5 Days in the Los Padres over Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving weekend, since Sunset Valley Road is closed until March or April, in order to get into the San Rafael, I had to find another way in. So I set off at Upper Oso and hiked to Bluff cabin, then up and over the mountain to Alamar Saddle and went down the Upper Sisquoc. At South Fork Station I hiked up to Whiteledge and over into the Manzana and went up to Big Cone Spruce. I went out at Cachuma Saddle. I used a Zoleo device to contact TrailHacker to let him know when and where to pick me up. What an amazing tool!

I was worried about finding water, but it turned out I did not need to worry. There was water at Little Pine Spring and at Santa Cruz station. There was water at Kellogg camp but not at Flores Flat. The Grapevine trail was a mess but I found a small spring there. There was water at Bluff camp and the upper Sisquoc had plenty of water all along all the way to South Fork. Lonnie Davis had water. Whiteledge had stagnant pools. There was nice water at Big Cone Spruce. I never lacked for water.

All the trails were good except the Grapevine trail. I had to push my way through numerous very large fallen trees and sort of guess my way through very faint sections. But it all worked out.

As usual I made videos.