“Viewed from the air, or from an overlook on one of the peaks immediately behind the city of Santa Barbara, this back country appears as a wilderness of peaks and ridges, deep gorges, narrow, winding canyons and broad valleys. To some, it has a forbidding aspect; others see a challenge in its raw majesty.
It is the purpose of this book to acquaint you with the mountain ranges, rivers, streams and beautiful valleys of this Santa Barbara back country. Together, we will walk the wilderness trails and unlock a world of unsullied grandeur — a world that is still, in the 1960s, almost as God made it.”
— Dick Smith and Frank Van Schaick, “California’s Back Country”
Meeting a Santa Barbara legend sometimes comes at the most unexpected of times.
I was looking for a day pack when I stumbled onto the Dunalls Outdoor Supply Store in Old Town Goleta way back when there was a Dunalls, and I was young enough that I hadn’t been on my first day hike yet.
As a new teacher at Dos Pueblos High School, my students were starting to tell me about all these neat places that I’d never heard about. The one they talked about most was Red Rock, a river filled with swimming holes, and old mines and places to explore.
I was clueless. To date, my life had focused around the beaches, surfing and life on the UCSB campus.
What lay on the other side of the mountains was a complete mystery to me. So it was off to Dunalls — now CZ Furniture Solutions at 5968 Hollister Ave. — for a day pack, a water bottle or two, and perhaps a little help with suggestions about where to go.
A Fly in My Pocket
I’d barely opened the front door to Dunalls when I spotted something flying at me. Just as I just started to duck, I heard a laugh coming from somewhere toward the back of the store.
“Just a little fly, won’t hurt you,” the guy said with a chuckle.
A little apprehensive, as I straightened up I could see he had something in his hand, a fishing pole it turned out.
“Hold on,” he said as he whipped the pole back and sent the fly back at me again. In a nice swooping arc, it flew up toward the ceiling before gently coming to a rest on the top of my left shoe.
“If you don’t flinch, I’ll put it in your shirt pocket next time,” he said, laughing again.
Who was this guy, I wondered?
It turns out it was Neal Taylor, master of fly casting, seven time national fly casting titles, the first at the young age of 14.
Along with teaching a number of U.S. presidents to fly fish, in his older years Neal would found the Nature Center at Lake Cachuma, initiate the popular Fishing Derby, and serve as the park naturalist for the Eagle Cruises.
I didn’t know it then, but it turned out the visit that day would change my life forever.
Tall Stories and Other Tales
There are people who tell stories that’ll make you fall down in laughter, but none better than Neal.
“He had a big smile and a story for everything,” longtime friend Ron Wilmot, a retired Goleta school principal, shared with the Santa Maria Times after Neal died in 2012.
That day was no different. With no other customers in the store, Neal began to tell me a handful of what amounted to “back in the day” stories, about fishing the Santa Ynez River before the dam was built, days when the river ran unchecked and the steelhead were plentiful.
Eventually, I got around to finding a day pack, but just before I checked out, Neal motioned me over to a rack filled with books and gingerly pulled out one that two friends had written.
“You’ve got to read this,” he told me.
I flipped through the pages.
At just under 50 pages, the book was fairly skinny, but given its 8.5-inch-by-11-inch size, the pictures were large and amazing.
Filled with images of country that I couldn’t imagine existed so close to home — spectacular rock formations, cascading falls, and hidden rivers like the Manzana and Sisquoc that I’d never heard of — I knew I had to take it home.
Titled “California’s Back Country: Mountains and Trails of Santa Barbara County,” the book was written in 1962 and updated in 1968 by Dick Smith and Frank Van Schaick, two people who would also become inspirations to me, and help guide me in later life.
Guide to the Backcountry
At $3.95, this may be the cheapest book I’ll have ever bought, and possibly the most valuable.
At home, I continued to scan through the pages. Grouped by topographical areas, each chapter in the book takes you deeper and deeper into the backcountry, and to one place that I knew I had to visit: Montgomery Potrero.
As I looked back a few years and many adventures later, I realized what Smith and Van Schaick had laid out was a guide to getting to know not only the backcountry but myself as well.
I’m also beginning to realize there are no easy ways into the backcountry. Access by car gets you only so far. Beyond that, you’re on your own. More importantly, learning to know the country requires spending time — and lots of it — to appreciate it fully.
My First Adventure
My first venture out with my new backpack was up the Tunnel Trail to explore a bit of what the authors called the “primitive beauty beyond the coast.”
The name Tunnel Trail meant nothing to me at that time, but I was amazed at how difficult the hike was and how impressive the mountain wall was.
In places where the trail was steep, I was also learning to pace myself, to let my legs and lungs begin to work together, and to give my senses time to absorb what I was experiencing.
What I sensed was that this was not just a hike but a walk back in time: geologically, historically, environmentally — all things that later I’d yearn to know more about.
In the moments when I stopped to recover my breath, the questions started to bubble up. When was this trail built? Why was it built? Why the name Tunnel Trail?
Years later, when I brought my own students up to such places, I understood how important first-hand learning is, to experience first and allow the questions to come when they do.
When I reached the crest, I was confronted by the fact of how distinctly the Santa Ynez range separates the coastal area where civilization dominates from the interior areas where the backcountry begins.
I’ve wondered how many people really know the backcountry or why it is so important to us.
It occurred to me that I could spend a handful of years just exploring the frontcountry trails, but as I gazed north from the crest, I realized my heart yearned to look further, to get to know the backcountry as Smith and Van Schaick had, to explore more of this wild country.
Just a Trip to the Store
It was just a trip to the store that got me to the spot where I am now. A chance opportunity to meet Neal Taylor. An innocuous looking book on a nearby rack. And a visit to the mountain wall.
Little things at the time, but in retrospect monumental in nature.
Not too many years later, the sum of all these little things made it possible to create my own outdoor program, and to share what I’d learned from Dick Smith and Frank Van Schaick with my students at Dos Pueblos High.
Establishing a Sense of Place
Dick Smith saw a land filled with a wilderness of peaks and ridges, deep gorges, narrow, winding canyons and broad valleys — harsh country in a lot of ways. A land full of challenges that help define one’s character.
My challenge was to get them out there and have the opportunity to let them see what Smith and Van Schaick had allowed me to see.
In the classroom, we began with an image from outer space of the county topography. Not the typical 30,000-foot view, but one much farther out, where the underlying skeleton is laid bare, and the basic structural forms are crystal clear.
We began with an image similar to the one below, the view from outer space. I start with the question, “What do you see when you look at this picture?”
And we go from there.
[Author’s note. The idea of this column is to begin a discussion, or perhaps a series of lessons, about our county and our place in it that might help foster a love for our wild places as Dick Smith and Frank Van Schaick did for me. I’m wondering how many places you can identify and how many of them you’ve experienced yourself?]
— Noozhawk outdoor writer Ray Ford can be reached at rford@noozhawk.com. Click here for his website, SBoutdoors.com. Follow him on Twitter: @riveray. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
