Los Padres Forest: CLOSURE ORDER

A not so Happy Canyon Road, or what’s left of it, just below Cachuma Saddle. Photo Cragg

Hello Friends,

Due to the massive amounts of recent rainfall and subsequent forest-wide damage to trails, roads and infrastructure, the Forest Service has issued a forest-wide closure of the Los Padres Forest effective Friday January 13. The closure comes in advance of this weekend’s storms, which are forecast to dump additional inches of rain across the forest.

Obviously no one is happy about the closure, but there is just too much damage across the forest at the moment. In the days following the last storm, we’ve had many volunteers attempt to survey trails and forest roads. Literally every report we’re seeing, every attempt to drive a road, every attempt to hike a trail, is coming back reporting massive damage. We’ve seen damage like this in the past, but it’s largely been isolated to portions of a county or within specific fire scars. What’s different this time is that the destruction is at a forest-wide scale and even beyond that when you look at neighboring counties such as Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, etc…

The closure order states that the closure will last 60-days but we’re hopeful that it can be revised or modified on a local level as portions of the forest are surveyed, cleaned up and repaired. We are working closely with the Forest Service to help survey and document the damage and are looking forward to getting our boots on the ground ASAP to repair the trails. We’ll be out in force once the Forest Service gives us the green light. Please consider donating to our Trail Fund if you can, we’ve got lots of collective work ahead of us.

If you have any photos of trail or road damage from this past week, please forward on to us of the Forest Service.

Sorry for the bad news on a Friday the 13th and stay safe everyone……

Unrecognizable? That’s Montecito Hot Springs. Not a social media sensation at the moment.

LOS PADRES STORM UPDATE: The Good. The Bad & the Ugly

Romero Trailhead, Montecito – gonna Bee a while….

Hello Friends,

First off, we hope you are all safe and dried out after all the great rains we’ve had over the past weeks. This is not news but from Big Sur to Piru we’ve seen historic quantities of rainfall across the Los Padres. 2023 will be remembered and documented in the lore of other epic winters like 1969, 1983 and 2005, etc… It’s exciting for sure, good to see the reservoirs filling up and of course nice to look forward to what all this rain will mean for the spring flowers, scoured swimming holes and late-season backpacking trips. That’s the good.

The bad & the ugly is all the damage sustained across the Central Coast of California. Just turn on the national news and you see photos of familiar places under a dozen feet of water. Here in the Los Padres we’ve seen historic bridges go down, campgrounds washed away, levees blown out, communities isolated and more road damage than can be listed. And that’s not even talking about the trails, which have mostly not been seen as of yet.

At the moment, most forest access roads are closed and will likely remain closed until at least after this next upcoming storm (Friday – Monday). Many of the trailheads that are closer to town have sustained damage due to washouts and slides. It is not easy to get into the forest at the moment and even then, water levels remain dangerously high at most of the larger creek crossings. We’ve also been hearing about catastrophic slides and washouts along the trails themselves that may eventually lead to trail closures. TBD.

All things considered, depending where you are, it’s not a bad idea to skip the forest for a week or so until water levels drop and proper trail surveys have been completed. If you are on the trails or in the forest, be careful, listen to your instincts and don’t be afraid to turn around should you encounter a sketchy section of trail or road. It’s no joke out there right now.

We are working with the Forest Service to start documenting damage to the infrastructure, roads, trailheads and trails. If you see any substantial damage, please take photos and share with the Forest Service or with us (INFO@LPForest.org) and we’ll be sure to pass it along.

Be smart everyone and stay safe…..

Roads and trails alike, washed away this past week….. just the beginning.

Happy Los Padres Days!

Little Pine Winter Majesty, December 12, 2022

Hello Friends,

Happy Holidays and what a nice start to the winter season! We’ve now had multiple storms roll through the Los Padres with rain totals across the forest over 150% of normal to date. The creeks have recharged, the hills are green and most of the higher mountains are white; all good stuff for this time of year. While we’re certainly off to a good start, let’s not forget that at this point last year we were also well above average, that was until the rain decided to shutdown for January and February. Let’s hope for more extended light rain over the coming weeks and beyond.

As a result of the recent rains and greening, the Forest Service has terminated the fire restriction order which means that campfires are once again allowed across the Los Padres. This is probably very welcome news for many of us backcountry wanderers! Be sure to renew your California Campfire Permit (click here, just takes a few mins) and please remain diligent and smart with your fire activity. Happy Day!


Another Legendary Los Padres Sunset Enjoyed by Two Legendary Los Padres Sawyers

FOREST 411

• Recreation Fees Increased – The LPNF announced earlier this week that fees at select sites will be increased across the Los Padres. This mainly affects campground fees and Pfieffer Beach day use. Click here to learn more.

• Trout Creek Update – Over the past 5 years the Wilderness Land Trust has purchased multiple private properties along Trout Creek (SLO Co.) and just completed the final transfer of land to the LPNF. This is a huge win in preserving forest access along Hi Mtn Road and into the Garcia Wilderness. Trout Creek is also a segment of the Condor Trail. Cheers and a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone involved in this effort!

• E-Bike Crew Poachers Busted – Seven people were busted this past month for poaching with illegal hunting tags. In addition to illegal tags, the group, known as the E-Bike Crew, had also been reportedly hunting within the Sespe Condor Sanctuary. That’s a no-no. Lots of information online, click here, here or here.

• Courts Approve Tecuya Fuelbreak – It was also announced earlier this week that the LPNF won a court appeal to begin work on the Tecuya Ridge Shaded Fuelbreak project within the Mt Pinos Ranger District. Click here and here for more information.

• Los Padres Calendars – Looking for any last minute stock stuffers or gifts for the Los Padres lover on your list…. we got ya covered! The LPFA has once again produced a full-color Los Padres wall calendar. They are beautiful and available online or at REI Santa Barbara. Get em while you can!


Volunteer Opportunities

• JAN 21: Mountain Lion Tracking – Exciting news! The LPFA will be helping to install a series of game cameras across the Santa Barbara Backcountry which will be used to track mountain lion activity. We are looking for volunteers to help with this effort. Should be fun! Sign Up Here!

• DEC 30: Santa Cruz Trail – Join the LPFA on Friday December 30 to help maintain the beloved Santa Cruz Trail! Details on the link below but we’ll likely be focusing our efforts on the section of trail around 19 Oaks. TBD based on weather. What better way to wrap up 2022! Sign Up Here!

• DEC 21: Hwy 33 Cleanup – Please join the LPFA as we continue our monthly Highway 33 Adopt-A-Highway events based at Wheeler Gorge Visitor Center. While you’re there, come check out Marcos the Mountain Lion, photo featured above. Sign Up Here!

• FEB 4: VWR Training – The LPFA will once again be leading a Volunteer Wilderness Ranger Training event on Saturday February 4 off Paradise Road. Skills and procedures will be shared so that you can hopefully lead volunteer projects across the forest. Sign Up Here!

So nice seeing water flowing and falling again…. Hope you find some too.

The Passing of a Los Padres Legend

Hello Friends – Some Unfortunate Sad News to Share Today,

The Los Padres lost a legend with the recent passing of our dear friend Rik Christensen. Rik, aka Ranger Rik, has been a regular along the Los Padres backcountry trails for the past four decades with his favorite trails being within the San Rafael Wilderness. Rik’s enthusiasm about the trails was indelible and if you happened upon him while backpacking, you would not forget his welcoming smile, his encouraging word and of course those supernatural white teeth. In this modern world where photos are shared but directions are not, Rik would always go out of his way to share his wisdom, any helpful tips and of course that smile.

Rik was one of the inaugural Volunteer Wilderness Rangers (VWR) and never shied away from a trail maintenance project or an opportunity to survey and explore the backcountry. Rik was instrumental in so many trail surveys, in particular those crucial and difficult post-wildfire journeys into the forest. For many years the Forest Service relied on Rik to be the eyes and ears of the Forest and he took that responsibility very seriously. Rik was the first recipient of the Dave Weaver Wilderness Award, which is presented annually as a lifetime achievement award for Los Padres volunteers. Rik was also at the forefront of the ultralight hiking revolution and a Gossamer Gear Trail Ambassador who helped Gossamer with many of their tent and gear designs. Some of you might also know Rik through his involvement with the LPFA Used Camping Gear Sale, which he organized and founded. Rik’s passion for backpacking was never more apparent than at the Used Gear Sales where he would spend hours happily sharing his knowledge and helping make sure that each backpack perfectly fit its new owner.

Perhaps Rik’s greatest Los Padres contribution was his efforts to restore South Fork Station along the Sisquoc River. For many decades South Fork had been left in disrepair, ignored as it slowly decayed. Never was South Fork worse than shortly after the 2007 Zaca Fire when it was saved from the flames but left to rot amongst the ash. The mouse invested Station had no shutters, the screens were all ripped, the paint gone, roof cracking and there were no plans to bring it back. South Fork was a goner. That changed when Rik took on the challenge of bringing South Fork back to life. Over the next several years Rik worked with the Forest Service and backpacked the 15 miles to South Fork countless times hauling in supplies and handcrafted materials. Rik used his background in car restoration to carefully restore every detail of the cabin from the color of the paint to the shape of the hinges. If you’ve been to South Fork in the past 10+ years, you know how beautiful that cabin is and that is all thanks to Rik Christensen. Rik embodied the spirit of volunteerism here in the Los Padres and his contributions and spirit will live on forever.

For those interested, there will be a Rik style get together at La Cumbre Peak this Saturday December 10 at 11am followed by a Rik style lunch at Natural Cafe on Hitchcock in Santa Barbara at 1pm.

Rest in peace brother Rik and thank you for all the smiles you shared.


2023 Los Padres Forest Calendar

Back by popular demand, the LPFA has once again published a full color, professionally bound wall calendar full of Los Padres AWESOMENESS! This isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a need-to-have! Great holiday present for the Los Padres lover on your list or be a little greedy and get one for yourself. The calendars will likely be available at your local REI or you can purchase online and we’ll send them directly to your door.

Thanks to everyone who contributed photos and please have a safe holiday season and terrific 2023….. oh, and find some trail time too!

Amazon Smile Shopping!

Tis the season for lots of shopping. For those few of you who are going to buy more than just the LPFA Calendar and might use Amazon for your shopping, please consider using Amazon Smile and choosing the LPFA as your charity of choice. Any proceeds raised go straight back into supporting the Los Padres Forest. Thank you!

Amazon Smile Supporting LPFA

Volunteer This Week!

The LPFA will be leading a volunteer trail maintenance and sign installation project this Friday – Saturday Dec 9-10 out near Mono Campground. We’ll drive in early Friday and out Saturday afternoon, car-camping at Middle Santa Ynez Campground. To sign up click the link below or feel free to email with any questions: VOLUNTEER@LPForest.org – should be fun, hope you can join us!

LPFA Trail Work GivingTuesday

How many #GivingTuesday emails did you receive today?
We’re setting the over/under at 15. How’d you do?

Hi Everyone – Sorry to inundate you with another #GivingTuesday email but we believe in our goal of restoring the Santa Cruz Trail and we believe that you as trail users should believe in it as well. Of course your contributions go to the LPFA but more importantly they go to support the Los Padres Forest, they go directly to the Santa Cruz Trail and they go to help folks like yourself who are out there using the trails. If you use the trails, this is for you!

If you haven’t volunteered with us yet or don’t know about the LPFA, we can almost guarantee you’ve enjoyed the trails we help maintain. We’ve put together a list of 12 trail accomplishments we’re proud of from 2022. If you’ve not enjoyed these trails listed below, please do so, now is the time before they get overgrown again…. trail work in the Los Padres is like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, it never ends!

For 2023 we will be making a big push to continue work on the Santa Cruz Trail and connect the dots between Upper Oso and Santa Cruz Station. We have funding in place for much of this work but not all of it just yet. If you use or have used the Santa Cruz Trail or any of the trails across the Los Padres, please consider supporting our Santa Cruz Trail campaign. Thank you all for your support and see you on the trails…..

– Your Friends at the LPFA


LPFA Accomplishments !


Click here to watch a YouTube of our 2021 #GivingTuesday accomplishments in the Sespe.
Click here to donate for #GivingTuesday 2022 on the Santa Cruz Trail.

Have a great day everyone!

THANK YOU!

Sespe Working Vacation & Exciting Santa Cruz Trail News!

Sespe, Red Reef & the Topatopa’s – shining!

Hello Friends – HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

While there is much to be thankful for here in the Los Padres, we are most thankful for the 32 volunteers who helped out last week on our Sespe Working Vacation based at Willett Camp. The LPFA has hosted dozens of Working Vacations over the years but they just keep getting better, more efficient and more fun. We had a great time out there, the Sespe in fall is hard to beat and we watched the colors get better and better with each passing day. We’ll share the whole story later but for now some quick bullet points of what we accomplished:

Otis, Annie, Tommy, Honey, Floyd & Jessabelle – could not have done it without you!
  • Our awesome volunteers cleared and restored 4 miles of the Sespe River Trail, mainly between Willett and Coltrell Camps.
  • We hauled out, thanks to the mules, over a dozen trash bags filled with garbage left along the trail and at Willett Camp. Willett is clean now, please help keep it that way!
  • We repaired 4 disastrous fire rings around Willett while creating defensible space for when the fire ban is lifted.
  • Repaired and cleaned most of the out-buildings at Willett Camp. Much more love is needed!
  • Cut out 13 downed trees which were blocking both the Sespe River and Red Reef Trails.
  • Somehow kept everyone well fed and energized despite the freezing conditions and daily long hikes to the work sites.
  • Engaged with countless dozens of backpackers who were out enjoying the Sespe and its fall colors over the past week!
They don’t call him the Shermanator for nothing…..

We want to also thank Southern California Edison, who provided a grant to complete some of this work and a private anonymous donor (you know who you are THANKS!) who paid for all the food and drinks for our hungry and thirsty volunteers.

We are working on scheduling next years Spring Working Vacations and as of right now will be working on the Alder Creek Trail within the Sespe Wilderness and hosting another Working Vacation at South Fork Station in the San Rafael Wilderness. Stay tuned for updates and we hope you can join us in 2023 and beyond……

You likely know that #GivingTuesday is this coming Tuesday November 29. Last year the LPFA raised funds to fix a sketchy section of the Condor Trail within the Sespe Wilderness called the Alder Creek Slide. This year we will be focusing our #GivingTuesday efforts to continue our trail restoration along the Santa Cruz Trail within Santa Barbara County. Thank you everyone who helped support our efforts this past year and we hope you choose to support this #GivingTuesday as well. 

Sespe Creek in Full Bloom

Sespe Rattlesnake Bite

Click here for YouTube video

Local Los Padres backpacker Dan Susman was bitten by a Southern Pacific Rattlesnake in May 2022 while off-trail deep in the Sespe Wilderness. Dan is a friend of the LPFA and we were fortunate to catch up with him in June 2022 to hear and record his story of the bite, the rescue and the recovery from his rattlesnake bite.

We hope you enjoy the video but more importantly we hope you learn a few things about how to prevent rattlesnake bites, how to aid in getting help after a bite and what the recovery process might look like.

As a thanks to Dan for sharing his story and to hopefully get him back out on the trails as soon as possible, we’d like to buy him a pair of Turtleskin SnakeArmor Rattlesnake Gaiters. If you’d like to contribute towards the gaiters, please click the link below. Thank you……

Rattlesnake Gaiter Fund

Lower Manzana 40″ Gray Pine Crosscut Time Lapse

Time lapse photo of a very large gray pine that five LPFA volunteer cut off the trail on May 10, 2022. The pine was measured at 40″ in diameter and took us almost five and a half hours to cut using a 72″ felling crosscut saw. Thanks to everyone who reported it to us. We can’t help maintain trails if we don’t know there is help needed. Good fun had by all……

Sunset Valley Road Closure: Cachuma Saddle to NIRA 2021-2022

CLOSED: Sunset Valley Road from Cachuma Saddle to NIRA, both NIRA and Davy Brown Campgrounds and the Old Catway OHV road / trail will be closed from July 30, 2021 through March 30, 2022

The Forest Service has been working with the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation and other partner groups to schedule the construction of two bridges which would replace the existing ‘Arizona crossings’ along Sunset Valley Road. When completed, the bridges will help assist aquatic organism passage within the Santa Maria, Sisquoc, Manzana and Davy Brown drainages. Sunset Valley Road is located in Santa Barbara County behind Figueroa Mountain and is most commonly used to access NIRA and the Manzana Trailheads. This bridge project has been in the works since at least 2017, with construction being delayed a few times due to COVID, etc…

In order to construct the bridges, the Forest Service will need to close both Sunset Valley Road and the Catway OHV (Old Catway) to all traffic including vehicles, bikes and hikers and as a result of the closure, both Davy Brown and NIRA Campgrounds will be closed.

READ THE CLOSURE ORDER HERE

The Arizona crossings at Davy Brown (left) & Lower Manzana (right)

While the initial reaction after hearing about this closure has been overwhelmingly negative, the long-term effects from the closure will be very positive. Obviously the bridges will greatly benefit fish passage along the Davy Brown, in addition the bridges will improve year-round access to NIRA and as an added bonus the Forest Service will be repaving Sunset Valley Road during the construction as well. This repaving might be worth it all by itself as that road has won the distinguished honor as the “worst road in the Los Padres” over the past couple years due to car-eating potholes.

The infamous first crossing of the Manzana. Pack up, walk 100ft, take your boots off….

NIRA is closed? Now what…..???

NIRA and the Lower Manzana is the main gateway to the San Rafael Wilderness and by far the busiest backcountry trailhead in Santa Barbara County, if not the entire Los Padres National Forest. There is no doubt that this 8 month closure is going to impact a lot of backpackers, hikers, equestrians and hunters who rely on NIRA and the Manzana for their backcountry access as well as Davy Brown and NIRA Campgrounds for somewhat easy and remote car-camping.

Forest-users tend to have favorite trails and camps that they revisit frequently and while that is terrific, this might be a good excuse to find a new favorite spot or search out that peak, camp or trail you’ve always wanted to visit. There are certainly plenty of other backcountry trailheads, trails and campgrounds worth exploring. We’re very fortunate in the Los Padres to have miles and miles of backcountry trails for all fitness and experience levels and quite a few other remote campgrounds worthy of loading up the larger tents and coolers.

If you have any questions about what other spots to check out, WE’D BE HAPPY TO HELP: check out HikeLosPadres or email us at INFO@LPForest.org and we can suggest a variety of trails and camps based on the time of year, what you are hoping to find and of course any of the current forest restrictions or closures.

And for those willing to hike the extra mile and push through some extra brush, just think how uncrowded the Narrows and Horseshoe Bend will be this year……

Springtime at NIRA, it’ll be here before we know it…….