So I put this off for almost a week, but hey, that’s what work will do to your plans to post a trip report
Last week I had a class that let out early on Friday, and my wife had already planned to take the kids and go visit her parents out of town. I opted to give myself an early father’s day present and hit the trail. So Thursday night I packed my OHM 2.0 and had it waiting in my front seat.
I picked the Salmon Creek trailhead, which is the closest Big Sur trailhead to me. I’ve been on this trail many many times, but have always stayed low, in the watershed. This time I chose to take a route to a camp on higher ground, at Dutra Flat camp. I saw one couple at the trailhead, and then not another human for over 24 hrs.
Once off the popular route, it was really obvious I was on the “road less traveled”. We have poison oak, like nobody’s business, and it was all over the trail. Most of the trail was nice and hardpacked, but the wilderness was trying to reclaim it.
Eventually you meet Spruce creek, which is what you would have come to if you take the main route, albeit down at the bottom of the valley. I’d read a trail report that talked about a section of the trail that was an old slide that had never really been repaired, and it was right on. The section above the creek was definitely an old slide, couple that with the overgrowth, and suffice to say I was glad I had my trekking poles.I was a little more gassed than I thought I’d be at when I hit the creek, so I took a nice break and rinsed for any potential poison oak exposure.
After Spruce Creek, the trail just follows the valley straight up, with a bunch of switchbacks. I’d recovered my wind, just in time to discover a very frustrating trail problem. A large oak tree branch had fallen across the trail, with an obstacle low, mid, and high. It was not old, dry and brittle, it was fresh and strong. I couldn’t really break off anything over an inch or so in thickness so I powered my way through, and got pretty scraped up. I decided to put my Diaz FrogLeg to the test on the way back down. Luckily / unluckily after another minute I discovered another trail problem in the form of another downed oak limb. This one much much bigger, two feet around or more, definitely chainsaw material. The bummer was that it was right in the middle of a big step up, making a minor issue a major one. The upside of this problem was that large splinter of golden oak lie nearby, I’d found the baton for problem 1 and stashed it on the side of the trail.
The trail (just switchbacks really) got more and more overgrown. I was covered in seeds and stickers when all of the sudden I stepped over a knee high barbed wire “gate” and out of the growth onto a high pasture with views for miles and miles. It was pretty breathtaking. Based on the large firering right here, I could tell that some just say screw it and don’t try to go any further, but I was not at camp.
Got my bearings, and headed off. There was one small iffy section where the trail hits an overhead grove of manzanita and directly follows a very very stony wash, but at the bottom I picked up the trail again. I’d read that there was supposed to be a spring that fed the area of camp, and I caught some “green” in a little draw in the distance. Got to that and knew I’d arrived.
The ground was hard and bone dry. I’d saved a liter, just in case there was no water up there. Luckily I found the pipe from the spring and it was still flowing nicely.
Set up camp, but was WAAAY more tired than I thought I should be. Kind of an awkward hang off the single big cypress (?) in camp but was too lazy to change my geometry.Had a nice lazy day (after drinking almost three liters of water). Set up a small smoky fire to keep the gnats at bay, and just relaxed.
Both sections of the camp, the watering hole side, and the “camp” side, are enclosed by barbed wire. Presumably to keep cattle from trampling either, but the effect of leaning on a fence post to watch the world go by had a very “Bonanza” feel to it. Right before bed I saw a small grey fox coming out of the underbrush trying to make its way undetected to the watering trough.
Beautiful night, don’t think it got below 60 degrees. I regretted not correcting my geometry, turned out the ballerina pose I opted for at about 4AM was the ticket to a decent sleep.
Up with the sun, nice little smoky fire (that I later drowned, stirred, and drowned again) while I packed up, and had breakfast. Hung out, reading till I was ready, then headed back.
Much cooler hike out than in, and I was feeling great. Encountered trail problem 2 (the big log) and decided I’d tackle it. Pack off, lift with the legs, not the back, and incrementally got that monster off the trail. It was a legit 200+ pounds total, and I had to work only one end, inch by inch. The back got sore, but not damaged.
I was excited about trail problem one, and my Diaz FrogLeg handled it like a CHAMP.I’ll let the video do the talking, but suffice to say I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a more difficult type of wood to baton through, and the poison oak restricted me to only tackling it from one side. 15-20 minutes later and I was through it. I was pretty proud.
I saw one couple shortly after I rejoined the main trail and had a beautiful no human interaction hike out. Not much better than when the Pacific comes into view and you can feel the cool breeze.
When I got home I checked the trail specs online, and my fatigue started to make sense: it was only a hair over 4 miles in, but with about a net gain of 2100 feet. Couple that with the heat and fighting the overgrowth, no wonder I was tired! (At least that’s how I consoling myself, could have nothing to do with me not being in “peak” shape)
Thanks for reading through this. HF makes a great place to tell trail stories, I’ve skipped a bunch this year so far, but I like to have a place to point my friends and family to that are interested in the stuff that I get into in the woods. Also, in case you’ve followed the link I posted over in the Ventana Wild Forums , thanks for the work you folks do with the Big Sur trails.
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- Anyways - 6/9/13 
Originally Posted by Buenos
Great great knife though. If you EVER think about discontinuing, let me know so's I can buy another.
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