Pine Ridge Trail to Sykes Hot Springs
Jul 30, 2019 11:33:46 GMT -8
rebeccad and hikingtiger like this
Post by toejam on Jul 30, 2019 11:33:46 GMT -8
Here's an update on what used to be the most popular backpacking destination on the central coast of California. The Soberanes Fire, which started July 22, 2016, consumed 132,127 acres of Big Sur backcountry and forced the entire Monterey Ranger District of the Los Padres National Forest to be closed to the public. By the fall of 2017 most of the backcountry was re-opened but the trails were overgrown, washed out, and in some places destroyed by fire fighting activity. The Pine Ridge Trail to Sykes Hot Spring remained closed because of a dangerous wash-out described by the Forest Service as a "catastrophic slope failure."
The Forest Service and Ventana Wilderness Alliance, the organization responsible for most of the trail maintenance in the Monterey Ranger District, haven't been in a hurry to fix the trail and restore public access. I'm in no position to speak about why and don't know all the details. But pre-Soberanes Fire there were hundreds of people with poor leave-no-trace skills hiking the Pine Ridge Trail to Sykes Hot Spring most weeks. Since July 2016 the wilderness hasn't had to deal with their trash and excrement.
Looking up the Big Sur River at Ventana Double Cone
Last weekend I joined a small Ventana Wilderness Alliance volunteer crew clearing access trails to where the Forest Service will be re-routing the Pine Ridge Trail around the wash-out. I worked with two other guys and crosscut saws to clear 37 fallen logs from about a mile of the Pine Ridge Trail between Terrace Creek and Barlow Flat.
Toilet at Terrace Creek Camp
Cutting logs from the trail
Before …
After
We didn't try to deal with this one, but it will need to be cut at some point.
We didn't clear brush or maintain the tread, which is badly needed. I hiked to Sykes Hot Spring once about 7 years ago and the trail was a wide, heavily-used wilderness freeway. Now there are redwood saplings and other native flora growing in the trail, and the tread is washed out and collapsed in many places. I assume the mile of trail I worked is typical of the entire 10-mile length to Sykes and many more miles of closed trail continuing east.
Redwood saplings growing in the trail
View up the Big Sur River
The update is that the Forest Service has a plan to restore access to the Pine Ridge Trail and Sykes Hot Spring, and work has begun to make that happen. But there is a lot of work to do, very few workers to get it done, and government bureaucracy to deal with every step of the way.
We got to car camp on top of the ridge overlooking Big Sur. The sunset was amazing.
The Forest Service and Ventana Wilderness Alliance, the organization responsible for most of the trail maintenance in the Monterey Ranger District, haven't been in a hurry to fix the trail and restore public access. I'm in no position to speak about why and don't know all the details. But pre-Soberanes Fire there were hundreds of people with poor leave-no-trace skills hiking the Pine Ridge Trail to Sykes Hot Spring most weeks. Since July 2016 the wilderness hasn't had to deal with their trash and excrement.
Looking up the Big Sur River at Ventana Double Cone
Last weekend I joined a small Ventana Wilderness Alliance volunteer crew clearing access trails to where the Forest Service will be re-routing the Pine Ridge Trail around the wash-out. I worked with two other guys and crosscut saws to clear 37 fallen logs from about a mile of the Pine Ridge Trail between Terrace Creek and Barlow Flat.
Toilet at Terrace Creek Camp
Cutting logs from the trail
Before …
After
We didn't try to deal with this one, but it will need to be cut at some point.
We didn't clear brush or maintain the tread, which is badly needed. I hiked to Sykes Hot Spring once about 7 years ago and the trail was a wide, heavily-used wilderness freeway. Now there are redwood saplings and other native flora growing in the trail, and the tread is washed out and collapsed in many places. I assume the mile of trail I worked is typical of the entire 10-mile length to Sykes and many more miles of closed trail continuing east.
Redwood saplings growing in the trail
View up the Big Sur River
The update is that the Forest Service has a plan to restore access to the Pine Ridge Trail and Sykes Hot Spring, and work has begun to make that happen. But there is a lot of work to do, very few workers to get it done, and government bureaucracy to deal with every step of the way.
We got to car camp on top of the ridge overlooking Big Sur. The sunset was amazing.
