trailwork – Los Padres Forest Association

The Smallest Los Padres Email

Posted on April 18, 2025 by Bryan Conant

The Smallest Post Office – as seen along Highway 33 for many decades

The Smallest Post Office

Many of you may remember passing a really small Post Office while heading out from Ojai along Highway 33. That was no ordinary small Post Office, it was the Smallest Post Office. Built in the 1930’s, the Smallest Post Office served as the Post Office for residents living along Maricopa Highway. The PO was decommissioned in 1962 but the structure remained at Wheeler Springs as a beloved and frequently photographed point of interest and continued reminder of times passed. Unfortunately, the Smallest Post Office was consumed and destroyed during the December 2017 Thomas Fire. Gone forever.

Not so fast…. The LPFA manages the Visitor Center at Wheeler Gorge just a shorts ways above where the Smallest Post Office used to be. Ever since the Thomas Fire we’ve been dreaming of rebuilding the Smallest Post Office and thanks to the help of many Ojai historians, community supporters and friends, we are in the process of rebuilding the Smallest Post Office and it will reside at the Visitor Center for people to visit and enjoy! #FantasticNews

While work has begun on the Smallest Post Office, we could use help paying for the materials and supplies. All labor is being donated. If you’re interested in helping, please click here or the button below. Our goal is to have the Smallest Post Office completed in time for our May 3rd Open House. Thank you all for your help and next time you’re heading along Hwy 33, please be sure to stop in at the Visitor Center and say hello!

Donate for the Smallest Post Office

It’s definitely HikeLosPadres season! – check in before you go & share when you get back – photo CHorgan

Wildfire Risk Reduction Project

You may remember that back in 2022 the Forest Service announced a proposal called the Ecological Restoration Project (ERP) which would implement fire protective vegetation treatments on over 230,000 acres across the Los Padres National Forest. After additional research and public comments, the FS has issued a revised proposal of vegetation treatment called the Wildfire Risk Reduction Project (WRRP). While the intent of the WRRP proposal is similar to the ERP, there are some changes between the two. The most obvious change is that the treatment area has been reduced to 90,796 acres.

There’s no shortage of information available online and across social media discussing the pros and cons of fire protective vegetation treatments. In addition to what you can find online, the FS will be hosting 3 in-person Open Houses and 1 on-line virtual meeting to discuss the project. More information is shared at the links below.

If interested, we strongly suggest that you educate yourself on the WRRP and share your comments with the Forest Service. The public comment period runs from May 2 – June 2, 2025.

Wheeler Gorge Open House: May 3

Put this on your calendar immediately: Saturday May 3 @ the Wheeler Gorge Visitor Center outside of Ojai. The Los Padres Open House will be super fun. There’ll be folks talking LP trails, Condor Trail, SAR, crosscut trail work, critters, rocks, Chumash and more. Food. A climbing wall. Arts & crafts. We even heard that Smokey might be there too! Bring the family or come alone! Sure to be fun. See you there…..

Day 1 on the northbound Condor Trail – photo Addison

Trailwork Update

The LPFA is busy this week wrapping up our first 12-day Working Vacation along the Alder Creek Trail in the Sespe Wilderness. More on that to come. Below are a few upcoming volunteer opportunities to check out:

April 19 – State Trails Day – Cold Spring Trails, Santa Barbara Frontcountry
April 19 – Matilija Trail Restoration, Ojai Area
April 26 – Horn Canyon Trail, Ojai – w/ Runners for Public Lands (postponed due to rain)
April 29 – Trailwork Tuesday w/ Montecito Trails Foundation
May 2025 – Matilija Working Vacation – dates to come

Lower Manzana 40″ Gray Pine Crosscut Time Lapse

Posted on May 11, 2022 by Bryan Conant

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……

LPFA Transverse – HOTEMBER

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Bryan Conant

Whoa, has it been hot! September is usually one of the hottest months across the Los Padres and 2014 is no different. Most of the backcountry has been baking and taking the remaining water with it. We’ve been getting reports of places drying up that we didn’t think was possible. Reports of the Carmel River drying up, Upper Indian Creek dry and everything else at all-time low levels. There was a backpacker last week in the Sespe that had to be airlifted out due to heat stroke and dehydration. If you are heading to the mountains and are unsure if there will be water, it’s best to be on the safe side and plan on there being no water – bring every drop you might need. And of course, before you head out, contact your local Forest Service and ask them for any recent reports. You can always ask us as well and we’ll see if we can dig anything up.

Now all that being said, the forecast is changing and temperatures will be going down over the next few days and into next week. And don’t look now, the northern reaches of the Los Padres even have some rain in the forecast.

NATIONAL PUBLIC LANDS DAY

September 27 is National Public Lands Day (NPLD). NPLD is the single greatest day across the United States for volunteerism and the Los Padres is no exception. There are a series of projects scattered across the forest including trail work, invasive plant removal, sign installation, trash cleanup and Visitor Center maintenance. We put together a webmap to help highlight all the projects. Check it out:

http://bit.ly/1mfyU6j

Hope to see you out there somewhere and if you have a project you’d like us to include on the map, let us know.

Devils Gateway, Agua Blanca – September 2014

W O R K I N G V A C A T I O N

Each year the LPFA hosts a larger-than-normal trail project that we call a Working Vacation. The Working Vacations usually involve a cook, stock support and an ideal location for volunteers to work the trail while at the same time feel a little more pampered than a usual trail project. This year we’ve been asked to support the Ojai Ranger District by hosting a Working Vacation on the Potholes Trail outside of Lake Piru. The Potholes Trail also happens to be a key component of the Condor Trail. We scouted the trail a few weeks ago and the project is taking shape for sometime in November with Log Cabin Camp along the Agua Blanca being the basecamp. Details to come in the next weeks. If you are interested in hearing more, please let us know and we’ll get you on the list: info@LPForest.org

S A N T A C R U Z S C R E E

For those of you who have hiked the Santa Cruz Trail from Upper Oso up towards Little Pine, no doubt you remember the scree slides along the southern face of Little Pine. These slides have been terrorizing trail users and frustrating trail builders since Hector was a pup. Last week the LPFA headed out that way to install two short lengths of rope to aid hikers and bikers as they cross the infamous slides. We’ve been hearing tales of people refusing to go through the slides out of fear. If nothing else, the rope should provide confidence and assurance that the slides are safe to pass. So far we’ve heard compliments from both the hiking and biking community. In the meantime the search for a permanent solution to the scree slides goes on…….