Camp Cawatre Trail

[VWA_Ranger]

Date Hiked: January 17, 2021
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

*** VWA/USFS Volunteer Ranger/Trail Crew Report ***

Forest/Trail Status: CLOSED, Los Padres Monterey Ranger District is closed per Forest Order 05-07-51-20-22
Current Fire Restrictions: No Campfires allowed. Stoves are permitted in the backcountry with a valid Campfire/Stove Permit.

Description:

With the Monterey Ranger District Forest still closed, VWA/USFS Volunteer Rangers continue to prepare for its reopening. Today volunteer Rangers patrolled the Camp Cawatre Trail from the Santa Lucia Trail back to Arroyo Seco Campground. There is some confusion on the actual route to take to return to Arroyo Seco Campground.

Trail conditions are as follows:

Santa Lucia Trail to Arroyo Seco Campground - Passable

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DISCLAIMER: This report is for informational purposes only. Trail conditions may change at any time. The Ventana Wilderness Alliance assumes no liability for the use of this information.
The Los Padres National Forest Website can be found here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/lpnf/
To learn more about the Volunteer VWA/USFS Ranger and Trail Crew Programs visit https://www.ventanawild.org/stewardship.

[jack_glendening]

Date Hiked: May 30, 2017
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Trail in decent shape, except for the damage caused by the dozers. There is some confusion as to where the trail is supposed to be - so I added some flagging to help with that.

People are tending to use the firebreak dozer line instead of the old trail in the upper regions. In particular, at the uppermost end there has been a short unhikeably steep drop going directly down the fall-line, which people have been using due to lack of any alternative. But since my last hike someone has hacked out a switchback which avoids that. It is rough and not a smooth tread and has not had much use. Will be interesting to see if hikers begin to use that and if it develops into "the" trail".

Jack

Note: in photo below, branches along the dozer/fall-line marks the bottom and somewhat-below-the-top of the new switchback

[amy patten]

Date Hiked: February 14, 2017
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

On a recent Youth in Wilderness scouting trip to Arroyo Seco, we hiked the length of the Camp Cawatre Trail (2mi) from the campground to the intersection with the Santa Lucia Trail. As the trail begins to climb up the ridge away from the lake, a large section of the trail is obstructed by a wall of poison oak, and a social trail routes around it up a steep incline. The trail ascending the ridge had one deadfall and the tread was faint most of the way to the top. A few areas could use brushing as well. Near the top of the ridge, dozer lines from the Soberanes Fire obscure the trail in several areas and have created minor slides onto the trail. The original course of the trail is sparely flagged, but it became difficult to follow and took us a few minutes to find the right path. The dozer lines going away from the trail could easily create confusion for hikers as to the correct route to follow. As we descended from the ridge into the canyon, we encountered two major slides that totally covered the trail. These slides were on steep inclines and were difficult to traverse. We were able to get across but it took some slow, careful footwork.

Despite the issues with the trail, we enjoyed beautiful vistas on the ridgeline and great views of the river. It was a nice loop of about 4.5mi combined with the Santa Lucia Trail, which we took back to our site at the campground. After a little trail work, this could be a great hike for our YiW outings!

Deadfall

One of the major slides

[Hydro-Logic]

Date Hiked: January 17, 2017
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

It was mentioned in a Facebook post.

Nice is there a facebook group in particular?

[Betsy M]

Date Hiked: January 17, 2017
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

It was mentioned in a Facebook post.

[Hydro-Logic]

Date Hiked: January 16, 2017
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

I didn't hike this trail but saw a report that there is a slide and it is impassible.
Also people may not know how to find the trailhead. It starts from Site #50 in the Arroyo Seco Primitive Campground. Once you find the primitive campground, go to the upper loop. You will see a road with a locked gate. Take this road, which is the start of the trail.

2016-02-28_17-22-04_164.jpg

Map of the campground can be found online https://www.recreation.gov/camping/map_of_Arroyo_Seco/r/campgroundMap.do?page=map&search=site&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70160
The Adobe end of the trail starts just past the Adobe, before the road fords the creek. There is no signage on either end of this trail.

where did you see the report of the slide?

[Betsy M]

Date Hiked: January 16, 2017
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

I didn't hike this trail but saw a report that there is a slide and it is impassible.
Also people may not know how to find the trailhead. It starts from Site #50 in the Arroyo Seco Primitive Campground. Once you find the primitive campground, go to the upper loop. You will see a road with a locked gate. Take this road, which is the start of the trail.

Map of the campground can be found online https://www.recreation.gov/camping/map_of_Arroyo_Seco/r/campgroundMap.do?page=map&search=site&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70160
The Adobe end of the trail starts just past the Adobe, before the road fords the creek. There is no signage on either end of this trail.

[jack_glendening]

Date Hiked: December 20, 2016
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

The Camp Cawatre Trail is in excellent shape EXCEPT that on the north side of the ridge dozers have created a wide firebreak which cuts across/along the trail in numerous places, making identification of the trail difficult there. I placed flagging at the edges of the dozer line where the trail cut through, for hikers to follow, but since the dozer line is very wide what is really needed are some pin flags and/oz a macleod-created tread to make the trail continuations easily followable. Below is a map showing this section, with my flaggings shown as green squares and the dozer line as a magenta line. As you can see, considerable flagging was required (I ran out of orange flagging so unfortunately had to also use some discarded firefighter pink flagging).

The trail is "Clear" except for the Dozer tread, where it is "Difficult", so I've given a "Passable" rating.

Jack

[David Briggs]

Date Hiked: October 9, 2015
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

First time hiking this trail; I will be back. Came in from the Santa Lucia Trail and approached the Cawatre Trail-Head from the Adobe. There is a false trail head about 100 feet prior to the actual trail head, that initially caused some confusion. The trail is clear and well defined all the way up to the ridge line. There was not any evidence of recent use. At the ridge line, the trail to the near-by 'peak' starts out with better definition than the actual trail down towards the Arroyo Seco Camp. (Placed carin) The trail leading down from the ridge is well defined and intact with the exception of one short section (~4 feet) which has eroded down the hillside (down the finger at the second switchback). Undergrowth extends into the trail in a few locations, with poison oak extending across the trail in a spot or two. The trail sign at the junction within the grove of oaks at the base of the down-hill section is missing. Taking the wrong trail leads into private property at Arroyo Seco Resort. This location could best be described as the Cawatre Trail-head from the opposite direction of travel.

[jack_glendening]

Date Hiked: August 17, 2013
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

Tempted to rate this a "wilderness freeway", but tread is sometimes not the best. Nice to see people have been taking care of the trails around Arroyo Seco.