Helping the Los Padres Forest and Forest Users Since 1979
In case you haven’t heard, the Los Padres went into Level II fire restrictions earlier this month. Among other things, this means no campfires outside of designated Campfire Use Sites, see link below for list of those sites:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd546968.pdf
Good Afternoon Everyone – Hope you are doing well!
The Los Padres enjoyed a great weekend of National Trails Day projects across the Los padres. Reports are still trickling in from the various projects and we hope to share photos and updates in the coming week or so. It certainly was hot out there this past weekend! While National Trails Day in June might work for the rest of the country, it’s a hot time of year in the LP. Thank you to everyone who helped out this weekend, if you have photos from wherever you were, please share, we’d love to see them!
MANZANA SCHOOLHOUSE
TRAIL PROJECT
June 9-11
The plan is to meet at the Lower Manzana Trailhead on Friday June 9 at 8am. We’ll load our camping gear into trucks that will drive out to the Schoolhouse while we spend the day hiking, clearing trees and a few strategic slides along the Manzana Trail. We’ll get to the Schoolhouse with enough time to cool down in the Sisquoc, get some dinner, enjoy happy hour and watch the full moon creep over Castle Rock.
Saturday will be spent clearing the downed trees along the Lower Sisquoc, working on the lowest section of the Manzana Trail and fixing a few odds and ends around Manzana Schoolhouse Camp.
We’ll pack up Sunday, the trucks will once again carry our camping gear back to NIRA while we hike up-stream and fine-tune any remaining issues along the Manzana Trail.
As always, meals Friday night – Sunday will be provided for the volunteers. The hike in to the Schoolhouse is about 9 miles. If you can’t make it in on Friday morning, you’re still welcome to attend, we’d just like you to get to the Schoolhouse in enough time to volunteer on Saturday. Please RSVP. Should be a great time and a special final weekend of volunteering in the backcountry this season. Hope you can make it and email (INFO@LPForest.org) for more information or to sign up!
Come join us on National Trails Day (Saturday, June 3) as we begin work on bringing the Santa Cruz Trail back to life!
• We’ll meet at First Crossing (34.545955, -119.779028 – about 30mins from Santa Barbara) at 8am on June 3. From there we’ll caravan across the river and through locked gates (locked at Lower Oso) to Upper Oso. We’ll park the cars at Upper Oso and walk the 0.7 miles to the start of the Santa Cruz Trail singletrack. Parking is FREE!
• If you are running late, we a second caravan leaving First Crossing at 8:30am.
• Once at the Santa Cruz Trail, we’ll do a safety talk, explain the plan for the day and break into teams to start work. All of the work will be along the 1.3 miles up to 19 Oaks Camp.
• We’ll have hard hats, gloves and provide all the tools for the day. Please wear long pants, sturdy boots, eye protection (sunglasses are fine) and you might want to bring a helmet (bike helmet is fine), personal gloves and a favorite trail tool if you have one.
• You’ll also need to bring any water and food needed to get you from 8am until 5pm.
• It’s predicted to be sunny with high temperatures in the low 80’s. There should be a light breeze by mid-morning that will hopefully help keep things cool as well. It will be warm for sure, but not hot by Los Padres standards. There is plenty of water in the creek and enough shade here and there to cool down during rest breaks. Take as many breaks as needed!
• Most of the work will be clearing rocks, burned slough and ravel from the trail bed, plan on getting dirty! Everyone likes getting dirty, right?
• We’ll work with our teams until the early afternoon and have two departure times from Upper Oso out through the locked gate at Lower Oso. The first departure time will be around 12:30pm and the final one will be at 2:30pm.
As you probably know, this portion of the Santa Cruz Trail was burned in the August 2016 Rey Fire and this project will be the first official work to clean up the damage from the fire. The trail is in bad shape but all things considered it could have been much worse. The trail is certainly not dead, it just needs a little love. It will be very rewarding hiking out and seeing all the work that was accomplished out there! You’ll feel great…..
• Once we’re out past the Lower Oso gate you are free to head home, take a swim in the river or drive up to Rancho Oso for the evening.
• Camping is FREE at Rancho Oso for the trail volunteers. We’ve reserved the Lower Tent Sites down by Arroyo Burro Road. If you drive into Rancho Oso, tell the front kiosk you are with the LPFA and they’ll point you in the right direction. Feel free to setup your camp, take a swim in the pool (shower first of course) and then eventually head over to the Screened Pavilion and Chuck Wagon for the REI Chill Zone and some much deserved ice cold beer compliments of Hollister Brewing.
• BBQ dinner will be served between 4-5pm. If you’re not staying the night, let the front kiosk know you are just there for dinner and they’ll guide you to the dayuse parking.
• REI will have some games and prizes setup around the Chill Zone and a raffle sometime after dinner.
• After that, we’ll switch to camping mode and retreat to the Lower Tent Sites for a campfire and some needed rest. There are tables at the Lower Tent Sites as well as a nearby bathroom/shower.
• Feel free to bring your favorite musical instrument or nighttime activity, just know that quiet hours start at 10pm, or is it 11pm?
• Dogs are welcome for camping but need to be leashed. We do ask that you don’t bring your dog on the trail work portion. We’ve seen that sharp metallic swinging tools and dogs are a bad combination.
• NOTE: There is nothing planned for Sunday. No trail work. No food. Bring what you need and plan whatever you’d like to do!
And that’s the plan man. What did we forget…..?
We hope you can make it and please email an RSVP if you plan on coming so we can make sure we have enough food and camping spaces reserved: INFO@LPForest.org
Special thanks to the following for supporting this great trail project:
– Rancho Oso
– REI
– Sierra Club
– Hollister Brewing
– Los Padres National Forest
One project in particular we’re trying to focus our energy on for NTD is the restoration of the Santa Cruz Trail within the Santa Barbara Backcountry. If you spend any time exploring the Los Padres, eventually you’ll find your tracks along the Santa Cruz Trail. It’s one of only two designated National Recreation Trails in the Los Padres and provides access for trail-users to Little Pine Mountain and the backcountry beyond. The Santa Cruz Trail is popular for just about all non-motorized trail-user groups including mountain bikers, hikers, equestrians and backpackers. It’s an epic mountain bike ride, a challenging day hike to summit Little Pine, a perfect first-time backpacker trail to 19 Oaks and the start or finish of backcountry adventures to Santa Cruz Station and the San Rafael Wilderness.
Sadly, the Santa Cruz Trail was hammered in the 2016 Rey Fire, destroying much of the upper cribwall structures and just about all the brush along the south-facing portion of the trail. While the upper portions of the trail need substantial evaluation before we can even get started working the trail, we’re going to start fixing the lower section of the trail specifically the single track up to 19 Oaks Camp – and that work will start this coming Saturday.
If you’re interested in helping, the Santa Cruz Trail can use your help! We’ll be meeting Saturday June 3 at 8am at First Crossing Dayuse Area along Paradise Rd (all parking is FREE). From there we’ll caravan to Upper Oso Campground for a safety briefing then start the 1 mile hike to the singletrack and get started restoring the trail. We’ll work until the early afternoon or until it gets too hot then retreat to nearby Rancho Oso for a BBQ dinner and evening celebration under the stars. Camping is FREE at Rancho Oso for trail volunteers and dinner/entertainment is provided at no cost. You just need to invest a little sweat equity in the trail and we’ll make sure you get to bed with a full belly and smile on your face.
For more details or to sign up please email INFO@LPForest.org. Please RSVP if you plan on camping with us at Rancho Oso. Rancho Oso has generously provided us with FREE camping as well as access to their amenities, including pool and miniature golf (not a typo). We’re also going to be treated to some fun and games by REI who will setup their famous ‘Chill Zone’ at Rancho Oso for trail volunteers to relax after a hard day under the sun. We also want to send thanks to the Los Padres Sierra Club for helping sponsor the trail project as well as Hollister Brewing Company for supplying the evening refreshments – THANK YOU!
We hope you can make it to one of these projects this weekend and thank you all for the help!
• In case you missed it, the Los Padres made national news this past week when the Mud Creek landslide in southern Monterey County let loose covering Hwy 1 in 40 feet of mud and literally creating a new point of land in the Pacific Ocean. Experts are predicting the slide will keep Hwy 1 closed between Ragged Point and Gorda for at least another year while they attempt to excavate what’s left of the Hwy.
• First Crossing along the Santa Ynez River in Santa Barbara was opened this past weekend for the first time since the January storms forced its closure. River Road (aka Paradise) is now open in its entirety to Red Rock as well as Upper Oso Trailhead. While dayuse is open along River Road, Upper Oso Campground will remain closed for a little while longer until the campsites can be cleared of flood debris.
• Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park has also reopened some of its campsites for the first time since the July 2016 Soberanes Fire started. Not all campsites are open for campers but they’ll hopefully be opening the remainder of the sites throughout the summer as cleanup efforts are completed.
• Wheeler Gorge Visitor Center is now in full swing with our weekly Summer Interpretive Programs. While we’re taking June 3rd off, the programs resume on June 10 with a talk by Dr. James Caballero about how to be prepared for hiking. Check out the full summer program here.
Project: National Trails Day, Ojai First Saturday, Howard Creek Trail Maintenance
Leader: Jasonn Beckstrand
Dates: June 3, 2017
Description:
Meet at the Ojai Ranger Station at 8:00am sign ups, safety talk and at 8:30am we will be ready to carpool to trailhead. Group will return to Ojai by 4pm. Project will focus on fixing the tread a mile from the trailhead. If we have enough people we will also send a crew brushing from the top.
Location:
1190 East Ojai Ave Ojai, CA 93023
Equipment:
Bring a daypack with lunch, water, gloves, eye protection (sunglasses okay), wear shoes or boots, long sleeves & pants if you are allergic to poison oak, sunscreen, and helmet (bike, skateboard, rock climbing okay.
Forest Service will provide instruction, tools, helmets, communication.
If you plan to attend and have a government driver’s license, please let me know so I can gather up enough vehicles.
Howard the Rutt, photo Bardley
The LPFA scouted Santa Barbara Canyon Trail in March and found this rather large and complicated oak tree blocking the trail. There was a passable reroute around the tree that both hikers and equestrians were using but it wasn’t right so we scheduled a weekend to get out there and clear the tree.
Using a five foot felling crosscut saw it took two sawyers over 5 hours, spanning parts of two days in order to clear the trail. The tree required 24 cuts and some crafty levering and rolling to maneuver the heavy cut rounds off the trail.
The end result is a cleared trail and some great satisfaction for a job well done. Lets just hope that rootball doesn’t fall anytime soon.
If any of you come across large downed trees in your travels across the Los Padres, let us know and we’ll see if we can lineup a sawyer team to help out.
How Bout Them Noodles?
Hi Everyone – Good Afternoon,
Quite a week for celebrations we’ve had……
All special days of course, but here in the Los Padres we celebrated yet another event this week as well…….
LOS PADRES GATE OPENING DAY: May 1
Generally speaking, the seasonal road closure gates across the forest close December 1 for the winter and then reopen May 1 after most of the rains have passed. This is a relatively new holiday as many of the seasonal gates have not always been closed but none the less May 1 now provides reason for many of us here in the LP to celebrate. We won’t get into MVUM or budgets or politics or any of the other reasons the gates are closed, instead lets focus on the good news that once again road access to more of the forest is open. Here’s the latest and greatest from each of the five ranger districts:
• First Saturday Trail Project Ojai: May 6 on the upper Pratt Trail. Meet at 8:30am at the Ojai Ranger Station to carpool to the Nordhoff Ridge trailhead.
• La Brea Restoration Plan: The SLRD is hosting an Open House to discuss the proposed restoration project for the La Brea Fire closure that dates back to 2010. Public is welcome, the Open House is May 8 from 4-7pm at the SLRD Ranger Station on Carlotti Drive in Santa Maria.
• Final LPFA Working Vacation of the season is May 20-29 at Madulce Camp in the Dick Smith Wilderness. To learn more or to sign up, email INFO@LPForest.org or check here.
• Latest Figueroa Mountain Wildflower Update from our Forest Service wildflower expert Helen Tarbet, see attached.
• Wood cutting permits are available later this month at the Chuchupate Ranger Station. Dates are May 10, 24 and 31 from 10am – 2pm. Call Chuchupate for more information: 661.245.3731
Back to plans for the weekend. If you are an early riser, get up Hwy 33 around dawn and go do what you do in the forest. Bag that peak, run that trail, go for that ride, etc…. Then stop by Wheeler on your way back home and tell us all about it! Check out the used gear, high-five Smokey and enjoy the afternoon under the Sycamores at the Visitor Center.
Now, if you’re not an early riser or if you have younger kids, wake up slow, get some breakfast and head up to Wheeler in the late morning. Check out the booths, learn about condors, get some lunch and after the Open House head up Hwy 33 to the Sespe for an afternoon dip in the pools around Piedra Blanca. Or come with your camping gear and make a weekend out of it at one of the nearby campgrounds or backcountry campsites. Lots of options, make Wheeler a stop along the journey, there’s always something going on at Wheeler Gorge, especially this weekend!
The 0.45 miles of dirt road between where the pavement ends and the forest boundary is privately owned. Over the past decade the owner of the land has been dealing with issues ranging from illegal campfires to 4WD doughnuts across their fields. Despite repeated attempts to stop this misuse of their property, the landowners have now installed a gate at the start of their property which prevents vehicle access to the two established parking areas. Note that the land owners posted signs at the location of the new gate close to a year ago indicating that this change was going to happen. The owner is still allowing passage up the road and across their property but now forest-users will have to either park at a newly created parking area about 100 yards below the new gate (holds approx 8 vehicles) or at the Stagecoach Station Market along Hwy 150.
Note that the new gate is both equestrian and bicycle friendly. This change is not preventing forest access but it is adding additional mileage for forest-users. If you park at Stagecoach Station it’ll add about 0.5 miles of walking/riding to the new locked gate and then another 0.45 up to the forest boundary gate.
Another Secret Sespe Oasis
Join us Saturday May 6 as we continue the long-standing First Saturday tradition of maintaining the local trails around Ojai……….
Trail: Upper Pratt Trail
Leader: Jasonn Beckstrand
Dates: May 6, 2017
Description: Meet at the Ojai Ranger Station (1190 East Ojai Ave Ojai, CA 93023) before 8:30am for sign ups, safety talk and to carpool to trailhead. Group will return to Ojai by 4pm. Project will focus on brushing and removing any down branches/trees.
Equipment: Bring a daypack with lunch, water, gloves, eye protection (sunglasses okay), wear shoes or boots, long sleeves & pants if you are allergic to poison oak, sunscreen, and helmet (bike, skateboard, rock climbing okay). Forest Service will provide instruction, tools, helmets, communication.
If you plan to attend and have a government driver’s license, please let Jasonn know so he can gather up enough vehicles.
Please RSVP with Jasonn via email.
http://www.hikelospadres.com/pratt-trail.html
Map by Tom Harrison
TRAIL REPORTINGHi Everyone – we hope you’re having a great Good Friday and an even better Good Friday evening,
We’ve got a lot to share today – this is probably the most jam-packed email we’ve ever sent. So, slip into something more comfortable, pour yourself an ice-cold lemonade and enjoy the read.
If you read nothing else, please check out the massive list of upcoming events and trail projects at the bottom – thanks!
There is no shortage of activities and events going on right now in and around the Los Padres. We’re right in the middle of what is typically the busiest time of year for the Los Padres. The flowers are doing their thing (more on that below), the water is plentiful and the trailheads are crammed with hikers, riders and backpackers enjoying the forest. While the trail-users are busy enjoying the trails, the trail crews and trail volunteers are doing their best to fix any damage sustained from this winters storms. At the bottom of this email (way down there) is a list of upcoming trail projects. Giving back to the trails and volunteering time to cut brush from the trail or remove a rock slide can be so rewarding. We encourage all of you to find a trail event this Spring that inspires you and sign up to volunteer for a day or a weekend or even a 10-day Working Vacation. You’ll love it! There are plenty of options out there for everyone, we hope you can find some time to make it happen…….
In the meantime, there is something all of us can do while we’re out on the trails that will directly benefit the trails: TRAIL REPORTS. Trail crews can’t fix a trail if they don’t know that the trail needs fixing, right? So while you’re out for a ride or hike and if come across a section of trail with a downed tree or a slide or is buried in brush; take a picture and share it with your local trail group, Forest Service staff or post it to HikeLosPadres.com and we’ll make sure it gets into the right hands. When taking the picture, it helps to position a friend or a hiking pole or your dog or something in the photo to give the feature some perspective so that we can tell exactly how big that downed tree is. If you can include GPS coordinates that helps a lot as well. HikeLosPadres has an easy user-interface that allows you to post pictures and include information like GPS and size estimates along with the photo. It works great to share as much information as you can so that the trail crews can get out there and do what they love to do fixing these trail problems and issues. Thank you all for the help and we hope you’re finding plenty of time on the trails this Spring……
A nice bouquet somewhere between Greenfield and the Pacific
WILDFLOWER SUPER BLOOM 2017
Look out at that hill, it’s a balloon, it’s a tie-dye, no it’s SUPER BLOOM! You’ve probably seen the words ‘super bloom’ a lot over the past couple of weeks. That’s the word being used to describe an exceptional eruption of wildflowers and after all our winter rains, California 2017 is certainly qualifying as a super bloom. Social media is overflowing with pictures of pilgrimages to Death Valley, Joshua Tree and the Carrizo Plain. In fact there are even pictures from outer space showing the 2017 super bloom. While we can’t all be so lucky to join in these epic trips to the desert, never fear, chances are there are super blooms right outside your door. Find some time in the next couple of weeks to revisit your favorite flower haunt or try to find a new one! Helen Tarbet of the Santa Lucia Ranger District here in the Los Padres puts together a wildflower update for those people headed to Figueroa Mountain to see the wildflowers. Her latest report from April 12 is attached with this email. Check it out and remember to tread lightly so the next people can see the flowers just as you saw them. Enjoy…….
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The soon-to-be new Pfeiffer Gulch Bridge, CalTrans
FOREST ACCESS UPDATE
While the flowers are certainly out this year, the Los Padres hasn’t completely reopened after the winter storms. Most of the dirt roads across the Forest remain closed and behind locked gates. Some of the roads (such as Sierra Madre) have reopened but most of them will stay closed for at least a few more weeks. The traditional gate opening ceremony usually occurs on May 1 but this year that might not be the case as some of the roads did sustain quite a bit of damage and are not passable yet. The Forest Service is working on it. If you’re heading out to the forest, it’s a good idea to call your local Ranger Station to check if the roads are open. More details below:
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FOREST 411