innature wrote:

AaronP wrote:This past weekend I parked at The Hoist and on the way up Long Ridge Road I was greeting by a local who notified me that that portion of Los Padres has been closed for years since the fire and that I was walking on a private road. I proceeded anyways. I saw no signs at the trail head notifying of closures in the area. Is she correct or just being a local gatekeeper of sorts as to keep away the crowds?

I live on Palo and hiked from the hoist mailboxes to the trail head that goes to turner creek campground.

She was likely trying to be a gatekeeper and most of these locals are misinformed and don’t like to share.

Turner creek and the trails that continue passed it are open, it even says so on the NFS website. However it is completely overgrown with blackberry bush. Not even a site to pitch a tent. I took a look up the trailer and there was a massive downed tree that looked like a lot of work to get passed. I didn’t bother continuing as it looked to be pretty impassable.

I’ll try figuring out how I can post a photo here of what it looked like today 5/31/20.

Oh, also, at the trail head lives a guy with two loud, trying-to-be-intimidating dogs. I don’t advise parking there, as he is unfriendly.

On that particular trip I did pass around to the right of the massive downed tree towards the creek. It's passable if you're willing to bushwhack your way around it. The left side looked impassable. The rest of the way is pretty clear until you reach the next junction with a few smaller deadfalls along the way. On this particular trip we made it all the way to Double Cone which required the most bushwhacking I had ever done in Ventana. I too parked at The Hoist as I had been advised not to go any further up the private road.

[quote="AaronP"]This past weekend I parked at The Hoist and on the way up Long Ridge Road I was greeting by a local who notified me that that portion of Los Padres has been closed for years since the fire and that I was walking on a private road. I proceeded anyways. I saw no signs at the trail head notifying of closures in the area. Is she correct or just being a local gatekeeper of sorts as to keep away the crowds?[/quote]

I live on Palo and hiked from the hoist mailboxes to the trail head that goes to turner creek campground.

She was likely trying to be a gatekeeper and most of these locals are misinformed and don’t like to share.

Turner creek and the trails that continue passed it are open, it even says so on the NFS website. However it is completely overgrown with blackberry bush. Not even a site to pitch a tent. I took a look up the trailer and there was a massive downed tree that looked like a lot of work to get passed. I didn’t bother continuing as it looked to be pretty impassable.

I’ll try figuring out how I can post a photo here of what it looked like today 5/31/20.

Oh, also, at the trail head lives a guy with two loud, trying-to-be-intimidating dogs. I don’t advise parking there, as he is unfriendly.

From the Monterey County DPW website:
"Road Closures-
Palo Colorado Road 4.0 mm (The Hoist)
06-26-18 to Indefinite Storm Damage"

This is correct, there is no closure at Highway 1; the road is closed at mile marker 4.

HOWEVER, it's wise to also check the LPNF website or call the LPNF Monterey Ranger District at 831-385-5434, as a temporary District-wide COVID-19 closure is expected any day now.

The Monterey County website does not show any closure for Palo Colorado Rd at Hwy1, which should be considered correct, the FS site or the county site?

https://www.co.monterey.ca.us/governmen ... s-closures

The Long Ridge Road is a private road, so you can't drive it, but under normal conditions it is open to foot traffic. The wilderness is no longer closed because of the Soberanes Fire. HOWEVER, the most recent update of the alerts and notices page for Los Padres National Forest / Monterey Ranger District (https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/lpnf/ale ... rdb5347980) has this added in boldface:

"Palo Colorado Rd at Hwy 1 and Bottchers Gap Campground is closed indefinately due to the Palo Colorado Road closure (only open to residents)"

The "at Hwy 1" part is new, as far as I know, no doubt reflecting the current emergency. And yes, the forest service has a typo.

This past weekend I parked at The Hoist and on the way up Long Ridge Road I was greeting by a local who notified me that that portion of Los Padres has been closed for years since the fire and that I was walking on a private road. I proceeded anyways. I saw no signs at the trail head notifying of closures in the area. Is she correct or just being a local gatekeeper of sorts as to keep away the crowds?

Awesome! Thanks again, I've been wanting to make my way to VDC for months now. I've also seen Pantilats route from Manuel peak and that seemed to be a little too technical to attempt with a pack on so i'm looking for alternatives and coming up from Pine Valley would make for at least a 3 day trek. Looks like the hoist is the only place to begin a trip in the north-west side of Ventana.

The bottom of long ridge road is known as “The Hoist”, also that is the closure point of the Pali road

No worries about parking. the locals leave cars ther for days

Doelman wrote:You can go up long ridge from the closure on pall Colorado rd, walk up that to get to the turner creek trail, that takes you to the vdc/ skinner-ridge trail

Is there overnight parking at the closure?