What was supposed to be a long off trail journey, deep into the Southern Los Padres National Forest, on a wild and scenic river, through the heart of the Condor Sanctuary, is going to have to wait a little bit longer. Damn you Thomas Fire!!! So with that being said to the Kern River we go. The team had no objections to the route change. In fact I do believe they were secretly cheering inside that they would not be Hiking 40 miles through waist deep waters, scrambling up and down boulders and eating brush sandwiches. I however am a tad bit disappointed. Oh well I will get you Sespe sooner than later.
At Around 5am Saturday morning I met with my usual cast of characters Tony Marchese and Tony Branam, with the added addition of Dan Thompson, at my house and loaded up for the 3 hour drive to the Trailhead parking at Johnsondale Bridge.
I don't believe you need an adventure pass to park here but I always display mine anyways, better to be safe than sorry. Fishing licenses are required for all persons fishing; age 16 and over. Fishing from Johnsondale bridge upstream where Forest Service trail 33E30 heads east to to join the Rincon Trail, is open beginning the last Saturday in April and runs through the 15th of November. There is a minimum trout size of 14 inches; while artificial lures with barbless hooks must be used. There is a 2 fish limit. From the junction of 33E30 and Rincon further upstream to the mouth of Tyndall Creek same regulations apply except the maximum size limit for rainbow trout is 10 inches. Always best to double check regulations before heading out. The upper Kern is a wild trout fishery and not stocked so expect to work a little harder to catch these beauty's.
After a quick walk across the bridge and down the steps we made our way onto the Kern River Trail(33E30). This Scenic route runs parallel to the Kern heading North along on the east bank. We began by following a very slight grade with incredible scenic views over riverside bluffs all while staying close enough to the water to be able to get to it should the need arise. The narrow river canyon is steep and scattered with high boulders, Grey pine, live Oak, and cedar. Willow, and cottonwood have taken up residence along the waters edge. Of course it wasn't long before I stopped to throw a line in the water. At about 1.5 miles in you come to a rock outcropping that makes for a great photo opportunity.
One thing you cant help but notice up here besides the amazing scenery is the smell of the crisp, fresh pine mountain air. A welcome change from my smog infested LA County. Continuing on
about 2.2 miles in you come to the junction of Kern River and Dry Meadow Creek, where lies the famous 7 Tea Cups waterfalls. This short section of Dry Meadow Creek host some of the best Class C Canyoneering opportunity's in Southern California. If visiting and rappelling down these falls is of interest to you here's a great write up by modern hiker that can help you get it done.
https://modernhiker.com/hike/canyoneering-the-seven-teacups/
Up too this point we were jamming through our trek of what was supposed to be a 20-22 mile loop up the east side of the Kern and back down the west side. Little did we know it would end up being much different. The going really starts to get tough around about 5 miles in. The Kern River trail now heads east away from the water and climbs up a steep canyon.
At just 6 miles in during the climb we came across and old shaft or some kind of cave in the side of the mountain. From the outside you could not see the back of the cave. Hoping no bears or mountain lion were home Tony and I decided to go have a look and see how deep this thing went.
I'm still not exactly sure what this shaft was once used for, but was thank full to have found it, the excitement of it made us forget all about the relentless uphill attack that we were enduring. After what seemed like forever we finally reached the end of the River Trail. From this point forward we would be heading north On Rincon(33e23) Trail, an OHV mostly used by off road motor cycle enthusiasts. This was a great spot to throw off our packs and take a break.
Here is where everything starts to get interesting. At this point Dan was not feeling well. A couple of factors contributed to this. One an over weighted pack, two dehydration from the long hot climb and three not being in tip top shape. The next couple miles were very slow going, we had had to make frequent stops for Dan to rest and or puke a bit, making it worse was the fact that we were still climbing, flat ground was nowhere to be found. Progress was now crawling and day light wasting. The original plan was to get all the way to Durwood Camp the first day in, that was obviously not gonna happen today. We decided to make camp for the night at the junction of Rincon Trail and the 3.3 mile spur trail that leads to Durwood.
Feeling like we were now beyond schedule was disappointing but would turn out to be a blessing in disguise. What we didn't know was that since the big fire in 2002 most of the trails are seriously overgrown and no longer maintained up here in the Kern. Obviously none of our tax dollars are getting allocated for trail maintenance to this amazing stretch of wilderness. From here on out its near impossible to navigate any former trail without constantly looking at a GPS unit and even then you will be doing major bushwhacking and progress will be insanely slow. The spur trail down to Durwood was not only overgrown but seriously just plain dangerous. Traversing up and down steep mountain cliffs through impenetrable brush was a nightmare and took 3 times as long as we thought it would, and to top it off I slipped on loose rock and twisted my ankle really bad. Days later I would get home and find out it was a fractured fibula. It was a good thing Dan was not feeling well or we would have been stuck on that steep trail into the night with no flat area at all to camp. I always carry a personal location beacon to alert search and rescue should an emergency occur, my leg was hurting and we still had around 13-15 miles left to go before getting back to the car. It was either hit the button or load up on Advil and just keep trekking as best I could. There was still so much I wanted to see down by the water that I choose to carry on and tried my best to ignore the pain, however now at this rate we would probably never make it back to the car by Monday.
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| The Death Trail |
We finally made it through the nasty spur trail and down to Durwood camp which is unmaintained private property owned by the forest service. A couple of the cabins are burned down, one is still standing but the bees have taken residence throughout it. There is a flat meadow you can camp at but with little trees for shade. We stopped for lunch and admired the views but decided we would camp somewhere else across the river on the west bank. This area is secluded and seldom traveled on foot, its nice and quiet and the fishing is superb.
There is two ways to cross the Kern here, either swim through ice cold raging water and hope the strong current does not carry you to your death or at your own risk take the old rickety Cable car. This car is not known by many people. I came across a picture of it from a blog that was written in 2006. When I called the Kern Ranger Station days before our trip they would not confirm to me that it even existed. In fact the nice lady who answered the phone played dumb about it. The whole time before we arrived here I was praying that it would still be here and that it would be tied off to the right side of the river for us to be able to reach it and sure enough it was. I quickly volunteered to be the test dummy, I was so excited to ride this thing. Cable looked to be in decent condition, the wood floor had seen better days, oh well here we go I was committed.
Once everyone was safely across we made our way downstream to what would be the definite highlight of Every body's trip. A beautiful Riverside Campsite, that we had all to ourselves. Complete with fire pits and log and stone chairs already set up. Fishing here was absolutely phenomenal, once I figured out the correct lures I was getting hit on every cast. We set up camp, had a nice fire, and enjoyed a trout dinner served by Tony Marchese our camp chef. He makes a mean trout dish on the trail. I believe this spot is now used mostly only by people on kayak due to its remote nature. However I have now figured out a route from the opposite direction to access it so I'm for sure going back and I will even do some trail maintenance on my way in this time to spruce it up. I was enjoying myself so much here that at times I forgot about my mangled ankle. Words do not do this place justice.
To get Back to the car my plan was to head out the canyon from Durwood Camp to Bean Camp(32e29) to Drywood Meadow to Elephant Knob(32e43) to Highway 99 with a quick jont back to Johnsondale Bridge. On paper this sounds great and is a noble undertaking on good day with plenty of time and a maintained trail. We had none of these things this morning. What we got instead was zero maintained trail, guarded by a force field of ticks (more than I have ever seen in my life in one place) rain and of course my broken leg. The forces to be were making every possible effort to keep folks out of this magical spot and us from reaching our destination in time. But of course the views were outstanding.
We made every possible Valiant effort to complete this loop on foot but sometimes you have to know when to call it. Up here there is zero cell service and my wife was expecting us by Monday had she not heard from me I can all but guarantee their would be search and rescue coming for us, and by my calculations had we continued on the original OVERGROWN path we might have had to camp one more night before reaching our car. So with everyone in agreeance I made the call to abandon the path and head up and out on an old OHV Trail Sand Hill Ridge(22s89) which would lead us way out of our way but onto a paved Road, Lloyd Meadow(22s82). All though a remote road my thoughts were somebody would drive by eventually and at least give Tony Branam a ride down to the bridge to get his car and come pick us up. A gamble indeed because if I was wrong this was gonna add a ton of extra pavement miles to our trip and leave a very panicked wife at home waiting for me. Once again though as luck would have it we walked a couple miles and out of nowhere a forest service worker happened to drive by. Steve was an awesome dude and happily offered to give us a ride in his pick up back to our vehicle. He saved the day. Our total mileage including the car ride was somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 miles.
Next stop french fries and beer at the Kern River Brewing company before heading home. I had the time of my life. Special thanks to my friends for joining me. This is one we will remember forever.
No doubt we will be back soon. Please pardon my absence from the blog for the next 6-8 weeks while my fracture heals. In the meantime I will be diligently planning the next adventure. Cheers!!!
