Okay, I've got one that you trail hounds ought to love. A dirty three-way. Three trails that is. Chorro Grande Trail, Reyes Peak Trail, and Gene Marshall Trail. And it was really more snowy and muddy than dirty. Right. Moving on...
This day's effort is the offspring of an evil seed which has been germinating in my mind for some time. It started with my having done Chorro Grande trail to Reyes Peak as a day hike. Then Cliff Griffiths and I hiked the Gene Marshall trail in a day. I began to think that putting the best of those trips together as a one day thru hike, while admittedly ambitious, would create one of the gnarliest trail link-ups in the SLP (Southern Los Padres NF). 22 miles of high lonesome starting off highway 33 at 4,000ft. And hey, why not throw in a pair of 7,000 foot peaks? It had the potential for a very burly day. It was a very burly day.
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| The Nuts & Bolts |
I was pretty pleased that I could wrangle in a partner for this craziness. This hike travels over some really remote and seldom visited country, and having another person around can be good for morale, and can in fact be a lifesaver. There's only three guys I know who I'd consider having along on something like this, and fellow blogger of local backcountry stuff,
Jack Elliot, who proved his mettle on our recent trip to Indian Cave, is one of them. We met at 04:00 and drove up the 33 in two vehicles. One vehicle was left at the Reyes Creek trailhead at Camp Scheideck, the other was parked at the start of Chorro Grande on the 33. We saddled up and got moving at 05:50 under a starry sky just hinting at dawn.
These first miles were cool but not cold, the skies scudded with pastel pink cirrus. After the usual warm-up nonsense I settled into Chorro's steep grade and we made good time. Chorro is kind of a beast. This trail gains 2600 or so feet in just five miles and I was glad that we'd be getting that elevation jump out of the way right up front. A wise guy once said, in reference to the Chorro trail, "It goes up from here.". Our first snow of the day came at Chorro Grande springs and things just got better and wetter the higher we got.
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| Reyes Peak summit. This was an incredibly beautiful day. |
By the time we'd blown past the Reyes Peak trailhead, snow became a central theme of the day. Before the route to Reyes kicked up I strapped into my yaktrax, those handy cable chains for light boots and trail runners. These things work well on every terrain but stone, and they made breaking trail significantly easier than it would have been if I'd been slipping and tripping without them. We motored up the short but steep tiers of Reyes and made the summit just 4.5 hours into the day. Things were going pretty good thus far, but ahead of us was a half mile of off trail through snow until we found the trail over to Haddock Peak.
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| Route checking. Staying on-route became a constant concern. |
I'd be full of shit if I didn't admit to you all that I was starting to get a nagging nervousness about being off trail in foot deep snow. I started to wonder about this trail that ran the ridge between the Reyes and Haddock Peaks. With all this snow, and us descending from Reyes, would I recognize the trail or just go right over it and keep steering us down to some f'd up canyon? And just how obvious is the trail anyway? It's not like it gets a lot of traffic!
So, yeah. These thoughts pinged around in my head until we got on route. We had indeed overshot the trail, but only by about 75 feet. This was not the last time the GPS saved our ass that day, or maybe that's a little dramatic but it did save us some time and energy.
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| Nordoff Ridge, the Oxnard plain, and The Santa Monicas. |
The trail to Haddock traverses a stretch of the prettiest, most expansive views in our SLP. The trail stays mainly on the north side of the ridge, the shadier and snowier side. We crunched through forests of ponderosa, blue spruce, and jeffry pine. The trail frequently passed through random rock formations of rusty sandstone. It rolled through pleasant, sunny meadows and frequently took us to the southern side of the ridge, which is mostly sheer drops and endless views to the coast. On and on we trudged, often stopping for a moment to find the trail, until we finally mounted the final steps to Haddock Peak. This summit has no USGS marker, but it does have a completely soaked summit register. We had been enjoying the view all morning, so hanging out on the breezy summit wasn't a priority. Next stop: Haddock Camp on Piedra Blanca Creek, where we would leave the Reyes Peak Trail for the Gene Marshall.
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| Trail? You see a trail, man? |
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| The Cliffs of Haddock Peak. |
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| The summit register on Haddock Peak. |
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| Bear markings. |
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| Haddock Peak summit, You can see Hwy 33 below. |
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| Reyes Ridge is peppered with impressive rock formations. |
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| Jack and I descending into Beartrap. |
We were greeted to an interesting sight as we rolled into Haddock camp. Two new but cheap tents had been abandoned, and a pair of sleeping bags lay in the mud. A pee bottle and various sundries had been cast aside in the snow. Clearly, one party had ignored the weather report and paid for it. As I say, the gear was cheap, of the Big 5 variety, and all of it was new. Just a few folks goin' campin'! The scene had all the markings of a night spent huddling in these inferior tents, being blown about in the black night, snow piling up outside. It was not hard to envision a desperate night followed by a miserable descent to Piedra Blanca. Forget the shiny new gear, just tuck tail and run. And never go camping again.
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| Upper Reyes Creek. |
After a brief lunch at Haddock, Jack and I strapped in and set forth on the next 8.5 miles going northeast on the Gene Marshall trail. We had a nasty but brief climb out of Haddock before dropping into the Beartrap drainage. This stretch, like all of this hike, is very pretty. The trail slips through miles of cottonwoods, oak, and cedar, always on the creek. Another burly climb out of Beartrap Creek put us over a ridge and into the home stretch, Reyes Creek. Just a long roll down to the truck.
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| We saw hundreds of prints, thanks to the snow. These are bobcat. |
This hike was something special. We had been blessed with the weather, perfect in the 60's with robin's egg skies and gentle breezes. This would have been a tough enough walk without the snow, but traveling through that snow for 60% of the day upped the ante considerably, not just in the route finding sense but also in that busting trail through all that snow added a 25% labor tax to the effort. As to the route finding, I carried a map, compass and GPS, but staying on route was primarily puzzle solving. I looked for unnatural features, the sawn log, a dip in the silhouette of a hillside and a corresponding one in the logical distance, the tracks of animals who follow the same general paths in their daily wanderings often use trails. All in all, it was as tough and satisfying a day as I'd ever experienced in the SLP. This is a five star route.
I have to tip the hat to friend Jack. I know that this hike went above and beyond what we'd both anticipated, and that the snow and elevation just added to effort. I gotta hand it to the guy, he earned his stripes that day. He's got a new appreciation for what can be accomplished in a day. Never complaining, Jack is a self-contained guy and a capable trail hand. I look forward to future endeavors.
For Jack's trip report visit:
Jack still can't believe he just did that.
We took a nice break in Chorro spring's sheltered dell. A hundred feet above our heads we could see frosted trees being blown about by a persistent forty mile per hour wind. We sat on a snowy stump next to the spring, having brunch. The muffled roar of the wind blasting the Pine Mtn ridge, just 2-300ft higher than where we sat, put the rest of the day in perspective. Even if Cliff had been feeling good, the constant icy gale would have cut us to ribbons. So it was just as well that weren't going up into that hell.
I've been up Reyes Peak a number of times, and I've always started at the trailhead at the end of Pine Mountain Road, but I never really felt like I "earned" the summit. It's just too easy from the road, three-ish miles with only about 500ft of gain. Yesterday I earned it.
The Chorro Grande trail takes off from Highway 33 at an unmarked trailhead (2 posts where a sign should be are the marker), at an altitude of 3,400ft. The trail ascends at a moderate angle for a couple miles, climbing through low-land chaparral before the trail abruptly jacks up the steep, and stays that way until reaching Pine Mountain Road at what boulderers call Enlightenment Ridge.
I blasted through the brutal 5 mile climb from the 33 in 1:50minutes I took a nice break at the last camp on the summit ridge. Patches of snow are still to be found in the shade. The whole ridge felt clean, renewed. The hordes of campers and climbers haven't yet invaded the mountain top. Everything is green. The chalk has been washed away by the winter.
After my break I headed east down the 1.25 miles to the parking lot at the Reyes Peak trailhead and just kept walking right up to the top of Reyes. There are a few steeps in the pines on the way to Reyes, some with snow, but after the grind up Chorro these seem short, almost pleasant. Reyes is a spectacular summit at 7,500ft, notable really for it's 360 vistas. The only direction you can't really see from the summit markers is toward the north, but the views to the north as you descend the peak on your way back are just spectacular. The Cuyama Badlands are quite a sight.
In what seemed like no time I was off Reyes and hooking a left to start the knee-bashing Chorro Grande downhill. It's hard to decide which is worse, the quad-killing uphill or the jackhammer knees on the way down. I can tell you that it's far easier to observe and enjoy the sights on the descent. For instance, I took a nice break at Chorro Grande Camp. This is a comfortable place nestled in a hip of the mountain. It has a clear spring which flows from under a cavernous rock. There are Chumash grinding bowls on camp boulders and the whole place is shaded by pines and oaks. It is a peaceful place and feels very old.
I resumed the knee-bashing descent, most of which provides impressive views up the upper sespe. This is the kind of view that I enjoy traveling through, grand and broad. I could broadly state that my truck seemed grandly far away.
Trip Stats:
So, on account of the weather, the "Geezer Hike" was canceled once again. I decided early yesterday that I would venture forth today...weather be damned! Since I was going to be wet and miserable anyway I chose to up the ante. I chose to hike Chorro Grande to the Pine Mountain summit. This grueling hike would start in the rain, summit in the snow, and end in the rain. Chorro Grande is an old packing trail and ascends 3,309ft in 7.4 miles. Hard, on a nice day. Today it was really tough and by the time I was nearing the truck I was done.
The final 2 miles to the summit were brutal, cold, and steep. As the terrain changed and a fog rolled in I found myself having to really use good trail-finding technique. Also my GPS became the MVP of the day. I kept looking hopefully upward for any indication of Pine Mountain Rd and my destination: the eastern-most camp site on Pine Mtn. The fog was really cutting visibility when I decided to use the GPS to put me right at my destination, I dodged 0.2 miles of trail by heading strait up the last few minutes worth of mountain. I was very relieved when I popped over the rise and walked right into camp. I stayed long enough to take a couple of pictures and started straight down. It took me 3.5hrs to climb the trail. I subscribe (based on bitter experience) to the school that says, "In inclement weather, summit and get down. Then feel good about yourself.".
As I descended most of the weather I'd experienced on the way up hit me on the way down, however, the temperature had plunged by 10-20 degrees. I was comfortable, though. The Gore-tex in my boots and my rainwear were holding up well. Plus, I was well layered. By the way, I had in my pack a back-up layer and gloves, a Gore-tex bivuac sack, first aid stuff, headlamp, extra food and water, and everything else I would need to survive a night up there in the event I couldn't move. That kind of planning is my MO (again, a product of experience). All that extra weight in my pack sure was reassuring. By the time I returned to the truck things were getting cold and nasty.
