Beartrap Canyon, 11/27/13

Upper Reyes Camp

The following are photos are from the Upper Reyes Creek drainage, the high-country between Reyes Canyons and Beartrap Canyon, and the Beartrap Canyon drainage. I spent the day exploring several of the side drainages coming off the north side of Reyes-Haddock Ridge, which feed into the uppermost portion of Beartrap Creek. It was a beautiful day for some off-trail exploring in a quiet stretch of lonely wilderness. And a beautiful place to spend some time. -DS

Upper Reyes Creek

A drainage that feeds Eastern Beartrap Creek.

East Beartrap Creek

Gene Marshal Piedra Blanca Trail.

The Cuyama Badlands, Mt Abel and Mt Pinos.

Reyes and Haddock Peak from Hwy 33

The coast from Hwy 33

A further examination of Reyes Ridge and Haddock Peak. 07/11/12

Okay, back to the SLP, that hot, steep and prickly wilderness that I call my back yard but will never quite be my natural habitat. Yeah, we can't often make a living where we vacation, which is one of two reasons why I don't live in Bishop. I already miss my East Side.

Enough of that pity party. I was racking my brain for something different to do with my day off when I remembered that I'd made a commitment to myself to learn more about the environs of Reyes and Haddock Peaks and the ridge between the two. I'd been up here bouldering on Pine Mtn a few days prior, run into an old friend who I've mentioned previously, Juan Carlo, developer of much of the bouldering on Pine. This got me thinking about all the sandstone I'd seen on the Reyes ridge and I figured I'd spend today exploring that neck of the woods.

I've known about some rock climbing development out on the ridge, namely two sites, one before and beneath the Reyes summit, and another further down the ridge past Reyes. I wanted to find those sites. I had other reasons for going, namely that I wanted to see the actual crest of the Reyes Ridge. In other words, I wanted to hike the ridge and not the trail, which roughly parallels the ridge but lies below the actual crest for most of it's length, a route that kept me off-trail for greater than 60% of the day. I had one additional goal in mind, a little recon for future consideration which I suspect will  become a post of it's own someday soon.  

This low angle face lies east of the Reyes summit. 

More bolted routes on the boulder west of Reyes.

I had no trouble finding the rock climbing sites I mentioned. The site on the west side of Reyes was an easy find. The climbing at this site has been developed on a magnificent boulder that is about 40 feet in height. The crew responsible bolting up this rock include Darren Ogden of Cheap Sports (who I've known since '93, both of us being veterans of Sport Chalet) and friends. Next time I'm at the shop I need to ask him about the routes and names for this beautiful block of quality stone. I identified six bolted lines of various difficulty and I admit that I started getting itchy fingers while staring at these lines. The routes here are short, steep and looked fun. I look forward to dragging a partner up for a day of clipping bolts.

Fun and overhung.

Done with Darren's big rock, I headed uphill until I met the trail to the Reyes summit. After a brief break in the morning sun atop Reyes I started heading cross-country across the ridge, moving east toward Haddock Peak. I kept my commitment to myself, which was to travel the true crest of this ridge. I just kind of sauntered through the pines, navigating around patches of undergrowth, taking time to enjoy the views of the southern face of the ridge. I frequently pulled out to check out any ole thing that caught my interest. I enjoy being off-trail and seeing the stuff that most others don't have the immagination to go look for.

Atop the Reyes summit.

Wandering the sun-dappled ridge.

I'd gone out today despite the high heat warnings across Southern California and the probability of an afternoon thunderstorm.  My rationale for picking the high country today, that I'd be at 7,000ft and have a breeze and shade, worked out well. It was plenty hot alright, but not unbearably so, and the breeze was very much appreciated. Several times I got tangled up with the forest (see below) but for the most part, the trees and undergrowth were fairly spread out and travel was enjoyable. The forest floor was matted with six inches of dead pine needles which made travel cushy, except on slopes. On the ups and downs those pine needles were slippery as hell. Thank you trekking poles. I was reminded of the death of a climber from Italy in the early '90s, a model and medical student who was walking across a wide and routine ledge, but fell to her death after slipping on just a few pine needles.

Close encounters with plant life.

As I roved the ridge I explored several small boulder fields, looking these over with the eye of a life-long boulderer. I climbed rocky outcrops of crumbly sandstone and peered down the great scarps of the southern side of this fantastic ridge. In the course of my wanderings I found over a dozen sites with Chumash bedrock mortars and the same number of places were critters had bedded down or found a hollow under a rock to hide in. I discovered two ancient fire rings, their circles filled with twigs and needles. In one place I found the remains of some old static rope tied a round a tree trunk. The rope had been there for years and the remains of the rope trailed off the southern face of the ridge.

As the day progressed the temperature and humidity continued to climb. I enjoyed watching cirrus clouds being drawn into a huge thermal over Lockwood Valley. These wisps of moisture coalesced into small cumulus clouds which continued east toward the desert.  While watching clouds in the shadow of a large ponderosa I caught site of a small raptor winging straight for the tree I sat under. The bird, which turned out to be a pretty Harris Hawk, finally saw me about 20 feet from the tree. It immediately flared into a dramatic air-brake, back-flapped a couple times and flew off.

I found several long abandoned fire rings on the ridge.

Haddock Peak from the west.



Staring down the Potrero John watershed





The ancient remains of a rope thrown over the southern side of the ridge.





So as you can see, I had a complete day of adventurous fun. I now know this ridge pretty well and committing to staying off-trail worked out well. I will say that the views make hiking the ridge a true treat, that and the sense of being out there on your own. As in all things out doors, most of what's out there isn't on a trail. This was a fun day. Oh yeah, that little recon I did paid off and Jack Eliot and I have some new material coming soon, something burly, bloody, and no, there was no trail. 





Video: Chorro to Reyes

To watch video: David Stillman & Jack Elliot, Chorro Grande to Reyes Creek by way of Reyes and Haddock Peak


And for a well written second opinion of this wee stroll visit: Jack Elliot's Day Off.

Chorro Grande to Reyes Creek, by way of Reyes Peak and Haddock Peak, in one day. Nuts. 03/22/12.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

Trail? You see a trail, man?

The Cliffs of Haddock Peak.

The summit register on Haddock Peak.

Bear markings. 

Haddock Peak summit, You can see Hwy 33 below.

Reyes Ridge is peppered with impressive rock formations.

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.

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.

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.