Sierra Club Outings | Big Sur Backcountry Ramble, California

Photo: Steve Wilson

Highlights:

Enjoy incredible biodiversity
Soak in hot springs
Camp at a variety of locations

Includes:

All meals and group equipment

Our trip is designed to sample everything the Big Sur backcountry has to offer. We'll ascend steep ridges with breathtaking views, and traverse through Ponderosa pine and oak woodlands. We'll layover in a precipitous sandstone valley noted for its waterfalls. We'll soak in a backcountry hot spring, hike through cathedral-like groves of coast redwoods, and camp at idyllic riverside campsites. One minute you'll be walking through a ravine of thick chaparral, only to turn the corner and encounter a poppy and lupine saturated hillside. All the while, we'll be serenaded by songbirds as we search the skies for hawks, eagles, and California Condors.

“Brush never sleeps” is a frequent refrain among knowledgeable Ventana hikers. With low Forest Service budgets for trail maintenance, and the incessantly growing brush closing off trails, the accepted etiquette among Ventanaphiles is to take time on every trip to perform a little clipping. We’ll do our part as well, with two moving days devoted to trimming brush and removing light deadfalls from the trail.

This trip will also feature a limited group size of 10 participants. The scarcity of level ground in Ventana restricts the number and capacity of campsites, and many can only accommodate a small group. The smaller group should allow participants to foster a greater intimacy with the wilderness as well as lessen our impact.

Our first day's hike will climb up the Skinner Ridge Trail and over 4,130-foot high Devil's Peak, then traverse an undulating ridgetop to our camp. With our full packs, the old adage that the first day is the toughest definitely applies. It will also be one of the most scenic, for once we scale the heights of the ridge, we will have continuous views of marble summited Pico Blanco, most of the Little Sur River drainage, and the Ventana Peaks ridge.

We will depart Pat Springs Camp the morning of the second hiking day, and continue to roll along the Ponderosa pine-topped ridge. Upon reaching aptly named Puerto Suelo, we will change drainages and descend to the Carmel River. We'll camp on a quiet river terrace at Hiding Camp. Nearby is a small waterfall on a side creek that is worthy of the short scramble upriver.

While only a short distance away, the trail up Hiding Canyon to beautiful Pine Valley suffers from overgrowth. We will spend the day slowly working our way up to perhaps the best of Ventana’s high valleys, trimming brush and clearing light snags from the trail as we go. We’ll layover in Pine Valley on day four to explore its treasures, which include a double waterfall on the Carmel River, fascinating sandstone cliffs, and quiet meadows shaded by Ponderosa pines.

On day five, with lighter packs, we'll steadily climb up to the 4,600-foot heights of Pine Ridge, where we'll enter our third major drainage -- the Big Sur River. We’ll establish camp at Pine Ridge Camp with its awesome overlook of the Big Sur River canyon out to the Pacific. In the afternoon, we’ll branch out and explore trails in the area while trimming brush. The next day we'll descend the "Golden Staircase," switchbacking down into the canyon. We'll camp in the peacefulness of a lightly visited old growth redwood grove at Redwood Camp.

Continuing on the Pine Ridge Trail on day seven, we will take an extended lunch break at Sykes Camp. This will allow us to soak in the nearby hot springs in relative solitude after the previous night's campers have departed and before the next night's campers have arrived. Relaxed, we'll push onto Barlow Flat Camp, located on a large river terrace adjacent to some huge pools in the Big Sur River. The next morning we'll pack up and head for our cars seven miles down river. The trail undulates frequently as it clings to the southern wall of the deeply V-shaped canyon, weaving through redwoods, live oaks, open grasslands, and chaparral.

The Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park campground is located on scenic Highway 1, 26 miles south of Carmel. While the Monterey Airport provides regional airline service, the nearest major airport is San Jose International, with San Francisco and Oakland International Airports located 50 miles further away. Public Transit operates only during the summer. A local participant can usually be found to provide a ride from the airport.

The leader will send several pre-trip announcements, including detailed driving instructions, participant contact data, preferred equipment, condition updates, and other pertinent information in the months and weeks leading up to the trip.

The menu has been refined from many years of backcountry travel and is designed to minimize weight, simplify preparation, and maximize taste. Meat will be served at some meals, other meals will be vegetarian. Breakfasts will primarily consist of hot or cold cereals. Lunches will feature tortillas, crackers, spreads, cheeses, and energy bars. A meatless menu option will be available if communicated to the leader well in advance of the trip. More restrictive diets are very difficult to accommodate on group trips. Contact the leader prior to sign-up to determine if your specific needs can be accommodated without impacting the group.

Quantities of food will be ample, so supplementary personal food supplies have proven to be unnecessary to all but the most raging of metabolisms. Alcohol will be served at several happy hours in addition to the VWA event. A small bottle of iodine tincture will be issued for water treatment, though some participants may wish to bring a water filter. We'll encounter some dry stretches of trail, so a water carrying capacity of at least 2 liters is recommended.

Spring is the flowering time of year for most plants, so pollen counts will be high. The brush can also contain ticks that hitch rides on passing hikers. If you are highly sensitive to poison oak/ivy/sumac, susceptible to plant allergies, cringe at the thought of crashing through brush, or find the thought of a tick on your pant leg repulsive, this trip is not for you.

Trail conditions are highly variable depending on recent fire activity, geologic activity, deadfall, climatic conditions, and recent maintenance activity. We'll encounter a number of burned areas during our hike. In 1999, two fires caused by lightning burned an extensive amount of the wilderness. But we'll see that the fire burned in a very natural mosaic pattern of variable intensity for the most part. Counter intuitively, the areas that burned the hardest have the thickest brush now.

Even the best maintained trails will require clambering over downed tree trunks and negotiating short stretches of loose slipouts with some exposure. Prospective participants should assume that these are rough trails in very poor condition, which will require a high degree of physical exertion to negotiate.

Early May is perhaps the best time to visit Big Sur and Ventana. Temperatures are usually quite mild, ranging from the low 50s to mid-80s depending on aspect, elevation, and tree cover, with the possibility of high 30s in the bottom of the deep canyons and even 90s on the exposed south facing chaparral ridge slopes. The possibility of a Pacific storm still exists, although at this time of year the rain usually lasts no more than a day. Black flies, which can be an extreme nuisance in summer, should not be a problem yet, though mosquitoes may be present in wet areas such as along creeks and near springs.

The success of the trip relies upon the active contribution of all participants. Participants are expected to assist with cooking, cleaning, sanitation, camp set-up and breakdown, food storage, adhering to Leave No Trace guidelines, and all other tasks necessary for efficient trip operation. The stronger hikers will be asked to assist weaker hikers rather than bolting ahead of the pack. Participants often find that their contributions to the group's success are among the most memorable and rewarding experiences of the trip. The leaders are trained and experienced volunteers, not paid professional guides.

A list of recommended personal equipment may be found at www.knapsack.org. You should try to limit your personal gear to 25-30 pounds. This is important not only to increase your stamina but also for safety. A pack that is too heavy, unbalanced, or disorganized will limit your agility, increasing the possibility of injury. You must also have some reserve capacity to carry a portion of another participant's load should someone become injured or ill.

The brush and ticks typically encountered on Ventana trails require the use of long-sleeved shirts and pants for hiking. Hiking boots should have rubber lug soles with a heel (flat soles are too slippery on leaves) and should be well broken-in. Heavy mountaineering type boots are not necessary and add to your load.

A small saw and/or a set of hand clippers can prove to be valuable in removing deadfall and incessant brush growth. As we hike the trails, we'll stop occasionally to prune a particularly bad patch of overgrowth or remove deadfalls. Because of an historic lack of trail maintenance by the U.S. Forest Service, this type of light maintenance by wilderness travelers is often the only thing that keeps these trails open.

The best reference for this trip bar none is www.ventanawild.org, the Ventana Wilderness Alliance's website. Here you will find the most up-to-date information on trail conditions, a quarterly magazine with articles on human and natural history, and a complete listing of maps, books, and other references, as well as other features. Prospective participants without web access may contact the leader to obtain this information. It is highly recommended that all potential participants visit this site, particularly the trail condition reports.

Despite its protection as a designated federal wilderness, the Ventana Wilderness Alliance is actively working on a number of issues to ensure that this protection is maintained: lobbying for development of a Fire Management Plan; updating the Forest Management Plan; the protection and development of historic steelhead trout streams; and elimination of livestock grazing in sensitive areas.

The VWA has already been successful in expanding the wilderness areas of the Northern Santa Lucia, shooting down a proposal for helicopter assisted hunting, and requiring the Navy to perform a full Environmental Impact Statement for their proposed jet fighter bombing practice in nearby Fort Hunter Ligget. Because of its beauty, oak savannahs, and other features, Hunter Ligget itself is a potential National Park. All of these issues and more will be the subject of informal discussions during the course of the trip.

The payment of a deposit does not confirm you as a member on the trip. Participants must be approved by the trip leader. After signing up for this trip, you will be sent a confirmation packet containing approval materials (Participant Approval Questionnaire, Medical Form, Liability Release Form). Each applicant (including those on the waitlist) must fill out these forms and promptly mail them to the trip leader. The leader will review the approval materials and notify you of your acceptance in a timely manner.

Steve Wilson started backpacking in 1969 at age 11 and hasn't stopped since. He has led or assisted on more than 20 outings since 1997, primarily into the High Sierra but also into the Rockies and Big Sur. He is the former chair of the Sierra Club's Knapsack Subcommittee, and received certification as a Leave No Trace trainer last year. A licensed civil engineer, he prides himself on his cross-country navigation skills and enjoys climbing an occasional peak. You�ll often find him skiing at Kirkwood, shredding his favorite secret powder stash.

E-mail: mtnfreak@aol.com