Santa Paula Peak Sierra Club Hike

Saturday, May 21, 2005

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Thanks to Ray Bowens for taking these pictures. Actually the first few ones are not from the Santa Paula Peak hike but from one that Ray did in La Jolla Canyon, which is just off of the PCH east of Point Mugu. Since Ray took the rest of the pictures I figured I could post these, too, as a thank you.

OK, now here are the Santa Paul Peak hike pictures. The day started at 6:45 AM with everyone meeting at Timber Canyon Road and Highway 126 a little east of Santa Paula. There were nine of us. From left to right in the next photos are Jo (with her back turned), Lynn, Dennis (your narrator), John, Kim (the fearless leader), Dora and Paul, and Kim again. Ray is the tall guy in the blue shirt a little later on, and Ben rounded out the group.

John and Kim drove their vehicles a few miles up to the farm at the end of Timber Canyon Rd, where we hoped to emerge at the end of the hike, and then we all carpooled back through Santa Paula and west on Highway 150 to Thomas Aquinas college. Lynn and Jo road with me. Jo is Kim's wife. Kim is Jo's husband. Jo wanted to make sure we did not get that confused.

It was about 7:20 went we left the parking area. The hike wound through the Thomas Aquinas campus at the start, and then we had to either limbo under a locked gate or try to scale over the fence with barbed wire on top. I choose to go under the fence to see if I was thin enough. Soon we were down to the bed of the East Fork of Santa Paula Creek. We do not have creeks like this back where I come from in Michigan. The first couple of shots show Dora and Ben making one of what would be many crossing. We all got our feet soaked early and often.

Not having done all that much hiking myself, I did not know quite what to expect. As it turned out, with all of the rain damage from earlier in the year, there were surprises for everyone else, too. There were places where banks and some parts of the trail had been washed away or rearranged. Kim was great at picking up the trail but the growth seemed to make it slow going, and we found it easier to stay in the creek bed. I guess we were lucky because sometimes the boulders can be stacked so as to make them slow going, too, but we just hopped along and made good progress.

It still took over 3 hours to cover the creek to where we got off. We stopped to change our socks, and I sure am glad that Ray advised me to bring an extra pair. Of course, my shoes were still soaked, so the fresh socks got wet right away, but the other pair was so full of sand and pebbles it was like wearing sand paper.

We started out again around 11:10. While the trail was dry now, it was also surrounded by poison oak in plenty of places. I did borrow a little bit of cream from Ray to put on my legs, but there was so much of it around that I am sure I had to have made contact at some point. Fortunately I did not have any reaction later, so perhaps I am not sensitive to it.

The trail was also tough to follow, and at one point all of us managed to miss a switch back and we went straight on this spur that just sort of disappeared after a while. It took some time to figure out where we had gone wrong and get everyone doubled back to where we should have been. Someone had even left a bunch of branches and pine cones where the spur branched off to help the next people so they did not miss the switch back, but all of us had just walked right over that.

About an hour later we came to this campsite where we took a well needed lunch break.

When we hit the trail again after lunch I remember going through this little meadow where there were all of these ladybugs flying and landing about. It was very tranquil to stand there and watch and listen to them. Soon, though, we were out from under the cover and into the sun. Another hour or so of switch backs and were nearing the top. We stopped at a saddle between a couple of the peaks to take in the view on either side of the ride line.

Only six of us made the last push to the actual top of Santa Paula Peak. Jo, Ben, and Lynn took an extended break while the rest of us braved some more stone hoping and a slightly steeper section of trail to get to the top. We had started at an elevation around 500' and climbed to 4957'. It had taken some 7 hours but it turned out to be worth it. It was a little hazy in the distance, but the view was still spectacular. You could see snow capped Mt. Baldy off to the east and some of the Channel Islands to the southwest. There was a cool breeze at the top and dozens of brightly yellow colored butterflies fluttering about. I am not sure if they were monarchs or painted ladies or what. There were also these big black bubble bees. They were all-black, with no yellow on them at all.

We signed the notebook that is kept in a canister at the top, and John and Kim did a tradition head-stand. Ray and I took turns trying to point out where we live. That is Santa Paula that is closest below us, with Ventura off in the distance just to right of center and a Oxnard little further off to the left.

We started back down. The trail was long and narrow in spots, and the sun was high and hot. Ray stopped to snap some wildflower photos along the way.

We finally came to another shady spot and took a break. We were coming down the home stretch now.

All that was left was to navigate through the rattlesnake infested field and vault over one more locked gate with razor wire running across the top.

Somehow we made it back to civilization alive. In all, the hike supposedly covered 16 miles and took almost 10 hours. We finished just a little after 5PM. Thanks to everyone for making it such an adventure!

The next day Ray and I decided to take it easy and just do a 50-mile bike ride.