south coast – Leor Pantilat's Adventures

The Lost Grove

pantilat — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 01:34:24 +0000

I’ve written in great detail about Santa Lucia Firs recently so I won’t repeat myself and describe the awesomeness of this tree again. The highest concentration of Santa Lucias (by far) is in the Carmel River drainage where the rocky, rugged terrain provides an ideal fire-proof habitat for the trees to thrive. The second greatest concentration stretches from Devils Canyon up to Cone Peak, also very rugged and rocky. South of Cone Peak there are only a few isolated groves in existence, perhaps fewer than a half dozen, making each of these groves especially unique. The most accessible of these groves is located in the upper part of Villa Creek in the Silver Peak Wilderness. The Cruickshank Trail passes among the firs with good views into the canyon bottom where the firs are highly concentrated. As I’m a Santa Lucia Fir aficionado, I decided to visit a more remote stand that has piqued my interest ever since I saw the familiar narrow conical crowns of the Santa Lucia Firs from a nearby ridge. Since the grove is tucked away in a hanging valley with no easy access I decided to name it the Lost Grove. Unlike the larger stands in the Carmel River drainage and Cone Peak, the growing habitat in the Lost Grove is restricted to a narrow mile-long strip along a rocky stream. The vast majority of the trees reside on the cooler northeast facing slope and the density of firs is some of the greatest I have seen; it’s almost as if the trees are huddling together to keep cool. There is a sharp gradient between the Santa Lucia Firs and the hot chaparral slopes with only a few Coulter and gray pines mixed in. It appears destructive fire has largely avoided this grove for many years and the result is some amazing old growth trees with impressively tall spire-like crowns that epitomize the Santa Lucia Fir. A few of the firs appeared drought stressed or have already succumbed to drought so hopefully this winter’s rain will be sufficient to help these trees survive the next summer. This grove resides in a relatively hotter and drier location than most Santa Lucias so it did not come as a surprise that the effects of the drought were visible, but the vast majority of trees still appeared healthy and there were hundreds of new saplings on the shady forest floor poised to become the next generation. I also suspect that the lifespan of the Santa Lucia Fir is not all the great as every grove I have visited includes several old snags. Access to the grove entails either a moderately brushy approach from a nearby ridge with excellent views to the Pacific Ocean or a creek walk with an extended stretch of beautiful bedrock and boulder cascades.

Silver Peak, Soda Peak and Cinnamon Falls

pantilat — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 23:20:27 +0000

Recently I have been trying the new Clif Organic Energy Food on adventures and I really like the stuff for quick but quality calories on the go and they will definitely be a part of my nutrition plan on adventures this summer where REAL food is a necessity. Pizza Margarita and Sweet Potato Sea Salt are the salty flavors while Banana Beet and Banana Mango taste like delicious smoothies. I’m hosting a giveaway and the winner will get two samples of each flavor (eight total). Just post a comment and a random winner will be drawn sometime next week. Good luck!

The South Coast of Big Sur has some of the best scenery of the entire Big Sur coast. The majority of the region is protected by the Silver Peak Wilderness, a 31,555 acre wilderness established in 1992. While only a fraction of the size of the better known Ventana Wilderness to the north, there are several awesome trails and great opportunities for exploration in the Silver Peak Wilderness. The region has great biodiversity of vegetation including redwoods, chaparral, oak woodland, pine forest, and even some groves of the rare Santa Lucia Fir. This post contains photos from several destinations in the wilderness, including: (1) Pt. 2,866 or “Soda Peak“; (2) the wilderness’s namesake summit, 3,520 ft Silver Peak; and (3) Cinnamon Falls along Alder Creek. Our first destination was Pt. 2,866, a vista I had seen last fall and was eager to see again. This point has no official name but “Soda Peak” makes geographical sense since it sits at the head of the Soda Creek drainage. Soda Peak is on the WSW ridge coming off Silver Peak. The ridge contains several high points but the last one and most dramatic is Point 2866. Since Soda Peak is the last point of prominence along the ridge it has a commanding view of the south Big Sur coast. The rocky limestone summit is also mostly free of brush enabling an excellent 360 degree panorama including San Martin Top, Silver Peak, Cone Peak and Mount Mars. The easiest way to reach Soda Peak is via the Soda Creek Trailhead and then the Buckeye Trail. At about 2,100 ft along the Buckeye Trail take a use trail that starts near a bent lone pine tree on the southern of two spur ridges coming off Soda Peak. The use path is fairly easy to follow and in about 750 vertical feet you’re on top and gazing across the Soda Creek drainage to Mount Mars and beyond, a truly spectacular vantage. It’s only about 3 miles each way to Soda Peak, but the few miles pack around 2,500 ft of elevation gain. I have been around Silver Peak many times but never summited until now. The Cruickshank Trail is beautiful as it traverses the hillside above Villa Canyon passing through numerous different plant and forest communities. It’s a nice trek from the Villa-Salmon Saddle to the peak passing through young forests of Sargeant’s Cypress and Coulter Pine with excellent views in both directions. Silver Peak contains an entertaining summit register placed by Boon Hughey who has accounted for many of the summit entries over the years. Erica and I were the 14th and 15th visitors this year so there is not too much traffic to this fairly remote summit. We enjoyed a unique view as a 2,500 ft marine layer filled the canyons and crested over Mount Mars and County Line Ridge into a fog bank cascade. Silver Peak also has a very nice view to Cone Peak.After enjoying the descent down Villa Canyon with its rugged reddish canyon rocks, I took the Buckeye Trail and then went off trail to check out a falls I had identified on the topographic map and satellite. It turns out this multi-step falls is one of the tallest on a main stem creek in the entire Big Sur region. The falls includes two main segments and a couple smaller ones totaling over 150 ft (a conservative estimate based on my watch altimeter). The rocks surrounding the falls are reddish brown, hence I have called the falls “Cinnamon Falls.” The descent down to the base of the falls was precarious on loose rock and very steep hardpan but I enjoyed the lowest two pools and imagined how tremendous this falls would be in high flow after winter rains. I will definitely put Cinnamon Falls on my calendar for next winter. With a strong El Nino developing for winter 2015-2016 there are some decent odds that this falls and other waterfalls in Big Sur will have some big flows next winter. Upon exiting the base of the falls, I found a better route which was still steep but had some oak trees to hang on to and reasonably solid rock to climb. This will be my route into the base of Cinnamon Falls in the future. Perhaps the best view of Cinnamon Falls is along the spine of this rocky sub-ridge where you can get a good overview of the falls and see most of it at once. From the bottom it is impossible to see the entire falls.

Dutra Loop & “Soda Peak”

pantilat — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 00:48:30 +0000

The Dutra Loop route utilizes a established trails and some use paths giving an excellent taste of both the interior and coastal aspects of the Silver Peak Wilderness. Access to Dutra Flats is via the standard route of the Salmon Creek Trail and Spruce Creek Trail, both awesome single tracks in a lush canyon environment with Douglas Fir forest. The Spruce Creek Trail is especially lush and there is a glimpse of a remote Santa Lucia Fir grove high in the drainage, one of the southernmost stands of the rarest fir on earth. Dutra Flats is such a pleasant peaceful spot with its green pastures lined by gray pines, ponderosa pines and heritage oaks. From the edge of the flats a use path contours down and into the Dutra Creek drainage. The path peters out in the grassy area but is picked up again at the edge of the forest at the bottom of the hill. After crossing Dutra Creek, the well-defined use path heads uphill and emerges at the Baldwin Ranch Road. One can cross Baldwin Ranch Road and continue on more use path to the Baldwin Ranch Shortcut, passing through more beautiful meadows and then entering a pine and oak forest for a climb up to County Line Ridge. A spring about halfway up the climb to County Line Ridge appears to have perennial water. County Line Ridge is a beautiful mixture of grassland and oaks with impressive relief to the Pacific Ocean. On this day I explored two spurs off the main ridge, the better being Point 1950 which has enough horizontal prominence to yield an excellent view up and down the coast including Piedras Blancas and most of the Big Sur south coast. At the north end of County Line Ridge a use path traverses the various summits of Mount Mars through pine forest and then chapparal. Beyond the highest summit, the path emerges on the impressively steep grassy slope of Mount Mars. This steep grassy slope is a Big Sur classic with incredible relief down the deep blue ocean seemingly at your feet. At the base of this grassy ridge a use path can be taken back down to the Salmon Creek Trail. After the Dutra Loop I headed up to Point 2866 via the Soda Creek Trailhead. Point 2866 is on the WSW ridge coming off Silver Peak. The ridge contains several high points but the last one and most dramatic is Point 2866. It appears this point has no official name but “Soda Peak” makes geographical sense since it sits at the head of the Soda Creek drainage. Since Soda Peak is the last point of prominence along the ridge it has a commanding view of the south Big Sur coast. The rocky limestone summit is also mostly free of brush enabling an excellent 360 degree panorama including San Martin Top, Silver Peak, Cone Peak and Mount Mars. I guessed that evening light would be great from this spot and I was not disappointed. The easiest way to reach Soda Peak is via the Soda Creek Trailhead and then the Buckeye Trail. At about 2,100 ft along the Buckeye Trail take a use trail on the southern of two spur ridges coming off Soda Peak. The use path is fairly easy to follow and in about 750 vertical feet you’re on top and gazing across the Soda Creek drainage to Mount Mars and beyond, a truly spectacular vantage. It’s only about 3 miles each way to Soda Peak, but the few miles pack around 2,500 ft of elevation gain.