Vicente Flat Trail (Girard Trail, Kirk Creek Trail)

[paulgarett]

Date Hiked: September 7, 2010
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Date Hiked: September 7, 2010
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Hot. Bring two quarts of water per person. Hare Creek about 1.5 miles or so down the trail where you can re-fill (use water filter). Trail is "single-track" with some poison oak. Lots of knats (bugs) in the air. Hiking with lightweight long pants and shirt is recommended. May want to bring Tech-nu to wash up once you reach the creek. The poison oak is not too bad though. Downed tree about 3/4 mile down the trail. Needed to take off backpacking backpack in order to get under the trunk. Recommend trail crew to remove this downed tree. Should be a good job. (Would not mind volunteering myself). The trail is a little steep downhill with loose dirt. If you are not an experienced hiker or are carrying a heavy load, it will slow going. It was fine for me; my partner had a little trouble, but all good. Once you reach the creek, the beauty of the trail becomes amazingly beautiful. Old-growth redwoods with new sprouts from the fire in 1999, are amazing. The creek itself is absolutely beautiful. Heard owls in the valley in the late afternoon. An owl visited our camp about 4 p.m. and perched on a branch about 10 feet above. It may have been a spotted owl, but I am not sure. Took pictures. The owl seemed tame. It let us take pictures and turned its head completely around to follow our movements around the camp. The night sounds were amazing. Heard animal sounds that I have never heard before. A friend of mine told me it may have been deer calls, which forage during the cool nights. I could here other small animals hunting for food and of course the owls were hooting. I spoke with a pair of hikers I met near our camp about the Cone Peak Loop. They said they saw a RATTLESNAKE at the next valley over; part of the Cone Peak Loop trail, where the trail becomes difficult to make-out. We hiked out the next day the same way we came. Uphill, go slow and easy, and only a couple miles. My partner in front of me almost stepped on a RATTLESNAKE! It was a baby rattlesnake with a little rattle. We watched it cross the trail and slither into the bushes. That was scary. My worst fear is getting bitten and being way out. The 2 miles to the top is stiff and hot. Then Cone Peak Road is a windy, small road. The nearest hospital is a long ways off. Hiking polls may be a good means of defense against snakes. Leather hiking boots. Possibly gators to cover the lower portion of your legs, for safety. I am a little disappointed that RATTLESNAKE warnings were not posted or verbally noted at the Big Sur Station. Water availability should also be noted at the ranger station since it is hot. The backcountry of Big Sur is way out there. And if an emergency did happend it could be life threatening. Vicente Flat Camp is very beautiful and I look forward to going there again. I will be more prepared next time with long hiking pants and some sort of snake protection for the lower leg area. Trail signs would also be nice indicating proper camp sites and the turn off for the Cone Peak Loop trail. I did not see any trail signs except at the trailhead on Cone Peak Road. Also, at the Big Sur Station, I had to ask for a camp stove permit. No fires are allowed this time of year; however, I noticed a group of campers at the Vicente Flat Trail having a large campfire, underneath a low hanging branch no less. There response was it keeps the bugs away. Long pants and shirt usually solve that problem. There should be more postings of No Fires at the trailheads at the ranger station. I have never enjoyed campfires while backpacking because it makes you smell like smoke, it makes you dirty, and it requires constant attention. Big Sur is a one of a kind area, so we need to protect it and keep ourselves safe. Thank you.

[C M Heard]

Date Hiked: July 27, 2010
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Section: Cone Peak Road to Vicente Flat Camp (4E13 - Vicente Flat / Stone Ridge Trail). An unbelievable amount of light brush has grown since the ACE crew was packed in on 24 March 2010, but this section remains pack-stock passable, with two mounted packers and three mules making the trip in and out on 22 July 2010 to bring in gear for a smoke jumper crew and again on 27 July 2010 to pack out said gear. Besides the encroaching brush there is some post-holing caused by the stock in areas where burrowing mammals have been active. If you want to help fix these problems you may want to consider joining the volunteer work trip scheduled for the 2010 Labor Day weekend (see http://www.ventanawild.org/aboutus/about-events.html for more information). [Last hiked on 27 July 2010]

Section: Vicente Flat Camp to Espinosa Camp (4E17 – Kirk Creek Trail). Just beyond Vicente Flat Camp there is a downed tree dating back to the October 2009 storm that is easily stepped over. There are the old problems of sagging tread in the open areas and some uncleared slides dating back to the 2008 fire, then another downed tree further on. The good news is that the smoke jumper crew mentioned above cleared the jackstraw pile of redwood trees about 200 yards before the perennial stream 1/4 mile above Espinosa Camp, and trail crew repaired the trail damage in that area sufficiently well to make the trail reasonably safe to hike. [Last hiked on 26 July 2010]

Section: Espinosa Camp to Highway 1 (4E17 – Kirk Creek Trail). Approximately 300 yards below Espinosa Camp there is a burnt redwood tree about 18" in diameter. There is a slide on the way to Hwy 1 that is a bit tricky to negotiate. Deer weed and other encroaching are causing severe trail degradation on the sections that were so laboriously repaired in late spring of 2008. [Last hiked on 4 July 2010]

[mhumphries]

Date Hiked: June 4, 2010
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Two day visit-Kirk Creek to Vicente Flat, one night stay and out again on 6/5.

Conditions were as noted on the mid May report. Mid day temps were 75-80, nights 60-65. Bugs (biting flies mostly plus gnats in several places) were uniformly bad most of the way, REI Jungle Juice did the trick but needed to be renewed every couple of hours due to sweat.

There is enough water in the stream past Espinosa that I could dip my filter hose in a pool formed by rocks just above the trail.

Bugs mostly went away at night at Vicente, but mosquitoes remained as expected.

All along the full length of the trail the several small washouts were passable but require attention to keep from stepping on the edge and slipping out.

There is a lot more poison oak past Espinosa on the way to Vicente than I remember ever before-perched right on the edges of the trail making it important to watch out at all times. Also a lot of purple and yellow thistles encroaching so you really need to watch hands and legs if wearing shorts.

Vicente was very clean. As I left a troop of about 20 Scouts descended from Cone Peak to camp. Based on their leaders I think they will leave it clean, but perhaps a bit less firewood to find on the ground!

[Rick Bravo]

Date Hiked: May 22, 2010
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

A clear,beautiful day. Trail is clear, the usual encroaching brush. Poison Oak overgrowth was less prominent than I expected. Espinosa Camp's creek (water source) was flowing well. Trail beyond encountered the Redwood downfall across the trail. Easily accessed by crawling underneath. Would not recommend going downward then up as the felled branches were becoming brittle and one could easily twist an ankle or worse. In this area, it would be best to de-pack, carefully pass the packs through and crawl slowly ( i really whacked a kneecap on a sharp jutting piece of granite my first time through). Vicente Flats was simply great. The fire thinned the foillage a tad bit, but the campsites on the west side were all doing well. Found one table survived in the meadow area. All of the steel fire grates were gone and the fire pits on the east end of the Flats were gone.

Word of extreme caution, look up when setting up your campsite. There seem to be a LOT of potential "widow-maker" dead branches and such on the east end after the fire. Could come crashing down in the wind. Fewer on the west end. The stream is flowing well and MUCH deadfall wood.

This area is a wonderful example of returning foilage after a fire. The redwood sprouts are extremely bountiful.

[sdormanen]

Date Hiked: May 10, 2010
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

We hiked down the Vicente Flat trail from the Coast RIdge to the Kirk Creek trailhead and spent one night at Vicente Flat camp. The trail was in good, passable shape with plenty of wildflowers and plenty of poison oak. It is now easy to crawl under the large deadfall of four big burned redwoods about a mile south of Vicente camp, even with an overnight pack.

[jaeventanawild]

Date Hiked: May 8, 2010
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

What a beautiful trail! The weather was great and the views are absolutely incredible. I highly recommend this trail for hiking or backpacking, though please wear long pants and avoid it if you're sensitive to poison oak.

We parked on the road below Kirk Creek campground and hiked up (be aware the trail goes left from the entrance) the ridge, past Espinosa Camp to Vicente Flats camp. We didn't continue on to Cone Peak because we were just doing a weekend trip.

The trail was mostly clear and easy to follow. There was a lot of brush growing into the trail in places, so we couldn't use our trekking poles for a fair amount of the hike. There was a good amount of poison oak growing into the trail, but in most places it was possible to dodge around it. However, in a few places it was impossible to avoid, so you will get some on your clothes if you hike this trail.

The deadfall mentioned in the earlier post is still there, but was not too hard to get by. It's located between Espinosa Camp and Vicente Flats. You can either hike down below it or squeeze under it.

There was a small stream crossing the trail about a mile before Vicente Flats, and the creek at the campsite had a good amount of water in it.

There were some mosquitoes around dusk but they weren't very aggressive. We didn't use deet and only got a few bites.

I was surprised at the number of people camping at Vicente flats. There were at least three other groups on Saturday night, though we were able to get a nice campsite.

Overall this was a great trip and I highly recommend it. If someone were to hike through here with a machete and chop down some of the encroaching poison oak, it would be just about perfect.

[sugg]

Date Hiked: April 3, 2010
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Trail was mostly clear from Kirk Creek at HWY 1 all the way up to Cone Peak fireroad. I felt the trail was very easy to follow except for one section: right after leaving Vicente Flat Camp I wasn't 100% sure where the trail started heading up the narrow canyon. - Follow the creek going up to the right, there is a ribbon up high on a branch, and there is a bunch of chainsawed wood/ dead fall. The trail work performed on this trail is epic. As posters have mentioned before me, the three or four big redwoods which crashed down across the trail are still there. A decent route over them is to drop down about 10' and then cross them - a sort of path was developing. http://www.flickr.com/photos/38029403@N03/4516458077/sizes/o/in/set-72157623843884742/ andhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/38029403@N03/4516458511/sizes/o/in/set-72157623843884742/. The trail after Vicente Flat Camp starts to increase in grade and gains elevation more rapidly. I can't recall any obstructions or encroachments from the camp to the fireroad. There's water down by Vicente Camp - two different feeder streams/creeks. One of the most enjoyable trails I've ever been on.

[jbl]

Date Hiked: March 28, 2010
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

For a true sense of scale regarding the redwood jumble on the trail (the scale just isn't captured in the other pictures in the trail reports), see the below. These trees are just massive. But this is passable (as noted in an earlier report) by going under trees 1 and 2 (counting from downhill, on the right), climbing over tree 3 (which now has a nice foothold cut in it, where my right leg is resting) and then dropping down under tree 4. It would take a little extra work to get a big pack through here, or small children, and as noted in the prior report I wouldn't want to do it when the trees are wet.

[Rob]

Date Hiked: March 14, 2010
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

From Highway 1 to Vicente Flat : Passable
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There are a couple of blowdowns, including the big logs just past Espinosa Camp noted below. The trailhead had a sign which says the trail is impassable -



It looked like this -



I'd think this would be difficult or impossible if you had a big pack, small children and/or dogs. Otherwise, it takes some careful scrambling, and would be particularly treacherous when wet.

From Vicente Flat to Cone Peak Road : Wilderness Freeway
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No problems on the way up from Vicente Flat to Cone Peak Road that I could tell. Tread in great shape, no blowdowns, no brush. Best shape I've ever seen it.

[C M Heard]

Date Hiked: February 3, 2010
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

Section: Cone Peak Road to Vicente Flat Camp (4E13 - Vicente Flat / Stone Ridge Trail). From the trailhead at the Cone Peak Road to the first crossing of Hare Creek (in the descending direction) the trail is clear of obstacles and the tread is in generally good condition, with only minor erosion. On the long straight section between the first crossing of Hare Creek to the steep switchback just before the second creek crossing there are three significant obstacles: (a) a complex consisting of a fallen redwood about 3' in diameter and four smaller trees; (b) a tanoak about 2' in diameter; (c) a tanoak about 1' in diameter. In addition, there are debris deposits at two watercourses where rock spillways were built last year, and the top half of the steep switchback has some ruts eroded into it. The next significant problem area is the creek crossing where the trail is rerouted around the remains of a logjam that was burnt in the 2008 fire. This crossing has become badly eroded (again -- the same thing happened in the October rain) and because of the high water it's necessary to scramble over the logjam remains and cross a little further downstream. The final obstacle is another downed tanoak just before the last tributary above Vicente Flat Camp. Once in Vicente Flat Camp there is another enormous redwood tree down next to the one that fell last October, and the area where the camp trail was rerouted around the October deadfall is now flooded. Here are a couple of photos, taken on January 28, 2010:

Photo credit: Mike Heard

Photo credit: Rich Popchak

[Reported by Mike Heard from hikes on January 28, 2010 and February 3, 2010]

Section: Vicente Flat Camp to Highway 1 (4E17 – Kirk Creek Trail). Between just beyond Vicente Flat Camp there is one downed tree (dating back to the October storm), which is easily stepped over. There are the old problems of sagging tread in the open areas and some uncleared slides dating back to the 2008 fire, and then in a redwood draw about 200 yards before the perennial stream that's 1/4 mile from Espinosa Camp there is a 20' long mudslide followed by an enormous redwood jackstraw pile. There are four trees, the smallest about 2.5' in diameter and the largest probably close to 5'. While it is passable, it is seriously dangerous. Here is a photo:

Photo credit: Dave Nelson

It's a classic redwood obstruction where the trees are too big to hump over, at too steep an angle to even grip on to, and too slippery to even try. There are a few branches, both detached and attached to the trees that allow for risky footing. They are cluttered with enough foliage to obscure a visual assessment of their stability. Each step is a test step to see if they will hold weight.

Approximately 300 yards below Espinosa Camp there is a burnt redwood tree about 18" in diameter. The trail is clear for the rest of the way to Hwy 1.

[Reported by David Jacobs from hikes on January 30, 2010 and January 31, 2010]