by Brian M McCutcheon » Fri Nov 11, 2022 9:20 pm
Date Hiked: October 22, 2022
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
THIS REPORT COVERS THE SECTION FROM THE TRAILHEAD AT ARROYO SECO CAMPGROUND TO THE JUNCTION WITH THE CONNECTOR TRAIL TO INDIANS ROAD.
On this day, the hike was very difficult. When I did this hike with my dog Dash in the other direction in February several years ago, I would have called it passable (but missed posting a trail report). With Dash far beyond his prime, I was accompanied this time by Cooper, the next dog up.
From the trailhead at the campground, the trail was clear all the way past the abandoned building along the Cawatre Road, and all the way into the Santa Lucia gorge. We made very good time. As we worked our way south, upstream, part way up the canyon wall, we encountered a seemingly unending series of small slides. Most were one or two steps across and none were very difficult to cross. Several could be stepped over completely. Several times, a small scattering of dirt and small rocks scampered down the slope below us when Cooper or I stepped on a slide. For a person like myself, with a minor fear of heights, it was never more than a bit unsettling. While this slowed us some, we were still making good time. I was even beginning to consider proceeding past the connector junction to check out the slide that is listed as blocking access to Last Chance. … and then we got down to the dry creek bed, which I knew was coming but not like this.
The dry creek bed was very problematic. While no water was flowing, the vegetation quickly became thicker as we worked our way upstream. For maybe a quarter mile, we were helped by the occasional cairn, but eventually found that they just weren’t enough to stay on trail. (It wasn’t like this when I hiked it downstream several Februarys ago.) I don’t know whether we lost the trail or whether there really was no discernible trail in this stretch. We were in between steep canyon walls. As we worked our way back and forth around thick high vegetation, we were unable to find where the trail rose up out of the canyon. Little wonder really as it was difficult to consistently follow the canyon wall as we weaved our way through the vegetation. I resorted to [trying to] follow the trail on the Gaia app after opening the GPS route that I’d downloaded earlier from Big Sur Trailmap. When the creek split, we proceeded up a very narrow, and even more overgrown, canyon. We came across a small pool of water and then discovered a small but steady trickle, and then small flow of water, complete with a swimming turtle. But it eventually became apparent that we were going parallel to the trail, which was still 0.18 miles to our right; meaning it was up above the canyon wall. We clearly were past the point where the trail climbed out of the canyon, so we returned back downstream below the split in the creek where we continued the search. (Studying the map the next day, I found we had actually branched onto the South Fork of the Santa Lucia creek, headed toward Last Chance camp. But our work getting through the vegetation had only got us maybe 15% of the way there. Any attempt to get to the camp that way would be quite unpleasant, and very well may encounter an impassable stretch anyhow.) Back downstream from the split, we worked back and forth, continually returning to the canyon wall, but we still weren’t finding the trail. I began to ask myself how much longer we could search until we would need to retrace our steps back downstream to get out before dark. Then came the glorious moment, spotting a ribbon on a tree with a vague trail starting up the side of the canyon wall behind it. An hour later, we rested along Indians Road before returning back to the car shortly before sunset.
A very tough trail this time, and well worth it.
[b]Date Hiked:[/b] October 22, 2022
[b]General Condition:[/b] Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
THIS REPORT COVERS THE SECTION FROM THE TRAILHEAD AT ARROYO SECO CAMPGROUND TO THE JUNCTION WITH THE CONNECTOR TRAIL TO INDIANS ROAD.
On this day, the hike was very difficult. When I did this hike with my dog Dash in the other direction in February several years ago, I would have called it passable (but missed posting a trail report). With Dash far beyond his prime, I was accompanied this time by Cooper, the next dog up.
From the trailhead at the campground, the trail was clear all the way past the abandoned building along the Cawatre Road, and all the way into the Santa Lucia gorge. We made very good time. As we worked our way south, upstream, part way up the canyon wall, we encountered a seemingly unending series of small slides. Most were one or two steps across and none were very difficult to cross. Several could be stepped over completely. Several times, a small scattering of dirt and small rocks scampered down the slope below us when Cooper or I stepped on a slide. For a person like myself, with a minor fear of heights, it was never more than a bit unsettling. While this slowed us some, we were still making good time. I was even beginning to consider proceeding past the connector junction to check out the slide that is listed as blocking access to Last Chance. … and then we got down to the dry creek bed, which I knew was coming but not like this.
The dry creek bed was very problematic. While no water was flowing, the vegetation quickly became thicker as we worked our way upstream. For maybe a quarter mile, we were helped by the occasional cairn, but eventually found that they just weren’t enough to stay on trail. (It wasn’t like this when I hiked it downstream several Februarys ago.) I don’t know whether we lost the trail or whether there really was no discernible trail in this stretch. We were in between steep canyon walls. As we worked our way back and forth around thick high vegetation, we were unable to find where the trail rose up out of the canyon. Little wonder really as it was difficult to consistently follow the canyon wall as we weaved our way through the vegetation. I resorted to [trying to] follow the trail on the Gaia app after opening the GPS route that I’d downloaded earlier from Big Sur Trailmap. When the creek split, we proceeded up a very narrow, and even more overgrown, canyon. We came across a small pool of water and then discovered a small but steady trickle, and then small flow of water, complete with a swimming turtle. But it eventually became apparent that we were going parallel to the trail, which was still 0.18 miles to our right; meaning it was up above the canyon wall. We clearly were past the point where the trail climbed out of the canyon, so we returned back downstream below the split in the creek where we continued the search. (Studying the map the next day, I found we had actually branched onto the South Fork of the Santa Lucia creek, headed toward Last Chance camp. But our work getting through the vegetation had only got us maybe 15% of the way there. Any attempt to get to the camp that way would be quite unpleasant, and very well may encounter an impassable stretch anyhow.) Back downstream from the split, we worked back and forth, continually returning to the canyon wall, but we still weren’t finding the trail. I began to ask myself how much longer we could search until we would need to retrace our steps back downstream to get out before dark. Then came the glorious moment, spotting a ribbon on a tree with a vague trail starting up the side of the canyon wall behind it. An hour later, we rested along Indians Road before returning back to the car shortly before sunset.
A very tough trail this time, and well worth it.
