Silver Peak Wilderness Trail Clearing

My first volunteer trail projects were in the San Rafael Wilderness with a guy named Mike Smith, who had goats that packed gear, food, and iced beer into the wilderness. The goat-supported trips became the stuff of local lore, and I hoped to get Mike & the goats along on my Silver Peak Wilderness trip. But Mike’s legendary goat herd got old and the best of the bunch retired. He got some new goats, but they are young knuckleheads that can’t be trusted to calmly follow the herd, so Mike wasn’t willing to bring them along.



We’ll often have horses and mules pack stuff into our remote trail projects, so I reached out to the usual suspects. One couple insists on cooking breakfast & dinner for the crew, besides packing in all the food & beer, but they had other plans for that weekend. My pal Kathleen was into the idea. She lives near me and is a retired forest ranger who’s always up for a trail project, or any other kind of hiking or horseback adventure.

Horses can’t follow the normal hiking route to Dutra Flat at this time because of a redwood down on the trail. It’s been there for years, but it’s really big and on a steep slope, and no one has been willing to cut it out. It’s not really a problem for hikers and the goats wouldn’t mind, but packed horses won’t get through or around. I’m familiar with another way in and arranged to hike it with Kathleen to see if she thought it would work for her & her animals.

Redwood across trail


We drove up CA 1 with Kathleen’s husband Rich, who hopped on his bicycle and rode 70 miles home while we hiked. We followed a dirt ranch road up the ridge from Ragged Point Inn. The road wasn’t too muddy despite recent rain, and the scenery was breathtaking.





The old mine road through the wilderness from the ridge to Dutra Flat had some minor issues that would stop a horse, but Kathleen liked the route, and I pledged to return before the project and clear the obstructions.

Trail blockage

I made it back to Ragged Point two weeks later with intention to clear the old mine road enough to get packed horses through, camp at Dutra Flat, and explore the area a little. The ranch road up the ridge was significantly muddier, but a small bulldozer had been up there to clear a few small slides.

I took only a pair of loppers and a folding hand saw (Silky Big Boy – can’t say enough good things). I attacked the larger issues on the trail, but took time for some of the smaller ones as well. These brushy trails may not get worked again for a long time. Mike Smith says trail work is like drinking from a spittoon – it looks like you’re getting carried away, but really it’s just hard to stop once you get going.

Before


After


By 4:00 pm I was at the ugliest blockage, which is only a few hundred yards from the Flats. I worked it for an hour and ran out of gas. I wasn’t close to being done and it was disheartening. The area around the camp was much wetter than two weeks previous. Walking from the fire ring to the spring soaked my trail runners. I washed up in the spring, bandaged some wounds, built a small fire with wet wood, and decided to look for some forearm protection sleeves for the next time I did this.

Got a little rain in the night, but got lots of good sleep. Hot breakfast & coffee had me ready to try to finish the job, so I popped some ibuprofen and got started. I worked well without sustaining any significant injuries, and got the job done in 2 ½ hours.



There is another trail out of camp that was used by the Dutra Homestead to reach the coast. I’d heard it probably wasn’t good for horses, but might be a worthwhile route for hikers if the highway stays closed and we can’t get to the trailhead we planned to use. The old Dutra use trail is about a mile shorter than the old mine road the horses will follow. Neither of these trails are on the official maps.

The “use trail” leaves the “main trail” near where the 1921 USGS topo shows the homestead. Both trails are hard to detect here in a big grassy meadow and neither gets much traffic. But the use trail showed signs of use and I didn’t have too much trouble following the faint, narrow trail deep into a canyon, across a calf-deep creek, and up the other side to the ranch road. An oak tree fell on the trail at the end where it enters a meadow, and I took a little time clearing and flagging an opening so I can find it again coming the other way.

Homestead meadow


View from Dutra Use Trail


I felt really satisfied when I reached the car parked along the highway at Ragged Point Inn. Barriers block the highway just past the resort. I heard on the local news that Ragged Point Inn had to let some employees go because business is suffering with the road closed. So I patronized the grill, where my son worked for a summer, and celebrated with a chili cheese dog, a soda, and sun on my back.

The drive home was really scenic. There were elephant seals at Piedras Blancas, zebras on Hearst Ranch, and the view to Moro Rock from Cayucos was spectacular. I once drove a friend for a day hike in the Silver Peak Wilderness and asked her if it was worth the drive. “The drive is worth the drive,” was her answer. So true. I think that every time.

toejam, I hope that you have a good time as you seem excited about it and that is cool to hear. I've thought about volunteering for trail work around here but it never seems to meet my schedule so I'm glad that there are people like you out there that both have the time and willingness.

rebeccad look into the Ventana Wilderness Alliance. You can bring the kids too. Their meetup group is slow right now because of the Soberanes Fire closure, but they have a bunch of leaders who know what they're doing. On these volunteer trips we don't work like CCC or ACE groups you'll regularly see in the Sierra - no carrying boulders and building steps, etc. The injuries I usually deal with are scratches & punctures from reaching inside bushes to cut them down and drag them off the trail.

The earth continued to spin around the sun, and the calendar marked the imminent start of the project. I collected tools, hats & gloves, food & drinks, radios & a call sign, a key to the locked gate, and had lots of phone & email conversations with interested parties. I breathed deeply and smiled as things fell into place serendipitously. Prospective attendees dropped out at an alarming rate, but I knew I could count on a few from the south.

The day before the project my wife & I had a late breakfast in Morro Bay, watched sea otters by the rock, and enjoyed the view as we drove up the coast to our room at Ragged Point Inn, across the road from the trailhead. The room and meals were better than expected and ideal weather made the premium price a bargain. The views we enjoyed can’t be reserved with a credit card.

View from room at Ragged Point Inn


After breakfast I crossed the highway, unlocked the gate, and waited for my crew. Four intrepid volunteers showed up. I gave them tools, told them to be safe & have fun, and sent them packing up the road. Then I ran back across the road to the room phone to tell the forest we were in service.

Crew starting hike


Crew at top of ridge




Six miles with a 2000’ climb is a long hike under a full pack, and longer when you realize you could have driven the first four miles. The original plan used a shorter trail inaccessible because of the road closure, and our route was a backup. During planning I wouldn’t have presumed to allow a group of 20 to drive up the rough ranch road so it wasn’t considered, and I wasn’t inclined to deviate from an approved plan when safety and the government were involved. But dang it, I could have hauled my little band most of the way in my XTerra. We hiked slowly, taking in the world-class scenery, and arrived at camp after 4:00. Got no work done, but everybody seemed to be having a good time.

Daylight didn’t come until around 7:00 in the morning, and we didn’t start working the trail until after 9:00. But we made good progress. One of my pals from the south arrived with an enthusiastic day hiker who wanted to help. Fallen trees and overgrown bushes were flying off the trail. We did all the work that really needed to be done, including punching a narrow but obvious path through the thick brush on the backside of the ridge.

Before


After


Kathleen & two girlfriends delivered dinner on horseback. It was a small contribution to the trail-clearing effort. Kathleen’s big contribution was influence because she retired as a district ranger in this forest, and she helped and encouraged me a lot while we planned this project.

My trail crew received my modest tri-tip dinner & box of wine enthusiastically, and I managed not to burn the meat. When I retired to the tent it made me feel good to hear friendly chatting continue late into the night. I loved being in that beautiful place and sharing it with others who also enjoyed it.

Grilling meat at Dutra Flat Camp


Scenery at Dutra Flat Camp


We hiked out the Use Trail and got back to Highway 1 around 2:00 pm. We’d eaten so well nobody was interested in the snack bar, so we all headed home.

Hiking across Dutra Homestead meadow


I dropped the key to the gate in a stamped, self-addressed envelope and mailed it to the local ranger. He received the envelope empty, and he’s mad at Kathleen & me. I spent several days returning tools and completing paperwork. This project was more challenging than it should have been, but the payoff is being out there. I still need to collect my reward of another trip to Dutra Flat to enjoy the fruits of our labors.

toejam, thanks for the trip report! I'm somewhat jealous of your weather as I see the green grass in the pictures. And it's good to hear that someone is concerned about the people on their crew.

That stinks. They look great on my computer!