Castle Crags Jaunt

Today I joined in on a quick road excursion out into the Machesna Wilderness Area in the La Panza Range on the Santa Lucia District of the Los Padres National Forest in eastern San Luis Obispo County. Most of the way out there I had traversed before but the final part up towards Castle Crags was new to me. We were forced to turn around due to a deep erosion-control drainage swale across the road and the characteristics of the Honda SUV in which we were driving. On the way back we stopped for a short break at the adit for the Queen Bee Mine at and in which I took some photos featured below.

These were the lowest-situated crags we encountered today before turning around. They are clearly old riverine alluvial deposts upthrust by plate tectonics and now being heavily weathered.

The fellas backed back down the road a ways and turned around at the location seen here while I stayed behind to capture images and view the surrounding terrain.

The Queen Bee Mine is a gold-bearing hardrock deposit that was not economically viable and abandoned shortly after being excavated.

The entrance to this adit used to be blocked by a heavy metal grate but that kept getting yanked off by drunken idiots with winches so now it remains open but given the adit ends about 20 feet into the hill there seems to be no need for it.

I can only imagine why somebody's chonies were left on the floor of the adit. I can certainly think of more romantic places to make "the beast with two backs" but drugs and alcohol can do remarkable things to deprive people of their dignity.
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

American Canyon Trail Hike

Today my buddy Mike and I drove out to American Canyon Campground on the Santa Lucia District of the Los Padres National Forest. We visited this location 5 miles beyond a gate on Avenales Ranch Road that is usually locked for 47 weeks out of the year except for the last five weeks of deer-hunting season. I recently read an article in a local newspaper about this and noted it to my buddy that we probably need to do this while we can so we did. Given it was summer-like hot today and we got a late start I elected to leave my dog with my mom while I hiked. Mike took his dog which ended up not working out as the black pooch had great difficulty. Mike and I despite not being in peak shape did okay, making it about halfway to the top of Machesna Mountain in the Machesna Mountain Wilderness before turning back for the sake of the dog.

Trailhead marker. We started from here at 1:16 p.m.

The view looking back down the path and to the southwest with Garcia Mountain at left.

We received a little relief with some cloud-filtering of solar radiation as moisture from Hurricane Paine moved into the area. This is the view looking east-southeast in the direction of the origin of the moisture.

We did not make it up onto Machesna Mountain but did make it about halfway up. This entire area burned in the 106,668-acre Highway 58 Fire in August 1996.

Am I the only person to see a face in this riverine sedimentary rock formation?

During our hike we noted the smoke from the Canyon Fire burning in on Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County thickening up and moving more in our direction. By the time we got into Pozo (pictured above) en route home, the smoke both low-hanging and high-altitude was thickening up. All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved). 

Picture of the Day - Disaster California-Style

This is one of those "only in California" darkly idyllic scenes featuring a pair of Adirondack chairs on a scenic hill surrounded by beautiful scenery with a world-class view into a distant national forest and wilderness area of a coast range of California. The only problem with the scene is it features a major flare-up of a nearly three-week-old now-60,000-acre wildfire, in this case called the Soberanes Fire burning in the Los Padres National Forest as viewed from Carmel Valley, CA. Per various sources this image shows the fire making a run up the side of Elephant Mountain. This image comes courtesy of Goldie of Carmel Valley (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Cuesta Fire Revenant

In recent weeks I have noticed sporadic smokes rising out of last summer's Cuesta Fire (began August 16 and contained August 28, 2015) burn area. Over the past week I have noticed this escalate to two or three smokes rising simultaneously. Yesterday and today it became several such smokes despite the rainfall last night and other rains in recent weeks. This is testament to both how "dirty" this part of the burn area is (meaning incomplete burning within the burn area allowing for later flare-ups) as well as to the dryness of the fuels as the record-setting drought continues despite recent rains. I shot this image this afternoon from the shoulder of US101 just north of Highway 58 en route to Cal Poly. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved). 

Hi Mountain Lookout Revisited

Today I and a friend (Kameron) had the privilege of joining my friend Mike on an excursion into the Santa Lucia District of the Los Padres National Forest in the Santa Lucia Mountains separating North County from South County of San Luis Obispo County. Mike who lives in Atascadero did some errands in San Luis Obispo and then we drove down to rural Arroyo Grande and headed out to Lopez Lake. From there we picked up Hi Mountain Road and took it up into the mountains en route back to the North County via Pozo. At the spine of the mountain range we turned left and headed up to the Hi Mountain lookout (which is now used more for a California condor observation tower than a fire lookout as was originally the case) and checked out site having not been there in quite some time. I had hoped to observe any Day Two activity on the Calf Fire from here but it turned out to be a one-day fire which is quite fortunate considering how hot it was last week. Indeed, today was uncannily cool and humid as a strong onshore flow was in effect again today as it did yesterday. Note: I visited this place back in 2008 and published Hi Mountain Lookout. 

My little monster Tequila leading the way to the lookout tower.

The tower and environs looked more spiffy than at my previous visit in 2008.

This visit I note they now have a nice picnic table...

.... or two with a deck and an outdoor chaise longue.

The path to the pooper.

Ye Olde Pooper!

View of the eastern hillock atop Hi Mountain from the vantage point of the western hillock atop Hi Mountain.

Memorial to local resident Frank J. Garcia who had his ashes scattered here earlier this year.

View looking northwest into Rinconada Valley and Santa Margarita beyond.

View looking north by northeast towards Black Mountain in the distance.

View looking northeast towards Black Mountain at left and Pozo Valley at right.

View looking southeast towards Sierra Madre Mountains and the San Rafael Wilderness Area of the Los Padres N.F.

View looking southward towards the Huasna Valley and Santa Barbara County beyond.

View southwest towards the Pacific Ocean and the coast and sand dunes of that area as well as the Nipomo Mesa and Arroyo Grande and Halcyon areas with Lopez Lake visible nestled in the canyons below. 

The dirt track up from Hi Mountain Road to the mountaintop lookout. This road is gated at the Hi Mt. Rd. intersection.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

First Hike For The Gang With No Name

Today the gang from Spanish 201/202 at Cuesta College's North County Campus conducted its inaugural hike. After checking out the Rinconada Mine we took the Rinconada Trail in the Santa Lucia District of the Los Padres National Forest centered between Santa Margarita, San Luis Obispo and Pozo, CA. We got a late start but had a great time although we did not make it up to the top of the spine of the Santa Lucia Mountains, something we will accomplish the next time we do this particular hike. Regardless, a good time was had by all and the consensus is that we will make this a regular event albeit trying different places in the future.
Today I was not particularly inspired to take photos as photography is my artistic outlet and I'm either in the mood or I'm not. Given the weight of my responsibilities today combined with my distraction during the hike with my exertions carrying a heavy load in my backpack all the while struggling a bit due to being somewhat out of shape seemed to sap me of my photographic enthusiasm even though that did not in any way curb my enthusiasm overall. Below are the four images I did bestir myself to capture.

Part of the gang waiting at the trailhead parking lot for the rest of us to arrive.

Some humorous graffiti painted on the Rinconada Mine retort.

What type of wildflower is this?

The entire gang minus two at the point we turned around.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)

An Unwintery Winter's Hike In The Shadow of Black Mt.

The last time I bothered to capture any images along the Friis Trail in the Santa Lucia District of the Los Padres National Forest in San Luis Obispo County was back in Spring 2009 when I was somebody else and living another life both of which have since ended. Today I elected to capture the following images of the place now in a different time both in my life as well as in the context of the time of year as this is the Dead of Winter when that other visit was in the Fullness of Spring. I took my little monster Tequila with me and hiked with my buddy Mike. This time we decided to park at the top of the trail and hike down to Friis Campground, the inverse of how we usually conduct this hike. We felt Friis Trail was too short a hike so we elected to hike a significant section of the Fernandez Trail for the first time. The trail intrigued us so next time we plan to park in Friis Campground and hike Fernandez Trail all the way to Fernandez Road in the Red Hill area south of Highway 58. For reference and comparison purposes please check out my previous posting about that other visit here nearly three years ago.

View from the upper trailhead for Friis Trail on a saddle upon which Black Mountain Road wends in route to the top.

View from Friis Trail of the start of the switchbacks as Black Mountain Road commences the steepest part of its ascent.

Above is Black Mountain Road and below it in the foreground is Friis Trail.

A Santa Ana Wind engendered gorgeous warm and windy weather for our trek.

The trail wends its way beneath the trees on the lee side of a long spur ridge off the south flank of Black Mt.

Digger Pines (Gray Pines) abound.

View of the saddle at the head of the canyon from about halfway down the canyon on the south flank of Black Mt.

Granitic southeast rampart of Black Mountain.

Friis Trail passes through a mix of oak woodland and chaparral.

Oaks become more abundant along this trail with decreasing elevation.

There was much evidence of wild pigs along particular stretches of the trail in an area of the forest known for them.

At this section the oak woodland disappears and chaparral becomes dominant.

The trail wends its way through fuel beds I would not wish to be caught in when fire ultimately revisits this area.

Evidence of the last time fire was here (Highway 58 Fire in 1996) abounds.

Mature trees like this did fine in the Highway 58 Fire 16 years ago.

Normally this waterfall is active this time of year... but not this year.

The lower trailhead of Friis Trail in Friis Campground.

If I didn't know better I'd say this was a mistletoe tree.

This oak acts like an archway inviting the hiker to enter Fernandez Trail.

The upper trailhead of Fernandez Trail looking back into Friis Campground.

This eastern rampart of Black Mt. looms over the upper section of Fernandez Trail.

The trail starts out in a mix of oak woodland and chaparral...

.... but soon becomes just chaparral.

More evidence of the 1996 Highway 58 Fire that consumed 106,668 acres.

View west towards Black Mt. with the main peak being the one that appears lower to the right of the cone-shaped peak.

More headstones of the Highway 58 Fire.

The far distant ridgeline contains Black Mountain Road so we are never far from where we started

We stopped for lunch at this bench/tool depot used for trail maintenance... and then turned back.

In the center of this image running vertically is what appears to be a faultline.

This part of the trail wends through heavy 16 year-old fuel beds of chaparral.

Granitic rocks dominant this region otherwise dominated by sedimentary rock formations.

 Digger Pines are generally viewed as ugly but they are one of my favorite coniferous trees.

A local mountain biking club placed numerous jumps like this one along Friis Trail.

By the time we neared the end of our trek the shadows were getting longer.

View from back where we started when we were done.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)