Potrero Canyon

Pouring over old maps and any historical Los Padres National Forest articles I can get my hands on has become somewhat of a favorite pastime of mine. Reviewing material of the Hurricane Deck and Southern trails in the San Rafael Wilderness brought to my attention the reroute of Potrero Canyon 29W12. The current trail takes off  a touch over a mile downstream from the Manzana Trail-head and climbs fairly steeply high above the creek, through Negus Meadow along the Southern face of the Deck before terminating on to 30W14 (The Hurricane Deck Trail).

Manzana Trail-Head

High above Manzana Creek the Deck looming in the distance.

Potrero Canyon Camp

Much earlier maps show a different route that followed along Potrero Creek gently meandering up canyon approximately 1.4 miles before abruptly climbing out the next one and a half miles to the top of the Hurricane Deck (see example below). 

1967 LPNF Recreation Map. Notice 29W12 following the original route. Note Coldwater Camp was destroyed in the 69 flood, eventually being rebuilt & relocated further downstream. 

Bryan Conant's 2015 San Rafael Wilderness map (highly recommended) showing the trail as it is today. 

Potrero Creek

I surmise this original trail was cut in the early 30's by the CCC workers stationed at The Sunset Valley CCC Camp for reasons other than just recreation. As seen in a small portion of a copy on the map below the now Nira location was labeled a Forestry Campground. There was no Davy Brown Camp yet. Nira was further south along the road closer to the current Davy Brown. My how things have changed over time (click any image to enlarge). 

 Archaeological map showing the location of the Sunset Valley CCC Camp.

So why the reroute up and away from the creek? I think multiple factors were at play however one assumption might be the trail would be far easier to keep maintained higher on the ridge up and out of the creek channel. Whatever the reason we found it would be worth an exploration. 

That nice open space would quickly come to an end as seen below

As Nate would state there's  Tom completely in his element.

As difficult as it can be following older non existent trails in the Los Padres I find myself rather drawn to them. The most interesting encounters can be had off trail in the Wilderness. With the agenda all set my pals and I went about seeing what we could document of that old route. Unlike many previous posts this one will not have as much detail. I will let the pictures with some short captions tell the story. What I will say though is the temperatures were very warm and the day was mostly an exercise in bushwhacking and swiping massive amounts of ticks off ourselves. Never have I seen so many at one time. I must have brushed off at least a 100 or more.  

 Little bit of dead-fall throughout this Canyon

Nate surveying the best route

Keep on climbing 

Ursus Americanus Californiensis

After several miles of battling our way up the creek we decided to try climbing up and out onto the lower base of the Hurricane deck. Reports abound of numerous rock formations out that way and well the three of us are kinda suckers for rock formations.  

You in there Nate ? Oh yeah I see you now. 

Chaparral jungle

Tired of pushing through brush Tom and I decided to take the stairs. Wait a minute who would possibly cut stairs into this rock? Maybe the the Chumash? I don't know.

Nice rounded footholds spaced evenly all the way up

Nothing about traveling this base section of the deck is easy. No trails and head high brush make for a very tiring and slow pace. Add in all the up and down climbs through the ravines and your legs are screaming come the end of the day. 

After daylight beginning to become a factor we decided to head on back. We had made a good push and debated if we should continue east a bit more and drop down Falls Canyon for a loop or just return the same way we came. In the end we decided on the same return route. From the start there was plenty of evidence of the older Potrero cut however we still found it easier to just stay in the middle of the creek bed. I probably should not even use the term easier as the going is everything but easy. A better title for this write up might have been "Adventures in bushwhacking" As usual another great day with Hnatiw & Wickstrum Lost In The Los Padres. 

Memorial weekend 2019 In The San Rafael Wilderness

With no kids this Memorial weekend the wife was ready to get out and go somewhere, in fact her exact words were "babe take me on an adventure" to which I replied yes ma'am coming right up. Waiting til the last minute on a holiday weekend left everything booked, I could not reserve a single car campsite anywhere I wanted to go in the Los Padres. My wife Suzanne is not a backpacker and rarely gets out tent camping so I was hoping for a nice developed site to start getting her feet wet. I was not confident about it but knew we would have to try our luck and see about snagging a walk up somewhere. Wanting to go a little farther from home I hit up Conant and asked what he thought about my chances on getting anything at Nira, Davy Brown or Figueroa Mountain. Bryan seemed enthusiastic and said he was 90 percent sure I should be good to go. Hearing that was good enough for me, we loaded up and hit the road.

Hoping to have easy convenient access form camp into the San Raf Nira was to be my first Choice. Here we could walk right onto The Manzana trail without needing to use the car. After about a two and half hour drive we pulled in to find the place packed not a single site to be had. Damn I thought that's not good.

South of Nira a short distance back along Sunset Valley Road is Davy Brown Camp. Which provides direct access to Davy Brown Creek and the Fir Canyon trail. I was optimistic that possibly we would have better luck getting something there. Upon arrival I was again reminded that this was a holiday weekend dummy and we would be getting nothing. Well shit Figueroa was to be our last hope as far as developed campgrounds in this immediate neck of the woods was concerned.

Back along Sunset Valley we went, from the Cachuma saddle it is about 7 miles along Figueroa Mtn Road to reach Figueroa Mountain Campground. This is a much larger Camp than Nira or Davy Brown in fact almost triple the amount of sites. Walk up site choices here are numbers 2 through 10. Again upon arrival this was not looking good. As we cruised through checking each site one by one everything was taken. Then I remembered in the very back corner of the campground site #25 was also a walk up. This would be our last hope, wife was saying lucky 25 is gonna be it and I'll be damned it was open. Maybe regarded as the ugly duckling as unlike every other site here this one had no picnic table, no steel fire ring and no camp kitchen grill set up. However none of that mattered to us, is was available and it was gonna be ours.

Tested out our new tent we were given as a gift worked great

Nemo privacy shelter

Here adjacent to our tent flat was small rock fire ring surrounded by weeds and leaves. We left it in much better shape than we found it. 

Aside from the lack of amenities listed above this one had great potential. The site was massive with multiple flats and very private sitting on the camps edge we had no one behind us and direct forest access. We quickly got to work setting up all our gear and making fire. Took the dog for a walk, had a nice dinner and a few beers and it was off to bed. At some point in the night it began to rain and never really let up for the rest of our trip. 

Manzana Trailhead parking area

Sunday we woke bright and early after breakfast burritos under the easy up we donned our rain gear and headed back down toward Nira and the Manzana Trail. (30W13). Approximately a half mile before Nira is the lower Manzana Trailhead pictured above. Here you find a large parking area and informative signs. You can also access the upper trail from the eastern end of Nira Camp. 

Manzana Creek

Creek Crossing at Potrero Camp

After an immediate crossing the trail climbs along the southwest bank of the Manzana taking you above the creek for the next 1.3 miles before dropping down to Potrero Camp and the junction with Potrero canyon trail. (29W12)  

Potrero Camp

Lots of bullet holes in the Arroyo Toad informative sign could be some hostility there if you know what I mean 

I liked this camp, very scenic and close to the creek with nice fire ring and picnic table. Would make for a great quick overnight and or child's first backpacking trip being as close as it is to the Trailhead. I noticed two available sites. After crossing the creek here it is about 300 feet to the Potrero Cyn junction. 

Big Fan I am of these old metal signs

We left the Manzana behind and began to climb Potrero Canyon. The trail is in pretty good shape and easy to follow. Could benefit from some brushing in places but really nothing to complain about. From the Creek junction it's 3 miles to the Hurricane deck and basically all uphill. Your afforded great views of the surrounding Canyons and the area becomes more lush once reaching Negus Meadow. 

We spent a fair amount of time poking around the upper reaches of the Canyon. Sometime I would love to return and travel the whole length of the Hurricane Deck Trail. My wife was a trooper following me up and down off trail and climbing in and out of caves with some bushwhacking in the pouring rain. She asked for an adventure and I didn't want to let her down. 

Lacy is all smiles

My dog is normally pretty reserved and well behaved on the trail but for some reason while passing through the meadow she got all crazy excited and was hauling ass back and forth jumping and bounding through it like a gazelle. Funny  I don't know what got into her but she liked it up there. 

Negus Meadow

 I spend a great deal of my time close to home in the more southeastern districts of the  Los padres so it was really nice to be able to head north a bit and get into some newer terrain. I definitely am going to make it a point to try and get up here more often on some monthly or bimonthly trips. Start putting some check marks in my long list of San Raf and Dick smith places.

Chumash bedrock Mortars 

After a brief lunch we hightailed it back out the way we came. At this point  we were soaking wet and my wife was starting to develop what I nicknamed her Baden-Powell walk. That's when the steps get really small and her pace slows. I only seen it once before and that was On Baden-Powell of course. A cute unique little walk but a signal that she is about done for the day. Our total mileage was close to 10. Sorry I have no GPS track available for download (not that you need it here anyway the trails are good) somehow I bumped it and it turned it self off. Maybe I should start using the lock screen feature. Anyhow trip was a blast, thanks babe had a great time can't wait to see what we cook up for next year's memorial outing.