NatGeo creates a Big Sur map
(but gets it wrong)

 

In 2005 Wilderness Press (“WP”) produced the first sheet map available for the backcountry Big Sur trails – before that, hikers had to depend upon upon quadrangle maps with their many drawbacks.  I first used that WP map when exploring the Ventana Wilderness and always liked its very clean and readable format, with trail lines clearly displayed atop contour lines.


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Black Butte semi-bushwhack: views from the fifth-highest Ventana peak

Round trip: 3.2 miles & 900 ft elevation gain & 5 hours

Hike date: December 26, 2017
Interactive map:  Can zoom & drag
  To Peak       From Peak       GPS Route  
(Click here for full-size interactive map)

 

Many don’t realize that Black Butte is the fifth highest peak in the Ventana (and in Monterey County), only 35 ft lower than South Ventana Cone.  In fact, some have not even heard of Black Butte! Yet the views from there are magnificent – the summit is narrow, so gives a 360° panorama from a 4936 ft elevation.

 

 


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Elfin Redwood Forest: Andrew Molera State Park

Elfin Redwoods – Andrew Molera SP
(Click for interactive map)

I was ignorant – I called them Cypress trees.  Actually, I knew they didn’t quite look like Cypress – but their wind-blown shaping was akin to what I’ve seen in Cypress and I didn’t know what else they might be.  Surely not Redwoods, those magnificently tall trees we here on the Central Coast know so well – these trees were only 15-20 ft high.


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The 2017 Molera State Park: after the flood

Hike date: December 6, 2017

2016 & 2017 Molera SP Trailmaps
(click for larger image)

I went out to see what the current Molera State Park looks like.  Only the Post Summit ridgeline was burnt by the 2016 Soberanes fire – but the following winter’s heavy rainfall events caused the Big Sur River to overflow and flood lower sections of the park, notably its parking lot and campground.  The park was closed for a long time, then re-opened this summer but with many trails closed.  Currently only the Bluffs, Bobcat, Creamery Meadows, Panorama, Ridge, and Spring Trails are open.


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Rattlesnake Camp bushwhack

Round trip: 12 miles & 4000 ft gain & 12 hours
Hike date: November 25, 2017

Route:   Out (red)  Return (yellow)  Trail (green)
(ignore “Rattlesnake Campground” label on map)
(click for larger, interactive map) (kmz file)

Waking at 3:15AM is not my ideal way of starting a day – but today lack of daylight was not going to keep me from reaching Rattlesnake Camp.  Last time I’d had to abort my attempt due to running out of daylight and energy.  This time I would start earlier and would avoid the difficulty of trying to follow Rattlesnake Creek Trail – instead, it would be a bushwhack.


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Bushwhacking the “lost” Rattlesnake Creek Trail

Round trip: 11.2 miles & 3760 ft gain & 11 hours
Hike date: November 12, 2017

Route:   Outbound (red)  Return (blue)   Trail (green)
Note: Rattlesnake Camp NOT where map depicts
(click for larger, interactive map)

Sadly, the lower half of Rattlesnake Creek Trail, below Rattlesnake Camp, is now impassable.  This venerable trail was one of the oldest in the Ventana wilderness, having appeared on a 1921 quadrangle when few Ventana trails existed.

[Sorry folks, long post and not many photos – was spending all my time deciding where to go.]

1924 National Forest map
(click for full-size image)


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Restoring the “historic” Carrizo Trail

Carrizo Trail: historic (magenta) & shortcut (red) routes
(click for interactive map)

My “Finding the Carrizo Trail” post glossed over the fact that the western end of the Carrizo Trail of that time (2009) differed significantly from the current (2017) route.  In my “Maps can lie” post, describing my mapping of that end, I had followed the route described in VWA Trail Reports: leave the North Coast Ridge Trail at a flag marking a ridge.  At the time I’d noted the initial section was rough and sketchy, tread only becoming evident after leaving the ridge.  I was later enlightened by Paul Danielson as we were hiking along the North Coast Ridge Trail – shortly after the Gamboa Trail junction, 0.6 miles before the ridge, he pointed out a spot where the “historic” Carrizo Trail junction had been.  That route had become overgrown and abandoned, so hikers were instead taking a shortcut along an old dozer cut along the ridge.

In July of 2010, trailworker par excellence Robert Parks took it upon himself to restore that overgrown “historic” section.  Over six worktrips, he and some helpers (including Paul Danielson) hacked and sawed their way through that brush.  Much of the tread was still intact, so following the route itself was not too difficult.  In October the final section was completed and a celebration held.


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Finding the Carrizo Trail

Hike date: November 14, 2009
 
Interactive map: USGS (black) vs USFS (red) vs Garmin (blue) (Click here for full-size interactive map
  The Carrizo Trail is a historic route, used in the 1800’s by homesteaders driving their cattle and hogs to market in Jolon.  After the construction of coastal highway it fell out of use but was later re-created by Steve Chambers and other VWA trailworkers, to connect the coastal ridge to the San Antonio River.  But where exactly does it go? And where is the USFS “Carrizo Spring Camp” which lies along it?  
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