Gene Marshall-Piedra Blanca Trail Restoration

The Gene Marshall-Piedra Blanca Trail is one of two National Recreation Trails (NRT) in the Los Padres National Forest. From start to finish, it offers more botanic and geological variety than maybe any other trail in the LP. You’ll see lush riparian areas, mixed chaparral, high desert sage scrub, and mixed conifer forest as the trail climbs from the Sespe drainage up towards Pine Mountain and back down to Lockwood Valley. Often done as a thru-hike, it is usually accessed at either the Piedra Blanca Trailhead or Reyes Creek Campground, and is 18 miles from end to end. You can read more about the trail and other nearby connecting trails here!

From left: Volunteers rework a failed rockbar to address drainage issues on trail, photo Delia S.; volunteers asses their work on one of the 4 slides nearing completion, photo Dorsey C.

How It’s Going….

LPFA has worked this trail end to end many times, but due to the quick growth rate of chaparral, many sections need to be completely re-brushed every 2-5 years! Our most recent effort began in spring 2023 following an incredibly wet winter, which included two massive atmospheric river events in January that caused widespread damage to roads and trails across the forest. Between the Piedra Blanca Trailhead and Pine Mountain Lodge Camp, there were 4 large, unstable slides that would be unsafe to cross for many hikers, as well as numerous blown out and rutted sections of tread caused by the intense, locally-heavy rainfall. LPFA led a car camping volunteer Working Vacation at the trailhead to brush and clear these slides over the course of 5 days in May 2023. This trip focused on restoring the rutted sections of tread, clearing the impassable slides, and brushing the trail from the trailhead until the north side of the Piedra Blanca Rock Formation. At the end of the trip, we had brushed 2 miles of trail, restored 4 slides and spot-brushed for another 1.2 miles, reaching the creek crossing after Twin Forks Camp. And all of that done by volunteers in the 90 degree heat…. wooo!

The following spring, LPFA began leading backcountry projects based out of Piedra Blanca Camp to brush and restore tread further up the trail. Between May 2024 and June 2025, LPFA led 4 more multi-day volunteer projects between Piedra Blanca Camp and Pine Mountain Lodge. As of June 2025, the trail has been completely brushed with all slides clear from the trailhead to Pine Mountain Lodge Camp. The final 1.5 mies of trail before PML Camp is one of those sections of trail that has turned back, or at least scarred (physically, emotionally, or both) many backpackers. It included a mile long gauntlet of dreaded Whitehorn Ceanothus through which hikers had to tuck, duck, and even crawl, all while getting impaled by those nasty, irritative thorns. Well, we are happy to say that this section is now 6-8 feet wide and ready for visitors! Hopefully it stays open for several years to come….

Enter the gauntlet! The start of the infamous Whitehorn section before it was worked. And it got even worse than this….