Trabuco Outdoors Blog

A few more photos fom the Santa Rosa Plateau

I made it out to the SRP a few weeks ago and was fortunate enough to hit it during an early morning storm. The Adobe Loop Trail, which was closed for research the last couple of times I've been to the plateau, is now open.

 

 

Irvine Conservancy Photo hike

 


The Irvine Conservancy sponsors hikes and other activities on Irvine Company land (and now on former Irvine Ranch land which was recently deeded to the County of Orange). Fortunately, one or two of these hikes per month are specifically designed for photographers including the hike I went on last Friday. We hiked up Hicks Haul Road east of the 241 Tollway. Although it was a bit hazy, there was a nice buidup of cumulous clouds around us. These programs are docent-led and open to the public. You can signup online at the Irvine Conservancy web site.

 

 

View of 241 tollway after sunset on the hike back.

Bell Ridge Trail

Bell Ridge Trail is one of my favorites in the Santa Ana Mountains, probably due in part because the trailhead is so close to my home (Robinson Ranch), and also because it is lightly visited and wild. This is not an official forest service trail and exists primarily because of the efforts of the Warrior's Society mountain bike club. The trail is accessed via the trailhead for the Bell View trail which is part of OC Parks, in this case, Caspers Wilderness Park. Unlike most of the trails in Caspers, leashed dogs are allowed on this trail, at least this section north of Robinson Ranch Road. It's a short hike from Bell View to Bell Ridge trail which is within the Cleveland National Forest. Once on national forest land, regulations are more lax and allow off-leash dogs, hunting, etc. For more info:

http://www.trabucooutdoors.com/hikes/bell_ridge_hike.htm

 

Night hike to Dripping Springs

I went on a docent-led nighttraining hike sponsored by the Irvine Ranch Conservancy Thursday night. I've done a fair amount of night hiking in the past. This hike to Dripping Springs was a bit different though in that we didn't use flashlights and it was during a new moon (no moon).

Surprisingly, your eyes adapt to the lack of light as long as you don't look at bright light. If you do need to use a flashlight, use a red light to help preserve your night vision. I wouldn't recommend bushwacking during a new moon night hike, but maintained trails are very doable. Of course I had to use this opportunity to push the limits of low light photography. This is a shot looking toward Dripping Springs which is about 150 feet ahead. Of course, we could only see a short section of the trail with the naked eye and no color. The eye's cones see colors and are not at all sensitive in low light conditions. The rods are more sensitive, but don't see color. The digital sensor of the camera does not have these limitations of course, so given a long enough exposure, the camera will pick up enough light to record both light and color. This photo is a 3 minute exposure at f/4.5 and 1600 ISO. Normally I would have dialed it down to either an 800 ISO or 400 ISO with a 6 minute or 12 minute exposure, respectively. In this case, that would have been rude since I'm sure the other hikers didn't want to wait around for my photography experiments.

Below is a cropped portion of the photo. You can see the ghosts of some of the hikers resulting from their movements during the exposure. The green globs in the middle of the cropped photo is from the docent using a laser pointer to point out items at the springs. From where I shot the photo, I could not see anything past the oak tree hanging over the trail due to the extreme darkness.

Added 2/14: Dripping Spring in the daylight.

Falls Canyon falls charged up

I made the short hike to the waterfall in Falls Canyon yesterday to check out the flow. Right now is a good time to make this short hike. You'll need to cross Trabuco Creek which is manageble without getting wet if you are careful. As far as the local waterfalls, this one is the best easily-accesible in my opinion, and much better (and less crowded) than Holy Jim falls.

As with most waterfalls, it is tough to photograph, and I didn't give it a sense of scale in this photo. My guess is it is about 35 feet high.

Here's a link to the Falls Canyon Hike web page describing the location.

Here's a link to a few more photos.

Trabuco Canyon Trail

I thought I'd see if there are any colors along Trabuco Canyon trail this afternoon. This shot was taken about one mile from the trail head. November and December are the best months for color in the canyon, particularly the sycamore and maple trees.

Friday morning on the plateau

As usual, I started my hike on the Santa Rosa Plateau last Friday at the Vernal Pool Trailhead. It's a great place to start a sunrise hike since it starts at a higher elevation with nice views overlooking the oak woodland and rolling prairies to the northeast. Also, it provides several trail options including the Los Santos Trail and Trans Preserve Trail within a half mile of the trailhead. As expected, the vernal pools are shallow this early in the season.

One of the reasons I prefer the plateau for hiking is the variety of landscapes over a relatively small area. The vernal pools are less than a mile on a flat stretch from the trailhead, and after passing the pools, I continued on the trail decending through a section of chaparral and then down to the rolling grasslands surrounding the old adobes. After hiking the riparian Adobe Loop Trail, I prefer to continue to the east on the Punta Mesa Trail until continuing further east on Monument Trail to the secluded area adjacent to the closed Mesa de Burro section of the preserve. 

If you hike these trails in the early morning, you are virtually certain to see wildlife including deer, coyotes and the occasional bobcat. Based on the scat and tracks, it's not that there are fewer bobcats than coyotes; they just don't present themselves for viewing as often. The return to the Vernal Pool trailhead via the middle section of the preserve was through  grasslands which are dotted with Engelmann and live oaks. Here is a link to a more detailed description of the Santa Rosa Plateau and photos of the preserve.

Wet Thanksgiving weekend

 I aborted an early Thanksgiving morning hike due to the rain, but did make it out to the Trabuco Canyon Trail early Friday morning. Sierra and I had the trail to ourselves for the  4 mile hike. The drive back was not as peaceful with a number of testosterone-ridden adolescents in 4-wheel drives splashing through puddles along Trabuco Creek Road like 5 year olds their first time on a slip & slide. Private property borders the road from the turnoff at Trabuco Canyon Road to the national forest boundary several miles in, so expect to get cited for trespassing if you go off of Trabuco Creek Road on your way in. 

The holiday weekend storms left about 1.65 inches of rain in the Robinson Ranch area of Trabuco Canyon.

Fall hike on Trabuco Canyon Trail

I finally got around to adding another hike on the TrabucoOutdoors.com web site. This is a hike you can do in 2 hours, or do the full loop up to Main Divide Road and take all day. The key, as is the case with most hikes in the Santa Ana Mountains, is to carefully choose the timing of the hike. Although I hike it frequently, most of the photos posted on the web site were taken in the fall, and many were taken after we had a light rain as in this photo.

While our fall colors are not as vivid as those in the northeast, moisture from fog, drizzle or rain will saturate them, and you may be surprised at the amount of fall color we get in the local mountains. Also, many who haven't hiked this trail don't realize that the interior (eastern) portion of Trabuco Canyon is as heavily forested as it is.

Hi Sierra

Due to my 13 year old daughter's unrelenting pressure, we now have a dog. Sierra arrived two months ago, and is now 4 months old. A pure bred Australian shepherd, Sierra is an athletic dog who, even at her young age, has no problem hiking several miles with over 1,000 foot elevation gains and relatively steep (40%) descents.

Although she wears a small pack, she is too young to carry any weight. The empty pack prepares her for the larger pack she will wear once her bones mature. Since she only wears the pack on the hiking trails, it also sends her the message that this is a special experience and she needs to take my commands seriously. Already, when I yell "stop!" she stops immediately and looks at me for further direction. This will come in handy if she ever approaches a rattler or a skunk while off leash. She will stay on leash, of course , until she is no longer a puppy.

Fortunately, both O'Neill Park and the Trabuco area of the Cleveland National Forest allow dogs. Caspers Park does not, except for the extreme northern portion of the park (Bell View Trail) in the Robinson Ranch area. Dogs must be leashed in the county parks (e.g. O'Neill) but not in the national forest. Obviously, dogs should only be off-leash if under voice command of their owner.