Connecting the Condor Trail to the PCT

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I just did a 12 day hike connecting part of the Condor Trail to the PCT. I made videos. Here is a link to the playlist.

The Condor Trail is a backpacking/hiking thru-trail that extends the length of the Los Padres Forest along the coastal mountains of Central California. It’s a little over 400 miles long and the official route has Piru lake as one end and Botcher’s Gap in Big Sur at the other end. I’ve been lobbying Bryan Conant to make the Condor Trail less of a definitive thing like the AT or PCT and more of a route with alternates like the CDT. My hike was sort of an alternative to the southern portion of the trail. More information about the Condor Trail here. I think there have now been 3 successful thru-hikers of it.

My plans included some road walking around I5 near Gorman, but I yellow-blazed that area, so it’s not a pure hike. I cut off about a day or half a day with my yellow-blazing.

The Condor Trail portion of my hike blows most of the Southern California PCT away as far as beauty. There is total solitude there. With the exception of the popular Manzana trail, I did not see any other person on the trails for the first 9 days.

Here are a few pictures of the non-PCT part of my trip.

This is from near McKinley saddle in Santa Barbara County:

This is near Mission Pine Spring in Santa Barbara County:

This is from Haddock Mountain in Ventura County:

From Haddock Mountain again:

This is on the Gene Marshall Piedra Blanca trail in Ventura County:

The Cedar Creek Trail in Ventura County:

Mutau Flat in Ventura County:

Little Mutau Trail in Ventura County:

The mountain bike trail that starts from Sandberg on the topo map near I5, Los Angeles County. This connects to the PCT and will probably become the PCT someday when they purchase enough Tejon Ranch property to connect to the Tehachapis.

[Rex Sanders]

Fantastic! Made me miss hiking in Southern California, it’s been way too long. Mostly beautiful, empty wilderness, mostly good trail – with some serious exceptions.

Thanks for posting those videos.

— Rex

[Scott Nelson]

As someone who lives near the Los Padres NF, selfishly, I want everyone to know the poison oak is magnificent this spring.  We want to keep this a secret…

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

The wild roses were going pretty strong too, but what there were the most of were ticks. I usually had to swat off a dozen ticks every few feet. One of them bit me, but I pulled him out before he could really dig in. Also in abundance were blowdowns all over the trail. Sometimes I had to take off my pack to crawl under and drag my pack after me.

[Jane Baack]

Wonderful videos of your very scenic hike! Most of the area is completely new to this North. Calif. hiker. Good for you for sticking with your plan even thought your feet hurt. Thanks for all the details, the personal thoughts and real-life frustrations you discussed so honestly.

[Pedestrian]

Thanks much for posting these videos and details about the Condor Trail. I’ve managed to watch just the first three and look forward to the rest of them!

 

[AK Granola]

Great photos and videos, thanks for sharing your trip! As always, I have questions.

How did you get giardia before this trip? I think it sometimes takes a few treatments to get rid of it, doesn’t it?

From your first video, what makes a campsite creepy or spooky?

What are the metal boxes in the camping areas? For food storage for bears? You didn’t have to have a canister on this trip?

Rain is your kryptonite. I have a hiking friend and just about every time we hike together it rains. When either of us go with others, it doesn’t. It does sort of make one superstitious when the pattern never seems to alter! I don’t mind a day or two, but when it just won’t quit, it does get tedious. I was in the Boundary Waters in MN many years ago, and we got 9 inches in 3 days. We sang water songs, I.e. Row, Row… to ease our discomfort in our damp sleeping bags. We didn’t dry out until our very last day.

thanks again, I know nothing about that part of the country, and never thought of hiking there.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Sorry for the delay, Karen. I did not notice anyone replied.

I got giardia last year hiking the PCT. I drank untreated water between Mission Creek and Holcomb Creek in Section C. I went to the doctor and the Dept. of Public Health required me to be tested so I know for sure it was giardia because I tested positive.

What makes a campsite creepy or spooky? Big Cone Spruce has always been described as creepy and spooky because it’s in this deep, dark canyon and it’s dark and damp in there and it’s always been hard to get to. Hardly anybody goes there. There used to be a sort of swampy area right in the camp, too. Also, there used to be a crazy guy who lived in our back country (he burned down the Alamar tin shack) and I had heard he sometimes lived at Big Cone Spruce. Now that there’s an upper campsite it doesn’t seem so creepy. Maybe being down by the creek was creepy. Maybe the creek whispered spooky things all night long. I don’t know.

I think White Ledge camp is also creepy or spooky (it wasn’t a place I went to this time around). It’s a beautiful spot. It’s not dark or damp. But there’s just something about it. It just feels haunted. I know others who feel that way about that spot. Nevertheless, I’ve camped there many times.

The Los Padres is a weird place. I think there are a lot of spirits there.

The metal boxes? I think maybe those were the ice can stoves. I am not sure what exactly an ice can stove is, but I think what I have heard is that they used to make ice in these metal boxes and then sometime around the depression, the forest service got a bunch of them and used them to make campsite stoves. Here’s a better story about them. https://yankeebarbareno.com/2012/11/07/the-ice-can-stove-a-brief-history/

I hope more people learn about the Los Padres. It’s a great place to hike in the off-season. So few people hike there that the trails get really faint. It would be nice if more people hiked there to keep the trails open.

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