Incredible panoramic views of the Sespe Condor Sanctuary and Sespe Creek drainage are to be had from the Alder Creek Trail
The Alder Creek Trail (20W11) begins at Dough Flat Trailhead in the Ojai Ranger District of the Los Padres National Forest and provides access to the Sespe Wilderness. This is a main access point to the Sespe for many folks in Los Angeles and eastern Ventura Counties, as well as a popular area to possibly catch a glimpse of California Condors soaring overhead. The trail follows an old roadbed up to Cow Spring Camp, then drops steeply down toward Alder Creek until it meets the old McDonald Trail. From this junction down to Alder Creek and up and over Sespe Saddle to Sespe Creek is officially the Sespe River Trail (20W13), though many people continue to refer to it as the Alder Creek Trail. In 2006, the 162,700 acre Day Fire burned almost all of the Alder Creek Trail, as well as around half of the Sespe Wilderness. Since that fire, no major trail work had been done until LPFA began its Alder Creek Trail Restoration Project in April 2022.
The LPFA trail crew spent 2 weeks in spring of 2022 clearing the infamous “Alder Creek Slide” on the west side of Sespe Saddle. The steep, sandy slopes on this section of trail often slide even in mild winters. Once hardened, they can become incredibly slippery without much tread or brush to hold onto, turning many hikers who entered through Dough Flat back toward their cars. Funding to clear these slides was raised by LPFA’s 2021 Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign from individual donors. Check out this video to see how great they looked after completion! Since the initial re-benching of this section, LPFA has cleared the worst slide once again following the January 2023 storms.
As of an April 2025 survey, the Alder Creek Slide is in need of repair again, though still passable to hikers with care.
Deep rutting and overgrown brush on the high side of the trail made this section impassable to most stock. LPFA President Jasonn Beckstrand led volunteers on a day of tread work to open the trail to stock animals.
In June 2023, the LPFA Trail Crew completed a hitch at Cow Spring Camp working the trail down toward Alder Creek and knocking out about 2 miles of brushing. Then, in December LPFA led its first Volunteer Working Vacation on the trail based out of both the trailhead and Cow Spring Camp. The goal of the trip was to get the trail stock passable to Cow Spring, then move camp and continue working where the Trail Crew left off. Volunteers spent 5 days equating to nearly 900 volunteer getting the trail cleared to Cow Spring, then 5 more days of brushing towards Alder Creek Camp. The trip was a success and completed 5.5 miles of trail maintenance to standard and restored the option for equestrian travel to Cow Spring Camp. Following this Working Vacation, LPFA Trail Crew members spent another week working down towards Alder Creek Camp.
One year later, LPFA returned to Cow Spring Camp for another 10 day Volunteer Working Vacation. This trip cleared some of the densest brush on the trail as it follows a north facing slope that was burned in the Day Fire. On some days, it took 15 volunteers the entire day to finish about 1/10th of a mile of trail. To compare the 2023 to 2024 Working Vacations, with the same amount of time and volunteer hours, the 2024 project completed 3/4 miles of trail work as opposed to 5.5 miles in 2023. That’s some thick brush! And the long hike to the work site definitely ate up some time each day, but nevertheless, progress. And the week following the Working Vacation, the LPFA Trail Crew knocked out the last of the work to Alder Creek Camp, our goal for our spring 2025 Working Vacation.
This entire section of trail was overgrown, but the north facing bends with side drainages made for excessive overgrowth. Many folks had to crawl through this section of trail before LPFA volunteers opened it up.
In April 2025, LPFA led its third packstock-supported Volunteer Working Vacation on the Alder Creek Trail (although at this point, we’re really on the Sespe River Trail, right?). This project completed another 1.8 miles of trail maintenance to standard and reached all the way to Sespe Saddle, the divide at which the Sespe River Trail leaves the Alder Creek drainage and enters the Sespe Creek drainage. The trail that follows the ridge up to Sespe Saddle had been burnt clean in the fire, and new brush that has grown in the 19 years since had rooted in the tread, making the trail a wall of brush in many places. This project also cleared about .5 miles of the trail along Alder Creek that had become washed out in subsequent floods and covered on bramble and poison oak.
As of April, 2025, the 8.5 miles of trail from the Dough Flat Trailhead to Sespe Saddle are a wilderness freeway and waiting for foot (and hoof) prints. LPFA plans to continue work down towards Sespe Creek, then up the Johnston Ridge Trail, pending additional funding. Our goal is to open up this route to connect to the Johnston Ridge Trailhead. More projects to come! Additional work needed:
- Reworking the Alder Creek Slides
- Reworking the Sespe Creek crossings following flooding in 2023
- Brushing of the Johnston Ridge Trail
These projects were made possible by funding from:
- Individual donors and Giving Tuesday Donations
- Los Padres National Forest, Recreation Grants
- Southern California Edison