Little Sur Trail

[AdamW88]

Date Hiked: November 20, 2009
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

Old Coast Road Trailhead to River Crossing:
About 20 moderate sized deadfalls, most of these logs are rotten and a couple were able to be moved by hand. Looks like Sudden Oak Death has done its worst here already and there are much fewer deadfalls than compared to several years back. Note that anyone planning on doing trailwork here should contain & sanitize any tools and clothes to prevent the spead of sudden oak death.
The landslide would be difficult for people to get around with a day pack and very difficult with a heavy overnight pack. There are three options to get around it. One is to go down it, the other up and around, and the third would be to cross the river and go around.
Also the trail could be hard to find for those unfamiliar with the trail where it gets near the river, where high water and rains have obscured it.

River crosssing to Graniterock dirt road junction:
Recent rains have caused some heavy damage. The two switchbacks above the crossing turned into a little creek, where water ran down the trail making it very uneven. It looks like water bars were/are needed.
When the trail levels out it becomes brushy.
Then, about 1/3 of the way from the crossing to the dirt road, there is a landslide about 10-15 feet wide blocking the trail, if someone wants a photo of it email me.
At the junction/crossing of the dirt road, anyone coming the opposite direction FROM Pico Blanco might have a hard time finding the trail on the other side of the road due to some recent work on the dirt road.

[Guest]

Date Hiked: October 17, 2009
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

I took the little sur trail in August 2009 and generally it is pretty fit the whole way . there are wash outs and trail erosion but it is better then, say the big sur trail from coast rd, where the trail tread is hard to find all the way to the top of the embankment ....beyon in the forest where there used to be alot of down leaves....I don't know.

[rt1]

Date Hiked: August 3, 2009
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

This report details both the North Fork and South Fork segments out of Pico Blanco Scout Reservation.

NORTH FORK
PBSR to Fish Camp- Clear
With the exception of the slide, which has a path cut in it, and a few downed old growth redwoods, the trail is clear.

Fish Camp to Fox Camp- Clear/Passable
A few deadfalls and some poison oak, but it is possible to go all the way to Fox Camp without getting your feet wet.

Fox Camp to Circular Pools- Passable/Difficult
Wherever there was a use trail there still is one, but you will get wet. I made it as far as North Fork Camp above the 3rd pool.

SOUTH FORK
PBSR- Launtz Ridge Saddle- Clear
Massive amounts of trailwork have been done.

Launtz Ridge Saddle to Pico Public- Passable
A pretty good reroute has been cut descending into Dubeneck's Hole. In Dubeneck's Hole you must crawl underneath a massive old growth that fell in the fire and there is some brush and poison oak on the way to Pico Public.

[rt1]

Date Hiked: June 26, 2009
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

After more clearing and many conversations with hikers, here is an update on the trail conditions from Pico Blanco Scout Reservation to Pico Public:

Scout Camp to Launtz Ridge Saddle-Clear/Passable
The tread is damaged in several places but almost all trees are off the trail now. The only poison oak is at the top near the saddle.

Launtz Ridge Saddle to Manuel Peak Trail Junction- Passable
The grass is really high but the trail is followable

Manuel Peak Trail Junction to Dubeneck's Hole (Old Hunting Huts)- Difficult
Many trees have fallen on the trail but a reroute has been made across the burned hillside and it is flagged. The tread visible after this reroute. The reroute is very slippery and is not reccomended for inexperienced hikers.

I have heard that from Dubeneck's hole onward to Pico Public the trail is passable.


Overall:
This trail should only be attempted by experienced backpackers but is doable.

[rt1]

Date Hiked: June 17, 2009
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

We did some more clearing along the way to Fish Camp from the Scout Camp and then worked on the stretch from Fish to Jackson. After the river crossing at fish, there is a big log in the trail, but just follow it in the upstream direction and the trail will appear. There are a few climb over logs but otherwise the trail is easy to follow. Jackson Camp appears safe and is in good condition with the exception of some downed branches.

[rt1]

Date Hiked: June 10, 2009
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

After 2 days of trail work, the trail is clear to passable from the trailhead at the Scout Camp to the saddle on Launtz Ridge. I am marking it as passable, not clear, since the tread is uneven in many places, there are several large deadfalls that needed to be rerouted around, there is some poison oak on the final climb, and, near the top, the tread dissapears for a short while.

Soon after the junction with the Manuel Peak Trail (the signpost burned so I leaned the sign against a tree, the trail conditions deteriorate significantly as the trail descends into Dubeneck's Hole (official name of hollow refered to in one post as Hunting Hut Hollow) to the point that we decided to turn around and return later to continue work.

The day before, we encountered a hiker who had returned from several days in the wilderness. Here are some nuggets of information he gave us:

-One the trail emerges from Dubeneck's Hole into the large grassland below Mt. Pico, conditions drastically improve
-The worst part is the descent into Dubeneck's Hole
-Pico Public is fine
-The swimming hole at Pico Public is fine
-Soon west of Pico Public the trail dissapears. He was unable to find it and had to turn around.

[rt1]

Date Hiked: June 5, 2009
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

We cleared from the Boy Scout camp to Fish Camp. The tread is in good condition and the trail is free of vegetation with few exceptions:

-The slide has gotten much worse to the point the tread has completely given out.
-There are several downed redwoods, some pre-fire, that either are bypassed or must by climbed over
-On the plateau before the final switchback down to Fish Camp, a lot of downed oaks make the trail hard to find. Head straight across the middle of the plateau towards a downed redwood and the trail will reappear on the other side and drop down to Fish Camp.

[mikesplain]

Date Hiked: May 31, 2009
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Reported by mgaravuso:

Day hiked to the junction of Pico Blanco Public. Did not drop down, as morning fog burned off at that point, and my old dog was starting to look tired. Camp area did not burn from what I could see.

As with the previous report, the trail is still slumped, slightly overgrown, and the grassy areas are encroched by stinging nettles. I wore long pants, but still felt the stings.

Tred is eveident except for one of the last switchbacks is completely overgrown. Few have hiked this trail it appears. I wouldnt reccomend this trail for back packer unless they were very careful and prepared for some dicey sections with steep , slippery dropoffs.

As previous trail report stated, falls could be serious, someone slid down 200 feet and wasnt injured????

I rate the trail "passable" but with a back pack I would rate it "difficult", a hiking partner would help in sections where removing pack and handing it off would be a safe thing to do.

Other than that, the fire damage was not as bad as I thought it would be, most mature redwoods, burned quite a ways up thier trunks, were still green and full on top..

[dknapp1]

Date Hiked: May 23, 2009
General Condition: Impassable (completely overgrown or tread obliterated)

Reported by Sarah Doty:

Specific = Bottchers Gap to Pico Blanco Camp = TOTALLY OBLITERATED

The Little Sur Trail from Pico Blanco Boy Scout Camp to Pico Blanco camp should be closed! Although the trail is still somewhat there, the number of large trees and brush piles blocking it (In excess of 45-50) make getting anywhere near Pico Blanco Camp impossible. I cannot believe that the Big Sur Station actually recommended this trail last Thursday! I certainly would not attempt it again without several gas powered chain saws and a mule team carrying a 10 day water supply. The fact that the forest service is not trying to find my body (or someone else's) right now somewhere on that hill is some kind of small miracle.

Here is a description of our travels:

My friend and I are calling this the "Extremely gnarly BBQ redwoods trip".

We started out by arriving at Bottchers Gap somewhat later in the evening. We were informed by the camp host that the last site had just been taken and that we had to continue down to Little Sur Camp. Knowing that we didn't want a fire, he was still unwilling to allow us to put our tiny little 2 person tent somewhere unobtrusive, so we headed down the road in the pitch black for a 1-2 hour hike to Little Sur Camp. LUCKILY, there was a car full of delayed Boy Scouts who felt sorry for the two people backpacking in the dark, and crammed us into their car with their children and all their gear. They dropped us at the trail head to Little Sur Camp. The trail to Little Sur camp was in good condition, but had quite a bit of poison oak which wasn't a problem because we couldn't see it anyway. We got to the camp and there was exactly one campsite left. The campsite is very nice and right along the river, but there is little to no privacy - which is great if you want to hang out with other campers, but really bad if you're a woman trying to use the loo. There's a steep hill on one side, and a creek on the other, and because I'm really seriously opposed to peeing in my drinking water, I had to hike all the way back up the trail until I found a nice little patch of poison oak to carefully pee on.

The next morning, we headed out early and walked down the hot, dry road to the Pico Blanco Boy Scout Camp where nice people greeted us and offered us water and bathrooms and led us to the trail head. The river crossing was deeper than it looked and we didn't bother to take off our hiking boots which was a mistake. I have very waterproof tall boots and got through it a little wet, but my friend got soaked. There are no signs to the trail head and if they boy scouts hadn't led us there, we would never have found it. You have to go to the main camp building and turn right behind it to go up the steep road to the water tanks. Past the sign that says "trail" (which leads somewhere else), there is another set of signs that tell you to go Left for Jackson Camp and Right to Pico Blanco. [Authors note: Why the heck am I telling you how to get to the trail head! Do not get to the trail head, DO NOT go here! DO NOT take this trail! Turn around NOW!]

This next section is for forest service personnel or trail clearing crews only. YOU have already taken my advice and turned around to head back to Bottchers Gap.

Behind the water tanks is a section of trail fondly and accurately referred to as "Cardiac Hill". There are probably 10-20 places where large trees and brush piles have completely blocked the trail, so what was once a strenuous climb is now taking your life into your own hands. Did I mention that the trail is really slippery with leaves and that we were attacked by swarms of hungry mosquitoes? In some places, you have to climb all the way up the steep slope through poison oak thickets to get around giant logs the width of a car.

If you make it up "Myocardial infarction hill" as I have renamed it, and you still have blood left in your body from the mosquito swarms, then you get to a place where the trail disappears. Somebody who thought you should actually keep going got really stoned and then decided to put up little pink and yellow flags all over so that you could get to the top of the hill and to the burned out sign post now laying on the ground. At least the mosquitoes somewhat tapered off by this point. Here the trail forks: If you're going to a list of other trails that are probably even worse than the Pico Blanco trail then go left, Pico Blanco is to the right. The top of the ridge is a little meadow full of wildflowers and poison oak and the directional flags are tied to grasses and plants that they will probably fall off of soon. Coming down off the ridge, there is a massive blockage of brush about 30-40 feet wide full of trees and bushes that all made a giant pile during some winter storm. Getting around it takes a good 20-30 minutes and steep climbs and crawling through poison oak are involved. On the other side of the blockage, over a little hill and another large downed tree, you will come to the place where the recently burned out hunting huts once stood. Piles of rusty metal objects and remnants of an old fireplace are now strewn about the redwood gully and the trees are all black. One enormous tree has fallen and blocked the trail, and you have to crawl under it to get to the site, covering yourself in ash in the process. If you get stuck and can't get back, this site is probably the only flat place to camp, and there's water if you follow the gully 20-30 minutes down, blazing your own trail. The trees are all precariously standing on their ashy bases and a strong wind is probably enough to send several of them crashing down on your tent.

From here, blazing your own trail the whole way, you can follow the little flags through a hot chaparral area with lots of flowers. The trail is narrow, covered in poison oak, and washed out in some places. Eventually, you get up to Pico Blanco where there are lots of blooming Yucca whipplei. Here there is a small narrow trail through the grass and pink tags lead you up onto the slopes of Pico Blanco where the trail and the tags end abruptly. If you keep going, you'll end up in a mess of spiky vegetation and limestone karst (very sharp rocks) that can take hours to get out of. You can see the Little Sur river from here, and the place where Pico Blanco camp is supposed to be, but there isn't any way to get down to it. The road above leads up to the top of Pico Blanco to the right, or curves around the mountain to the left -- neither are places you want to go. You can hear the Little Sur river which is a big bummer because there is no water accessible, and the hot dry slopes are not helping you conserve what's in your canteen. At this point, we attempted to blaze our own trail down to the river to at least get some water, but were thwarted in our attempts by a cliff, a huge poison oak thicket, and many downed trees. We found something that looked like it was once a trail that we followed down for awhile until we were completely stopped by a large amount of brush blocking the path. We decided to turn around -- something we should have done 24 hours prior.

The way back was even more challenging because our muscles were sore and climbing over the large trees and brush piles was difficult. Additionally, "Myocardial infarction hill" was extremely steep and slippery on the way down, and we hadn't reached Little Sur river which meant we had to ration our water.

In summary, if we hadn't decided to take a full 2-3 day supply of water with us, or if we hadn't been really experienced backpackers (I used to do contract work for the forest service), or if we hadn't been as physically fit, or experienced in navigation and survival skills, we would still be up there somewhere dehydrating to death.

The fact that the forest service at Big Sur Station actually recommended this trail knowing that no one had been down it since the fire is either proof that they enjoy dramatic and expensive rescue attempts at taxpayer expense, or that they want to scare people away from the Ventana Wilderness by increasing the number of deaths that occur annually.


P.S. We ran into another couple that didn't make it either, and had camped somewhere dangerous when they ran out of daylight. All in all, it took us 11 hours of hiking to get to the "end" (we didn't even make it down to the camp), and about 7 hours to get back from the former Hunting Hut gully.

[Site Administrator]

Conditions reported by: Jim Preston
Survey date: May 1, 2009
General: DIFFICULT
Specific: Trip report of the VWA Little Sur Trail crew scoping mission:

Our objective was to discover the damage to the trail from the Basin Complex Fire in the summer of 2008 and the resulting winter erosion. Our trip began at the unmarked trailhead on the Old Coast Road and our destination was Pico Blanco Public Camp 5 miles up the trail.

We left the trailhead a little after 9 AM and made it back at 7 PM. 10 hours with only short breaks and we covered 9 miles round trip. We managed to get to within half a mile of Pico Blanco Camp but we lost the trail again at 3 PM and decided to turn around. We had already lost one member of our seven person group on a wild slide down about 200 feet with no injury and we were all very tired. So we don’t know about the conditions at Pico Blanco Public Camp but based on our traverse of two large fields the campsite is probably full of weeds and wildflowers. Many of those weeds bite. The hole below the waterfall is probably silted since the sections of river we passed were silted. The picnic tables may have survived because the ground around them was bare dirt. The trees look fine from the air and what we could see during our hike. The trail along the river and up to the Graniterock road is unchanged and very beautiful with only a few new small downed trees and of course the big slide almost half a mile up the trail. Most of the group traversed the slide but Lee Staley and I went over the top to explore an alternative route.

It would be easy to create new trail for about half of this alternate route but the upsteam side is ugly. We would need roughly a thousand feet of new trail with much chainsaw work on a steep slope full of boulders. I’m no longer considering this route.

David Lautzenheiser believes he sees a way to rework the trail across the slide. That would be our preference.

The burn zone started just beyond the Graniterock road crossing. There are a lot of unburned areas and much greenery within the burn. There is a large deadfall zone with 9 trees down just before the old gate. It is a struggle to get through this area. Lots of work for a saw crew. A couple of redwoods are beyond the VWA’s ability to remove but we can go under. For the rest of the way in both the brush zone and the open fields the trail is covered with vegetation. Unfortunately a good amount of that are morning glory vines that catch your boots and make it a struggle to walk. There are also a lot of thistles and the yucca are back so we had many painful jabs. In the fields the trail was mostly gone and finding it on the other side was difficult. The fields are a sea of over knee high grass and weeds.

The trail tread is a mess. I gave up trying to GPS map the bad spots. The whole wilderness section of the trail needs work. We probably have 1.5 miles of McLeod work to restore it to the condition we left it after our May 2008 trail work trip. Removing the dirt that slid over the tread is easy; there is just so much of it is the problem. We have some additional brush work to do but nothing as big as we’ve done before there.

Several of the old wash crossings are MUCH more difficult now. Creating a safe path through them will be complicated. These washes are cliffs and a fall means falling off a cliff. Get it?

There was one boot-print sighting to indicate that someone may have gone in before us but no other evidence at all.

Now for the good news. The wildflower display was incredible!!!!

So what would it be like to backpack this trail now? It is definitely expert only due to the high probability of falling off the trail and of even finding the trail in places. We made some improvements in the bad spots but the edge of the trail gives way easily and several of the washes are risky and difficult with a pack. Stiff burned brush could rip a pack and is hard to maneuver through.

Think of it this way: The highly experienced VWA trail crew for this trail took 10 hours to go 9 miles round trip. We had two incidents of a member falling off the trail and one of those was a 200 foot slide to the gully below. We had several close calls, including myself, because the vegetation hides holes, the trail edge, and slippery limestone rocks in the trail. Some places require reasonable rock climbing experience and not every rock cooperates.

My guess is that many of the trails in the Ventana will be in this condition and that restoration will require both use and extensive trail work. As an example I estimate that a 10 person volunteer crew would take 14 work days to restore about 2.5 miles of the Little Sur Trail. I believe I could find enough volunteers to staff this effort over the next two years.

For photos and a fly-over video of the upper Little Sur Trail please visit our Facebook page.

Please join the group as a supporter!

Little Sur Facebook Group [url]http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110063586912
[/url]
- Jim Preston, VWA trail lead for the Little Sur River Trail.