Mushroom season has begun

Last weekend I did my annual Ultimate Hike. We hike 17.5 miles and do a mile of elevation gain. The profile doesn't just go up to a summit and back down. Instead we go up and down all day, with worse hills toward the end. It's a brutal hike for people who like brutal hikes. Everyone who came had a great time and we did the hike in record time without rushing. We started at 8am and were home by 4pm.

Yesterday I attended the annual Topatopa potluck hike. We hike 7 miles with 4700 feet elevation gain to the edge of the Topatopa bluffs. The hike gets steeper and steeper toward the summit. At the top we have a potluck. Then we hike 7 miles back to the car.

On last weekend's Ultimate hike I noticed some chanterelle mushrooms on the side of the trail. I picked them all and took them home. Yesterday, while I was hiking to the Topatopa bluffs, The Man was out visiting our mushroom tree. He came home with a plastic grocery bag full of big chanterelles. Tonight we ate enormous plates of mushrooms for dinner.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain. Our mushroom tree will get more mushrooms. Mushroom season has begun!

Hike to Haddock Camp

I've been wanting to thru-hike the Gene Marshall Piedra Blanca National Recreation Trail. The trail is 18 miles long but I have never seen the whole thing. I had hoped to do the whole thing this week but it turned out I was only able to do an overnighter. There was a lot of snow.

We started the hike from Reyes Creek campground and hoped to get to Pine Mountain Lodge. That would make it a completion of the trail as a section hike for me. We only made it to Haddock Campsite, about 8 miles. There was a lot of snow and we wallowed in it most of the day.

Here is our camp at Haddock Camp. This is the first time I ever pitched a tent on snow. It was very cold.

It was hard to find wood because of all the snow so our fire didn't last as long as I would have liked. We tried to dry our socks and warm up before bed.

It was hard to sleep because it was so cold. I brought two quilts so I had enough down on top of me but I didn't have enough padding beneath me. The cold seeped in from below and I struggled to stay warm. We tried to cuddle up together and share body heat. Here we are in the morning hiking back. We postholed up to our shins in some places but it wasn't too bad.

I have to add that the 2nd quilt I brought, a Jacks R Better wearable quilt, is the bomb. In the morning I stuck my head through the headhole while it was still warm and then wore it around camp as we drank coffee and put things away. I highly recommend such a great piece of gear. I was skeptical at first, but it was pure luxury and so sensible.

Finding the trail in the snow had been easy. We just followed the bear. Here is a picture of Trailhacker following my foot prints, the bear prints are the larger ones to his left and heading off in another direction are deer prints. The deer and bears seem to follow the trail, even the switchbacks, perfectly, so rather than search for trail in the snow we just followed the bear the whole way.

Hike to La Cumbre Peak

Today I hiked to La Cumbre Peak via Tunnel Trail. I don't think many people have any idea what hiking is like in Santa Barbara. Hopefully this set of pictures gives a little peak into it. Tunnel Trail is about a 10 minute drive from downtown. We are so lucky. It's not even the only trail so close to town, either. There are several other trailheads this close and the trailhead for Tunnel Trail leads to several trails, loops and destinations.

Here's the view looking down into downtown from about 1/3 of the way up the trail. You can see the ocean, too. The trail-like squiggly line is a dirt road that you can also hike that has nice views.


Looking at Arlington Peak. There is a trail that goes up the spine of the ridge to the top. It's one of the more strenuous hikes locally.


Arlington and Cathedral peaks from behind. Cathedral Peak is the little notch sticking up. Most locals call Arlington Peak Cathedral Peak as a sort of short-hand. Cathedral Peak is then often called "The Thumb." There's a cave at the base on the front side of Cathedral Peak called the Horse Cave. Urban legend is that horses were stolen and hidden in there. I don't think it's quite big enough to store horses. Maybe one horse can fit in the cave.


We've reached the top of Tunnel Trail. Now we can see the wilderness behind Santa Barbara. The wilderness back there is incredibly remote and rugged. Trails get swallowed by the chaparral. You often have to hike with not just a GPS or map and compass, but also with a saw, loppers and heavy leather gloves. It is lonely back there on those trails. Often I will not see other people. Often the only tracks on the trail belong to bears and lions.


We hiked along East Camino Cielo Road for a mile or so to La Cumbre Peak. This is another view of the wilderness behind Santa Barbara, looking toward Mission Pine where The Man and I hope to take a backpack trip in a few days, weather permitting.

From the tops of the mountain ranges on the horizon, you can stand and look at the Pacific Ocean and Channel Islands in one direction and look at the snowy peaks of the High Sierra around Langly and Whitney in the other. When we camp at Mission Pine Spring, we will sit out on the edge of a rocky cliff and watch cars way off in the distance driving over the Cold Spring arch bridge as the sun sets. You feel so close but at the same time, so very far away, isolated and alone.


The view of Arlington/Cathedral Peaks and downtown Santa Barbara from La Cumbre Peak. It was about 5.5 miles to get up here and about 3200' elevation gain. I live near the base of that small hill on the horizon against the ocean, near the notch in the hill, on the downtown side of the hill. That hill is called "The Mesa."


Arlington and La Cumbre peak on the way down. I always like this view of the notch in the mountains. The mountains are all sedimentary layers and where there is a layer of shale between the sandstone, there's a notch. The layers are all upside-down, meaning the bottom is to the left and the top of the layers is to the right. They can tell that from embedded fossil shells. There was a fire here in 2009 which is why the scrub is somewhat barren. It used to be more green with chamise and scrub oak. There's a lot of morning glory choking everything.

Coconut butter for backpacking

I found a great product today at the health food co-op. It's called coconut butter. It's different from coconut oil or coconut cream. I guess it's like as almond butter is to almonds, coconut butter is to coconuts. It has 186 calories in 2 tablespoons. The jar says not to refrigerate after opening. It is solid until about 80 degrees. The label suggests warming it a little and spreading it on things, or using it to make homemade energy bars. It may make a delicious backpacking food. It could be added to oatmeal or other hot foods or if it's spreadable, I could spread it with almond or peanut butter in a sandwich. Perhaps some kind of homemade energy bar with nuts and cocoa nibs would be good. Apparently many people just eat it right out of the jar with a spoon. I haven't opened it or tasted it yet, but I imagine it is probably a lot better tasting than olive oil, something I have struggled to eat on backpacking trips because it just makes my pot hard to clean without adding any appreciable taste. It was a little expensive, but I think it's worth a try.

I'm planning or at least hoping to go backpacking around Thanksgiving weekend. Either over Thanksgiving or just before or after it. I want to thru-hike the Gene Marshall Piedra Blanca National Recreation Trail. Actually, I want to yo-yo it. Ha ha. The trail is 18 miles long, but it should actually be just right for a long weekend. I can visit Fishbowls camp to add a little extra distance.

Lots of hiking this weekend!

On Saturday we hiked up to Dabney Cabin on the Manzana trail. It was a lovely tropical September day with some lightning and thunder at the beginning, warm humidity with cool cloud cover most of the day and warm sun toward the end of the day. The fall colors are starting to show. We hiked fast and hard and everyone seemed happy.

On the way in, there was a hive of yellow jackets on the trail. Half of us got stung, including me. On the way back, I didn't want to get stung again so I hiked in the creek back to the cars rather than take the trail. The creek was shady and pretty and it was really pleasant.

It was a 13 mile hike that I did in my homemade huarache sandals. It is fun to hike in them. I'm getting a good tan on my feet just as the summer is ending.

On Sunday we hiked up to Gaviota Peak. The weather was cold, foggy and wet. We didn't want to stop on the summit for lunch because everyone was wet from the exertion and sweat and the wind was blowing cold wet fog so it was not pleasant. Instead we continued through the overgrown trail and got even wetter as we pushed through brush. Then after a couple more miles, we found a flat spot in the sun and ate there. People were tired of the overgrown trail so half the group took the dirt road back to the cars and the rest of us kept on the trail. We all ended up at the cars at the same time. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

One guy on the hike told me he had recently lost 95 pounds. His doctor told him he needed to lose weight and get his diabetes under control. Apparently he has achieved it. He was surprised when he called me about the hike that we would be out exercising for 4 or 5 hours. He normally took an hour walk each day. He thought it was super human to exercise for that long. Well, he made it easily, or at least it looked like he did it easily. Hopefully he's learned that exercise, especially something fun like hiking, doesn't need to be rationed, that it is possible to walk 16 hours in a day and wake up feeling fine the next day. That's one of the many things I like about hiking.

A hike up the creek near Piedra Blanca

I brought my Invisible Shoes on a hike yesterday. I hiked up the trail wearing my Chacos. The hike was a short one, about 3 miles on a trail and then half a mile up a creek. The creek part took as long as the trail part. I am very sore now and all scratched up from the bouldering. I'll probably get some wicked poison oak.

At the end of the creek part was a huge blue-green swimming hole. We swam and jumped from rocks into the cold water. It was probably 20 feet deep. There were steelhead trout in the pool but we scared them into hiding. I learned yesterday that steelhead trout are the same species as rainbow trout. The difference between them is that steelhead spend some time living in the ocean. It's possible these had never been to sea but I think they still call them steelhead in this area because that is their normal behavior, to go to sea at some point and come back again.

Hiking in the creek was pretty difficult. I am not good at this kind of thing. I felt like I couldn't trust my footing. Some of the rocks were very slippery and some were not but you couldn't really tell which ones just by looking at them. Sometimes even the dry ones were slippery. So I pretty much did the whole half mile of creek hiking bent over holding on with my hands.

After the swim and after descending back to the trail, I decided to hike in the Invisible Shoes. They feel like you have thin little rubber mats that come up to meet your bare feet with every step. I don't really even feel the straps, just the mats under my feet. You have to watch where you walk because you can feel every rock. It felt like a total relief to take off the Chacos and walk in what felt pretty much like my bare feet. I wished I could have hiked in them in the creek. I think the rubber they are made of might have stuck to the rocks better than the rubber of the Chacos, but they are so thin the movement of your foot through the water just flaps the sandals right in half under your toes. So they are fine to swim in, if you want to wear them swimming, but you can't hardly walk through water in them.

After the hike we went to Deer Lodge which has really slow service but decent buffalo and other game meat burgers and beer and bikers. I saw a guy there who I really thought was Too Obtuse from the PCT. I finally had to ask him if he was Too Obtuse, which of course sounded like the stupidest thing to ask a person, so I quickly had to say, "I mean, is your name Too Obtuse." He wasn't Too Obtuse and thankfully he didn't beat me up or anything.

Sport sandal hiking huaraches

I continue to make shoes every now and then, although lately only sandals. I've made two pairs of huarache sandals and I like them both very much.

One pair is relatively thin, just two 6mm layers of rubber soling sheet glued together. There are little leather tabs on the side and a loop for between the toe sandwiched between the layers of soling sheet. The leather lace goes through the tabs and the loop instead of going through the bottom of the sole. They are very minimal. I have worn them on walks at the university where I work and I brought them on a camping trip and just wore them around camp.

I added a suede top to these and 10mm black leather laces.

The other pair is relatively heavy-duty with 8mm Vibram soling sheet on the bottom layer, with some vegetable-tanned leather on top and another layer of suede on top of that. Same loop and tab system but with 10mm heavy leather laces. I've worn them on hikes in the mountain and usually wear them to work each day. There's something liberating about them even though they are so thick.

I wore them on a hike last weekend. We hiked up Rattlesnake trail to the Connector to the waterfall on Tunnel Trail, then down Tunnel to Mission Ridge and back down to Rattlesnake. I struggled a bit on the Mission Ridge trail, especially on the downhill part. I usually struggle and there's always a section or two where I have to scoot on my butt. It was no different this time, but with the sandals on, I felt like I had to blame the sandals. Other than the butt-scooting, I was pretty slow going down the hill. I didn't feel confident I wouldn't slip and fall, and the thong between my toes hurt a little.

Still, I was pretty happy I was able to make a pair of sport sandals and hike on a really gnarly trail in them. I had no trouble on the regular trails. Rattlesnake was fine. Tunnel was fine. Going up hill or on rocky sections or down a normally-graded trail was not a problem at all. My feet were bare with no socks on. I can't even do that in my Chacos.

I'm thinking maybe another try. Go with the same system with the loops and tabs sandwiched between two layers. But for the bottom layer, use a lugged sole for bullet-proof downhill traction. I haven't decided what to use for the top layer. The rubber is nice because it will dry fast if I go through a creek. But it's rough on my skin. The vegetable-tanned leather is nice because eventually it molds a little to your feet and it is flexible yet very protective against rocks. The suede just feels nice. I haven't decided what to do yet.

Bioluminescent caterpillars on the trail

To celebrate the summer solstice I led a Sierra Club hike to the top of Montecito Peak, which is at something like 3400 feet. It was a lovely summer day. The sun actually came out early on this day, early enough to watch the Summer Solstice parade at noon and then enjoy this evening hike as the sun went down.

I don't do a lot of night hiking but whenever I do, I always wish I would do more. We hiked up to the peak and ate our dinner looking at the view of the ocean, Montecito and Santa Barbara. Then we hiked down again as the sun went down. With a couple miles left to go, it got dark and we hiked the rest of the way with flashlights in pitch black under the shady trees of the canyon. We could hear the frogs in the creek below and best of all, we could see the bioluminescent caterpillars, aka glow worms.

I shined my flashlight on the glow worms to get a better look. They are just tiny, orangish, naked, little caterpillars with one glowing spot on the lower third of their bellies. It gives off quite a lot of light for such a small area. As I hiked, I got quite a bit ahead of the others and so I enjoyed stopping every now and then and turning off my light to see if there were more blue-white lights twinkling in the brush.

In the dark you cannot see well where you are going. All you can really see is the trail. When I reached the end of the trail, it was almost a surprise because I couldn't tell until I was right there.

Everyone on the hike seemed to enjoy it, which doesn't usually happen. Most of the hikers were unfamiliar people and usually unfamiliar people are not in good shape and not expecting an actual hike where people walk with purpose for 7 or 8 real miles. Most people expect we'll dawdle along and when we say 7 or 8 miles and bring 2 liters of water they think we're joking. Then they come and have a terrible time. Not this time. People came expecting a real hike and some of them even thought I was too slow, running little circles behind me or even once physically pushing me to go faster. They were young kids from Korea with different ideas of personal space, I guess. But they all had a good time, they were all good hikers and felt it was the highlight of the Summer Solstice weekend.

Little Pine Spring

I decided to do a little overnighter this weekend. The Man was leading a Sierra Club Hike to Little Pine Mountain. I told him I would bring my backpack and go on the hike and then stay overnight up there and then walk home or something. The Man decided he wanted to come with me. So we both did the Sierra Club hike with our backpacks and just let the other hikers find their own way back. We went on and camped at Little Pine Spring.

We had to begin the hike at Aliso Canyon instead of at the Upper Oso trailhead because the road was still closed at First Crossing. That added two extra miles to our hike (and four extra miles to the dayhikers.)

The trail up to Little Pine Mountain was in good shape. It was a hot day. Steve was way ahead as usual but the others were feeling the heat, and so was I. We all planned to stop at the spring on the way up and rest and drink some water and then continue the final push to the top. Steve, being way ahead of everyone, missed the turn to the spring and ended up waiting for us for a long time. The rest of us enjoyed the cool, fresh water and relief from the heat.

When we got to Alexander Saddle, Steve was heading down thinking maybe we had had a problem. No problem. We were just enjoying the spring. Everyone decided Alexander Saddle was far enough. So The Man and I said good-bye to everyone and continued down the trail toward Little Pine Spring camp. The trail suddenly fell apart.

There were downed trees and big trail washouts. It was slow going the final couple miles to the turn-off to Little Pine Spring.

The sign to the spring was embedded in some bushes, with no trail visible anywhere. We remembered that if we hugged the bottom edge of the potrero, where the grass met the brush, there would be a faint trail to follow. We continued on the main trail and then we just wend straight down the side of the hill to the bottom and picked up that faint trail. We followed for a while then lost it in some old dried up mustard. We fought the mustard straight down the hill where we picked up the faint trail again. We could see the camp.

The camp was nice. The pipe feeding the trough was dripping slowly, but above the trough, two pipes had spring water flowing quickly through them. The water has to be the best-tasting water in the backcountry of Santa Barbara. Most water tastes horrible, but this water was sweet and delicious.

We spread out the tyvek under the tree and just laid around and talked and relaxed, flicking ticks off us and swatting flies. It was a wonderful relaxing afternoon. We listened to birds and watched two ravens fly slowly over the camp, eyeing us with one eye pointed at us. Maybe they like to come each evening for water at the spring. They'd have to drink from the creek up the hill tonight. We watched them catch a mouse in the field and fly off to eat it. There are so many birds in the wilderness here in So Cal. Way more than on the PCT anywhere north of Kennedy Meadows. I could hear at least 6 different kinds, including humming birds, quail, mourning doves, ravens and many other smaller birds.

We enjoyed one of the warmest backcountry nights we'd ever had. It was breezy but comfortable. Our sleeping bags were almost too hot. The moon was very bright.

In the morning we decided to explore a connector trail that led to Happy Hollow camp near the summit of Little Pine mountain. We lost the faint trail in a fallen tree and then spent about 3 hours bushwhacking through impossible tangly brush going about 1 mile in about 3 hours. It was pretty stupid. I'm all cut up now on top of my raging sunburn. The sunburn I got because I thought it was such a nice day I might enjoy a short-sleeved shirt! No more short-sleeved shirts!

The way down the hill back to our car was very long. We didn't get to the car until about 3 in the afternoon. We remembered it was Tri-tip sandwich day at the Cold Spring Tavern so we stopped there for delicious sandwiches and beer. We earned it.

I was glad The Man came with me. I felt bad that nobody wanted to backpack with me. My friend lied about last weekend. Nobody but The Man will backpack with me. It was nice he decided to go. I probably would not have had as nice a time without him.

Poppy Hill

This weekend I did a day hike with The Man in the Figueroa Mountain area. This is supposedly prime wildflower season but it appears it is not really a good year for wildflowers. We got a lot of rain, then a hot of heat, then a ton of rain. It probably stressed out the seedlings.

This hill is normally covered in poppies and lupine. There were mostly just poppies. It was a cool and cloudy day so the poppies weren't open. It was a little disappointing for those who drove all the way to see it. Fortunately, I drove all the way to go hiking and I enjoyed the beautiful spring green instead of the gaudy flowers.

The Man and I did a nice loop hike. We parked near the poppy hill and hiked out along the Catway road to the Willow Springs trail. We followed Willow Springs and went down toward Davy Brown campground. Then we picked up the Davy Brown trail. There are two spots you can pick up the Davy Brown trail from the Willow Springs trail and we chose the lower of the two. Then we hiked up the Davy Brown trail to Figueroa Mountain Road. Then we walked the road for 3 miles back to the car.

There were lots of people out driving the road to see the meager flower display. There were lots of people hiking the Davy Brown trail, many of which wore Barefoot Ted huarache running sandals. One of them had a handful of banana slugs leaving slime all over his fingers. Gross. Nobody was on the Willow Springs trail. It's quite overgrown. I picked up a tick who got me on my stomach. That's two ticks in two weekends. A bad year for flowers but a good year for ticks.

I had asked friends of mine if they wanted to go backpacking with me this weekend. One didn't respond. The other said he had all kinds of plans with his work and it wouldn't be a good weekend to go backpacking anyway because there was supposed to be a big storm coming in with snow. I got an email this morning from him. Turns out the two of them went backpacking together. Nobody wants to go backpacking with me.

Fine then. I will never ask anyone to go backpacking with me. I will do everything I want to do alone. I hate people.

Hike to Santa Paula Peak

Yesterday Trailhacker and I went with the Sierra Club to hike to Santa Paula Peak. The hike was a car shuttle and about 16 miles of hiking.

We started at St. Thomas Aquinas college and hiked along the creek, which was flowing strongly, keeping to the right of the creek the whole way until we reached some switchbacks that brought us up to a trash-filled awful campsite. I hadn't been on this trail since around 1999. It used to be a wide dirt road and now is an informal trail all along the creek and a narrow trail on the switchbacks.

The campsite was disgusting. How can people stand to camp like that, surrounded by other people's trash, garbage, crap-filled toilet paper, used condoms and other stuff? We hiked to an overlook, stepping over broken plastic bags and strewn wrappers, to where we could see the waterfall and the swimming holes called the Punchbowls. What I remember being a really pretty swimming hole was covered in graffiti. It was depressing.

We descended from the campsite to the creek and began hiking up the East Fork. The creek was pretty high and flowing fast. The water was cloudy and silty. It was rarely more than about knee deep so it was not impossible to negotiate. It wasn't even very cold.

We slogged up the creek for hours, sometimes tangling ourselves in the alders which would whip me in the face from time-to-time. I really wished I had some safety glasses to protect my eyes. The sky was cloudy and I could not see with my sunglasses on and so hiked with my eyes half shut to try and protect them. It was rough going and exhausting.

The creek itself was mildly treacherous. I am a creek crossing weenie and not being able to see the bottom had me moving slowly so that I would not fall. Many of the hills and benches we climbed over were slippery and crumbly. I was thinking I might poop out completely. Our leader was a bigger death marcher than I am and we were never allowed any break time at all.

Just when I thought I couldn't go any further, we stopped on a bench above the creek for a little rest while the leader and one of the other hikers scouted around for the "trail." The leader found it on the hillside above us. We then left the bench, which was a hangout for big banana slugs, and climbed steeply up the side of the hill to a "trail." The trail looked to me like a bear trail at the most.

It was good to be on a trail again. I was able to pick up my pace and keep up a lot better. The trail was faint but easy to follow. We winded up to a ridge and followed it through lovely oak forest with lots of duff. I really liked this section of the hike.

Next we followed the trail past some old wooden posts that must have marked something long ago and joined a slightly better trail. This trail was lined with rocks to better see it among all the fallen oak leaves. We followed it to a wonderful camp called Cienega. The area was full of huge oak trees, big cone spruce, primeval giant ferns and tiger lilies which weren't yet in bloom. We stopped for lunch at long last at the biggest picnic table in the world and sat on comfy reclining chairs made from enormous old logs.

After lunch we continued climbing along a very good trail up to the peak. Santa Paula peak once had a lookout tower but all that remained were burned posts where the structure had stood and melted glass. Fog covered the valleys but we could see Hines Peak, the Toptopas and even the snowy San Gabriels in the distance. It was an amazing and beautiful view.

After enjoying the summit, we headed down the trail. It was still 6 more miles to our cars at the end of the shuttle. We descended endlessly into the fog, switchback after tick-strewn switchback. Gratefully I was far to the rear of the pack where I picked up very few ticks.

We finally reached a grassy dirt road in the middle of a green grassy hillside with a few wildflowers popping up. We spent some time brushing ticks off and waiting for the hikers behind us to catch up. Then we were off down the road, chasing cows and trying to avoid stepping in mud or cowpies. We passed gorgeous oak trees and finally reached the avocados and lemons of the ranch that let us park on their property.

We drove back to Santa Barbara where I took all my clothes off to take a shower and do a tick check. One got me. Trailhacker tweezed it out of my skin. Today the bite feels like a painful bruise.

I didn't much care for the treacherous creek hopping, but the area climbing toward Cienega was wonderful. I would love to return to Cienega someday just to be around the giant old oaks and ferns.

A trip report from last weekend in the storm

The Sierra Club groups and the boy scouts weren't the only ones who got surprised by the weather and rescued last weekend. There's a pretty good trip report on Backpacker Mag's web site with some great pictures from a couple who attempted to hike the Sisquoc Loop this weekend.

Hikers rescued

It turns out that there were three Sierra Club groups hiking in the backcountry this weekend and all three of them were rescued by search and rescue. People are all mad at them now. Bad publicity for the Sierra Club.

The three groups were part of a Wilderness Basics course where they teach backpacking. The beginner group had tried to get themselves out of the backcountry by trying to hike out to the highway via some off-trail route and were found struggling at a cliff and had to be repelled down. The other two groups were found just chilling in their campsites.

People are all mad now at the Sierra Club calling them a bunch of irresponsible hippies who should pay for for their rescues. The thing is, nobody in any of the groups called for a rescue. It was someone at home who called. Seventy-two people were rescued over the weekend and only some of those people were in the wilderness and even fewer of them asked for the rescue.

I thought about this and what I hope to remember to do if this ever happens to me is to leave a note somewhere as close to the cars ad I can get that says don't bother rescuing me. I'm fine. I am waiting for the creeks to go down and then I'll walk myself out. Then I'd go back to the camp and kick back. There is nothing about civilization that is so pressing that I need to risk my life to get back.

We got a call last night from a woman who was concerned because her daughter went on a Sierra Club Wilderness Basics backpacking trip. The Wilderness Basics is a course that teaches people how to backpack. The Man and I don't have anything to do with it so we couldn't help the woman. We knew there were three separate groups out there this weekend but we weren't sure where they went and we certainly didn't know which group her daughter was in. The woman was pretty upset with us, but what could we do.

We think that at least one of the groups went to where we were hiking the weekend before, on the Gene Marshall Piedra Blanca trail. If so, we had nearly a foot of rain yesterday and it's likely they could not have crossed the Sespe River to get back to their cars. If it would have been me out there, I would have hiked up the Sespe Trail to see if I could cross further upstream and then hike the highway back to my car, but I'm betting you would not be able to cross there either. So it's likely they got stuck out there for an extra night. A foot of rain in that rugged wilderness and boulders and trees might be coming down the river which might be up to people's chests. I wouldn't even try to cross.

People think oh, it's just California. The PCT hikers especially dismiss Southern California as being easy desert hiking. It's not desert and it's not always easy. The weather here is extreme. Sunshine in winter, yes, but sunshine one day and a foot of rain the next. Those big dry rivers you see? They actually do fill up once in a while. Our mountains are young here. They slide and wash away in storms like the one yesterday. I'm sure that San Jacinto is now completely impossible to hike. We have rain in the forecast for most of the whole week. Good luck Class of 2011.

The woman who called worried that the hikers were lost. Don't they have GPS?, she asked. I am sure they are not lost, just stuck. The Sespe River is one of the last wild rivers in California and I believe it's the only wild river in Southern California. Hooray for a river that prevents people from going back to work on Monday!

Fleece works well in wet weather

I did a day hike yesterday in the rain. It was not raining at the start but the bushes were wet and it was a bushwhacking adventure so I got pretty wet. It was still a nice hike. It finally started raining for real near the end of the hike. My fleece jacket worked out well. I have resisted fleece for a long time because I don't like how it gets all full of static cling and my hair sticks to it, but it worked out well in the rain. Warm when wet.

It's really pouring right now. There was a couple at the trailhead yesterday that looked like they were just setting off for a backpack trip. I wonder how they fared.

Another hike on Rattlesnake Trail

I hiked Rattlesnake Trail again today. This time I went beyond the meadow all the way to the end of the trail where I sat for a few minutes on a rock overlooking the city and the ocean. It was really pretty out. The trail was a green tunnel of canyon sunflower, hummingbird sage and fiesta flowers. Yellow, pink and purple. Since the fire, it looks like a park almost with so many green and blooming things.

I stopped at the grapevine where a small stream came down from a side canyon. I drank the water from the stream unfiltered. It tasted pretty good for Santa Barbara water.

Even though I tried to stay present in the beauty of the trail I kept thinking about planning a backpack trip. I wondered if I could use my lumbar pack and a small day pack and put enough gear in it for an overnighter. How small could I go with my gear? Wouldn't it be funny if I turned up somewhere in the middle of nowhere looking like a dayhiker?

I thought often of the PCT. I thought about the trail around Warner Spring and Barrel Spring. I wondered if I might hike from Warner Springs to the kickoff and then get a ride back to my car pretty easily.

It felt good to get out with the nice long evenings we have all of a sudden with the early time change.

More thoughts on hiking and shoes

I went for a hike today on Rattlesnake Trail. I hiked up to the meadow and back. The flowers were in bloom, but there will be even more coming soon.

Yesterday I altered my homemade hiking shoes. I tapered them inward at my arches and removed a layer of EVA foam. It really made a big difference. They are more flexible and comfortable. They feel more like moccasins now but with enough protection from rocks that I don't suffer. The fit is much better. I intend to take them apart after they fall apart and use them for a pattern in the future.

I also noticed that Chacos makes shoes. I ordered a pair thinking I could alternate between my homemade shoes and Chaco shoes on backpack trips. There are a lot of foxtails on my trails so I have to have closed-toe shoes otherwise my socks (or my skin) will be destroyed in 15 minutes. The shoes came but they didn't fit so I sent them back. I'll try another size but if those don't fit either, I'll send them back too. I probably shouldn't have bothered.

I forgot to mention that the other day at the end of the hike to Pine Mountain Lodge, we reached the parking lot as the sun was setting. There was a moment there where the southwest-facing mountains before us were bathed in golden light. The white rocks of Piedra Blanca and the golden sandstone of the mountains reflected the setting sunlight and the green chaparral hills took on a golden tint. It was all laid out there in front of us like a gift. I stood there and watched the light and took note of this gift given to us at the end of a day fully lived.

Went to Pine Mountain Lodge

The Sierra Club hike this weekend was to a really great place called Pine Mountain Lodge. It's a great destination for a backpack. The trail is steep and climbs up to over 5000ft elevation. Up there are pine, big cone spruce, cedar and manzanita. Also snow. There's no longer a lodge, but a long time ago there was a hunting lodge. There are Chumash cave paintings, but they've almost completely flaked off the rocks and the last remaining bits are adhered to flakes that look ready to fall.

I had my backpack all packed with the plan to hike in with the Sierra Club and then camp out. But I changed my mind.

It kind of bummed me out to think about hiking up with the Sierra Club and then having them all wave good-bye at 1:00 or 2:00 and then sitting around twiddling my thumbs for the rest of the afternoon, listening to that lonely whispering sound in the pines. The Man wasn't even going to go on the day hike and just thinking about how he seemed to be believing he'd never go hiking again, I just didn't want to sit up there all alone trying to figure out if I wanted to be married to an invalid.

So instead I decided to do the full day hike. It would be more exercise for the day. All the fun hikers that I like would be there. We'd all go out to the Deer Lodge for beer and burgers afterward. It just seemed like more fun. So just before I was almost ready to go, I decided to do the full day hike instead of the backpack and informed The Man. So what does he do but throw on his hiking clothes and come with me.

So there we are, hiking this super steep trail and he's way out in front of everybody. Someone asked if I'd like to get ahead and try and catch up to him, as if I could. When I finally found him, he says, "Look at you, you can't even keep up with an old man with a heart condition." Good for him. I mean here he was thinking he'd drop dead any second and now suddenly he's hiking and thinking himself strong and healthy, and he's happy and smiling and having a good time. I told him Ray Jardine says your legs are like a second heart so as long as you keep walking, it doesn't matter if your heart stops every now and then. Your legs will keep the blood moving. He laughed and thought maybe that would work. His heart is healthy as a horse, but has an electrical short that causes it to beat strangely and then stop beating for a few seconds.

I hiked most of the way wearing Crocs. There are three deep creek crossings right at the start of the trail. So I brought Crocs to wear, thinking I'd just put my shoes on when I finished those three crossings. I decided what the heck, I'd see how far I could hike wearing Crocs. I hiked all the way to Pine Mountain Lodge in them, even in the snow. They're not very good in snow. All the holes let the snow in. I put my regular shoes on for the way down but once we got to a creek crossing in the middle of the way down that also was a wet one, I put the Crocs on and completed the rest of the trail in them. I can see why some people hike the PCT in Crocs. They're pretty comfortable. My feet felt a little sore after a while though. I'm not sure why.

So even though I didn't camp out, I got in a good hike to a beautiful place and had a good time. The trail is called the Gene Marshall Piedra Blanca National Recreation Trail. I told The Man we ought to thru-hike it some weekend. Park a car at both ends and hike through from a Saturday to a Sunday. I kept joking on the way down the trail how all these years I had only section hiked the Gene Marshall trail. I kept making jokes about how Team TrailPiper, or is it Team PiperHacker is going to thru-hike the Gene Marshall trail. Maybe we'd continue on all the way to Bakersfield where I'd be required to comb my bangs so they stick straight up and he'd have to put on a cowboy hat just to be allowed in. Then The Man started wondering if you could walk from Santa Barbara through Bakersfield and over to the PCT. That would be funny. It's nice he's thinking about hiking again.

I'm trying to decide if he doesn't return to the PCT this spring, should I try hiking from Highway 74 south to the Kickoff? I'm not planning to go to the Kickoff, but it would be an easy way to maybe get a ride back to my car and have a little fun. Or if The Man does return to the trail, I could try to get some 4-day weekends and do bits of the So Cal PCT while he's out there.

Went backpacking last night

I made it out to one of my quickie backpack places on my list. I went to Matias Potrero.

It was really nice to spend some time back out in nature again. Doing something like hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, where you spend months living in nature, is hard to recover from. I think about the trail every day. It took me about a year to get used to our dry backcountry again. But I can't get used to "regular" life. The commercialism, the pointlessness, the destruction of beauty, simplicity and the natural world at every turn. I missed being the secret little wood nymph I felt like I was on the PCT, living in the forest, peering curiously at this modern world of machines and noise, then fading back into my forest home in relief where I could be alone with my bird friends. I really miss it. That's who I really am. I felt that again on this little overnight trip. The clarity of my thoughts returned and I was simply happy.

I was amazed how similar this trail was to the area around Agua Dulce on the PCT, especially the smells. I felt memories rushing back.

This may be a way to cope with modern life until the day I can escape it once and for all.

I wish it was easier to escape. Yesterday I saw some ducks in the river and it made me think how simple their lives are. They learn how to get food out of the water and then they spend the rest of their lives getting food, bobbing around in the water, resting on the rocks and going about the business of just being ducks. We make everything so complicated and difficult. You can barely survive. You can't just find food and eat it until you die. You have to hoard and work meaningless jobs and play a game until you can escape. I wish I could escape right now. I don't want to play that game anymore. I want to sleep serenaded by owls and frogs.

Hikes I could do this year

The Man plans to return to the PCT where he left off last year. Last year he hiked from the Mexican border to Apache Peak where he slipped on the snow, slid 100 feet down the mountain and sprained his ankle. He was rescued by helicopter and it took about 8 weeks to heal his ankle. He plans to return and hike for at least 3 weeks. Apparently he'd like to go solo. This is fine. I'd like him to know what the PCT is like solo. But I can't help but feel jealous.

So it occurred to me that I could plan a bunch of solo weekend trips. I thought perhaps if I listed them all out, I could do a better job picking the ones I would like to actually do. Perhaps I could set a goal to hike as many of these as I can this year.

So here's a list:

• Tunnel Trail to Matias Potrero Camp. ~7 miles from Tunnel Trail Head to Matias Potrero. Could return, catch a ride from Paradise Road or hike on to make a 3-sided rectangle using Gibraltar Trail and Cold Spring Trail. Or a two-night trip and hike all the way home.
  
• Fish Creek Camp. 3 miles from trailhead. Quickie overnighter. Could hike on up the trail and stealth camp.
  
• Manzana Narrows. 7 miles from trailhead. I hate Manzana Narrows. Too cold.
• Hole in the wall. ~9 miles from trailhead. Awesome secret place. Pretty long hike. Would need long light to do it on a Friday night.
• Willow Spring Trail. I think there is an old camp up there. It might no longer have room to camp. It's about 5 miles.
  
• 19 Oaks. ~2 miles from trailhead. Maybe too short. Could hike on and see where I end up. Maybe there's somewhere to camp on the dirt road further along. Or maybe hike in from Aliso Trail and make it much longer.
  
• Little Pine Spring. ~9 miles from trailhead. Excellent strenuous hike. Far enough into the backcountry to feel like Wilderness.
• Forbush. ~2 miles from trailhead. Quickie.
• Cottam/Blue Canyon/Upper Blue Canyon. Further up the trail from Forbush. Could make a loop out of it using Romero Trail and parts of the 9-Trails to get back to Cold Spring or even walk home for a really long hike.
• Mono/Little Caliente. ~8+ miles from trailhead. Car access part of the year so I'd have to do this when the road is closed. Otherwise the people there would be extraordinarily annoying.
  
• Hell's Half Acre. Horrible road walk but interesting spot on Wilderness boundary.
• Potrero Camp. ~2 miles from trailhead. Quickie hike but a longish drive.
• Coldwater Camp. ~4 miles from trailhead. Further along the trail from Potrero.
  
• Horseshoe Camp. ~5 or 6 miles. Could end up with annoying teenagers/college kids, but could hike on further toward Schoolhouse.
• Meadow near Negis Cave or therabouts. Stealth camp in secret spot. Could be really awesome.

There are awesome places in the Matillija and Sespe Wilderness, too. For example:

• Murietta Camp. ~4 miles from trailhead? Kind of dark and gloomy but might be nice in summer.
  
• Camps all along Matillija Trail
• Chorro Grande. Reminded me of the PCT. Might have snow right now. Wasn't too far. Maybe 5 miles?
  
• Potrero John Trail. I think there was a camp about 2 miles in.
  
• Dry Lakes Botanical area. Stealth camp. Could do on a Friday night if I got an early start.
  
• Willits Hot Spring. ~10 miles from trailhead. Pretty popular because of the hot spring. Camps along the way, though. Not a good one for a Friday night.
  
• Buck Creek Trail. I have to complete my 2009 hike and go see the trail I missed because I got lost. Would have to drive in on a Friday, stay a bit beyond the closed-for-hanta-virus car camp, and start hiking in on Saturday.

Wow! That's a long list. I could stay really busy doing all these on weekends.