Moments in Dirt and Ink

Los Padres National Forest Map link. (This is day 2. Day 1 is here .) I watched far too much of the moon's arc across the sky but somehow woke up refreshed anyway. A little bit of breakfast and drying out the bivy that seems to have been able to breath sufficiently in the Sierras but not in the Santa Ynez and other Los Padres mountain ranges got me started on my day. The wispy clouds were replaced by puffy affairs as the chance of rain climbed from minute to tiny. I settled into some more painting. The large oak tree seems to be the first thing to get the sun in this part of the meadow.

Los Padres National Forest Map link. I have put together a backpacking quilt to replace my sleeping bag that refuses to be warm enough when the water starts to freeze and so need a place to test it. Where that can be now that it's properly spring, I'm not sure. Of nearby places, Forbush occurs to me simply because I've crossed a bit of frost on the trail close above it in the late morning. I believe the water there is reliable and maybe the fruit trees are blooming. It did occur to me that going to a place hoping for freezing nighttime temperatures and blooming fruit trees may be mutually exclusive goals. As a testament to which I thought would probably lose, I couldn't actually bring myself to throw in anything other than my jacket and gloves to ward off the evening cool. I didn't even really notice as I sorted the long johns and fleece into the unneeded pile. A minute chance of rain did get me to throw in the rain gear, but that was probably extreme h...

Angeles National Forest Locate the trailhead (if you dare! Edited to correct spot based on the topo, original point went here based on what I remembered of the road and river.) According to Afoot and Afield in Los Angeles County , there is a trail up Warm Springs Mountain. It doesn't actually get to the top, but it gets close enough to scramble the rest of the way. According to the forest map, there is a trail up Warm Springs Mountain. It even has "OHV" written on it at the top, though that may be due to whatever road at the saddle Afoot and Afield mentioned should be ignored. The directions seem less complete than usual in the book, but they did seem to hit all the points in getting me there. It says the trail is unsigned at marker 11.23. Unfortunately, the roads in the area have been remeasured. I already found this on the other trail I tried, so wasn't too worried that 11.23 a fully unmarked wall and there wasn't any ravine for the trail to go...