Overgrown Toro Ridge Trail
Day 280: Sunday August 21, 2011
Toro Ridge Trail (Lower)
Where: Carpinteria, California
Distance: 3.0 miles +350 feet
Time: 1.5 Hours
Lower Toro Ridge Trailhead
Directions:
From the 101 Freeway in Ventura, drive North to Carpenteria and exit at Santa Claus Lane. Turn right at the exit and then an immediate left on Via Real. Turn right on Nidever Rd. This turns into Foothill, the 192. Stay straight and follow the windy, scenic road. Turn right on Toro Canyon Rd and the look to the right for the trailhead. Park on the side of the road.
Ayden spotted the Dragonfly chilling out...
The trail is well marked but it immediately becomes overgrown. Ayden ducked and weaved through most of it while I plowed through. The area was moist with little water flow and mostly shaded. Just as my poison oak has dissipated from a few weeks ago, only time will tell if more will return...
We climbed up from the dark thick
Escape route to the street
Upper Toro Ridge Entrance
We decided to bypass this trail for another time. The lower portion only took about 15 minutes up a couple hundred feet. I knew that there were some trails back here from a previous experience: Day 41 Toro Canyon Park So, we decided to march a quarter mile further up the road:
This is kind of a dirty old park and Ayden wasn't really interested in playing. Maybe he had Chuck E Cheese stuck on his mind; I promised to take him if he went on this hike with me. So, we turned back and hiked the street to the car. Along the way:
A mysterious gate???
There appears to be some sort of old shed with a power box. The growth of the forest overtook most of it but the generator box was left in the On position:
Well, that was interesting. Before reaching the car, I snapped a final shot over the area and ocean beyond...
**Flashback from Day 41:
I noticed that on Day 41, my blogpost did not contain any pics. This was during the time frame where I ran out of space and I opened up a Facebook account. Well, I have deleted most of my pictures from last year off my computer but I was able to upload a few from Facebook. You'll notice that my camera was in better condition back then (pre broken camera trail). I took these pics on a wet misty day. Nowadays when the weather is like that, my camera really struggles. Anyhow, here are some pics of Toro Caynon Park:
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