2020/11/8 Oso Canyon in Wind Rain and Hail

 

An overnight rain and predictions of light showers did not deter our hardy band from heading out Paradise Road to tackle Oso Canyon. The Mule Mobile was ready to head UP to a MeetUp mountain adventure.

In order to ride the Oso canyon we staged out of Rancho Oso, a Thousand Trails Resort, that provides secure parking. We crossed its property, crossed the Santa Ynez River at the Arroyo Burro crossing, tracked down Paradise Road to the lower entrance to the canyon, then rode the trails up and back.

Four riders, 3 horses, 1 mule, and a fine time was had by all.

The landscape reveals itself in layers, the further you drive back in, full of trails and possibilities for exploration.

People access these areas by car, bicycle, motorcycle or equine.

The faint line at the bottom of the brown mountains in this photo shows Paradise Road, which parallels the river and is the main access to this recreational area that is part of the Los Padres National Forest.

 

But first we needed to get from our parking spot to the river, and that meant taking the trails through Rancho Oso. 

Tobe always thinks the signs ought to at least say 

Horse & Mule Trail.

This squirrel watched us track across the campground, mostly empty of campers and vehicles today.

Tobe Mule kept an eye on him in his stump home.

 

 

 

 

 

And if you were looking for a river, today was not the day. In a few weeks this will be a river, but for now it runs underground and the rushes and underbrush await the rainy season.

So we walked through the stones and sand, "fording the river", to access the road. The varied degrees of awareness and courtesy evidenced by truck drivers and motorcyclists is amazing. Real country folk know to slow down, people out joyriding in sports cars seem clueless. My thanks to the guy who rode up to us on a off-road motocross machine, cut his engine to glide past on a hill, then jump-started it up again and roared off.

Knowing that at any moment a bicycle or car might come around a curve keeps human and animal on high vigilance until we can get off the road.

Tobe always alerts to bicyclists or any other anomaly, and keeps his ears fixed on them until they pass by.

Thankfully, we soon turned up into the canyon trail. Light showers of rain passed over,

and the white specks on Tobe's mane were hail! That was a first for me, getting hailed on out on the trail.
Thankfully the animals didn't care about it, and we forged on.

Some parts of the canyon are open valleys, others are trails that follow a riverbed up.

The horses all passed by one particularly vicious snag of a dead tree hanging out into the trail, but Tobe and I did not do very well with it. He's a tall fellow, and with my spine fused I can't lay down on the saddle, so we couldn't maneuver around the snag. So the group backtracked and Tobe and I found a way to track up the riverbed.

Again, a "river" that is now a path, and will fill with run-off once the real rain begins.

This is my attempt to take a panoramic photo of the main part of the canyon from the back of a moving mule. Tobe got extra ears, but overall it gives a sense of the scene well.

The clouds would darken, then pass over, and watching the light play against the sides of the mountains added to the pleasure.

Last time I rode up here this ancient cabin was still standing.

Now pretty much the only part still intact is the river rock fireplace.

And the Upper Oso Campground was a mess.

The roads washed out, campsites wrecked,
 

since the last time I rode here 2 years ago some flash flooding must have occurred,

and there was a campground host presumably huddled in a motor home (with a generator running) but there were otherwise no sign of campers. 

 

I did take this photo of a favorite lichen-covered rock up near the equine water trough. It is so timeless and classic, it reminds me that we humans will come and go but this landscape will remain.

 

But, alas, we could not remain, it was time to head back for home. So that meant it was time for portraits.

Here are my traveling companions, the two on the left will be celebrating their 44th wedding anniversary on 11/11. Their two maiden horses are also quite a pair.

On the right is my stalwart pal who has been there and done that with marriage. We make up the bachelorette contingent.

So here is Jamie on Mosca, always on the move.

And Tom and Liz, always a pleasure to ride with.

And Tobe Mule and I, so pleased with good company out on the trail.

Turning around, those are the coastal mountains behind which lies Santa Barbara, my charming Shangri-La home town.

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt 

 

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2018/10/13 Aliso Loop and Oso Canyon

The Aliso Loop trail has been closed for some years, and now that it has been reopened we went to check it out, pre-riding for a group who will be camping in the area in 2 weeks. Visible on the map are the several false-trails we went up and then turned back, finally deciding to start our trail by going up Oso Canyon on the right, and then crossing over to come down the Aliso Loop ridge.
A journey of 2.5 hours and traveling 6 miles, gaining 800 feet in altitude, much of it on single-track trails that test the fortitude of both equine and rider.

We started in the parking lot at the end of Paradise Road at First Crossing.
I was remiss in thinking that it had an attendant at the kiosk, and so our rigs would be safer from vandalism. Nope. A $10 fee is required and our 3 rigs were the only vehicles present, on a beautiful sunny Saturday in the heart of nature.


Tobe was more snorty and anxious than I've seen him in ages.
He kept looking up at that escarpment and trying to let me know something was up there he did not approve of.

As much as we humans squinted we could see nothing.
We knew, of course, that we were going to be on that very ridge later on during our ride.

This is the Santa Ynez River, completely dry, choked with reeds and willows.  After trying to find a pathway along it to start our ride by going over to Sage Hill Campground and then UP the Aliso Loop ridge,  we turned to the old faithful trail and went up the Oso Canyon.

We opted to take the access road into the canyon instead of the usual trail, just because I hadn't done that before.





But of course that wasn't nearly as interesting as being on a trail.


It is a multi-use area but today we saw only two women on horses, four hikers and one guy walking a bicycle.










On wide open trails like this it is easy to share the trail, you can see them coming!

And Tobe Mule's ears hear them long before a human perceives any presence.

He also never forgets any trail detail, so if we come to a spot where we have previously seen a deer he looks over there intently, remembering it quite as much as I do.

The burned trees still stand testimony to recent fires, and the oaks lining the trail are not being trimmed for passage. So at times we bash our way through branches and in one spot must blaze a new trail around a fallen tree.

At Upper Oso Campground we obeyed the speed limit, and were pleased to see quite a few rigs parked throughout the camping spots.

At the top of the campground a sharp left turn puts us on the Aliso. Directly forward used to be the trail to 19 Oaks, still closed as too dangerous.

And looking up the Aliso it is a daunting height,

Which would be OK except for sections like this wash-out. The sketchy wooden bracing is tenuous at best, and in order to continue on the trail it is necessary to walk up onto the extremely steep hillside, using some young Yucca whipplei for support. Of course I am riding an all-terrain Mule, but even so we did it quickly lest it give way beneath us.

But it leads to views like this, where the dramatic play of light and shadow from clouds overhead make the landscape an ever-changing display of colors.

This panoramic was taken from the same spot as the previous photo.
Tobe mule was tired, he stood very still!

I decided it would be a good place to take souvenir portraits of my companions.

 Jamie Buse and Mosca the Thoroughbred horse fly

Paul Jacques and Pancho the Quarterhorse

And there's me on Tobe the Rocky Mountain Mule

And then it was back traveling up again.

If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes.

Simply amazing that this dramatic landscape is 45 minutes above Santa Barbara and unknown to most.


A typical example of government foresight.

This sign is supposed to mark the divergence of the trail, above is the Aliso Loop, to the right the Aliso Canyon. Since no one thought about how it would be mounted on a pipe, it now says ALISO OOP and ALISO YN.

Worse yet, there is no notice that the canyon has a long section of shale that is extremely difficult, dangerous, and is preceded on both ends by a single track trail no more than 3' wide, quite difficult to turn an equine around on should you see that shale ahead and wisely decide to retreat.

Finally we reached a point where we were at the top of the ridge, and could look down at the next stretch, the descent back to the river level.

One last look back through the chaparral bramble at the terrain we have covered, then it is time to start our descent.

Looking down we can see the rigs in the parking lot. Now WE are up where Tobe thought he saw something dangerous earlier in the day.

This next section of the narrow trail was steep switchbacks, with a vertical drop-off on the side. NOT a place I was going to take many photos.  And while I know that holding my breath doesn't help at all it is very hard not to. It is a bit like the ride into the Grand Canyon, you just gotta trust the mule.

And finally we were down to the place where the canyon and loop trails diverge at the bottom. Once again, no warning posted, even though the locals know not to ride it. Riders we met said they'd gone up as far as the shale and turned back.
The pucker factor on a trail that narrow with a drop off is memorable.

Then it was time to turn left at the bridge to nowhere and head over to where the rigs were parked. Since nothing else exists of this monumental cement structure except for this one support, and no credible legend explains it, we might as well consider it Modern Art.

And here we are, Pat Fish modern Artist, and Tobe Mule, modern Mule, caught while in the midst of recording in photographs via iPhone these FrontCountry Adventures.

"Don't listen to anyone else

Focus on your passion

Burn it with your glance

Become the Dinosaur."

-  Ray Bradbury 

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