Tag: Sespe Wilderness

TRAIL VOLUNTEERS: Piedra Blanca Trail

Posted on by Addison Jerlow

Piedra Blanca Trail Project

May 8 – 12, 2024

Sunset on Piedra Blanca, Nick D.

Hello Friends, 

LPFA and our wonderful volunteers have spent A LOT of time in the San Rafael Wilderness this season. No complaints here, it’s been incredible out there. But for our next project, we’re mixing it up and heading to the Sespe…. 

Join us at Piedra Blanca Camp ~ May 8 – 12 as we head back to the Sespe Wilderness for the second time this season! LPFA spent 5 days on the Piedra Blanca Trail in May 2023, knocking out 3.2 miles of maintenance from the trailhead to Twin Forks Camp. We’re excited to get back out there and keep working up toward Pine Mountain Lodge! Here’s what you need to know: 

  • LPFA will provide tools and some cold beverages for the trip. 
  • You’ll need to backpack in your own personal gear and food the 3.9 miles from the Piedra Blanca Trailhead to Piedra Blanca Camp. It’s a short and awesome hike across Sespe Creek and over the Piedra Blanca Formation. 
  • While we’d love people to come out for all 5 days, you are more than welcome to come for shorter stints too. Sign up and we’ll work out the details from there. 
  • Be sure to bring a bathing suit! There are awesome swimming holes near camp to cool off in at the end of the day. 
  • To sign up, please click the link below or email us at VOLUNTEER@LPForest.org with any questions. 

Thanks everyone, hope to see you out there…..

Piedra Blanca!? SIGN ME UP!!!

From top left: Area Map, Piedra Blanca Return, Dorsey C., Piedra Blanca Creek, Clancy T.

Winter Volunteer Opportunities

Posted on by Addison Jerlow

Shades of winter in the Dick Smith…

Hello Friends, 

We hope you’re off to a Los Padres-filled start to the New Year and taking advantage of the break in the weather to enjoy the green grass and flowing creeks the year-end storms left behind. And if you need a little encouragement, LPFA is here to offer ample opportunities for you to get your winter nature fix! Join us as we enter a ~somewhat~ dry January and set off into the Forest for some trail maintenance fun while the weather allows. From the Sespe River Trail, to Agua Blanca Creek, to the Santa Ynez Rec Area and back down to Matilija Canyon, we’ve got all your southern Los Padres trail work needs covered. We hope you can make one or even better, all of the volunteer days shown below. See you out there!

VOLUNTEER  TRAIL  WORK

Jan 11-15: Sespe River Trail

Join us in the Sespe Wilderness on MLK weekend to tackle the Kerr Spring Slide on the Sespe River Trail! LPFA will be backpacking to Bear Creek Camp on Thursday, January 11th and spending the long weekend fixing a particularly nasty slide between Bear Creek and Kerr Spring. This is an overnight trip and volunteers should come prepared to spend the night in the backcountry with their own gear. Details are still taking shape, click below to sign up!

Jan 21: Wheeler Gorge VC Cleanup

After 11 months of being closed, Highway 33 has finally opened between Matilija Road and Ozena Station, and so has our beloved Wheeler Gorge Visitor Center! Join us Sunday, January 21st from 10am – 2pm for coffee and a cleanup at the Center. Family and friends encouraged. Projects will include raking, sweeping, painting, trash cleanup and more! Email us at VOLUNTEER@LPForest.org to sign up and or to get more info!

Sespe River Trail
Wheeler Cleanup

Jan 26: Matias Connector Trail

LPFA will be beginning work on the Matias Connector Trailthis January. Come join us on Friday, January 26th as we begin brushing the trail open from River Road up toward Matias Potrero. We’ll be meeting at First Crossing at 8am. More details to come, email us at VOLUNTEER@LPForest.org to get on the list!

Feb 11: Super Bowl Trail Day

LPFA will be continuing the tradition of a Super Bowl Trail Project in the Ozena Station area of the Los Padres this February 11th! Exact trail location TBD, but come join us for a day of trail work in Deal Canyon-land and be home in time for the Super Bowl. More details to come, but sign up at the link below!

Matias Connector
Super Bowl Bash

Ongoing: Agua Blanca/Potholes

Sign up to join ongoing efforts to restore the Agua Blanca Trail within the Sespe Wilderness. Led by Alan Coles, volunteers will be meeting at Lake Piru and heading up the Agua Blanca clearing brush and downed trees. If you are interested in helping or learning more, please sign up and we’ll keep you posted. Click below……

Ongoing: Matilija Trail

Led by another legendary local trail steward named Peter Wilder, the LPFA has continued to work the Matilija Trail on most Thursdays and Saturdays since August. However, there is still much to do! If you are interested in helping or learning more, please sign up and we’ll keep you posted. Click below……

Agua Blanca
Matilija

Winter sunsets just hit different. From up on Mt Pinos.

Los Padres New Years Information, LPFA

Posted on by Bryan Conant

A Big Sunset Across Little Pine, no Photoshop or filters needed….

Hello Friends ~ Happy Holidays!

You’re likely getting inundated with year-end emails so we’ll keep this short but we needed to share a couple Los Padres updates before the end of the year. Let’s do this…..

Highway 33: OPEN

CalTrans reopened Hwy 33 after it had been closed for the previous 11 months. While the highway is open, there are lane closures and some campgrounds and trails remain closed. For more info click here….

Fire Restrictions

The Forest Service lifted fire restrictions; campfires are now allowed in most parts of the forest with a valid California Campfire Permit. See details and more information here….

Ventura Backcountry Updates

  • Earlier this month the LPFA was able to successfully complete a 9-day Working Vacation along the Alder Creek Trail within the eastern Sespe Wilderness. Thanks to the efforts of our volunteers and Trail Crew, we were able to maintain 5.5 miles of wilderness trail. 
  • Thank you everyone who contributed to our #GivingTuesday campaign to raise money in support of the Ventura Backcountry trails. We were able to exceed our goals and will be leading a volunteer trail project on the Sespe River Trail as soon as we get a clear weekend. Stay tuned….
  • Please join us on Saturday Jan 6 as we continue helping efforts to restore the Agua Blanca Trail within the Sespe Wilderness. Led by Alan Coles, volunteers will be meeting at Lake Piru and heading up the Agua Blanca clearing brush and downed trees. To sign up, click here. 
  • With the reopening of Highway 33, the LPFA was also able to reopen the beloved Wheeler Gorge Visitor Center. If you haven’t visited Wheeler Gorge, stop by next time you are in the neighborhood. We’re open weekends and holidays; just 15 minutes up from downtown Ojai. See you there….

Last but certainly not least, we need to thank all the dedicated LPFA volunteers who spend their free time in support of the forest. This includes volunteers at the Visitor Centers, our Board of Directors and of course all of you who spend time with us on the trails and within the forest. We also want to give a huge shout-out to our hard-working professional Trail Crew who spend all year helping the trails. They’re out in the forest 10 hours a day through the summer heat, the winter freeze and everything in between. Also a big thanks to all the donors, partners and grantors who support our mission in all ways imaginable. We truly could not do what we love to do without all of you!

Thank you everyone for a great 2023 with an even better 2024 on tap….

2023 Los Padres Forest Association Accomplishments

  • 9,944 volunteer hours 
  • 140 forest projects & hitches 
  • 577 individual volunteers 
  • 243 days spent on the trails 
  • 843 Trail Crew person days on the trails
  • 22,724 hours contributed to the forest 
  • 85 miles of trail maintained 
  • 495 miles of trail patrolled 
  • 731 miles of forest roads patrolled 
  • 1 one hundred and forty year old roof replaced

Thanks again everyone! Now go find some time to enjoy the forest, get a backpack in, go ride your favorite trail or take your family for a drive to a trailhead you’ve never visited. Safe travels and see you next year….

Discover the Los Padres Forest!

#GivingTuesday for the Ventura Backcountry Trails

Posted on by Bryan Conant

Hello Friends, 

Let’s talk a little Ventura Backcountry. Highway 33, which is the primary road used to access the Ventura Backcountry, has been closed since January due to storm damage. Hwy 33 is used to visit many special places including Pine Mountain, Matilija, Rose Valley, Piedra Blanca and large portions of the Sespe Wilderness. The latest update from CalTrans is that Hwy 33 is expected to reopen sometime around the end of the year – that will be great, we can’t wait! 

Unfortunately, so many of the trails accessed from Hwy 33 remain in very bad shape. Not only are there trail-gobbling landslides, washouts and sinkholes resulting from the winter rains but the plants have also been growing like crazy, exploding with trail-guising regrowth. We’ve helped survey many of the trails off Hwy 33 and most of them need a lot of work clearing slides, brushing back the scub oak and helping to once again define where the trail should go.

We’ve started with some of the trail restoration work and have led trail projects this year on the Sespe, Piedra Blanca, Matilija, Chorro Grande, Reyes Peak, Boulder Canyon and Alder Creek Trails but we’ve just scratched the surface of what is truly needed for this amazing network of trails. 

With your support this #GivingTuesday, we’d like to make a huge push over the coming months to get as many of the gnarly sections of trail cleared and back in good shape.

Believe it or not, that is the trail, Kerr Spring Slide,
photo SoniaC

First on our trail priority list would be repairing the Kerr Spring slide along the Sespe River Trail. This section of trail just upstream from Kerr Spring has been a problem for decades but was hit exceptionally hard this past January. Over a hundred yards of trail was buried by a landslide of rock and mud. It’s a disaster and certainly hard to navigate in its current condition. We’d love to organize a combination of volunteers and hired trail professionals to camp at nearby Bear Creek and spend a couple weeks clearing this slide and reopening the Sespe. Please considering helping this #GivingTuesday. 

We’ll also be continuing our work on the Matilija Trail (come volunteer too!), we’d love to clear Lion Cyn again, work the GMPB up towards Pine Mtn Lodge and hack away at both Potrero John and lower Chorro. No shortage of work to be done, we can’t wait to get out there and do what we do best. 

Your support today goes a long way to helping repair the trails across the Ventura Backcountry. Thanks everyone! See you in the forest and on the trails…..

#GivingTuesday for the Ventura Backcountry

PROJECT FULL

We’ll be working the Alder Creek Trail in the Sespe Wilderness above Fillmore all of next week as part of a large scale Working Vacation. The project is full but we’re looking to clear the trail from Dough Flat out to Cow Spring and hopefully down a couple miles towards Alder Creek. Should be fun, with us luck! 

PROJECT FULL

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

We’ve been chipping away at the Matilija Trail for the past few months and are now up about 2 miles from the lower trailhead. We’ll continue our regularly scheduled Thursday and Saturday volunteer days. The canyon is beautiful and we really appreciate all the hard work from the volunteers. Join the fun! 

SIGN UP HERE!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

This coming Sunday will be the second of many trail days this season pn the Agua Blanca Trail. The ABT is located above Lake Piru in the Sespe Wilderness. Super Volunteer Alan Coles will once again be leading the charge and we’ll hopefully continue pushing up towards the Devil’s Gate. Hope you can make it! 

SIGN UP HERE!

Giving to the Ventura Backcountry Trails

Posted on by Bryan Conant

Hello Friends,

We hope this email finds you well heading into what should be a lovely Thanksgiving Weekend. Thanksgiving is a fun time of year in the Los Padres. We’ve got peak fall colors across most of the forest and wild temperature swings where the daily highs and lows might vary by 40+ degrees. Certainly lots to be thankful for right here in our own backyard.

#GivingTuesday is just around the corner and the LPFA will be focusing our attention this year on a particularly needy portion of the Los Padres Forest – the trails of the Ventura Backcountry.

Highway 33 connects Ojai with the Cuyama Valley and provides most of the public access into the Ventura Backcountry. As you likely know, Hwy 33 was slammed this past winter during the early January storms and sustained significant structural damage. Despite all the hard work CalTrans has put in over the past 10 months, Hwy 33 remains closed with an expected reopening date of sometime between December 2023 and January 2024. Knock knock, we’re certainly hoping it reopens sooner rather than later.

While the pavement is being repaired, most of the trails off Hwy 33 have not been so fortunate. The LPFA has hosted some trail days on portions of the Ventura Backcountry including Pine Mtn, Reyes Peak, Chorro Grande, Piedra Blanca, Matilija, Alder Creek and the Sespe Trail, but the vast majority of trail miles have a whole lot of work needed. Slides need to be cleared, downed trees bucked, brush cut back and camp areas cleaned. Let’s get to it!

With your support this #GivingTuesday, the LPFA will make a push to maintain as many trails as we can along Hwy 33, the Sespe and the Ventura Backcountry. Any help either through donations or volunteering to help along the trails would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

#GivingTuesday for the Sespe and Ventura Backcountry Trails!

2024 Los Padres Calendar

The gift giving holidays are up next and what better way to say YOU ROCK than hooking up the Los Padres lover on your list with a sweet 2024 LP wall calendar! The calendars go to print next week and they are amazing, the best yet! We will have a limited amount so get em while you can. Twelve months of Los Padres awesomeness! Heck yeah…. And thanks to all of you who submitted photos this year, you all rock too!

HikeLosPadres.com

The weather is looking great this weekend. Last weeks rain knocked back some of the trail dust. It’s a terrific time to put in some post Turkey Day trail miles! If you are looking for trails to explore or new camps to stargaze from, look no further than HikeLosPadres.com for the latest and greatest information on the trails, water and camps across the Los padres. Check it out before you go and share after you get back! Have a fun and safe weekend everyone!

Springing Additional Los Padres Trails

Posted on by Bryan Conant
Over the cribwall and through the fields of flowers, to trail work we go…. Lower Manzana LPFA volunteer work, photo C Horgan

Hello Friends,

We hope this email finds you tired after a nice weekend on the trails. The Los Padres is in top form at the moment. If you haven’t found time to get out and explore… trust us, gotta make that happen. The BIG NEWS this week is that the Forest Service has released a new Forest Order which will again reduce the number of closed LP roads and trails. There has been a lot of work contributed by the Forest Service and partner groups in order to help restore this additional trail/road access. While this news is good for sure, there are still some fan-favorite trails which remain closed. We’ll be continuing our work helping to restore more trail access and we could certainly use your help either through upcoming volunteer projects, donations in support of our Trail Care or just let us know which trails you’d like to see reopened and lets see if we can figure out a way to make that happen together. One trail at a time, one step at a time…. Here are some notes from the latest order:

  • Monterey Ranger District
  • Santa Lucia Ranger District
    • Fig Mtn, Happy Cyn, Sunset Valley, NIRA, Davy Brown, Catway and Fig Mtn Campground have been reopened.
    • Most of the OHV trails out by La Panza / Navajo are reopened but some access roads remain closed.
    • Rockfront remains closed.
    • Machesna & Garcia Wilderness trails are closed.
  • Santa Barbara Ranger District
    • The most changes have occurred in the SBRD where the majority of the backcountry and mid-country trails have been reopened.
    • A few campgrounds have been reopened along Paradise Road and access beyond First Crossing is open for non-motorized use.
    • All OHV remains closed.
Santa Paula Cyn “Trail”? – Mary Mary
  • Ojai Ranger District
    • Not many changes on the Ojai to report mainly due to the continued closure of Hwy 33, which provides most access for the still closed trailheads and campgrounds.
    • The LPFA will be working out of Piedra Blanca in May, please come join the fun!
  • Mt Pinos Ranger District
    • The Pinos was not closed as part of the initial closure due mainly to the fact that most of the district trails were either covered in snow or behind seasonal closure gates.
    • As the snow begins to melt, the MPRD is starting to assess storm damage and will be delaying their seasonal gate opening date back from May 1 to June 1. Note that the gates could open earlier or later depending on discovered storm damage. Stay tuned or call the MPRD with questions.
    • Road access has been cleared up to Chula Vista and Mt Pinos.
Happy Volunteers Clearing Trail, Learning New Skills & Making Friends – photo MImes

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Listed below are the upcoming LPFA volunteer projects & events. Come one, come all! You can signup through the website or email us with any questions: VOLUNTEER@LPForest.org

  • Horn & Santa Paula Cyn, Ojai – April & May 2023
    • We’re continuing our regular Tuesday & Thursday volunteer projects on the Horn Canyon and Santa Paula Canyon Trails in Ojai. We’re on Horn Cyn at least the next few weeks and will then be moving over to Santa Paula. Come join us…..
  • Santa Barbara Cyn, Dick Smith – Apr 21-24 & May 5-8
    • The LPFA will be leading two 4-day backpacking trail projects on the Santa Barbara Cyn Trail. Both projects will be led by Mike Smith and his famous pack goats. The backcountry is so nice right now, hope you can make it….
  • Sespe Working Vacation, Sespe – May 17-21
    • This will be great, we’ll be out on the Sespe working trail from May 17-21 hopefully car-camping at Middle Lion Campground. Over the course of the 5-days we’ll be working a combination of the Lion Cyn, Piedra Blanca and Sespe Trails. This is a must attend…..
  • Davy Brown Trail, Figueroa Mountain – April 25-26
    • The Davy Brown Trail is in bad shape, lets fix that! Come join us as we spend two days and a night helping to clear downed trees and branches from the beloved Davy Brown Trail. We’ll hopefully be car-camping at Davy Brown Campground and working up from there. Feel free to come out for a day or both days and camp with us. Should be great. Details still taking shape, you can sign up here or email at VOLUNTEER@LPForest.org.
  • Santa Cruz Trail, Paradise Road
    • One of the major goals for the LPFA this year was to restore the remaining sections of the Santa Cruz Trail between Upper Oso and Santa Cruz Station. Mother Nature had different plans and threw a couple good curve balls into the equation but with receding water levels we should be able to start working the Santa Cruz soon. We’ll likely have an assortment of different volunteer opportunities, let us know if you’d like to be on the list and we’ll share details as they take shape: VOLUNTEER@LPForest.org

LPFA Trail Work GivingTuesday

Posted on by Bryan Conant
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!

Posted on by Bryan Conant
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. 

Check out this video of the Alder Creek Slide repairs!
Support #GivingTuesday 2022 on the Santa Cruz Trail!
Sespe Creek in Full Bloom

Sespe Wilderness Campaign

Posted on by Bryan Conant
Donate Here

The Sespe Wilderness covers over 200,000 acres of the Los Padres National Forest within Ventura County and is home to dozens of miles of backcountry trails. One of the most popular trails within the Sespe is the Sespe River Trail, which follows a historic route along Sespe Creek for over 16 miles.  Other popular trails include the Gene Marshall – Piedra Blanca Trail, which is one of only two National Recreation Trails within the Los Padres National Forest.  Some of these trails are also key segments along the 420 mile Condor Trail, which begins in LA County and crosses the length of the Los Padres before ending at Botchers Gap near Big Sur.  The Sespe is also home to the Sespe Condor Sanctuary as well as the only herd of bighorn sheep in the Los Padres.  The Sespe is most popular in spring and early summer when the swimming holes are at their best but remains a popular destination for year-round recreation.

The Los Padres Forest Association is asking for funding to maintain recreational access to the Sespe Wilderness. Trails on the forest do not maintain themselves, and without continued maintenance, our forest will loose these trails to overgrown brush and downed trees. If you’ve ever been on a hike in the Los Padres, you’ve probably had to push your way through thick chaparral on trails that have not been maintained for over 20 years…. 

Maintaining trails involves a massive cooperative effort between the US Forest Service, local outfitters, and volunteers. Funds raised will go directly to the trails by helping to pay for numerous working vacations and volunteer based trips within the Sespe Wilderness. We expect to complete about 10 miles of trail maintenance before the end of 2020. 

Trails needing work:

1. Sespe River Trail

2. Gene Marshall-Piedra Blanca

3. Alder Creek

In response to declining federal funding for recreation, LPFA has become a key player in the continued care and maintenance of trails across the Los Padres. We are out working the trails almost every day of the year. Our continued efforts to keep trails open would not be possible without financial support. THANK YOU!