The 10-mile round-trip day hike to Ray’s Camp from the Nira Trailhead north gently ascends along the Upper Manzana Creek Trail, offering modest wildflower displays and plenty of water.
Since we knew that the equally enticing Lower Manzana Trail would be pretty soggy last Sunday when we set out, we opted to head to the Lost Valley, Fish and Ray’s official U.S. Forest Service campsites.
Crossing the lower Manzana at Potrero Canyon would be tricky, but moving north toward Manzana Narrows would present far fewer stream crossings. Recent abundant rainfall has made the backcountry begin to blossom again, and the trails do remain open.
The Nira Trailhead is open for hiker parking. Nira Camp itself is closed (see the photo of signage dated March 25).
Driving through closed and empty Nira Camp to the adjacent Nira Trailhead — the famous “Gateway to the San Rafael Wilderness” — I counted 17 cars there, but no people.
That means those rugged Americans were all out backpacking in the immense 200,000-acre federal wilderness, and as I found on the six-hour leisurely day hike, they all practiced social distancing or were members of the same family.
I particularly admired the parents who hauled their children there for a weekend overnight away from town, away from the screens, away from the sad omnipresent coronavirus pandemic.
I spoke with some of these families on the trail, and they were humbly grateful to the Forest Service for keeping the roads and trails open.
One reason the Nira Trailhead has so many cars, in addition to the beautiful mid-April weekend, is that when one checks the “alerts” section on the Los Padres National Forest website, they learn that every other road accessing backcountry camping has been closed (see 4.1.1.).
Thus, for Santa Barbara-area backcountry backpackers, the Nira Trailhead is the key entry point, and we’re all pleased it remains open — as do the trails.
Seventeen miles of the Manzana Creek Trail would have no trouble absorbing these campers, and indeed some may have hiked across the Hurricane Deck to the remote Sisquoc River.
Using a long pole he found at the bank, Chris Caretto made it across the surging Manzana Creek at Nira Trailhead, with wild Peter six feet behind steadying the wobbly log. It was tricky, but I had my twin poles and simply went across very slowly. We ambled along the roaring Manzana through picturesque scenes, gray pines, toyon and masses of luxuriant poison oak.
In these conditions, I am fully covered — long pants, a long-sleeve shirt, gloves and a wide-brim hat. There are ticks out now, so the thick garb also prevents them from getting inside the clothes.
There were campers at every site, yet none of them seemed overflowing, and the tents were well-spaced.
Although the floral display wasn’t outlandish or extreme, the sudden color and waving flowerheads heralded our passage along the magnetic Manzana. We enjoyed canyon sunflower, yellow bush poppies, the ubiquitous red Indian paintbrush as well as masses of prickly phlox.
Fish Creek Camp is three miles up the Manzana, and the wide ford to reach it from the northside trail is easy enough. Two groups were spread out, they had cheerful fires going and I enjoyed the sounds of children laughing as we apologetically moved through their camps (masks on, distances maintained).
Ray’s Camp, which I used to call “First Crossing,” is very close to another major ford on the swollen Manzana, and my friends and I had planned to halt there.
We used the wooden table and ate sandwiches, marveling at the quiet, modulated only by the creek’s water-music.
After filtering water, we enjoyed the cloudy day, and when a backpacking couple came in we quickly jumped up and said we were leaving. They liked the site, the big firepit, and said, “Five miles of backpacking is enough. We’ll overnight here.”
Ambling back under dark skies, I enjoyed the lack of glare and the damp soil on the sinuous trail. This is about the easiest 10-mile hike I know.
If we take a truly macro look at issues about access to our public lands, it seems odd to close down so much of the backcountry (all closed in the Monterey District, mostly shut down in L.A. and San Diego counties, too) when children cannot attend school and perforce must remain at home or very close to home.
The local demand on the Nira Trailhead is heavy, and appropriate, and I’d advise more families to go there soon, before the bugs come or the feds close it down.
Please note that the Forest Service Los Padres “alerts and notices” site has most of the great areas closed only until April 30. We don’t know what will happen then.
On the return, we saw the backside of the coastal range so heavily clad in green that it felt like New Zealand or Ireland.
Under these circumstances, hikers with dogs have created a few problems on the trail when the unleashed animal bounds up and gets too close, causing the owners to get too close trying to leash the confused animal.
This happened to me twice. With the ticks, and with the coronavirus distancing needs, it's best to keep the canines on leashes in the backcountry.
4.1.1.
» Forty-six miles to the Nira Trailhead: Take Highway 101 to Highway 154. At Armour Ranch Road, turn right, then quickly turn right again on Happy Canyon Road. Drive to the very end past Davy Brown Camp (closed). On April 19, the three-mile dirt section was quite muddy but OK. Note: Figueroa Mountain Road is open to Figueroa Mountain for wildflower viewing, but it's closed at Ranger Peak. Paradise Road is open but only to First Crossing.
— Dan McCaslin is the author of Stone Anchors in Antiquity and has written extensively about the local backcountry. His latest book, Autobiography in the Anthropocene, is available at Lulu.com. He serves as an archaeological site steward for the U.S. Forest Service in the Los Padres National Forest. He welcomes reader ideas for future Noozhawk columns, and can be reached at cazmania3@gmail.com. Click here to read additional columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
