Sisquoc Loop

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I have not done the Sisquoc Loop in the Los Padres National Forest for about 10 years. The last few times I’ve done it I have sworn I will never do it again. There are a lot of creek crossings and in the past the bushwacking and searching for trail made the whole thing really difficult. It was different this time.

I had memories from my high school days doing a day hike from Manzana Schoolhouse up the Sisquoc trail. We ended up on a high plateau meadow where we encountered a herd of cattle. They formed a line across the trail and stood their ground as we approached. We got kind of scared. They’re really big and it didn’t look like they would get out of the way. We debated what we should do, unsure what we actually could do. In the end, we just walked slowly toward them and they parted and we hurried by without being trampled.

All the years since then I started to believe that memory was a mirage. I had never seen that high plateau ever again on all my Sisquoc Loop trips.

It appears that trail volunteers have been restoring lost sections of the trail, and marking the trail with large cairns. Because of their work, we rarely lost the trail for more than a very short distance and we found that big plateau from my childhood! Even better, this was the first time I ever did the loop where I didn’t think at the end “I will never do that again.” It was actually very pleasant. Still a lot of creek crossings but not as many. And we never were tangled in brush or searching hopelessly for a trail that didn’t exist. It was all there.

Here’s the plateau of my memories. It was pretty exhausting to walk the high trails because the grass was so long and there are a lot of gopher holes in the trail. It’s a nice break from crossing the river though.

Here’s an example of the big ducks. Sometimes they were much bigger. Sometimes they were much bigger and the grass was so tall you could barely see them. They helped a lot. There was also tape to follow.

Here’s an example of the kinds of creek crossings you have to do. This one had a swimming hole that we stopped to swim in.

Another creek crossing. Your feet are wet all day.

But there are swimming holes. We swam twice a day.

Look at this amazing swimming hole at Forester’s Leap. You could do laps.

The camping and the weather was sublime. This is my Pocket Tarp down by the river at Miller.

It’s getting pretty hot out there. This will only be doable for a few more weeks and then you’ll want to wait for the fall. We encountered a couple camping at South Fork on their way out and a man on his way out at Happy Hunting Ground. We saw no other people between South Fork and Manzana Schoolhouse. Manzana Schoolhouse was a zoo because we arrived on a Saturday, and the last 10 miles out from there were heavily populated. Some people wore masks.

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