. Maybe it is time to visit something with a lot more acreage behind it like Matilija. Expecting the holiday would be a madhouse, I waited to the next day to start. And with a long, looping drive, I got to a place that really is not all that far from home. My start time is leisurely, but there are only two cars in the lot and one seems to belong to a guy picking up garbage nearby. Just stroll right past the ranch to start the journey. There is a sign about how your right to pa...

Los Padres National Forest Map link. Matilija sucked in a lion's share of the rain from the one storm of the year and that was probably the time to see it, except that high water and rock slides can be dangerous. The danger subsides over the next few days. It is now weeks later and well past time to go and see it as the flow will just keep dwindling until next year. There are a few cars along the side at the end of the road, guys on bikes with a dog headed in, and a woman getting let through the gate by a truck marked Rocky Mountain as I arrive. She asks why they would have the key, and I am wondering the same thing. The kid in the truck seems to think he can go in whenever he wants, but I expect there would be consequences if he did. Once the activity quiets, a pair of quail rush along the road. There seems to be lots of traffic today. Through the first ranch, most of the activity is in the aviary. There is a truck with government plates parked at Murietta which say...

Los Padres National Forest Map link. I have a list of potential hikes that seems to add items faster than they get done, and many hikes I do do not even come from this list, so when Bernard said, "We should have another 20 mile hike," I jumped at the chance to check the item "Old Man Mountain" off of it. Then I remembered him mentioning that he was not a fan of fire roads and tried to backtrack on this suggestion because this route is almost entirely on fire roads. It was too late, the suggestion was made, it was declared that a fire road might be alright once. The Matilija Trailhead has cars stacked in everywhere, but not so many as I expected and it is easy to find a spot. This area got almost 18 inches of rain by one gauge, so maybe people are worried the creek is still uncrossable. Online USGS stream gauges include one below the dam which indicates water flow is already below normal for this time of year. It is an illustration of the need for a long...

Los Padres National Forest Map link. DAY 1  |  DAY 2 The morning was chilly and the sun wouldn't come soon enough. A bit of noodles and a packet free of MSG but also too free of dried veggies with a handful of TVP does make for a yummy breakfast, but didn't seem especially energizing over the early part of the hike. I packed up everything useful for day hiking and started up the last bit of trail. This part of trail wiggles a bit excessively like the growing vegetation has pushed it around a bit. I expect it is the least traveled section, but except for sections of a few feet, the trail is distinct. The fall leaves do try to shroud it a bit. The campsite was ice free, but I quickly found a lot of ice along the trail. Some fine, feathery ice sparkling in the sunlight. With lots of creek crossings, often without any apparent landscape derived reason, the trail makes its way up the canyon. The new leaves in the creek stack up against the old leaves that ...

Los Padres National Forest Map link. DAY 1  |  DAY 2 I decided to head out on a simple little overnight and a revisit of Matilija's upper north fork looked like it would fit the bill quite handily. At just 9 miles for the whole trail, it can be done as a long day hike, especially considering that much of it is a gentle upward slope. Anyway, I'm feeling iffy about some of my equipment, specifically the decade old thinsulate sleeping bag. I also have a breakfast plan that doesn't involve choking down instant oatmeal and some new little neoprene gloves to try. It seemed like a solid test of what the backcountry is likely to send at me in winter, at least if I can pick a day without much weather. I stopped by the Ojai Vons for one last requirement (powdered cider) and found it to be surprisingly cold in the city, then made my way to the end of the road marked "Matilija". A forest service vehicle and a number of other cars were occupying all the obvious n...

Los Padres National Forest Locate the trailhead. When I decided to go up the upper north fork of Matilija Creek and started researching the trail condition, I found that this was not the most popular trail from the trailhead. That seemed to be the middle fork, which has better pools and more interesting waterfalls but also has some private property issues. The trail passes through private property, first with an easement and then without. However, California law gives the public certain rights to continue accessing long used trails and there is said to be an easement for the Bald Hills trail, from which this trail branches up in the north part of the property. Either way, it is not yet a settled matter. Meanwhile, there is a road through the edge of the part of the property that is used along which one can leave the owner alone while following along a multitude of foot prints. At the time, I decided to stick with the original plan. Since finding all this out, I keep seeing...

Los Padres National Forest Locate the trailhead. I opened up my Forest Service map for the Los Padres NF and picked a trail. There were actually two trails out of the trail head I was looking at, but one was along a larger blue line so looked more attractive. It followed the north fork of the Matilija Creek up for quite a ways starting just a few miles behind Ojai. A little research indicates that the trail up the main fork is the more popular one with a waterfall or swimming holes before it as destination, but there is a private property dispute along it. This dispute does not affect the north fork at all. Signs at the trail head make it clear where the dispute is although the public trail was well established and used for decades before they purchased it and they cannot actually bar the public from using the trail. Other entry, yes, but trail use, no. There's some indication that people can get permission to pass, if one wanted to go that direction without any worrie...