Thru-Hiking the Backbone Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains

Matt and I just finished hiking the 67.5 miles of the Backbone Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains in SoCal.

www.nps.gov/samo/planyourvisit/upload/SAMOmap1-2.pdf

The trail traverses the length of the mountain range from Point Mugu to Will Rogers State Park crossing various roads, valleys, and L.A. communities along the way.  We started off at 1:00pm on Friday May 22, 2009 being dropped off at the western trailhead  – Ray Miller trailhead.  Hiked 15 miles up to Sandstone Peak and camped right under the summit stopping at about 8:00pm the first evening.  The views atop the highest peak in the mountain range are breathtaking with the ocean to the south, Santa Ynez mountains to the west, San Gabriels to the east, and the Tehachapis to the north.

Saturday we were up at 6:30 to a fog-filled sky, broke camp and headed down the ridge at 7:30 am hiking from Sandstone Peak 25 miles to Malibu Canyon State Park.  We crossed many smaller parks in the NPS and State Park system and lots of roads and other trails.  Thursday night before the hike we stashed 2 gallons of water on Yerba Buena Road and Lindero Canyon Road but could not find the first cache.  So we trudged on and took some water from a hose at a private residence.  Few hikers, mountains bikers, runners in this area made for great solitude hiking.  The day the was hot and the vegetation thick on the trail but we had no problem finding the trail markers though we heard some parts of the trail were hard to find.  There are still two sections on the trail without official easements but we pressed on across private property.  Made camp overlooking Malibu Canyon at 8:00pm.   The night was starry and dry.

Sunday we were attempting to finish the the rest of the trail to Will Rogers, requiring us to hike almost 30 miles to trail’s end. With sore and aching feet and blisters we were hard pressed to warm up and get going.  But we did and were on the trail by 6:30am, first descending steeply to Malibu Canyon Road and then climbing steeply yet again towards Saddle Peak.  At one point we took a wrong turn and ended up on a road along which we hiked up the grade until we met the trailhead again. This is the only time we missed the trail and had to hike on paved roads for some distance – all due to incorrect trail markers – Yes, your tax dollars worthlessly spent on wrong markers.  Whoever attempts this trail should note that the NPS trail website is worthless, so are all the mile markers and distances.  Use your good judgement for route finding and don’t rely on the government to show you the correct path – Issh!

We ascended Saddle Ridge by 11am and began a long descent towards Topanga Canyon through Hondo Canyon.  Hikers beware.  This is poison oak country!  Dry and shady, the Canyon gave us some relief as we dropped from over 2500′ elevation down to 800′.  Along the way we saw more and more hikers as we got closer to Old Topanga Canyon Road where cars were parked all along the trailhead.  A lady along the trail claiming to know the area so well that she spent her youth in the Topanga hills fighting for women’s lib and the sexual revolution told us that there was no thru-trail to Trippet Ranch on Topanga Road.  I, with a geographer’s gut feeling and keen sense of direction, of course found the trail – ahh….  right across the road!  Trust my instinct and listen less to people that say "I know".

We got to Topanga State Park at 1pm, broke for lunch and headed back up to 2100′ to the Temescal Peak and the last stretch of trail to the end.  Blistered and and aching I sped up the trail and felt like a king until I stopped, relaxed, let my muscles cool and tighten and when Matt caught up I couldn’t move an inch for now I was stuck in my standing position barely able to lift a foot, let alone move a foot.  The next and last 7 miles down the ridge were so painful I kept going in and out of delirium barely able to stand and using my trekking poles from falling over or spraining my ankles.  7pm saw us at the bottom and at trail’s end but beaten. blistered, and with heat exhaustion we begged with a 20$ bill some bystanders to drive us the several miles back to my place only a few miles away as neither of us had any morsel strength left to walk nor crawl.  

The trail over, we look at the experience as an attempt to push ourselves beyond reasonable limits to overcome pain, both physical and mental, and come out knowing that anything is possible if put to the task at hand.

We met good people on the trail who gave us direction, smiles, and accolades for what we were attempting to accomplish.  We succeeded!

Pix:  picasaweb.google.com/klondikejoe/BackboneTrailMay22242009
 

Diving March 2009

Here are some pix from the various dive trips this early 2009 season in So. Cal:

Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/klondikejoe/DivingMarch2009

Peru 2008/2009 over New Years

   

http://picasaweb.google.com/klondikejoe/PERU20082009

Hello All.  We visited Peru over the holiday season from Dec. 22, 2008 thru Jan 7, 2009.  Flew LAX to Panama City and then to Lima on Copa Airlines – friendly and good service.  Stayed in Lima for 2 days while getting our bearings.  Lima is a smog infested, grafitti covered trash heap, and noisy, too!  Everyone honks on the road and the cars have the right-of-way.  We stayed in the most "prestigious" neighborhood – Miraflores where the bars and restaurants were packed and open late.

Took off on a tour bus south along the edge of the coast and Atacama Desert to Paracas National Reserve where we stayed two days traveling inside the park, going to the Isles de Ballestas (Galapagos Islands of Peru), and visiting Ica – Peru’s wine heartland.  The islandswere covered with birds, sea lions and the waters alive with pelagics.  The air was hot and dry as this is the leeward side of the Andes and little, if any, moisture drops on the piedmont slopes and coastal plains.  The villages around this area are poor, delapidated and are barely starting to recover from the 2007 earthquake that destroyed the region here.  The food is excellent and the spirits – Pisca – tasty!

We then grabbed an overnight bus into Peru’s interior to Arequipa, the country’s second largest city with over one million inhabitants.  The city is flanked by two majestic volcanoes and sits on a slope overlooking a river valley.  The air, again, thick with noise and smog.  We stayed only through the early afternoon walking around the Plaza de Armas visiting a monastery and local buildings from the colonial age.  Then jumped onto a local bus going to Puna and Lake Titicaca.  The bus was truly a local experience as we and a french couple were the only tourists on board of 50 or so passengers.  These were locals in all their garb, smell, and looks – very poor, very polite, and all had cell phones!  The toilet backed up and the locals started screaming "Bano" at the driver.  He stopped at a mear elevation of 14,500′ (we came from 7000′ in less than 4 hours) and I got my first wiff of elevation lightheadedness as I stepped off the bus for a quick pee on the Altiplana.  We both got mild cases of elevation sickness that lasted 4 days until we began to aclimate and descended to Cusco’s 11,500′ elevation.  Got into Puna late in the evening as a summer rain was beginning.  At this elevation the droplets are cold, real cold and we jumped into a cab to take us to our hostal in the center of town.  Puna is a city of 120,000, mostly a mix of Aymara and Quechua cultures as this is the border between the two.  The Inca Quechua captured the Altiplana and it’s people in the 1300’s but the Aymara never fully capitulated.  The population is very young, the city smoggy, noisy, and alive till late into the early mornings.  The markets are an experience to walk through where locals sell and barter various textiles, tourist gifts and agricultural products (Papa – potatoe, grain) for their needed items to take back to their villages.  We walked through town where the street air is thick with exhaust and then went to view Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world at 12,500′.  The sky was blue with some clouds clearing after the night rain – the air was fresh and clean by the waterfront.  We signed up for a tour of the Uros Islands made of reeds and Isla de Taquila further out in the waters for the following day.

Kayaking Desolation Sound

 

 

Greg and I spent 3 days kayaking the Desolation Sound area of coastal BC north of Vancouver, Canada. I flew up to Seattle late on Thursday night (June 6th), spent the night at Greg and Cindie’s place and early in the morning on Friday Greg and I made our way along the coast up to Powell River after some 10 hours of car and ferry hopping. Launched in a small inlet at 4:30pm and got to the first campsite by 6:30 to enjoy a fast flood tide and a setting sun as the weather cleared and the air was crisp and clean. We camped on a small island in Malaspina Inlet overlooking the flood waters, forested hills and burning red cumulus clouds of a passing rain as the sun set behind the islands’ hills.

Next morning, Sat. June 8th, we set out early at 7:30am to beat the tide and afternoon winds kayaking out of the inlet into more exposed waters. We rounded a point where reflection waves driven by a northerly wind created an exhilarating half hour of paddling through quite a bit of chop. But as we rounded the point the wind came first abeam and then dead astern and we kayaked down several wave faces surfing at a brisk speed. All awhile along the route remote cabins dotted the shoreline on rocky outcrops, the only access to them evident by floating mooring balls several yards distant offshore. Calm set in as we got into more protected waters past the point and we headed across open water towards Mink Island and then into the heart of Desolation Sound, many rocky islands and little passages between them that show rock bottom when the tides are low. We were in a new moon period, spring tides, and many of the channels were dry and high above waterline as the tide went out.

We landed on May Island overlooking two passages. To the east the coast range with snow covered peaks; to the west, islands with spruce, fir, and hemlock evergreens and farther afield the snowy peaks of Vancouver Island distanced by a myriad of saltwater inlets. We set up camp on the west side of the little island and went for a 2 hour paddle into the very protected waters of the Sound. Several dozen power boaters where moored or on the hook in little bays, protected from the wind. A dozen red and yellow floaters pointed to crab pots in the deep waters tended by theprivate boaters or a local commercial boat, several of which we saw passing us by throughout the day. Evening came and the sunset to the west was overshadowed by a front moving in our direction from Queen Charlotte Straits. The night brought rain and wind but we were quite comfortable in our tents awaiting sunrise and the chance to paddle back to our launch point.

Morning of the last day was peaceful, the rain having kept the thermal wind to almost nothing. We broke camp and set off again to retrace our paddle strokes past the islands, Mink, the point, and back into the inlet encountering absolutely no headwind nor chop or discomfort. Easy going for the way home. I kept wanting to stop and head back out into the fjords to continue this little adventure for some time but the landing kept getting closer and by 1pm we were at our starting point.

The area abounds with endless possibilities for exploration and solitude, if one so wishes. I would like to come back and have longer trips in this area and it is a good place to paddle when storms beat up the outer coastline.

http://picasaweb.google.com/klondikejoe/DesolationSoundBCCanada2008

 

 

Hawai’i 2008 New Years’ Trip

We spent 11 days in Hawai’i, first on the Big Island 12/30-1/7, then on Kauai 1/7-1/10. We hiked, scuba’d, camped-out, and drove around both islands and got to see some beautiful scenery.

Pix: http://picasaweb.google.com/klondikejoe/HawaiI2008

We spent New Years in Hilo on Coconut Island as a steady rain came down on us, then drove up the northeast coast to Waipio Valley thru tropical forests, then onto the very north tip of the island where wind and waves meet to greet the passage across to Maui. On to the dry and deserty Kona side where we spent a night and day diving with Manta Rays and local coral life. There we got to see moray eels, trigger fish, turtles, octopus, and hords of smaller reef fish. We flew over Mauna Loa and Volcanoe National Park on a private small plane and then drove south to the southernmost point in the coterminous US: South Point. Hiked over to Green Beach, named so because of all the olivine crystals in the sand (olivine is the first mineral to come out of solution when molten lava, magma, cools). On to Black Sands Beach to camp around green turtles and Kilauea volcanoe where we stayed in a beautiful B&B for a night. Drove down the Chain of Craters road to see the most recent lava flows and where the road ends as the lava flows south.

On the 7th we took a flight out to Kauai to enjoy some more scenic driving, horseback riding and scuba diving. Kauai is much more developed and tourist oriented than the Big Island but most of the development is on the coastal plains as the terrain in the island’s interior is much too rugged and steep for anything. 97% of the island is still uninhabited open space. Large north swells and wind met us on the north side around Hanalei Bay while placid warmer waters greeted our stay on the southern side. My Hebrew school buddy, Mike, flew out from Oahu to spend the last two days of our trip with us, and we hiked a bit of the rugged and isolated Napali Coast.

Overall, a great trip since we haven’t been to these islands before; Hawai’i – remote and desolate in places, Kauai – lush-green but resort-infested from scenic bay to white-sand beach.

We hope to come back soon and do some backcountry backpacking on both islands.

Enjoy the pix!

Sausalito Sunset

Spent last weekend painting the deck of HORIZON and varnishing the caprails and cockpit wood before a fall storm moved in. 20 hours of hard labour but the job was finished. The boat required much love and care, otherwise it just looks horrible with bird droppings and chipped paint. Alas, no better way to spend a weekend than working on one’s yacht. Seems like the sailing horizon is just that, a horizon.

Hiking Hoover Wilderness and Yosemite mid-August ’07

Had a great time hiking the Northeast corner of Yosemite and parts of Hoover Wilderness just south of Bridgeport, CA August 16-19th. Flew into Sacramento where George picked me and his two friends up. Early in the morning on the 16th we met up with Ami and drove to the trailhead having stopped for burgers in Walker. Got on the trail at about 2:30pm and got to Green Lake by 6. Weather was great the whole trip: warm, a bit breezy, sun galore. George and I each caught a trout a piece, letting them go for other would-be anglers. Had a nice campfire and just sat around enjoying the quiet murmur of the forest. Travis wasn’t feeling too well most of the day.

Travis, George’s cousin got really sick over-night and he, George and Jimmy turned back early Friday to head down the trail. Too bad, as Ami and I trodden on up towards Virginia Pass. We hiked over into Return Creek valley and up to Return Lake where we found the only good tent spots by the water and away from the blustery conditions at 10,000′. I fished some on the lake taking in 3 nice size rainbows. Having no possibility of building a fire I let them go – live on to have happy lives, you fish! Ami and I just lazied around since it was hot and we didn’t want to do any more hiking.

Next day, Saturday, we took off with just water and some food to try and get to a high point towards Soldier and Spiller Lakes. Crossed a bunch of granite outcrops climbing 1,500′ in about 2 hours into alpine country. Finally, past a snow bank we broke into a panoramic view of northern Yosemite, Spiller Creek valley, and just granite massifs as far as the eye could see. The wind was harsh but the view was well worth the effort. With smiles between the two of us Ami took picture after picture documenting our conquest.

On the way back towards Return Lake and camp we saw ptarmigan and marmots. We broke camp, headed down into Virginia Valley and then straight up to Summit Lake climbing 1000′ in less than a mile. Dusty and sweaty we got to the lake only to be chased away to the other side by the tireless wind. Found a semi-protected spot between several conifers, made camp and sat around watching the sunset paste red pigments on the surrounding mountainous landscape. Had another dehydrated dinner and watched for the third night in a row as the space shuttle and International Space Station crossed the sky in a NE direction at about 10pm – cool! Thanks George for giving us the times!

Last day, Sunday, Ami and I got up early and headed down the trail towards her Jeep some 8 miles away. We covered the distance in about 3 1/2 hours crossing several large lakes and viewing the Hoover Wilderness area – a really beautiful spot, no crowds, and even less air traffic overhead. Beats some spots in the John Muir or Ansel Adams – those are quite impacted by people and noise.

Overall, a great 25 mile hike, especially this being our first of the year. The weather seems to be changing for cooler temperatures at the higher elevations but it sure is still summer down at 5000′ and lower. Hoorah for the trail!

Photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/klondikejoe/HooverWildernessAugust2007

Belize 2007 Trip and Beyond

Hey gand,
Mila and I spent a wonderful 10 days in Belize from June 4th through June 14:

Here is a link to the pix:

http://picasaweb.google.com/klondikejoe/BelizeJune2007

And here is a video taken by one of the divers on our trip (sse if you can spot us):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA9O-8LWNe8&mode=user&search=

Enjoy!

-Anton

New Zealand Trip 12/8 to 12/31 2006

Hawaya Mates, 

Here’s the link to photos of our December 2006 trip to New Zealand:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mt_diablo/album?.dir=aa8dscd&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mt_diablo/my_photos

Traveled for 3 weeks mostly along the coasts of both islands.  We rented a car for each leg of the trip.

Week 1 @ North Island from Auckland to Cape Reinga on the very northwest.  Dove Poor Nights Islands (top 10 in the world dive sites) and Rainbow Warrior wreck (French gov’t terrorists blew up a Greenpeace ship in 1985).

Week 2 @ South Island:  drove from Dunedin to Bluff, Te Anao, Milford Sound and then Catlin Coast.  Got to cross 45 Lat. South and look over the open water of the roaring 40’s.  It is 4500km to the South Pole and 5500 km to the Equator from Slope Point – southernmost point on mainland NZ.  Limestone caves, glowarms, glaciers, 10K’ peaks, and fijords all close by.

Week 3 back on North Island driving the Central part: Auckland to East Cape and then White Island, 1 of only 2 active volcanoes in the world accessible to the public. 

We covered over 2000 road miles in a rental, did 4 dives, camped, hiked, swam and snorkled our way across this large county.   There are only 4.5 mil people in NZ and 50 million sheep!  Prices for goods and services are about double what it would be in the US.  Lots of open space and few people.  The whites and Polynesian Maoris are very layed back and easy going.  Too far from anything to worry about anything

Cheers!

Anton and Mila

Work, work, work

Have been varnishing the boat trying to beat the weather that is now here. Rain is not a good time to try and varnish so I put in about 3 weekends worth 3 8/hour days first stripping then cleaning, then sanding, and only then varnishing. I got 5 coats on the teak caprails that go around the boat. No easy task. Burned my hands when using the heat gun to get the old varnish off. Then got some deck paint to bubble and come off, too. So now I have to repaint the deck in spots. Oh well, live and learn. Definitely have to wear a good mask to keep breathing in all those fumes. Nasty stuff!

Now its November and the rain is hear. I’m tired of varnish so I’ll paint the rest of the bilge. Seems like there is more and more work to be done as I get to know the boat better. Better this than drinking beer and watching mindless football in a bar, right?

Ishhh!