Horse Pasture Trail

[stefan]

Date Hiked: February 22, 2021
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Good condition. A few branches across the trail you need to step around. Typical poison oak around stream crossings. Ticks spotted in the grassy sections. A small landslide about 1.5 miles north of the Marble Peak trail junction that is fine to cross. No real fire danger was apparent. No bugs. Water was available at Quail Springs and junction of Tassajara Road and Church Creek trail at the north end. Standing water at the Horse Pasture Camp. Could not locate a good spot to camp at Horse Pasture Camp and proceeded north to Wildcat Camp on the Church Creek trail section, which had ample water.

[Sarah]

Date Hiked: June 18, 2020
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

From Tassajara Rd to Tassajara Cutoff: much encroaching brush, including poison oak, and lots of ticks; many sections of trail thickly covered with unavoidable thorny dried weeds, which penetrate even thick pants up to mid thigh - ouch.

[jpurat]

Date Hiked: June 7, 2020
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Oak startin to come back pretty hard from Tassajara Cutoff to Marble peak...if it's not cleared in the next month or so it'll need to be cut back. You can get by it but without loppers it will inevitably touch you.

[pantilat]

Date Hiked: May 22, 2020
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

From Marble Peak Trail to Tassajara Cutoff - Mostly clear: Some encroaching Poison Oak and riparian plants growing in the trail in spots due to lack of use the past couple months.

From Tassajara Cutoff to Tassajara Road - Passable: Grass is growing profusely in the trail in the meadow sections and spring riparian growth is encroaching in spots due to lack of use the past couple months. Most of this growth will die back later in summer but for now expect to pick up a lot of foxtails until the grasses in the tread get stomped down. A couple brush skeletons have fallen into the trail that are easy to get around.

[zenko]

Date Hiked: May 22, 2020
General Condition: Wilderness Freeway (Heavily used and well maintained)

My first time hiking the trail from Marble Peak to the Tassajara cutoff since the trail crew did their work. Really beautiful, and no where near the bush-bashing crucible it once was. The poison oak has started to re-assert itself, but is currently avoidable. Still plenty of water at the small springs along the way.

[trolleypup]

Date Hiked: February 17, 2020
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

This covers the HP Trail from the Marble Peak Trail junction to the Tassajara Cutoff.

Marble Peak Trail to the ridge crossing south of Quail Springs - The trail is near wilderness freeway. At the current low water levels (50 cfs @ Arroyo Seco), Tassajara Creek is a knee deep ford (rock hopping not possible). All the other creek crossings have water.

Ridge crossing to Tassajara Cutoff - Passable, mostly due to encroaching brush. There are a number of minor slides but the tread is easily walkable. Quail Spring is flowing lightly, but sufficient to collect water.

[AaronP]

Date Hiked: January 15, 2020
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Hiked from Arroyo Seco to Church Creek Divide via this trail last week. Between 4-6 fallen trees between the camp and Tassajara Rd mostly on the switchbacks there.

[Betsy M]

Date Hiked: October 6, 2019
General Condition: Wilderness Freeway (Heavily used and well maintained)

After many years and many work trips, the Horsepasture Trail is a freeway from end to end. There might remain a few sections with slumping tread, or a wayward piece of ceanothus leaning into the trail. But the work trips from Tassajara Creek and the work trips from Tassasjara Road have finally connected.

There was water in Tassajara Creek, though it was easy to rock hop across. There was water in the creek about a mile up from Tassajara Creek, in several locations. There was water in Quail Spring about halfway along the contour section before the Tassajara Cutoff. And water near the Horsepasture where Woodwardia ferns grow.

[aaronmcd]

Date Hiked: June 15, 2019
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Hiked north from Marble Peak Trail to Tassajara cutoff.

The previous report labeled it difficult. It is somewhat unclear what counts as passable vs difficult. The trail was easy to follow thoughtlessly, but there were bushes coming across from both sides that needed to be pushed aside with sticks to get through, but I made it through at maybe ~1.5 mph without any scratches. it was similar in brushiness to Marble Peak Trail west of Tony Trail. As indicated on the conditions map, the middle section was the worst.

The Tassajara cutoff trail was mostly clear.

[Firefly]

Date Hiked: May 3, 2019
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

I hiked this trail from the junction with the Tassajara cutoff trail to Marble Peak trail. I was concerned based on previous reports that the trail would be hard to follow. This is not the case. Tread is evident throughout and there is no likelihood of going off path. I am labelling it difficult only because of the extraordinary amount of poison oak in the middle section of this trail, where is crosses a shallow creek at about 10 times. There is a lot of poison oak all over the Ventana, but this trail is special. Even if you have mastered the game of Don't Touch the Vegetation, there is really no way to avoid doing so on this trail. Decide to go this way only if you know you are not allergic to poison oak, or you have a solid plan for how to clean yourself afterwards.

This trail is the most convenient way to get from Arroyo Seco parking lot to Tassajara. Maybe if more people use it, the path will become wider and easier to navigate.