Rain Rain, COME BACK!

Cuyama River, Two Days After Flooding, Where’d It All Go?CuyamaRiver  

Hello Everyone!

We’ve had some weather.  Hurricane Delores did her thing and sent some rain and thunder storms our way last week.  It was about as exciting as summer weather gets along the California coastal ranges.

RainMap
The rain started Saturday with much of Southern California seeing an entire day of rain, very heavy in some places.  Sunday through Wednesday was the more typical thunder storms with morning sun being replaced by fluffy thunderclouds and rain by the afternoons.  As the map shows above, the rain hit hardest in the southern Los Padres but most of the forest did see some precipitation at some point over the week.  Matilija in Ventura County saw the most rain with nearly 4 inches (in July!).  Frazier Park recorded 3.5″ which resulted in flash floods and quite a few road closures.  At one point on Saturday, all roads between Mt. Pinos and Frazier Park were closed due to floods.  There were reports of people being stranded overnight due to the road closures.  Santa Barbara didn’t see as much rain but the Sierra Madre received over 2″ at both Bates and SB Potrero.  Interestingly, SLO County got more rain than SB with most places having over 1.5″ across the forest.  Monterey up into Big Sur didn’t get much rain but did see some incredible lightning and thunder displays.  We’ve had reports coming in showing new green grass sprouting across the forest and increased flow in the creeks.  If nothing else, this most recent rain might extend the campfire season.  We’ll say a fond farewell to Delores and see what comes next.

Still Spring on Mt. Pinos
ChulaVista
AROUND THE FOREST NEWS
Some stories and links you might find interesting from across the Forest:
LOST BIG SUR HIKER
Earlier this month a hiker went missing at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.  Sadly, after nearly a week, the search was suspended.  You can read more about it through a Google search or here.
CONDORS AND TAR CREEK
There was a recent article in the High Country News about the Tar Creek (Ventura County) closure and its influence on the condors in the area.  The article highlights some of the Forest Service efforts to control the situation at Tar Creek.  Certainly worth a read if interested.
CONDOR IN SANTA BARBARA
This story made it’s way through Social Media land but in case you missed it, a wild/free condor made a rare visit to Santa Barbara late last month.  Yankee Barbareno did a good job of documenting and sharing the information on his blog.  You can read it here.  Perhaps one day the condor will be feeding along the beaches again, that would be cool to see.

Los Padres is Large

Santa Barbara Canyon Washout, photo Humphrey

SBCynWashout
Hello Everyone,
The photo above was taken last week along Santa Barbara Canyon in the Mt. Pinos Ranger District.  This was the area hit hardest by the micro-burst tropical storm from three weeks ago.  Just up-canyon from here received over an inch of rain in less than an hour.  This resulted in a flash flood that wiped out the road.  Sort of ironic that too much water is causing problems for the Los Padres this summer.
CONDOR  TRAIL  HIKER  UPDATE
BrittanyCT
Left, Brittany May 13 at the iconic Piru Condor Tree
Right, Brittany June 19 wearing a few pounds of dirt at Bottcher’s Gap
The idea of the Condor Trail started just about 20 years ago with the dream of creating a hiking route that connected trails from Lake Piru to NIRA through Ventura and SB Countues.  Since then the dream has grown and the Condor Trail now spans over 410 trail miles covering the entire length of the Los Padres from Lake Piru (southern Ojai Ranger District) up to Bottchers Gap (northern Monterey Ranger District).  While hikers have done large chunks of the Condor Trail (CT) over the years, no one had ever hiked the entire thing, until now.  Brittany Nielson became the first finisher of the Condor Trail earlier this month when she completed the hike from Lake Piru to Bottcher’s Gap.  She solo-hiked the trail and finished in 37 days.  It was interesting talking with her before and after her hike.  I think she gained an appreciation for the Los Padres and a respect for how challenging our forest can get.  She tackled long sections with no trail, heavy bushwhacking in deep canyons, temps ranging from freezing to triple figures, 15mile stretches with no water and day after day without seeing a single person (less than 20 people along the entire trail).  But, she also hiked under old growth redwoods, covered elevations from over 7,000ft to sea level, saw incredible wildlife, ocean views, deep pools and got to experience the solitude the LP is famous for.  She basically took a crash course in Los Padres Backcountry, learning things in a month that many of us took years and years to learn.  Speaking on behalf of everyone involved in supporting her journey, we’re all so proud of Brittany for her resiliency, tough skin, happy go-lucky attitude and ability to fight through the hard times.  This is quite an accomplishment and one that will no doubt put her somewhere in the LP hall of fame.  What’s next for the Condor Trail and/or Brittany?  She would like to return next season and do the hike again.  Perhaps when she does there will be some other thru-hikers following in her footprints along the Condor Trail as well.
DAVY BROWN TRAIL PROJECT
DB_Trailworkers
Happy Trail Workers
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  The Sierra Club offers a variety of service outings that are organized through their national charter.  These service outings take their volunteers across the country doing volunteer work with various agencies and organizations.  When the Sierra Club was told that their service outing to pull non-native plants at El Capitan State Beach was going to be cancelled due to the Gaviota oil spill, they quickly changed their plans and instead spent a day doing volunteer trail work in the Los Padres.  The LPFA got an email saying there were 13 volunteers needing a trail to work, and we knew right where to put them.  Last week we led the 13 volunteers up the Davy Brown Trail in the Santa Lucia Ranger District.  While the temps were hot, we were able to work about 2miles of trail.  It was great seeing people from outside Central California spending their free time helping our forest.  They were impressed with the Los Padres and we’ve already started a dialog where we’re hoping to lead future projects with the Sierra Club service outings throughout the Los Padres.  Lemons into lemonade for sure.