Growing up near Big Sur, I had heard a lot about Sykes Hot Springs- the crowds, the trash, the hippies. Someone suggested I should try it anyways; that I might be pleasantly surprised. Up until this point, I had been eagerly waiting for the roads to open in Yosemite, anticipating the season's beginning. Sykes was a chance to change destiny, to begin the season early. So,...why not?
This trip was also an opportunity to break in some fresh meat to the backpacking scene. Two of my friends had never been backpacking before, so a short three day trip was preferred over a long six day trek. They gave me a budget, from which I purchased their gear from the ground up- packs, bags, pads, filter, stove, etc. Once outfitted, we headed to the coast.
Highway 1 is a very scenic route, which I forget at times. The downside to this, is everyone is a Sunday driver, going 35 in a 50mph speed zone. To be fair, it's only one car in five that are like that, but all it takes is one. There are no passing lanes and very very few stretches where you can pass. So sit back, enjoy the ride, and hope you got a head start.
We arrived a little after noon, later than I would have liked, but traffic had not been in our favor. My original goal to reach Sykes on day 1 wasn't looking promising, but at least we had options. I had heard good things about Barlow Flat, but considering I was with two people who had never backpacked before, I'd have to be adaptable. Since it was lunch time already, I suggested we eat lunch there at the parking lot, ridding ourselves of that much weight.
Away we went! Granted, the gear I had bought for my friends wasn't exactly ultralight, but I felt their first set of gear needed to be durable, rather than simply lightweight. Dry pack weight of ~22lbs. each, though, was fairly respectable for their first time. Long gone are the days of the 40lbs. dry pack weight.
In the meantime, I was finally able to test all my new equipment from the offseason. A new tent, pack, and bag were all ready to broken in!
The first mile or so of the hike was in shady coverage. Great for the afternoon heat. I quickly realized, though, that poison oak was going to be an issue. It lined the trail heavily, making me paranoid as I hiked. Surprisingly, there was barely anyone on the trail. Everyone we passed was coming FROM the springs, rather than towards it. Personally, I stop to talk with everyone I pass. I'll ask each one questions about what's ahead, what they recommend, etc. You'd be surprised what you can learn. Each person I asked ended up saying the same things, for the most part, but would have one or two unique tips that I collected. Good campsites. Good refill areas.
By the time you reach your destination, you have a pretty good idea of what to look for. Having never been there, I knew that we'd reach a river with an apparent trail on the otherside, but to simply follow the river downstream. Having never been there, I knew that the "campy" campsites would be around the bend, while the "choice" campsites would be on the far side.
We hiked on and, fortunately, my fellow friends were able to keep pace. There were multiple switchbacks, and general uphill downhill climbing, which was surprising. Looking back on it, the trails could have easily been cut out more flat, making the trail's overall difficulty easier. On the other hand, perhaps they wanted to discourage people from reaching the springs? Who knows?
The scenery was amazing. Quite different from the high sierras, in that the vegetation was more lush. Big Sur area is a gem south of beach houses, west of farmland, and north of nothing. The Los Padres national forest itself has much to offer, including (but not limited to): beautiful scenery, poison oak, pretty waterfalls, poison oak, big trees, poison oak, tall bushes, and poison oak. I should also mention the poison oak. There's poison oak there.
That being said, I should also mention the snakes. We stumbled across three snakes, two of which I recognized as harmless. The third I didn't recognize, so I simply shuffled him off with my trekking pole and moved on.
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| Boy, was the scenery pretty though. |
We heard good things about the Ventana campsite from the people we passed, but it wasn't on the agenda and we were already behind schedule (Side note: the turnoff/sign for Ventana is very easy to miss. You have to keep your eyes out for it). We pressed on to Terrace Creek, where we made our first stop for water. It should be noted that until this point, water was scarce. I burned through 1.5 liters of water getting to this point, hiking in the hot sun.
It was nice to get some fresh cool water, though returning the weight was unpleasant.
Terrace Creek itself was very pretty, but I wouldn't consider it ideal to camp at. There was one tent there, but the place was an obvious pass-through point. It'd be hard to find any privacy. We decided to keep going, but unfortunately we had a small mishap. A piece of my friends' water filter fell into the river- a very important piece. The pump would lose its prime constantly without the piece. So, we combed the river, desperately looking for it. We still had my filter and some backup tablets, but we'd be in dire straits if something happened to mine. After searching for an hour, we decided to risk it and press on. The major loss was the hour of daylight. Upon finally reaching Barlow Flat, I guessed we had another hour of sunlight at best. Initially we decided to trudge on, simply stopping at the path crossing to eat some snacks and rest up. While my friends broke out their snacks, I opted to run down the hill and check out Barlow Flat. At the very least, I wanted to see what it looked like.
I wasn't disappointed.
Barlow Flat was empty, with no one around to be seen except a tent far downriver. I called an audible and yelled up to my friends to come down. I wanted to stay the night there, and that's what we'd do.
We made camp and cooked up our dinners. By the time we finished dinner, it was night. Staying at Barlow was the smarter choice, seeing as how difficult it would have been to set up camp and cook dinner in the dark, especially being their first time.
All said and done, it was a good first day. The river was nice to sleep by, we had made good progress, and I was well fed, the latter of those being the more important thing. Fortunately, the fire ban had been lifted only a few weeks before. I nabbed a fire permit online before the trip, and we enjoyed the warm flames. Wood was quite scarce though. Most of the wood we collected was from other fire rings, but we didn't need much anyways.
Continued in Part 2.
Continued in Part 2.
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