Author: Ari Songer

https://lpforest.salsalabs.org/oct2022newsletter?wvpId=4e72c95c-a4ad-4df2-a8a2-dcf6b54df2f6

Hello Friends, 

You may know that the Los Padres is a very large and diverse forest covering approximately 1.75 million acres of the central California coast from Big Sur to the Los Angeles County line and from sea level to almost 9,000 ft. Yet, right now might be the most diverse we’ve ever seen the Los Padres. The unusual pattern of localized bands of rain that we received in September have left the Los Padres looking more diverse than ever. Some portions of the forest were pounded with inches of rain while just a few miles away might not have received more than a few sprinkles. The end result has the forest looking more like a green and brown zebra with alternating stripes of bright green and dead brown. Rain truly is the giver of life in these parts and while some areas are alive and well, others are still waiting their turn for some much needed rain. That being said, the temps are cooling and we’re seeing a lot more activity on HikeLosPadres.com and answering far more emails about trail conditions and water reports. As the fall season kicks on and more and more of us return to our cooler trails, please be sure to check out HikeLosPadres and report back when you get back so we can share water reports for others. It’s a great time of year to explore the Los Padres, remember to be prepared ahead of time and hope you get some trail time soon…… 

Sincerely, 

LPFA Team

LOVE TO VOLUNTEER?

Do you love the Los Padres forest or love to volunteer? If so, we have some fun upcoming volunteer projects that might be right up your alley….

LOS PADRES FOREST ASSOCIATION VOLUNTEERS

In addition to the project specific volunteer opportunities listed above, the LPFA is always looking for volunteers interested in helping with a wide variety of forest projects. These efforts include road patrol, building maintenance, gate repairs, graffiti removal, web design, helping at Wheeler Gorge Visitor Center, HikeLosPadres support and of course we’re always interested in helping to support volunteer efforts on specific trails or other forest related projects. If you’ve got an idea that helps the forest, let us know and we’d love to help. VOLUNTEER@LPFOREST.ORG with questions or to throw your name or idea in the hat. THANK YOU!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Oct 8 – Nov 6: D-13 General Hunting Season
Oct 22: LPFA Party, Paradise Road
Oct 22: LPFA Used Camping Gear Sale
Oct 29-30: Sierra Madre Water Run, RPL, LPFA
Nov 4-6: Big Sur Trail Work, VWA
Nov 6: Agua Blanca Trail Work, LPFA ORD
Nov 12-20: Sespe River Trail, Willett Working Vacation, LPFA
Nov 18-20: Carrizo Trail, VWR
Feb 4 2023: Volunteer Wilderness Ranger Training
May 2023: Wheeler Gorge Visitor Center 20th Anniversary Celebration!

https://lpforest.salsalabs.org/sept2022newsletter

Hello Friends,

We hope this email finds you doing well and perhaps with a little mud on your boots? September is supposed to be one of our drier months but fortunately we’ve had some exciting weather sweep across the Los Padres over the past two weeks. It started with the remnants of Hurricane Kay, which dropped measurable precipitation (1/4 – 1″) across most of the Southern Los Padres. That was followed up this week by an early season (or late season?) low-pressure system from Alaska which dumped some pretty substantial rain across the Northern and Central Los Padres. Some of the Big Sur Mountains received nearly 4 inches of rain from this storm – no joke! There remains a possibility for more rain early this week as the system moves through followed by more “normal” weather as the week unfolds. The early rain is certainly a welcome sight and might have been enough to trigger the grass to start growing. Sure would be nice to have a long green season this year. We hope you find some trail time soon and keep us posted via email or HikeLosPadres if you find any downed trees or slides blocking the trails.

Sincerely, 
LPFA Team

LPFA TRAIL CREW – We’re Hiring!

Fall is coming up fast and we’re looking for a few brave souls to join our paid Trail Crew for the season. You must like long walks in the forest, hard physical work, camping, being out in nature A LOT and the satisfying feeling of restoring and building trails. If that’s you, let us know. Hope to hear from you soon!
Apply Here!

SESPE WORKING VACATION

November  12-20, 2022

We’ve got some really exciting news to share: the LPFA will be hosting our fall 2022 volunteer Working Vacation in November along the Sespe River Trail in the Ventura Backcountry. Our base-camp for the 10-day Working Vacation will be at Willett Camp and we’ll be working primarily on restoring the Sespe River Trail from Willett down towards Sespe Hot Springs. As usual, all food will be provided compliments of the LPFA and we’ll have a great group of packers to help bring in tools, food, beverages and more. While we’d love to have you for the entire 10 days, you are more than welcome to come in for part of the trip as your schedule allows. If you are interested in signing up or have any questions, please sign up here or email us directly. Willett is a special place, should be a lot of fun and very rewarding. Hope you can join us……
Sign up for Sespe!

FOREST 411

• Earlier this summer the Forest Service shared plans for a very large forest-wide fire and fuels management program called the Ecological Restoration Project or ERP. The Forest Service is currently seeking comments about the program and have extended the comment period through September 27. Please take some time and read through the proposal, watch the recorded webinars, talk to your friends/family, educate yourself and provide your comments to the Forest Service. As with most very large proposals, ERP is likely not all bad and likely not all good. The purpose of the comment period is to let the FS know what you like and don’t like about the ERP. We have until the 27th, please use your voice!

• National Public Lands Day (NPLD) is this coming Saturday. If you don’t have plans, come on out and join us on the San Ysidro Trail for a day of trail work. Hope to see you out there!

• The second biggest hunting zone in the Los Padres is D-13, which covers most of the terrain north of Sespe Creek and east of Hwy 33in Ventura County including Pine Mtn and Mt Pinos. D-13 general deer hunting season runs from 10/8 – 11/6. You can find out more about regulations and zone specific information here.

• LPFA is hosting another Used Camping Gear Sale on October 29! If you have any used gear you would like to donate to the event, now is your chance! Shoot us an email and we will have you drop off your gear at a nearby location. 

• Many of us are now well aware of the hiker who went missing on Trespass Trail in Gaviota. Unfortunately, our community has seen several heat-related incidents and deaths this summer season. Now, it is our collective responsibility to share preventative information and understand the warning signs. You will likely see these flyers posted at trailheads in Montecito: “Be prepared, know the signs, and act fast.” Please take a look and familiarize yourself with this information, both for yourself, and your fellow hikers. Carry extra water/snacks and check in with others out on the trail. Be safe everyone.

• Wheeler Gorge Visitor Center is looking for volunteers! This is a perfect opportunity for those forest enthusiasts in the Ojai area to give back to the Los Padres. “Duties may include meeting and greeting visitors, answering questions about the forest, operating the center store, taking phone calls and even emceeing Saturday morning educational programs.” Let us know if you are interested!

Hello Friends, 

We hope you are having a great summer and still finding some cooler trail time here in the hot Los Padres! LPFA recently asked a group of hikers to list things that scared them here in the Los Padres. Their list included fears such as getting lost, poison oak, ticks, gravity, water (too much and not enough), other people and wild animals. While not everyone listed the same responses, there was a clear winner when it came to the one thing that most people are scared of here in the Los Padres…… RATTLESNAKES! 

The fear of snakes, known as ophidiophobia, is certainly not unique to the Los Padres and is actually one of the more common human fears known across the world. Rattlesnake encounters can be very scary; and for good reason as their bites can be deadly. We should all have a little fear and a lot of respect for our Los Padres rattlers. For those of us who regularly venture into the forest, rattlesnake sightings are a fairly common occurrence and should be expected just about anywhere in the Los Padres during the snake season of April – October. 

While encounters are common, there remain a lot of myths and information about rattlesnakes that most people might now know. With that in mind, the LPFA recently hosted three online events designed to help educate forest-users about our local rattlesnake population. Hopefully, these videos will help you learn a little more about how to avoid rattlesnake encounters and what to do in case a bite does occur. Enjoy the videos and stay safe everyone…….   

Sincerely, The LPFA Team

Our first video is an online webinar filmed about a year ago with Dr. Emily Taylor from Central Coast Snake Services. This video focuses on learning about rattlesnakes and  busting myths.

The second video was filmed in June 2022 and is an interview with a friend of the LPFA who was bit by a rattlesnake while exploring off-trail deep within the Sespe Wilderness.

And our final video is once again with Dr. Emily Taylor as she shares how to keep your dog safe while exploring in snake country.

Hello Friends,

Lots of news to share from across the Los Padres, enough for two emails actually but lets start with an update from the LPFA Working Vacations. Thanks to help from over 30 volunteers, we just successfully wrapped up a 12-day volunteer Working Vacation along the Indian Canyon Trail in the Dick Smith Wilderness. Everyone had a great time, the food was terrific as always, the weather more or less cooperated, thankfully it wasn’t too hot and we got the trail dialed in up to Indian Canyon Camp! #knockeditout We’ll share more details within the next email but for now, we wanted to remind everyone of the next Working Vacation coming up in a couple weeks along the Red Reef Trail……

RED REEF – LADYBUG WORKING VACATION
April 23 – May 1
Come one, come all and join us later this month as we work to restore the spectacular Red Reef Trail within the Sespe Wilderness. The project will kick-off on Saturday April 23 with volunteers driving up from Rose Valley along the Nordhoff Ridge 4WD Road to the upper Red Reef Trailhead. Once at the trailhead we’ll backpack 5 miles across and down to Ladybug Camp, which will be our home for the 10-day Working Vacation. We’ll once again have stock support bringing in most of the food, tools, supplies and cold drinks for the project. The focus of the work will be brushing and tread work along approximately 2.5 miles of the Red Reef Trail from Ladybug down towards Sespe Creek. Ladybug is set within a grove of shaded fir trees just below 5,000ft and has reliable water with enough space to find some privacy and move around. While we’d love to have you for the entire time, there will be many shorter options for people to come and go as their schedule allows. This promises to be a great time spent with like-minded friends along one of the more epic Los Padres trails. Please email with questions or to sign up. We could use help with trail workers, cooks and shuttle drivers. Hope you can make it!
VOLUNTEER@LPForest.org

What is a Working Vacation?

Working Vacations are larger scale volunteer trail maintenance projects that the LPFA organizes in support of the Los Padres National Forest. Working Vacations are generally focused on maintaining harder-to-get-to trails and they usually range from 7-10 days in length.

The LPFA provides all the food for the Working Vacations and we normally have stock support bring in food, gear and supplies with a dedicated cook on hand to ensure everyone eats well throughout their stay. While we’d love to have everyone volunteer for all 7-10 days, we realize that life doesn’t usually allow us to be away for that long and we always have shorter options available as well. We do ask that everyone commit at least 3 days for the project.

The usual Working Vacation day starts off with sunrise coffee followed by breakfast. We then we pack our lunches and hit the trail by 8am. We work throughout the day or until we’re tired and return to camp for a cold drink, dinner and ideally some story-telling, songs and laughter around the campfire before heading off to bed.

The flow of Working Vacations is very soothing and somewhat addictive, most people who come on a Working Vacation end up signing up for the next one as well. The Working Vacations are a lot of fun and a truly rewarding wilderness experience. That’s the sales pitch, in case the opportunity to spend time in the forest wasn’t enough of a pull all by itself.

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WELCOME BACK NIRA
After being closed for nearly 9 months, the Forest Service successfully reopened Sunset Valley Road a day ahead of schedule on March 31. The extended closure was needed to complete construction of two new bridges along Sunset Valley Road which are designed to improve fish passage within the the Fir, Manzana and Sisquoc drainages. The bridges were welcomed as part of a ribbon cutting ceremony held on March 30. The road reopening once again means the public can access Davy Brown and NIRA Campgrounds in addition to both Manzana trailheads, which is certainly reason for many people to celebrate. While the bridges look fantastic, the trails out of NIRA might be a little rough after having 9 months of limited foot and hoof traffic. If you happen to explore the trails out of NIRA and come across anything that could be repaired, please let us know or post to HikeLosPadres.com and we’ll do our best to get it fixed up as soon as we can. Enjoy everyone and take it slow……

Hello Friends,

It sure seemed impossible that we’d be where we are after the December deluge but sure enough we’re staring directly into another drought year. California just endured our driest January and February in recorded history and even after the phenomenal 2021 Holiday storms we’re currently around 55-60% of normal total rain percentage for the year. {insert profanities as needed} Even with the recent lack of substantial rain the Los Padres remains in ideal spring mode at the moment, we’re just not sure how long this moment will last….. With that in mind, we’ve decided to pivot some of our volunteer projects in order to ensure we have enough creek water for the Working Vacations. 

First, a little background: what is a Working Vacation? Working Vacations are larger scale volunteer trail maintenance projects that the LPFA organizes with the support of the Los Padres National Forest. Working Vacations are generally focused on maintaining harder-to-get-to trails which require a larger time commitment. We usually host Working Vacations for 7-10 days which allow us to accomplish miles of really solid trail work. The LPFA provides all the food for the Working Vacations and we normally have stock support bring in food, gear and supplies with a dedicated cook on-hand to make sure everyone is fed good food throughout their stay. While we’d love to have everyone volunteer for all 7-10 days, we realize that life doesn’t usually allow us to be away for that long and we always have shorter options available for people as well. We do ask that everyone who signs up commit at least 3 days towards the project. The usual day starts off with sunrise coffee followed by breakfast then we pack our lunches and hit the trail by 8am. We work throughout the day or until we’re tired and return to camp for a cold drink, dinner and ideally some story telling and laughter around the campfire before heading off to bed. The flow of Working Vacations is very soothing and somewhat addictive, most people who come on a Working Vacation end up signing up for the next one as well. The Working Vacations are a lot of fun and a truly rewarding wilderness experience. That’s the sales pitch, in case the opportunity to spend time in the forest wasn’t enough of a pull all by itself. 

The LPFA has two Working Vacations scheduled for spring 2022, see details below and we hope you can make it to one or both. Please email us with any questions or to sign up. We are currently looking for cook help and could also use some help camp sitting, truck shuttling and of course helping maintain these incredible trails…..

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INDIAN CREEK WORKING VACATION: March 26 – April 3
We’ll be working to restore the Indian Creek Trail within the Dick Smith Wilderness between Meadow Camp and Indian Creek Camp. Volunteers will be able to drive to the Indian-Mono Trailhead and from there it’s a 6 mile backpack out to our basecamp at Meadow Camp. Indian Creek is a special spot which has suffered of late due to lack of access and the trail hasn’t been maintained since before the 2007 Zaca Fire. This will be a fantastic opportunity to get back out there and ensure the trail remains open for years to come. Email us VOLUNTEER@LPForest.org to sign up or with questions or you can check our Facebook Event posting for more details as well.

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RED REEF – LADY BUG WORKING VACATION: April 23 – May 1
The Red Reef is another classic LP trail which hasn’t seen much dedicated maintenance in quite some time. We’ve been chipping away at Red Reef over the past year and have most of it cleared and in good shape expect for about 2.5 miles directly below Lady Bug Camp within the Sespe Wilderness. The Working Vacation will be based at Lady Bug and we’ll be focused on reopening the final couple miles of trail. We’ll be able to drive up from Rose Valley to the base of Topatopa Bluff which will leave us about 5 miles of trail to backpack out to Lady Bug. Stock will be bringing in all the food, gear and supplies – should be a great project and we hope you can join us. Email us VOLUNTEER@LPForest.org to sign up or with questions or you can check our Facebook Event posting for more details as well.

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The Bridges of Sunset Valley – NIRA remains closed but remains on target to reopen Friday April 1. Click here if you’d like information about alternative backcountry locations to check out while NIRA is closed in order to minimize overcrowding at the usual suspects. Photo South Coast Creek Habitat Restoration