100 Peaks

Looking back the way I typically come up

Parma Park
Stanwood Dr (1 Mile west of Sycamore Canyon Road)
Santa Barbara, CA
805-564-5418
erecreation@santabarbaraca.gov
Agency: The City of Santa Barbara, Parks and Recreation

Owned by the Parma family since the 1890s, this 200 acre parcel was donated to the city in 1973. This permanently undeveloped park features hiking, walking and equestrian trails, vista points, extensive creek side habitats, and abundant wildlife. The firebreak road may be used by mountain bikers and all trails are open to pedestrians and equestrians.

This has been my go-to park since I moved to Santa Barbara. It’s minutes from my house and what I use to get my hiking fix in during the week, as my weekends have had me mostly full for the last 6 months.

There are about 4 miles of trails, but you can make it as long as you want to create loops.

From the top of the park you get a great view of the ocean and the homes on the surrounding hills. I usually take a break at the picnic bench that is at the top of the park and enjoy the sounds of the birds, and sometimes the construction that is going on in various parts of the neighborhood. The whole park burnt during the Tea Fire of 2008, where some students allegedly did not completely extinguish a bonfire before Santa Ana winds reignited it and started a ~2,000 acre fire that destroyed 210 homes. As a result, there are blackened stumps and other signs of the fire throughout the park. However, the park is lush and scenic and the wildlife doesn’t seem to mind.

Dark Spaces on the Map

A few months back, I wrote about looking out an airplane window and seeing the dark areas of land, unlit by civilization and felt myself being imbued with the desire to discover it. There have been a few themes in my life over the past few months that have resonating with my motivation to hike.

I was watching a game demo where the character roams around an area. In the corner of the screen is a map of the area. As the character walks into new territory, the map, and the land around him, is illuminated. I’ve been playing computer role playing games since about 1981, with Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. Other games included Phantasie, The Ultima Series, and evolved into Diablo and Baldur’s Gate.

At some point, life got too busy to continue building virtual characters and I had to get to work on my real stats.

One common theme about those games is that you don’t know what is around the next bend until you get there. The map opens up as you explore it, showing you what it looks like.

Curiosity is another theme that kept coming up recently. The founder of our company devoted his whole entertaining presentation to curiosity in the last quarterly meeting.

These themes made me think about why I hike. My primary reasons? I don’t hike to go for a stroll through meandering woods. I don’t hike to enjoy the company of a large group of people. To complete a list? No. Well, yes, sometimes these are my reasons, but not my primary reason.

My reason? To explore.

I typically go hiking to climb to the top of a mountain. I climb mountains because I am curious as to what it looks like from there. What is it like to get there? What portion of the map haven’t I been to yet? With the exception of special places, I rarely climb the same mountain more than once. This is one of these reasons why I haven’t yet led hikes for groups, although I have been asked many times.

My curiosity is satisfied once I step foot on to a peak and absorb the views for miles around. I scan the area and see other peaks I’ve climbed and others I’ve yet to climb.

My hiking is typically an exploration and often not on a maintained trail, which is why I usually hike alone. I need to be alert to concentrate on getting to the top and I can’t expect my hiking partner(s) to enjoy route-finding and bushwhacking as much as I do. OK, maybe tolerate is a better word for my feelings about bushwhacking. I often don’t know what the conditions will be like until I get there. I have to be adaptive to the environment and sometimes I don’t make it to the top. It’s all part of exploration.

Every peak I hike illuminates a dark space on the map. Someplace I’ve explored. A new place I’ve been. Why peaks? I’ll answer that question later. I have an Outdoors Bucket List on Pinterest for those who are interested in how curious I am and where I’d like to explore.

For now, there are a lot of dark spaces in Santa Barbara, and all over the world, that I’d like to illuminate.

Broadcast Peak Masts

Santa Ynez Peak
Elevation: 2,458′
Boundary Peak
Elevation: 2,458′
Miles: ~5.2 Miles
Trail head
Agency: Los Padres National Forest

I was pretty excited about hiking this weekend. But then the rains came. And it wasn’t just a little bit of sprinkles. It came down hard. As I lay in my bed the night before, dreaming about hiking, I could hear it hammer down on my roof.

I wasn’t going to let that stop me. This was the one free day that I had, so I was going to make it count.

I drove up to West Camino Cielo. I have AWD on my Tiguan, but was concerned about the condition of the road. I had never driven this way and I wasn’t sure how passable it was on a good day, let alone a day after some heavy rains. I passed through some pretty deep puddles after the pavement ended, but it was a pretty good dirt road.

Happy Outdoorswoman

This was another adventure shared by myself and my daughter, Sophia. And adventure is our word for exploring. Sometimes, when we are driving a long way to get somewhere, she gets a little impatient.

I tell her, “Adventure rarely comes to you; you have to go out and find it, and sometimes that means traveling a long way.”

She gets it. She’s been to Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, Mammoth Mountain, Yellowstone National Park, Anza Borrego Desert State Park, and Rocky Mountain State Park. She has been on four of my 100 Peaks hikes in San Diego and she has been to Hawaii three times, to three different islands.

She is not yet four years old.

I feel that my job as a father is to expose her to as much as the world as I can while I still have influence over her behavior. At some point, she will be making her own decisions and I would like to lay the foundations of exploration and stewardship under my watch. I want her to look back at her childhood and remember our shared experiences of wonder and discovery. I can’t wait until she is old enough to travel abroad. Maybe next year we will be able to travel to Europe, Australia, or Costa Rica. Or all three.

Soph at the La Cumbre Peak overlook bench

Sophia (age 3) and I were visiting the Coronado Butterfly Preserve in Goleta when I pointed to the ridge far above Santa Barbara and asked, “Do you want to go up there? That’s where the lookout tower is.”

“Yup,” She said.

She had seen my pictures from my previous trips up to La Cumbre Peak and was fascinated with the lookout tower. The first time was my attempt to climb it and Cathedral Peak while wearing Keen sandals, something I am glad I didn’t undertake. The second time is when I successfully summited Cathedral Peak, wearing the right foot gear.

Over the years, I’ve shown her pictures of my hiking and backpacking trips and have even texted her video messages from some of the peaks while on top. Also, my Apple TV is set to show my flickr pictures when it goes to sleep. Therefore, she’s been pretty in touch with my adventures, knows what a benchmark is, and has a general fascination with the outdoors. Anyone who has been following me on twitter or flickr knows that I try to take her out as much as possible.

Along the Trespass Trail

Gaviota Peak
Elevation: 2,458′
Miles: ~6.5 Miles
Trail head
Agency: Los Padres National Forest

I was eager to do a hike that was on an established trail, since Cathedral Peak was pretty strenuous. Since it was on a trail, I decided to invite some coworkers, Kiph and Sunshine. They’ve been asking to join me since I started working in Santa Barbara and this seemed like a good hike to invite them.

We got up early, met at a spot in Goleta and headed west down the 101 towards Gaviota. There were two things that I heard about this hike: 1. The peak has amazing views, 2. The Trespass Trail was not to be missed. As a result, I decided to do this hike in a loop, coming up the back side of the mountain, following the ridge to the peak, and then go to the front of range and follow the Trespass Trail down.

Last fall, I was contacted by a company called App Outdoors, an outdoor apparel store in Pennsylvania. They said they would give me credit to their store if I would buy something and blog about the experience. No problem!

The credit went smoothly and I was tasked to find something that I wanted to buy. Their selection is pretty good and their prices fairly comparable to other places, with the occasional incredible deal. Since my Keens were finally starting to show some wear, (I have had them for 8 years or so), I thought I would aim to replace those, even though I eyed some pretty expensive Arc’teryx and Patagona jackets. They didn’t have the same type of sandal that I was replacing, but that’s OK since I was curious about trying another style, in this case, the Keen Kanyon Sandals. The leather on my older pair sometimes dried out my feet.

The order went through OK and I received and email confirmation. All was quiet until, about two weeks later, I received a phone call that they were out of stock on my item and would I like to select something else? I was pretty busy at the time, interviewing for a new job and getting ready for my big move. I didn’t respond for a while and then I get an email that my sandals were getting shipped.

I looked to see what it was and it was my original order. Evidently, they had gotten them in and figured I still wanted them. I did and was happy to receive them. They are now my favorite sandals and I wear them all the time outside of work. The different fabric doesn’t dry my feet out and they appear to be bulletproof.

I am pretty happy with ordering from App Outdoors and would definitely try them again.

On Top of La Cumbre Peak

Cathedral Peak
Elevation: 3,333′
Miles: ~4.5 Miles
Trail head (34.4956, -119.7142)
Agency: Los Padres National Forest

Since I got so close last time, I decided to give this peak another try. Once again, the sun rose as I ascended Camino Cielo and drove to the La Cumbre Lookout Tower. I decided to give the tower a quick visit.

Since I had started running again in the mornings, I felt good as I scampered over the summit block. I tried recording a video, but had some audio issues.

Cathedral and Arlington Peaks from Camino Cielo

La Cumbre Peak
Elevation: 3,995′
Miles: ??
Trail head (34.4956, -119.7142)
Agency: Los Padres National Forest

Well, it’s only been a few times since I started this blog where I turned around before attaining the summit(s) I was seeking. This was one of those times. I had intended on bagging three peaks in the Mission Crags area above Santa Barbara. I am getting to the point where, while I am driving around, I can look up and identify the peaks and features of the front range here.

I got a fairly early start and drove up Camino Cielo (one of my favorite roads) and easily found the gate to La Cumbre Peak. My goal this morning was to summit La Cumbre, Cathedral, and Arlington Peaks. The linear distance was relatively low, but the terrain wasn’t going to be including a maintained trail for most of the way.

Monetico Peak from Cold Springs Trail

Montecito Peak
Elevation: 3,214′
Miles: 2.4
Trail head (34.48418, -119.63895)
Agency: Los Padres National Forest

While planning for this peak, I had the option of hiking this from the south, or accessing it from the north, on Camino Cielo. Since I am just getting back into hiking shape, I decided on the shorter route.

I was pumped to get going in this hike, it being my first hike since my last San Diego to Mount Tule, about 2 months ago. It was still dark when I pulled my covers back and entered the cool air of the morning.

I drove the winding road leading up to the high ridge. There were other people, parked here and there, standing outside their cars to capture the full beauty of the orange and purple sky and the sun rising over the ocean.