As I mentioned in that other thread, "T Girl" got all A+ grades again this last grading period. So, I asked her teacher (a friend of mine from high school) if it would be OK to take her out of school for a week to backpack with her. He was all for it. He also suggested that she keep a journal on the trip for him to review (which she did).
I fell in love with the "San Raf" wilderness when I was in college. Located behind (in-land from) Santa Barbara, it's a very wild and rugged wilderness. Drier, chaparral type country predominates, but the riparian zones are wonderful, and the high country there extends up beyond 6,000 feet - giving in those parts of it a real "high sierra" feel.
We started on Sunday, April 21, early enough to get down there and hike seven miles. But, as intentions sometimes do, ours went a little awry (Tricia, do not forget your hiking clothes again!). We didn't get started until 3:00 in the afternoon. This was probably good though, since the temperatures were almost 10 degrees warmer than forecast; it was 88 degrees when we started hiking up Manzana Creek. We quickly saw our first "good luck" horned toad lizard:
The Manzana Creek Trail crosses the creek many times, but in places ascends up onto the canyon wall to avoid very-steep and rocky parts of the canyon bottom:
The 6.7 miles we intended were hot, but we finished with plenty of light left. Manzana Narrows Camp is very popular and very pretty and cool:
On the second morning we left Manzana Creek up a long series of switchbacks (still pretty warm), leading up to this formation:
More, slight uphill continues from there into the top of White Ledge Canyon. This is pretty, but dry hiking, not really part of any riparian zone, at least for several miles:
Our goal was the Sisquoc River. On the way we started to encounter some flows of water near Happy Hunting Ground Camp:
The Sisquoc is one of my all-time favorite places. Everything from the name itself to the nature of the country, to my own personal history with the place makes me love it. We reached it first at its South Fork at midday:
Tricia kept her journal:
We then reached South Fork Station and the main Sisquoc River. This view from 1/4 mile farther up-river gives a good idea of what the land looks like:
After another 3.5 miles (12.4 for the day, total), we reached Mansfield Camp, where we set up for night two (and where we saw our only rattlesnake of the trip - it skeedaddled as fast as it could). These camps are flat areas, designated on a map, that have been used now for decades as back-country campsites. They usually contain a fire ring and, sometimes, a table. There is usually an old sign designating the site too:
