Date Hiked: July 12, 2026
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
The trail is somewhere between difficult and impassable. Tread is visible along with the work completed in February, but there are a lot of downed trees. Attempted to hike in on 7/12 and never made it to the creek. I would estimate that we made it approximately 1.5 miles in and there were at least 25 downed trees that blocked the trail. We finally aborted. Round trip was a miserable 3 hours.
San Antonio Trail
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LindsayJeffers
Re: San Antonio Trail
Date Hiked: March 1, 1995
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
Doug, Thank you for your heroic effort to reach Fresno Camp; it sounds like you have had good experiences there when the trail was clear. I am impressed and sympathetic with your efforts to re-open the trail. My only visit was also unforgettable, leading a group of high school backpackers on their first day of our trip to Bottcher's Gap. We hiked in from NF Road because the rains had closed it to vans; we were supposed to spend a half day just hiking down from the Cone Peak Road but instead didn't reach the trail until 5. We had no saws or loppers so had our largest hikers run at the brush with full packs on and bull their way through - I remember counting over 115 separate rushes. When we finally reached the first flat spot in the dark at around eleven after a final climb up and through the top of a fallen bay tree, I had us set up our tarps and only discovered we had reached Fresno Camp when I located an old ice-box stove the next morning. That was the beginning of the major storm that eventually cut all the roads onto the Peninsula - quite a memorable introduction to backpacking for my sophomores - and me!
I was startled by your description of encountering old roadway remnants but realize that was one of the trails over the mountains to King City that Stanley Harlan mentions in his memoirs of growing up on the South Coast at Harlan Point, the route that ends at Wagon Cave.
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
Doug, Thank you for your heroic effort to reach Fresno Camp; it sounds like you have had good experiences there when the trail was clear. I am impressed and sympathetic with your efforts to re-open the trail. My only visit was also unforgettable, leading a group of high school backpackers on their first day of our trip to Bottcher's Gap. We hiked in from NF Road because the rains had closed it to vans; we were supposed to spend a half day just hiking down from the Cone Peak Road but instead didn't reach the trail until 5. We had no saws or loppers so had our largest hikers run at the brush with full packs on and bull their way through - I remember counting over 115 separate rushes. When we finally reached the first flat spot in the dark at around eleven after a final climb up and through the top of a fallen bay tree, I had us set up our tarps and only discovered we had reached Fresno Camp when I located an old ice-box stove the next morning. That was the beginning of the major storm that eventually cut all the roads onto the Peninsula - quite a memorable introduction to backpacking for my sophomores - and me!
I was startled by your description of encountering old roadway remnants but realize that was one of the trails over the mountains to King City that Stanley Harlan mentions in his memoirs of growing up on the South Coast at Harlan Point, the route that ends at Wagon Cave.
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dougmajor
Re: San Antonio Trail
Date Hiked: February 14, 2026
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
Completion! After a year of stop‑and‑go effort and eight weekends of sweat, sap, and scratched shins, the historic San Antonio Trail has been wrestled back from the chaparral and is once again (barely) passable to Fresno Camp on the banks of the mighty San Antonio River—a true Zone 2 cardio epic disguised as trail rehab.
Zone 2 Cardio, Wilderness-Style
Think of this as a backcountry spin class engineered by Sisyphus himself. The day starts with a five‑mile bike ride to the trailhead, gently nudging your heart into that Zone 2 sweet spot before you even see the first branch. Then the real workout begins: clipping through the brush with pecs and traps, sawing with biceps and triceps, core firing as you balance on loose tread. This is not “steps on a smartwatch” exercise; this is full‑body, old‑school, manual‑labor fitness.
Forget the sleek rucking pack marketed to urban weekend warriors. Your loadout is gloves, saws, extended clippers, hydration bottles, salt, and pickles to fend off cramps, and all of it is going up and down roughly 1,600 vertical feet. The combination of sustained effort, steady heart rate, and continuous movement is pure Zone 2: long, slow, persistent exertion that leaves you tired in the legs, clear in the head, and oddly ready to do it again next weekend.
A Sisyphus Story with a Finish Line
The work has been, in the best way, Sisyphean. On many days, it took an hour of clawing through “new” brush just to reach the part of the trail you meant to work on. Two back‑to‑back weekends finally broke the back of the worst sections, with last Saturday turning into a 12‑hour marathon of brush, blowdowns, and stubbornness. But the boulder moved: Fresno Camp is now reachable, and the line through the wilderness is visible again.
What to Expect on the Reclaimed Route
The trail will be signed just up from where the Kirk Camp trail, coming up Hare drainage by Vincente Camp, hits the North Coast/Cone Peak Road, pointing you toward Fresno Camp a mere 1.5 miles away in linear distance—do not be fooled.
The opening stretch is mostly clear, with occasional brush drift, but the tread is readable and everything can be pushed through.
After passing a prominent white rock encarpment, the path widens into an old roadway paralleling Cone Peak Road above, then drops to the saddle dividing the Nacimiento and San Antonio drainages. Here the burn scar asserts itself: an eight‑foot‑tall brush tunnel you can push through, but which is constantly trying to reclaim the corridor.
Beyond the saddle, a more open roadbed returns briefly as you cross the main southeastern drainage, then you are back into dense brush and fire blowdowns. The tread is there, but you’ll earn every foot.
Around the ridgeline, you’ll find the first clearly marked switchback, anchored by an old, burned cutting—a small shrine to perseverance. From here, the trail climbs back toward the main drainage, the sound of water taunting you from below: so close, yet still a zig and a zag away. The corridor briefly opens, then plunges you back into brush as you work toward the second switchback. This segment is the least refined: expect duck‑unders, crawl‑unders, and one massive cluster of blowdowns that demands a scramble over the top before you cross the southeastern drainage one last time.
Past that crossing, check your GPS: the re‑entry to the tread hides behind a low crawl. Once through, things steadily improve as you enter older growth spared from the worst of the fire. At that point, exhausted and chasing daylight, the last two small switchbacks gave way to a direct plunge—two hundred feet straight down into Fresno Camp, arriving at about 5:00 p.m., tired, scratched, but triumphant.
Fresno Camp and the Long Way Home
Fresno Camp itself is a reward: a generous clearing, a reliably flowing river, and a sense of having reached a place that does not give itself up easily. The riverbank is more brushy now, threaded with downed logs that make continuing on to the stone cabin a bit of a puzzle, but water and quiet are there in abundance. An adventure is upstream a mile, where in a massive bowl, the river springs up from the ground. On my one visit there, I found thousands of ladybugs. A magical place.
The return is its own epilogue: nearly two hours to climb back to the road, then a hike and bike by cell‑phone light back to Nacimiento‑Fergusson Road back to the car. By then, the heart has lived in Zone 2—and occasionally flirted with VO₂ max—for hours.
Trail rehab in the Ventana Wilderness isn’t just stewardship. It’s a long‑form, full‑body meditation in motion: part cardio lab, part strength training, part conversation with a landscape determined to grow back over yesterday’s work by tomorrow morning.
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
Completion! After a year of stop‑and‑go effort and eight weekends of sweat, sap, and scratched shins, the historic San Antonio Trail has been wrestled back from the chaparral and is once again (barely) passable to Fresno Camp on the banks of the mighty San Antonio River—a true Zone 2 cardio epic disguised as trail rehab.
Zone 2 Cardio, Wilderness-Style
Think of this as a backcountry spin class engineered by Sisyphus himself. The day starts with a five‑mile bike ride to the trailhead, gently nudging your heart into that Zone 2 sweet spot before you even see the first branch. Then the real workout begins: clipping through the brush with pecs and traps, sawing with biceps and triceps, core firing as you balance on loose tread. This is not “steps on a smartwatch” exercise; this is full‑body, old‑school, manual‑labor fitness.
Forget the sleek rucking pack marketed to urban weekend warriors. Your loadout is gloves, saws, extended clippers, hydration bottles, salt, and pickles to fend off cramps, and all of it is going up and down roughly 1,600 vertical feet. The combination of sustained effort, steady heart rate, and continuous movement is pure Zone 2: long, slow, persistent exertion that leaves you tired in the legs, clear in the head, and oddly ready to do it again next weekend.
A Sisyphus Story with a Finish Line
The work has been, in the best way, Sisyphean. On many days, it took an hour of clawing through “new” brush just to reach the part of the trail you meant to work on. Two back‑to‑back weekends finally broke the back of the worst sections, with last Saturday turning into a 12‑hour marathon of brush, blowdowns, and stubbornness. But the boulder moved: Fresno Camp is now reachable, and the line through the wilderness is visible again.
What to Expect on the Reclaimed Route
The trail will be signed just up from where the Kirk Camp trail, coming up Hare drainage by Vincente Camp, hits the North Coast/Cone Peak Road, pointing you toward Fresno Camp a mere 1.5 miles away in linear distance—do not be fooled.
The opening stretch is mostly clear, with occasional brush drift, but the tread is readable and everything can be pushed through.
After passing a prominent white rock encarpment, the path widens into an old roadway paralleling Cone Peak Road above, then drops to the saddle dividing the Nacimiento and San Antonio drainages. Here the burn scar asserts itself: an eight‑foot‑tall brush tunnel you can push through, but which is constantly trying to reclaim the corridor.
Beyond the saddle, a more open roadbed returns briefly as you cross the main southeastern drainage, then you are back into dense brush and fire blowdowns. The tread is there, but you’ll earn every foot.
Around the ridgeline, you’ll find the first clearly marked switchback, anchored by an old, burned cutting—a small shrine to perseverance. From here, the trail climbs back toward the main drainage, the sound of water taunting you from below: so close, yet still a zig and a zag away. The corridor briefly opens, then plunges you back into brush as you work toward the second switchback. This segment is the least refined: expect duck‑unders, crawl‑unders, and one massive cluster of blowdowns that demands a scramble over the top before you cross the southeastern drainage one last time.
Past that crossing, check your GPS: the re‑entry to the tread hides behind a low crawl. Once through, things steadily improve as you enter older growth spared from the worst of the fire. At that point, exhausted and chasing daylight, the last two small switchbacks gave way to a direct plunge—two hundred feet straight down into Fresno Camp, arriving at about 5:00 p.m., tired, scratched, but triumphant.
Fresno Camp and the Long Way Home
Fresno Camp itself is a reward: a generous clearing, a reliably flowing river, and a sense of having reached a place that does not give itself up easily. The riverbank is more brushy now, threaded with downed logs that make continuing on to the stone cabin a bit of a puzzle, but water and quiet are there in abundance. An adventure is upstream a mile, where in a massive bowl, the river springs up from the ground. On my one visit there, I found thousands of ladybugs. A magical place.
The return is its own epilogue: nearly two hours to climb back to the road, then a hike and bike by cell‑phone light back to Nacimiento‑Fergusson Road back to the car. By then, the heart has lived in Zone 2—and occasionally flirted with VO₂ max—for hours.
Trail rehab in the Ventana Wilderness isn’t just stewardship. It’s a long‑form, full‑body meditation in motion: part cardio lab, part strength training, part conversation with a landscape determined to grow back over yesterday’s work by tomorrow morning.
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Doug Major
Re: San Antonio Trail
Date Hiked: October 25, 2025
General Condition: Impassable (completely overgrown or tread obliterated)
Another attempt was made to cut and hack down to Fresno Camp and the river. After spending three hours just clipping to get to the new area to work, I was able to access an additional 2,000 feet of trail, almost to the second switchback. The tread is still visible, but with the number of contiguous blowdowns crossing the trail, it is impossible to simply push through.
Two new large tree blowdowns on Cone Peak Road were trimmed to be at least passable, but now require full removal. Scores of burned trees line the road, waiting for a similar fate.
I noticed some fresh deer scat on the trail where it ended in a pile of blowdowns and upgrowth. Even the deer are waiting for a passable route to the river!
If someone is interested in some good loopers, I would guess about 5 hours of work to the river. Let's keep this trail from becoming lost...even if just a game trail for the local deer!
General Condition: Impassable (completely overgrown or tread obliterated)
Another attempt was made to cut and hack down to Fresno Camp and the river. After spending three hours just clipping to get to the new area to work, I was able to access an additional 2,000 feet of trail, almost to the second switchback. The tread is still visible, but with the number of contiguous blowdowns crossing the trail, it is impossible to simply push through.
Two new large tree blowdowns on Cone Peak Road were trimmed to be at least passable, but now require full removal. Scores of burned trees line the road, waiting for a similar fate.
I noticed some fresh deer scat on the trail where it ended in a pile of blowdowns and upgrowth. Even the deer are waiting for a passable route to the river!
If someone is interested in some good loopers, I would guess about 5 hours of work to the river. Let's keep this trail from becoming lost...even if just a game trail for the local deer!
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dougmajor
Re: San Antonio Trail
Date Hiked: June 14, 2025
General Condition: Impassable (completely overgrown or tread obliterated)
I made another attempt to clear a passable trail to the river and Fresno Campground. I even brought my water shoes! No such luck. The wilderness wants this trail to be her own. I spent a few hours cutting and pushing to make it down to the last drop-off point, where I ended my efforts. All Trails added this trail (5E08) to their app, which helped find the switchback that baffled me on my last go around. It was hidden under an enormous blowdown, but when uncovered, I found an old pre-burn cut, and it brought back some memory of when I hiked this trail before. Looking on your hands and knees, the tread is visible, but then just cut up to the light! I was able to chop my way down around a curve to another drainage, but after 4 hours of work, I gave up any hope of reaching the river. On a good note, as the trail gets closer to the river, there is less foliage on the tread, and one more push should get a clipper-laden adventurer to the camp with three more switchbacks to navigate. With over two-thirds of the trail done, it took me only 40 minutes from my stopping point to get up to the trailhead with a few climb overs and only one climb under. As always, more insects this time of year, and I left (lost) another head net on the trail for the next attempt! This historic trail is one that we need to wrestle back from the wilderness.
General Condition: Impassable (completely overgrown or tread obliterated)
I made another attempt to clear a passable trail to the river and Fresno Campground. I even brought my water shoes! No such luck. The wilderness wants this trail to be her own. I spent a few hours cutting and pushing to make it down to the last drop-off point, where I ended my efforts. All Trails added this trail (5E08) to their app, which helped find the switchback that baffled me on my last go around. It was hidden under an enormous blowdown, but when uncovered, I found an old pre-burn cut, and it brought back some memory of when I hiked this trail before. Looking on your hands and knees, the tread is visible, but then just cut up to the light! I was able to chop my way down around a curve to another drainage, but after 4 hours of work, I gave up any hope of reaching the river. On a good note, as the trail gets closer to the river, there is less foliage on the tread, and one more push should get a clipper-laden adventurer to the camp with three more switchbacks to navigate. With over two-thirds of the trail done, it took me only 40 minutes from my stopping point to get up to the trailhead with a few climb overs and only one climb under. As always, more insects this time of year, and I left (lost) another head net on the trail for the next attempt! This historic trail is one that we need to wrestle back from the wilderness.
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dougmajor
Re: San Antonio Trail
Date Hiked: March 29, 2025
General Condition: Impassable (completely overgrown or tread obliterated)
We attempted to reach the river with a second set of hands. All the blowdowns to the exposed "road" section are now cleared. We made headway and cleared multiple blow-down sets off the trail but at the switchback?, the blow-downs and brush encroachment were so thick it was impossible to make it further. It would have been easier to blast straight down the hill, in the direction of the fallen Madrone stumps, rather than cross back through the trail and bisect the blowdowns, so more work will need to be done. After five more hours, it looks like another two-day project over halfway there.
We passed three groups going to and coming down Cone Peak from the road. A young trail runner made it up and went back down in shorts—a good sign of a clear trail—a trail that is running shorts-ready!
Also, the gate to South Coast Ridge Road was open at the Nasimento Fergison summit. A lot of road repair has been in progress on this 40+mile dirt road that connects ends at Hearst property, so with a four-wheel drive, many trails and camps, like Lions Den, are now open at the top side and accessible to trail work so needed in the Silver Peak Wilderness.
We noted continued work on the Cone Peak road, with some larger trees also being cut off the road, but much more work will be needed before the road is passable.
General Condition: Impassable (completely overgrown or tread obliterated)
We attempted to reach the river with a second set of hands. All the blowdowns to the exposed "road" section are now cleared. We made headway and cleared multiple blow-down sets off the trail but at the switchback?, the blow-downs and brush encroachment were so thick it was impossible to make it further. It would have been easier to blast straight down the hill, in the direction of the fallen Madrone stumps, rather than cross back through the trail and bisect the blowdowns, so more work will need to be done. After five more hours, it looks like another two-day project over halfway there.
We passed three groups going to and coming down Cone Peak from the road. A young trail runner made it up and went back down in shorts—a good sign of a clear trail—a trail that is running shorts-ready!
Also, the gate to South Coast Ridge Road was open at the Nasimento Fergison summit. A lot of road repair has been in progress on this 40+mile dirt road that connects ends at Hearst property, so with a four-wheel drive, many trails and camps, like Lions Den, are now open at the top side and accessible to trail work so needed in the Silver Peak Wilderness.
We noted continued work on the Cone Peak road, with some larger trees also being cut off the road, but much more work will be needed before the road is passable.
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dougmajor
Re: San Antonio Trail
Date Hiked: February 22, 2025
General Condition: Impassable (completely overgrown or tread obliterated)
I attempted to reach the river again now that is is a few years after the Dolan Fire. The San Antonio watershed is impressive here, with out any small triubarys visible a lot of water comes out in a small area at the base of the mighty Cone Peak, a mile high and still growing! I brought some waders for a fun day but soon was stifled by the condition of the trail. After 5 hours of looping and sawing, I made it to the first switchback, but with a wall of continuous burned downfall over the top, upgrowth from below, and with now all this interspersed with poison oak, I had to end my attempt. The river was loud and so inviting, so close and yet so far!
The trail is now cleared to the white rock face with two jump-overs. The sign is in place and in good condition. After the white cliff, you quickly enter a brush field that I mildly looped to be able to do an easy push through for about a fourth a mile. You then enter the "road section" that is more exposed, so the next fourth mile is reasonably clear and accessible with the treat evident. Then, you enter the blow-down grow-up section. There are scores of areas to go over or tunnel through. With some effort, you can make it to the first switchback, where I stopped. There has been more work on Cone Peak Road; when that is completed, you can drive to the trailhead, which will be used more. It truly is worth fixing, and enjoy this back side of Cone Peak at the headwaters of the mighty San Antonio!
General Condition: Impassable (completely overgrown or tread obliterated)
I attempted to reach the river again now that is is a few years after the Dolan Fire. The San Antonio watershed is impressive here, with out any small triubarys visible a lot of water comes out in a small area at the base of the mighty Cone Peak, a mile high and still growing! I brought some waders for a fun day but soon was stifled by the condition of the trail. After 5 hours of looping and sawing, I made it to the first switchback, but with a wall of continuous burned downfall over the top, upgrowth from below, and with now all this interspersed with poison oak, I had to end my attempt. The river was loud and so inviting, so close and yet so far!
The trail is now cleared to the white rock face with two jump-overs. The sign is in place and in good condition. After the white cliff, you quickly enter a brush field that I mildly looped to be able to do an easy push through for about a fourth a mile. You then enter the "road section" that is more exposed, so the next fourth mile is reasonably clear and accessible with the treat evident. Then, you enter the blow-down grow-up section. There are scores of areas to go over or tunnel through. With some effort, you can make it to the first switchback, where I stopped. There has been more work on Cone Peak Road; when that is completed, you can drive to the trailhead, which will be used more. It truly is worth fixing, and enjoy this back side of Cone Peak at the headwaters of the mighty San Antonio!
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Mitch
Re: San Antonio Trail to Fresno Camp
Date Hiked: August 25, 2018
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
Trail is passable and easy to follow, but very over grown. The first 500 yds requires bush whacking your way through tall, dry vegetation. From the saddle down into Fresno camp there are many overgrown sections where dodging and ducking is mandatory. Poisson Oak is out in force, especially the last third of the trail. Wear a long sleeved shirt and long pants as there is no way to avoid coming into contact. Fresno camp is beautiful. The river had a good flow of clear cold water, a welcomed sight on a dry, warm late summer afternoon. We could not locate the trail to San Antonio camp as we traveled about a mile downstream hugging the river bed so we stayed at Fresno camp.
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
Trail is passable and easy to follow, but very over grown. The first 500 yds requires bush whacking your way through tall, dry vegetation. From the saddle down into Fresno camp there are many overgrown sections where dodging and ducking is mandatory. Poisson Oak is out in force, especially the last third of the trail. Wear a long sleeved shirt and long pants as there is no way to avoid coming into contact. Fresno camp is beautiful. The river had a good flow of clear cold water, a welcomed sight on a dry, warm late summer afternoon. We could not locate the trail to San Antonio camp as we traveled about a mile downstream hugging the river bed so we stayed at Fresno camp.
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Dick Graybill
Re: San Antonio Trail
Date Hiked: March 4, 2018
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
A surprisingly easy trail for one that is not traveled or maintained much. The first quarter mile is brushy, but no chance of losing the trail. After that, it is very clear with good tread and no deadfalls you can't step over. There will be lots of poison oak as spring sets in. Fresno Camp was so nice I just hung out there, rather than wade the river or cross the slimy log.
Dick Graybill
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
A surprisingly easy trail for one that is not traveled or maintained much. The first quarter mile is brushy, but no chance of losing the trail. After that, it is very clear with good tread and no deadfalls you can't step over. There will be lots of poison oak as spring sets in. Fresno Camp was so nice I just hung out there, rather than wade the river or cross the slimy log.
Dick Graybill
Re: San Antonio Trail
Date Hiked: December 15, 2013
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
I hiked from Cone Peak Road DOWN San Antonio Trail and it was SEVERELY overgrown... at least for the first quarter mile. I'm used to overgrown trails in Big Sur, but this one beat me. I gave up after that quarter mile, and turned back. Very difficult, but passable... if need be.
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
I hiked from Cone Peak Road DOWN San Antonio Trail and it was SEVERELY overgrown... at least for the first quarter mile. I'm used to overgrown trails in Big Sur, but this one beat me. I gave up after that quarter mile, and turned back. Very difficult, but passable... if need be.
