Topatopa Bluffs, 09/01/2012

It's been a while since I've hiked The Suffer Machine without adding some other peak to the day. My wife Ruth is getting pretty good on the trail but hasn't done a day quite like this, and I figured it'd be a good test piece. We were met by Cliff Griffiths, a long time friend of this blog, who hasn't had the summer he would have liked on account of somebody else's poor planning. This was his first real opportunity to stretch his legs in months. We started walking at 06:00.

We couldn't have picked a nicer day for this sixteen mile meat grinder. The day started clear and cool, chilly almost. We didn't feel the sun until about five minutes above White Ledge camp, and after that the temperature rose steadily. The entire day felt nice, warm, with a cooling breeze. We paced the long uphill out, summiting shortly after 10. Not bad at all for Ruth's first run up this thing. She just hiked it, and at one point I even heard her saying one of my mantras for a grinding uphill, "Burn baby, burn...". This hike is most definitely a burn. Cliff stepped aside a bit below the summit and, with a gentlemanly gesture, let Ruth by so she could take us over the top.

Ruthie, first time up Topa! 

Cliff Griffiths and I on top.

We spent an hour on top. It was a great day for sightseeing. All the islands were visible, including Catalina. I took Ruth on a tour of the summit and pointed out many of the major SLP landmarks. Eventually it was time to lace the shoes tight over the arch, harness up, and head down. Down, down, down every damn step we walked up. My left knee doesn't much like this downhill.

I gotta say, that after the summer I've had, it was kind of refreshing to just spend a day on an honest-to-dog trail. And Ruth earned that cold beer. She tough.

Rainy Day Hike. White Ledge Falls, 11/20/10

Hey, folks. I've survived another round of poison oak. The moment I got home from Agua Blanca creek I dropped a pharmaceutical atom bomb on my system. I have refills of the prescribed meds on-call lest I blunder into a thicket of doom, as I did last week. Talk about better living through chemistry. Without the aggressive treatment I am certain that I would have had to miss work and would still be wallowing in a pruritic pit of pain. It could have been much worse.
So I had this grandiose, overly ambitious and generally stupid idea to do Topa Topa Peak and Hines Peak in a day, in a storm. I threw together a pretty good kit for that kind of venture and drove up to Sesar road in Upper Ojai. At the trailhead I sat in the truck listening to the rain pounding down. After a few minutes of this, and some second thoughts, I suited up and got going.

All it took for me to revise, edit, and abbreviate my plans was a few thunder claps somewhere up the mountain. That, and the persistent volume of rain was all that was needed to take some of the wind out of my sails. I decided to settle for getting as far as White Ledge camp. An eight mile rainy day loop was about all I could really muster the heart for.
Having been relieved of my self-imposed plan to flog myself through endless miles of sodden misery I was able to just settle back and stroll up to White Ledge. The whole dynamic of my day changed, for the better. By the time I reached the camp I was thinking completely differently about the day. I was out in the hills, enjoying a nice walk in the weather, and in the mood to take a few pictures.
I explored down-stream from White Ledge, saw the falls, had some food while sitting under a big stone overhang. Just so you know, the falls at White Ledge aren't really anything special except in the early spring, which is why I haven't included a picture here. After lunch I just strolled back to the truck, taking pictures the whole way.

Above: a dead yucca

Below: clouds in Sesar Canyon

Below: macro shot of fern & moss

Below: bear food

Below: heart of manzanita

Below: Topa Topa obscured by clouds

Below: poor dead lizard, would appreciate help with identification

Below: ancient oaks