A perfect afternoon on the Gene Marshall Trail. 03/01/13

What a gorgeous day for a mellow walk up the Gene Marshall. Ruth and I woke late and enjoyed our coffee in the back yard under crystal clear blue skies. It was the kind of morning that people move to Southern California for, and I just basked in it, book in hand. Obviously, such a day is not meant to be spent entirely in blissful sloth. So around 10:00 we got off our butts and drove up to Rose Valley for a sunny day stroll.

We meandered up trail through Las Piedras Blanca, the bizarrely weathered extrusions of glaring white sandstone for which the area is named. We followed the route through formations and descended into the Piedra Blanca drainage. This is a super mellow walk and we just kind of ambled along in the sun, enjoying being out, together.

Before long we arrived at Piedra Blanca Camp. This sweet little spot on the creek is shaded by the massive arbors of ancient oaks. On one of the rocks near the camp one can spot the two pictographs shown above. We dropped our pack and pulled out a simple lunch of fruit and nuts with cheese. The sound of the warm spring breeze whispering through the old oaks combined with the pleasant burbling of the nearby creek, lulling me into a post-lunch sedation. We stayed there, under the oaks, for quite a while before heading back the way we'd come. Nice little 5 mile walk and the perfect day for it.

  

PB Camp.

PB Camp.

Piedra Blanca Creek from just above PB Camp.

Las Piedras Blanca

Sespe Creek.

Sespe Creek.

Sespe Connect, Stage II. 08/27/12

Part deux, the second stage of our descent of the Sespe River. Back in the drink with Jack Elliott for a second dose of whatever the Sespe had to offer. This portion of our Sespe Connect project takes off from Tule Creek where we'd ended Stage I (Cherry Creek to Tule Creek), and travels roughly 10 miles to the Piedra Blanca trailhead. I can't speak for Jack but I figured we were in for another day of brush, cattails, murky ponds and bone dry creek bed. Stage II had plenty of each, but much more besides. This was a sweet stretch of relatively untouched native aquatica. Stage II turned out to be a surprisingly fun and interesting walk.

Stage II in blue. A portion of Stage I in yellow. 

The Sespe at Tule Creek in the morning light.

As we did during Stage I, we opted to take the creek the whole way to our destination even though there was an option to get out of the creek and take the Middle Sespe trail. Neither Jack nor I had any interest in walking a hot and brushy trail when given the chance to wade downstream through Cottonwood Lane. We dropped into the creek and immediately began rock-hopping into the rising sun.    Within minutes we were in the drink, sloshing down a wide and shallow stream shaded by willows and maple. As we neared the Feser Cold Springs ranch site the creek abruptly went underground, leaving us only a dry and rocky creek bed fenced by drying, dying cattails. 

The phenomena of the "vanishing creek" is fairly common throughout our region during the dry season. Below a sun bleached creek bottom the ground water remains, drawn downhill and reconstituted later as a shady avenue of tree lined pools. This was the case for most of this stage, arid and treeless rock garden ceding to a lush water world. I'd say that the day was 50% one or the other, but unlike on many portions of Stage I, we encountered less of the marshy and mucky in-between stuff. It was served up neat, wet or dry, bartender's preference.

The glare on a wake of pond film.

All the plants out there look dried up, just not the ones that live on the creek.

Shady lanes of cottonwood.

We snuck past the Feser site, which is mostly a barn and a double-wide on a shelf above the creek, and entered what is known as Middle Sespe. More time in the water walking the twists and turns of the creek. More foot-dragging through ankle deep sand, hopping rocks and dodging yucca. But for all that, it was surprisingly pretty and Jack and I both remarked that this place felt pretty native, un-messed with. This stage started from Hwy 33, but that road climbs up and away from the Sespe and the further into our morning we got, the more remote our surroundings felt. Which was perfectly okay with us. The going today was surprisingly easy (much less brush than on Stage I) and by mid-morning we had blown past what used to be Beaver Camp. Somewhere in that sunny and perfect day I came to the conclusion that I was really having fun. It just turned into that kind of day. We'd pull out of the creek and scramble up a stack of boulders just to see the view, or stop to investigate something that caught our eye. It was a very low stress day, and as I say, fun.

Rock formation, Middle Sespe.

A bone dry section of the creek. The trees know where this creek goes seasonally dry. Far fewer trees through the drought sections.

Jack, somewhere in Middle Sespe.

A sluggish, filmy section of Middle Sespe.  Looks like bayou.

As with our experience on Stage I, we had some interesting wildlife encounters on this portion of the Sespe. First of all, I got to see a Red-breasted Merganser Mergus serrator. As the name implies, this colorful duck does have a robins red chest. It has a flare of white on the wing tips, a white collar at the throat, and beautiful almost iridescent dark blue back feathers. A very pretty duck, and rare I think, in Southern California (I could easily be wrong on that).  Somewhere through Middle Sespe we had a pair of giant bullfrog encounters. Neither of the 6-7inch long, 5 inch wide monsters were especially impressed with our presence. I spotted a heron, a huge red tail hawk, several pair of mallards, numerous small birds. We often were accompanied by one or two butterflies of various species. They seemed to stick with us for a ways and then hand us off to the next guy in line, sort of like state troopers escorting a troublesome out-of-stater straight down to the border (been there, didn't get a teeshirt). Let's see, oh yeah! A gorgeous and fully grown doe lept into the creek just 30 feet ahead of us and stopped there, looking at us for a second before bounding across the creek and into the trees where it vanished. That was cool. I dig that. Didn't see one snake today. I thought that was kind of weird but whatever.

Super Bullfrog #1!

Super Bullfrog #2! You can use the willow leaves that he's so artfully arranged to get an idea how big this dude is.

Super Bullfrog #2! Close-UP!

I was immediately reminded of some battle-ground water hole in the Serengeti. Check out all the tracks, not one of them human.

The rest of the day remained fun and interesting, and pretty easy travelling. The route was consistently pretty but few parts of this section of the creek really stand out in my memory. This was one of those "It's the journey..." days. We found ourselves pretty much done by noon and out to Jack's truck by 13:00. Easy Peezy. 

Now, as for stage III, I think we will end up using the Sespe River Trail. That stretch, from Piedra Blanca to about Goodenough Rd at Fillmore, will be taxing enough without adding 17 miles of creek bottom to the route. It will take some scheduling but that is already sort of in the works.

Jack in the drink.

This formation can be seen from the flat below the Piedra Blanca trailhead.

Piedra Blanca West 12/15/11

My route through the western rocks. It involved blood, sweat, climbing skills and determination to reach the summits of these, more remote and inaccessible formations. I have to guess that I did a solid 4 miles of  "anything it takes" to explore this side of the range.

I had promised you all that I'd finish up the entire Piedra Blanca tour and that time has come. Over the past several posts I've re-explored the entire area including the paintings in PB Creek and the bleached stone formations of PB East. To finish the circuit required a visit to the western formations which I've designated as Piedra Blanca West.

I knew that assaulting PB West would be far more difficult than my prior exploration of PB East. First of all, nobody goes there so there aren't any consistent trails to traverse this side of the range. Second, the formations on the west side are more distant from each other and much brush-busting is required to get anywhere. So, once more into the breach, up the mountain, under the brush and through thin air on my lonely travels to the remote. Today was not a good day to get hurt, I'd never be found.

This site is atop the first formation to the left (west) of the massive, central  PB formation.  This was a surprise, as in WTF?!? I saw no reason to believe that this rock design hadn't been sitting there, just like you see it, for years. First of all, just getting to this point was difficult (scary) and required considerable route finding skills.  On the way to this summit, I utilized some very old toe-holds that had been carved out of the soft sandstone. The holds were very eroded and I speculate that they had been there for a very, very long time. I saw no other evidence during the day that anybody ever goes to this side of PB.

Abandoned honeycombs. A large, fresh bear scat was situated very near by.

Sad rock.

In addition to the remote, untraveled nature of PB West, it is an older (geologically) set of formations. The elevation of the western-most rocks are a couple hundred feet higher than on the eastern rocks. The ancient sedimentary seabed, which is what the rocks of PB are made of, has risen more in the west and the decay and erosion of the formations is notable for the degree of difference between west and east. These rocks were far more crumbly, which made climbing up a couple of the formations pretty damn exciting. I thought, at least once, that I was a couple of grains of sand away from taking a slide.

The Citadel, western-most of the formations, viewed from the north.  I encountered absolutely zero indications that anyone had ever even been here. 

The Grand Vista, looking east from atop The Citadel.  

The snowy peaks in the distant right are Topa Topa and Hines Peak.

Sometimes a guy has to go the extra mile to get what he wants.

After a helluva slog. Miles to go.

Above and below: highly eroded formations.

Again, I reassert that any time you think you are truly in the sticks you will run across a beer can with a bullet hole in it. 

The Chumash High Dive. This rock, of some significance to the Chumash,  isn't too difficult to find, and makes a  great springboard. It can be found on the Sespe less than 0.25 miles from the PB/Sespe parking lot.

After today I can truthfully say that I've been to the top of every significant rock in Piedra Blanca, and that I circumnavigated the base of most of the formations. I didn't see anybody else the entire day, which is probably a good thing because I was covered in bloody scratches and spent the entire drive home picking sticks, spiders, and seeds out of my hair, ears, etc...

I feel pretty good about this most recent triad of trips. Piedra Blanca and it's environs are worth exploring. The place has a natural beauty and appeal. It has been in more or less continuous use by hominids since forever and a few relics of our ancestors passing can still be found on the old paths and forgotten corners of this Upper Sespe region. Take some time to just explore, scramble about and find the hidden gems tucked in Las Piedras Blanca