Lost Valley Trail

Lost Valley Trail begins along the Manzana Trail from Nira Campground. But instead of heading to the Narrows, you veer off to the left and head up Sulfur Creek.

The trail used to be a road long ago, but the vegetation has closed in significantly, making it a trail again.

The trail crisscrosses a small creek that almost always has water in it, no matter how late in the season it gets. At some places there is the distinctive smell of sulfur that gives the creek its name.

As you travel up Lost Valley trail you enjoy riparian vegetation, sparser hillside scrub, and occasional pine trees which rustle gently in the wind.

About 3 miles in there is a small camp next to the creek. Another mile in there is another camp beneath a huge oak tree.

Then the trail begins to climb up the mountain, making a looping switchback.

At the 4.5 mile mark is a natural spring. This is the last source for water for those heading further up the trail, and the first source of water in 18 miles for those who have been hiking the Hurricane Deck Marathon.

The spring makes a nice destination of its own, being in the shade and surrounded by bird feathers. The spring is the watering hole for the local fauna as well as hikers!

You can continue up Lost Valley for several more miles. The terrain changes and becomes more and more rugged and remote. There are many unusual rock formations and impressive cliffs to look at. A good stopping point is at the rock formations. This makes the hike a total of 14 miles round trip. But you can continue far into the back country for days. You are encouraged to get a topo map and plot out a back pack trip.

You will need an Adventure Pass to park at the trailhead.

Lost Valley Trail and Castle Rock Updates

Update trail conditions

Posted: December 23, 2011, 2:54 pm
by: Gravityh

For the last post some Pics and Tracks:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/127040428

Pics
https://picasaweb.google.com/114919677198486830680/NiraLostValleyHurricanDeckFallCanyonCachumaSaddleLoop

Posted: December 23, 2011, 2:46 pm
by: Gravityh

Started hiking from Nira at 7:00AM and found the to Lost Valley trail.. continued to hike up and was surprised on the number of ticks that were sticking to my pants. Did a major tick check and got moving again. Came to the camp site near the big tree before the switchbacks and checked the map to ensure I was going the right way..The trail here needs some brushing but is was passable. Some big deadfall farther up, that will require significant effort to clear, is on the upper section of the LV trail near the spring I drank from. I just filled up one bottle here without filtering or treatment but should have filled up two bottles.. Continued to Hurricane Deck on a well defined trail except for a serious washout after the "marbles" I found on the LV trail. I arrived at The Hurricane Deck Junction at 10:45AM and had a snack and took some pictures.

Hurricane Deck down to White ledge was still a bit of a bush wack with a few route finding issues as I dropped down into the steep drainage hoping to find water at White Ledge. Disappointed there was no water at White Ledge, I was really parched so continued on to South Fork at a slow pace as the increased temperature had me sweating way too much for a running pace. Finally got to South Fork about 2PM, pulled out my Esbit stove, timed the water boil at 9 minutes and enjoyed some Ramen for lunch. I expected people at SF Camp but I was alone. Continued upstream on the Sisquoc noting some nice camp sites a few hundred yards past the South Fork Cabin... These are some good places to stay without the "crowds" at SF.. I lost the trail a few hundred yards past the last camp site. I should have been on the north side of the creek instead of the south. I bush wacked instead of retracing my steps...(that's just me....) and found the trail. Finally I found the trail on the north side of the river higher up that I imagined before Skunk Camp. Skunk Camp is a poor camping location with lots of deadfall in the area and not a place for much flat camping. I continued to Mansfield Camp as planned and stopped at 4:50 PM. Set up my Tarp tent at the campsite next to the river while making dinner and settled in for the night..

I started hiking in the morning at 7:30 AM.. There is a sign - in register at the junction of Fall Canyon trail.. I noted that some boy scout troop have hiked down from the Mission Pine. Not clear if they took the Fall Canyon trail or took the long way around.
The trail was in great shape...recently worked on.. Wow, I thought I would be at the top in a couple of hours... Well after the first mile the trail work that was done clearly ended and it was route finding time with the GPS. Picked up the trail again and found a long switch back that took me over a saddle in to another drainage at about the 4100 foot level... Trail was fine until it traversed at the 5400 foot level........Just when I thought it was going to be easy trail it got choked with long spiny thorn bushes. The branches were easily 10 feet long and wrapped around my fully clothed body like a giant squid. I managed to find a large piece of pine bark and strapped it to my chest and powered through the thorns and within a few hundred yards found the trail in a grassy wooded area that hooked up to the Mission Pine Basin trail. Great trail but needs some major cleaning from the top down for about a mile or so.
Once at Mission Pine Basin I was on familiar ground and ready make up some time from the slow slog up Fall Canyon. I needed water and found a great spring below Mission Pine Camp. Good thing because the water at the camp is just a seep and fouled by horses. I had plenty of water now and moved past this camp quickly. I topped out on San Rafael Peak at 1:50PM and started running down the trail to the road to McKinley Spring. Stopped at the spring, got some water and then contemplated my return trip to the car... It was 2:50 at the decision point at the junction of Big Cone Spruce trail ....Do I take the trail down to Big Cone Spruce or take the road to Cachuma Saddle and the road to Nira. My last encounter with Big Cone Spruce was a serious bush wack and looking at the clock I had a little over 2 hours of day light...

The Big Cone Spruce route was shorter by a couple of miles but I expected it to be much slower....I needed some running as I was hiking most of this trip so decided to take the road.. I was on my last energy gel so popped it and started running. I had forgot my Clif Bars and cashews in the car the day before only to realize this 5 miles into the hike. I was at a point where I would be paying for that error. About an hour later I was ready to bonk. I was hungry and low on energy... I had saved a third of a freeze dried food packet I had the night before and decided to stop. Not wanting to fire up a stove and waste more time, I rehydrated it in cold water and consumed it in a few seconds.. Minutes later I could feel the energy come back into my legs, then my whole body and I started running again. Finally I saw the long switch backs I remembered running up when I joined a few of the Santa Barbara runners on Sandy's 40th Birthday 40 mile run.

I hit the road at Cachuma Saddle at 4:50 with 5 plus pavement miles to the car. Kept running the flats and down hills but the up hills were walked. Again I was on fumes. A van approached in the distance and then stopped midway up a long hill....I stopped my downhill run when I reach him and said hello... I had another 3.8 miles to go. After chatting a while he offered me a ride back to my car.... I thought about it and figured I had accomplished enough for the day and I would save at least another 45 minutes.. So I opted for the ride at 5:15 . The guy was a bit on the edge as he was looking for rocks with a metal detector and talked to me about prospecting and photographing wild life. As I exited the car I realized he had a massive dog in the back sleeping when I first got in the car and woke up to say goodbye to me.. Finally got to my car 5:30 PM. Overall a great loop. 46 miles (without the car ride) in two days with some seriously challenging bush wacking and route finding. Well worth the trip.

Posted: November 10, 2011, 3:30 pm
by: kfox527

Good work with the huge 2 day route! Very impressive.
FYI Big Cone spruce trail is in pretty good shape right now.

-Kfox

Posted: November 6, 2011, 4:56 pm
by: Gravityh

I hiked this on the weekend of October 23 and 24. PArt of a long loop. See pics https://picasaweb.google.com/gravityhrocks/NiraLostValleyHurricanDeckFallCanyonCachumaSaddleLoop?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKvSiurDkunUvQE&feat=directlink
Found a spring in a few places but one up on the winding road cut was not expected and a welcome sight. I have noted the location in my pics. This trail has many downed trees and is in need of some brushing.. bring some loppers on your next adventure here.

Posted: April 5, 2011, 12:14 pm
by: tepcanfam

Wed. 3/31 Hiked this trail from Nira to Hurricane Deck junction and on to White Ledge. Plenty of water. Some sections above spring were hard to pass, downed trees and small slides. Hurricane Deck Trail at this point looks like it did not burn. A bit hard to follow and quite brushy.

Posted: April 3, 2011, 11:58 am
by: tomas

Hiked lost valley trail yesterday from Nira. Plenty of water and everything is green. Trail was nice until I hit the switchbacks. There are a few down trees blocking the trail along the way. The second or third downed tree has a bees nest in it so be careful. Only came across one rattler along the way, but they are out there.

Posted: February 9, 2011, 9:59 pm
by: Hondo

Walked up Lost Valley yesterday to just a bit beyond the big switch back section of the old road cut, and to where it reaches the crest of the hill there climbing out of the valley and enters the small grassy potrero area.

As Diane notes, trail is in pretty good condition up to two oaks camp and to where it doubles back to start the climb out of the valley. There are a few trees down, but it's not bad. There was still a small amount of water flowing at the two oaks but it went underground there and surfaced a little further down canyon. If you're unfamiliar with this trail look for the trail to continue across the arroyo from the two oaks (informal) camp. It doubles back at that point heading along the opposite side of the arroyo. It's flagged at the moment with bright ribbon-tape.

At that point the trail starts to get pretty overgrown in sections and covered with rock slides here and there and a number of trees have fallen across it. It's slower going until it summits at the potrero.

Posted: January 17, 2011, 7:33 pm
by: Diane

Hiked the Lost Valley Trail to Hurricane Deck junction on Jan 15. Beautiful day, nice and warm. The trail is real good up to the Oak tree camp. then it falls apart on the switchbacks of the old road. Downed trees, landslides, trail washouts in some of the canyons. Vulture spring is still going. Past the spring, the trail improves and by the time you get to the Pine tree camp, the trail is not too bad. It's not too bad all the way to Hurricane Deck.

Posted: January 2, 2011, 6:24 pm
by: TheBeeman

In between two winter storms, Rik and I managed to escape SB and base camp at Lost Valley Campsite. We hiked up Lost Valley Trail. Despite a few downed trees, the trail is in excellent condition, no brushy parts, tread is good. Lots of water in the creek.

The trail follows the old road to the unnamed campsite under the two oaks. From the camp, the trail becomes brushy and lacks tread to the point of bushwaking in certain sections. We made it about a half mile up before turning back from lack of time.

We talked to some hiker who had completed the Eastern Deck loop; the section from Lost Valley Camp to White Ledge and back to Lost Valley Camp in two days. They reported that the section from the intersection of Lost Valley Trail with the Deck to about a mile above White Ledge was a reduced to crawling in some sections.

I have posted pictures on this trip at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/beemancron/LostValleyTrail#

Happy Trails.

Posted: November 7, 2010, 11:17 pm
by: Bryan

Hiked Lost Valley November 7, 2010 and the trail is in great shape. We only hiked as far as the "Trail ->" sign. No water in the creek anywhere. Rumors are that the switchbacks are still in poor shape.