Moments in Dirt and Ink

Los Padres National Forest Click for map. I could not help noticing a bit of fall color as I drove up the 33 last week. I had sort of been wanting to do Middle Sespe once some water gets flowing, but decided bright yellow cottonwoods might be a good excuse to come see it too. It keeps escaping my notice because it seems to parallel the Sespe River Road, and what would be the point of hiking that? I find a turnout about 250 feet past the nearly unmarked trail, or at least 250 feet from the coordinate I have for it. It would have taken a lot of looking without the GPS, especially in the dark. I decided I should treat light like it is important to me and get to the trail as the dawn was breaking. It is a little earlier than planned, but that just gives me time to get my shoes and sunscreen on. There is just barely enough light to walk by once I am ready to hit the trail. I head back down the road to the waypoint. Dirt and rocks have been piled up on the old road down into Beaver, di...

Los Padres National Forest Click for map. As it turned out, quite a few others were also wanting to do San Guillermo Mountain after Lockwood Peak. There was supposed to be a vote on if we would, but we seem to have missed that step and just proceeded to Pine Springs Campground. The thermometer in the car says it is 89&def;F out there. I find that hard to believe. I could take that kind of heat when I lived in Pasadena, but I have gotten soft again with the luxury of a marine layer to keep things mild. A few take a moment to partake in the facilities only to find that they have been nailed shut with added "Keep Out" signs. I wonder what the excuse for that is since they did not seem unsafe last year. We step over the wire fencing meant to dissuade any wheeled vehicles from entering the Sespe Wilderness that surrounds the area and wander our way past bushes filling up with toilet paper. Really, there better be a good excuse for nailing the pits shut. Als...

Los Padres National Forest Just enough time for some real hiking in the form of an afternoon hike out to the first waterfall in Potrero John. Hopefully. With a couple pauses, we launch ourselves into the narrow canyon that starts off the hike. The crossings are not running very high and there are bits of frozen ground rather than mud still. There is a little mud, too, but there are ways around it. The initial opening into the canyon of Potrero John Creek. One shinny new wilderness sign to mark the boundary of the Sespe Wilderness. A little bit of icy snow remaining in the more northern portions of the narrow canyon. The canyon opens up again just after we have some difficulty getting over some trail that seems in great need of work with a bunch of trees stretching across it. When I did this one cool morning, there was a stark difference in the temperature as the canyon widens. This afternoon, there is no distinct delineation. It is an odd sensation of a m...

Los Padres National Forest Another 6 AM morning and the group of Hundred Peaks Section peak baggers are assembled again at Buck Creek Trailhead. Since we are still subject to the stupid idea of changing our clocks twice a year , it is quite a bit brighter this today than yesterday. The sign at the trailhead. It gets even brighter as we deal with a little car trouble on a car that is driving out this morning. Once they can be sent off safely, we roll out down the hill to start climbing Sewart Mountain once again. The hardest part of the climb is still getting over and around all the logs on the trail. Another run through the obstacle course. Looking toward Warm Springs Mountain. Sure is pretty with the morning mist still in place. The view south from Sewart Mountain includes Mugu Peak looking a bit like the west side of an island across the Oxnard plain and a little Catalina Island behind the Santa Monica Mountains.

Los Padres National Forest It is 6 AM sharp and we are assembled at Buck Creek Trailhead and ready to start the big hike of the weekend. The sun will not be seen for another hour, so lights are on. We are starting off in another area that was hit hard by the Day Fire in 2006 and there are lots of trees down on the trail. This one has been being used by hunters over the last few weeks, so there is plenty of trail snaking around the downed logs. A clear old bulldozer track marks a much more direct route that is probably the trail through this section. The trees are so bad, our track only flirts with the trail a bit. Some blurry beginnings of light in the east, but mostly light reflecting from bright do-not-shoot-us clothing. The first peak is Sewart Mountain and we will actually be climbing it four times this weekend. It is only a mile along, so we get to it quite quickly. The sun has still not come up, but there is enough dawn light to tuck away our headlamps as we ...

Los Padres National Forest Another weekend, anther peak to grab with the Hundred Peaks Section , or so it seems. Except this weekend is coming a little earlier and has a few more peaks. I think of it as "Alamo and friends" because that is the big mountain in the group, but the others are calling a "Cobblestone Complex Cleanout" because that is seen as the hard peak of the weekend. Cobblestone does stand out in the mind and actually is my main motivation to sign up for this madness. It starts off easy, though. First thing is a little jaunt up McDonald Peak. It is short and not even particularly steep. McDonald Peak is right over there, behind the tree. Parking is a bit of a challenge for our group. There is really space for 2 cars, but there are 20 of us and we fit in 4 cars. It seems there are ways. From the parking area, there is a thin track climbing the hill. We gather beside it, don a few pieces of bright garb in recognition of the last we...

Los Padres National Forest The Fishbowls were not very impressive two years ago after I climbed all the way from the Sespe River to see them. This year, with the road open and some better reports from last year, I decided to head out on a slightly shorter loop to see them again. Passage along the road is not a given for a little car with 6" ground clearance, but a short wheel base and not too much nose help. There are a couple stones on the steep hill down that require driving around rather than over and one ditch that takes a little careful maneuvering, but without too much effort or anything important scraping, I am at the trailhead parking. There is one other car already there. Will I have to share them? I do not spend long thinking about it. The day is forecast to be on the hot side and the sun has already been working on the land for 3 hours. I find the thin line through the grass behind the kiosk and follow it as it becomes more definite and starts to climb. ...

Los Padres National Forest Arriving at Middle Lion before 7 AM on a Sunday makes it hard to find a parking spot near the trailhead. The campground is full and active and cold. I forget how cold the microclimate of this canyon can get. There is a fair amount of jumping while waiting for Mark who underestimated his travel time by about 10 minutes. I go to grab my hiking sticks, which turn out to be... on Baldy? Actually, they probably found a new owner by this time the next day, knowing that trailhead. (I asked Pavel if he might have seen some about. He said no, and that he once let someone use a single pole on the way down. It was left by the gate and already procured a half hour later.) I really like to have my sticks if hitting the 10 mile mark, and today should be 20 miles. Mark lightens his own pack by one pair of sticks, which he carries but rarely uses, and we are off, around the campers beside the trail, across the creek, and climbing gently. Many of the flow...

Los Padres National Forest The cold air coming ahead of some Alaska sourced rain seems like the perfect opportunity to do a hike that I think, rightly or wrongly, will be a bit hot. One such neglected hike, for me, is up Sisar Canyon. Near the top of this is a destination that seems a poor one to miss, Topatopa Bluff. Sisar Road turns out to be a single lane private road with sharp speed bumps every 200 feet or so lined with signs imploring the traveler to go 5, 10, or 15 MPH at most. The pavement turns off to the left and a dirt road continues straight. The correct route is the dirt road. Any car can make it a little way up this road to a couple water tanks. Past that, it takes some fancy wheel work to coax a car up and the reward is only to save 0.4 miles. I elect to park and hike it. The air is a perfect temperature for hiking, a little chill for standing around in. Except for four men and a dog and one resident balancing a ceramic mug of caffeine while navigating a...

Los Padres National Forest It is time once again for another bout of trail work on Pothole and the day promises to be hot. Most of us meet at the fire station, then we pick up a few more who have their own keys at the trailhead. We climb again directly up the hill, ignoring signs pointing at the memory of a trail off to the left or the right. It is still green, but fading to yellow and brown already. Climbing up that hill. Canton Canyon is in the background.

Los Padres National Forest Pothole Trail is the southern end of the proposed Condor Trail, which is a through hiking route for the whole Los Padres National Forest. Unfortunately, it is tucked away behind the fee area for Lake Piru, and since Blue Point Campground has been closed, the general public has to park miles from the trailhead. There are plan to change this, but what the time frame on that is, I do not know. For now, people are working to open up the trail again. I found out there would be trail work on Pothole and jumped at the opportunity. We meet at 8:30AM at the Temescal Fire Station, then head up the road through the pay gate, a locked gate above a picnic area that is the public terminus of the road in winter, and a second locked gate by a boat launch ramp that is the public terminus of the road in summer. We park near a wash just a few hundred feet from the start. Further up are the cars for a very large group (about 50) of Sheriff's deputies and others ...

Los Padres National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 We wake in the morning covered in a thick layer of ice. The heavy dew froze in the night and our water bottles followed suit to large extent. I tuck back in to wait for the sun to rise. It is not that long a wait and the ice melts quickly and everything is mostly dry soon after. A little breakfast and water gathering from the creek because I have forgotten that the faucets work and Bernard heads off for some more soaking while I poke around up the other road cut. A cluster of composite stones at the end of the road to the cold spring. The stock meadow of the camp stretches out below.

Los Padres National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 Bernard and I are heading into the Sespe to reclaim a garden gnome called Jeff from the wilderness. It is halfway to the hot spring, so we are dropping by there too because it seems like a good time to do so. Also, it is hard to justify the trip just for the garden gnome. Bernard has never been to the hot spring and I have only been this last summer, it should be a completely different experience. I was hoping to do such a trip with a day hike to Hines Peak in between coming and going, but Bernard's schedule does not allow that. There are only a few parking spots in the lot as we pull up at a fairly lazy hour. A few early risers are already finishing their hike out. We go this way. Looking east over the gentle land the river cuts through. Piedra Blanca pokes out from the chaparral to the north with Pine Mountain behind it. Some will be going to or past it instead.

Los Padres National Forest (map link) I may be getting predictable. Another weekend, another peak (or two or four). Our small band of Santa Barbara people decided to join another planned Hundred Peaks Section hike, this time up a newly listed peak they are calling "Beartrap Bluff". Checking the map, it looks like this one may suffer from the same shortcomings as a number of delisted peaks: it is indistinct. The ridge seems to have a wide top and higher and higher minor bumps dot it above this one. I am not even certain of which spot might be the destination based on the stated height. It is simply something above a massive V in the hillside west of Beartrap Camp. What is interesting to me is to finally travel the north end of the Gene Marshall-Piedra Blanca National Recreation Trail. The large group collects just after 8 AM and we are hiking up an unnamed canyon that drains Raspberry Spring and is full of cold air and a touch of frost soon after. Quickly gai...

Angeles National Forest Los Padres National Forest (map link) What is it that makes a hike particularly enjoyable? Perhaps one element is a touch of the unknown. Something reminded me of my desire to finally see Slide Mountain, where I thought rather seriously about volunteering as a fire lookout . Partly because it is rather far away for a regular volunteering gig, I have never actually been up it. Slide Mountain does not offer much in the way of the unknown, though. The trail had become an overgrown mess, but since ANFFLA started using the lookout, they have also been maintaining the trail so a hike up it is . If I was going to do Slide Mountain, though, I also wanted to try to get to Dome Mountain. Dome sits on the county line and has a benchmark and getting there is quite uncertain. I suggested the trip, claiming it was dirt road, trail, and "easy" cross country based on my other cross country experiences in the area, but then walked it back a bit by pointi...

Los Padres National Forest Map link. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 The night at Fishbowls was warmer than at Halfmoon. It was somehow the most comfortable night for me and easy to get up in the morning, not that this day promises to be a challenge. From here, the trail climbs 400 feet up to Cedar Creek and then we climb about 600 feet to get out of the Piru drainage and into Piedra Blanca. We only follow the water a short way before leaving it for a dry fold of land and the rest is dry until after the ridge. We climb through a rugged, but short, land until the junction, where the sign has never been planted. The lookout can just be made out, still standing, on the distant Thorn Point. Following this tributary up from Piru a short way, there is one last pool. The yellow cliffs that were in the background are now nearby. High enough to see back into the Grade Valley area.

Los Padres National Forest Map link. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 The night was a bit on the cold side, which is to say I was quite comfortable under my too warm quilt. The vapor on the exposed side of the Platypus on the ground even tried to freeze, although the one on top of it showed no signs of frost. We are slow to get started as the hardest days have already past and this one should be the easiest. With the flow in Piru looking so low, we will keep a sharp eye on it. After two years of very low rainfall, you have to keep close tabs on the water and always know where the last was. There are interesting water features planned for the end of the day, but first we have to do a lot of road walking. There are still a few flowers by the side of the road. Walking towards Grade Valley on Grade Valley Road. The valley is wide and flat, but the distant landscape looks steep. Some shaped mud in the creek bed. The water is f...