Trail Conditions Pt. Mugu Sycamore Canyon(updated 6-14-13)

Cause of fire was "an undetermined ignition" along the 101. I'm guessing someone through out a cigarette butt.

 

I think it was the high tension lines. It was a normal calm morning then huge gust hit my house almost exactly the time the fire started. Dancing wires do it all the time.

 

Here's an update on closures and estimated re-openings:
http://networkedblogs.com/KWPmL

 

If you're curious what burned and what was spared... The most accurate map of the burn area that I have seen so far is on the Ventura County Fire page (bottom of page):
http://fire.countyofventura.org/

I hiked into part of the canyon yesterday. It's pretty devastated, but... there are pockets of green, small side canyons, etc. that the fire skipped entirely. You can also see that in some areas, the fire pushed through so quickly that not all plant material was completely burned. Some of the chaparral was merely singed and hopefully will spring back quickly. We got a good soaking rain last night which should help get things started on the path to recovery.
The trails I saw were in great shape, it's just the surrounding landscape that looks like the surface of the moon. The only place I saw with any real trail damage was where the crews used bulldozers to cut fire breaks. I saw a little of that at the West end of the Dos Vientos trail system, but didn't see any sign of bulldozer use in Sycamore. The National Parks would not allow the bulldozers onto NP land, not sure what the State Park policy was/is.

 

Pretty much a huge bummer since I live like 3 miles from the park and it's a normal weekly ride for me. Was always awesome going down there in the evening and seeing deer, bobcats all the time. How far in did you get? Did you enter in from the Wendy side? I need to get over there after work and see how bad it is.

 

Wendy trailhead is likely still closed. We drove up to the Broome Ranch area off of Portrero (across the street from Dos Vientos and West of the horse corals). We hiked over the hill with the three trees and down into the park. You pass to the West of the hilltop. You don't have to hike very far past the hill-top to get to a point with a good overlook (1/2 mile +/-).

 

Your assessment is pretty spot on, I was actually shocked how much green there still is, hopefully when we actually get down in the Canyon it isn't as bad as I was expecting also. Sounds like it could be weeks or months before its reopened though, they aren't sure yet, they have to assess everything first and that will take a week. I didn't get a chance to grab my digi camera before I went over to the area you went to (Portrero Broome Ranch) so cell phone pics will have to suffice and then I went over to the Wendy entrance real quick and took a few pics.

 

Thanks for the update. The fire burn you see right there at Wendy Trailhead was a series of backfires they set Friday night and Saturday morning. The fire was coming over that last ridge above the trailhead and they wanted to make sure that it was not able to build enough momentum to come down and jump across Portrero.

 

CORBA was scheduled to do trailwork on Guadelasca this coming weekend, but we've moved it to Los Robles trail. On June 8, we'll probably return to Guadelasca and help with efforts in the burn area.

 

There's a little more info out on the park closure...
http://www.malibutimes.com/news/article_2d8c9ec4-b8f0-11e2-93ae-001a4bcf887a.html

Hard Closure of Pt Mugu State Park until May 23...

Sycamore Campground-Tentatively scheduled to reopen May 22nd/23rd
Mugu Beach-Open
Thornhill Broome Campground-Open
Sycamore Cove Day-Use-Open
La Jolla Group Camp-Tentatively scheduled to reopen May 22nd/23rd
La Jolla Day-Use- Tentatively scheduled to reopen May 22nd/23rd

 

Point Mugu State Park / Sycamore Canyon reopened this week. I took a ride down into the Canyon from Newbury Park this morning, climbing over to Ranch Center, down Wood Canyon, up Guadalasca, down Backbone and back out the main canyon. The main Canyon looks ok, toasted, but the trees are still there and look to be set for recovery. There's still some shade. All of the remaining buildings in Ranch Center (2 abandoned houses and the tractor shed) burned to the ground. Wood Canyon road was bulldozed so it's now loose, deep soil. It'll likely pack down quickly after a little traffic. Guadalasca was toasted really good. The trail is in good shape, but it's wide open with NO shade... it's gonna be a tough climb on hot days. The Backbone downhill is in OK shape, it's wide open now too... so it's much easier to see oncoming traffic. The only trail/area that is closed is the Upper Sycamore Canyon (aka Snake) Trail, which was not open to bikes anyway.

 

WOW!! We were just there late April..., very sobering pics. Thanks for sharing.

 

If we have a wet enough upcoming winter, the wildflowers there in the spring will be unbelievable. The spring after next as well.

 

I am reeling... Where is this? I can't tell. Seriously. Is that Guad? Holy shit.

Thanks for the sobering pics. Jmoe29er rode it today and he said it was really crazy and unbelievable -- a moonscape, he wrote -- but he took no pictures as you have.

I have to roll out there soon, just to see it, and soak it all in. I know it will recover, but I was just there a few weeks ago and it pains me that it is so...

Here's my friend Martin on Guad then...



- shud

 

Yeah, that's Guad! The photo was taken where Guad tops out, at the left turn onto the old fire road, 100 yards before the very top and post.
Looks like the same spot where your pic was taken.

 

Thanks, Bullseye. I am glazing over. So that's at the corner up top. Gotcha. Martin and I had been on Guad for a few minutes already, so I am thinking we were about here (red 'x'):



Someday soon it will be back to this:



Up on Guadalasca Trail from a 5/16/10 STR ride.

- shud

 

great update. I rode here for the first time earlier this year. twice. I rode the world famous guadalscar my last time...it was absolutely awesome. the pics remind me of the 2007 Santiago oaks fire that stopped just yards from my house. I hurts to see it like that!! :-( I shall ride sycamore tomorrow

 

A friend & I rode through the main down to the campground and back on Tuesday. A couple spots still smelled like it was smoldering. As soon as I crossed the bridge it felt like a movie set with how drastically different it looked now. Riding through it was hard to figure out where I was on the trail with all the open space that was once green and leafy. Will probably go back next week with the gopro and hit Sin Nombre and Two foxes.

 

Update from CORBA on Guadalasca work:

Guadalasca rejuvenation started on June 12th


The huge rut in front of the Sweco is filled in behind it.

On Wednesday, California State Parks staff started the rejuvenation process of Guadalasca Trail in Pt Mugu State Park (Sycamore Canyon). They’re running a Sweco (mini bulldozer) down the trail, pulling down the berm on the outside and filling in the huge rut that runs almost the length of the trail.This is part of a process that was started in late 2011 and CORBA has been helping with over various trailwork days. State Parks will be running the Sweco down to the point where it is to be eventually rerouted, just below the second lowest switchback, about 1.1 miles from the top of the singletrack section.

On Saturday, the 30 people or so who have signed up for trailwork will be knocking down any loose berm left behind, removing rocks and filling in any big holes.
I rode from the top down to where the work had progressed at the time, about 200 yards or so. The trail is currently pretty rough and somewhat loose. If you’re looking for a really good workout, try riding up this trail once the work is complete!

The loose rough conditions are temporary. Slowly the trail will be packed down as people ride it (mostly downhill, I expect) and eventually it will be in great shape. Some people will be upset at it’s current state, but this trail really needs the ruts fixed, and when it recovers, it will be much more fun to ride than it is now. In some places the rut is so deep I can’t ride in it without banging my pedals on the side. The result is that people ride up the edges, widening the trail on both sides. That may be easy to do now, but it makes for a really wide and ugly scar on the hillside, and the trail edges won’t be viable for riding once the vegetation that was removed by the Springs Fire a month ago grows back. Wood Canyon Vista Trail (Backbone) was Sweco’d two years ago and has been in really good shape for over a year now, and is in fantastic shape now, especially after the trailwork we did there last week.

 

^^^^ oh snap ^^^^ #-o

Well, as is always the case with this sort of thing, it will recover. But, DAMN dude! They SWECO'ed the BB a few years ago, and it has returned to semi-nice status, but it is not the wild ride it used to be. I rode down Guad a few weeks ago in late May after the fires, and it was super fast and really treacherous, but way fun. No one was out hiking it but there were several bikers both climbing and descending. I just rolled down through the center rut, doing my best to just bear down and get it done. It was pretty wily at points, but I made it okay. I nabbed a PR of just over 9 minutes on the whole descent (all the way down to Wood Cyn FR) since there was neither flora nor fauna to make sight lines difficult. The thing that makes that ride (errr... MADE that ride) so fun was the fact that you had to keep your eyes on the prize at all times while descending at speed. Now, much like the BB descent was a few years ago, it will be a flat roll all the way to the bottom. Not bad, just not wicked fun.

- shud