Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Day 690: Long Canyon Trail - Wood Ranch Trailhead

A view of White Face from the Long Canyon Trail

Day #690 * Hike #829 * New Track #671
Saturday October 6, 2012
Wood Ranch Trailhead - Long Canyon Trail - Simi Valley, CA
My Tripometer: 1 Hour * 1.5 Miles * +525 Feet
 
 Trailhead Parking area

Directions:
From the 118 Freeway in Simi Valley, exit on First Street and head south.  First street will become Long Canyon.  Follow this all the way to the end and you will run into the trailhead parking area.  The main flow of traffic otherwise turns right up Wood Ranch, hence if you know the back roads, you can get to it this way as well...

 Long Canyon Trailhead

There are maps available here.  If you want, you could spend all day back here hiking up and over to the Thousand Oaks side.  There are two possible trailheads, we chose the Long Canyon Trail because I was looking for some elevation gain.  The other trail is relatively flat.

 The views off the trail

 I was with this straggler :)  Lil dude loves hiking!

While Ayden was diving in Simi Valley, we were hiking up in here.  I always knew about this trailhead but I never actually hiked it.  I've virtually hiked all of the trails beyond Long Canyon from Thousand Oaks, but today was for sure a new track.  At this fork, keep left and follow the main trail up, up and away...

 Caves...  We did not explore them


 It's not too steep.  Come'on, a three year old is hiking this!

 A view of the Wood Ranch Reservoir

 Open Space!!!

 There's a secret valley back there!

 Trail Junction

To reach this point, you will have hiked about 3/4's of a mile and gained roughly 500 feet.  Overall, pretty easy.  Fortunately, it was not overwhelmingly hot.  On many summer days, this unshaded area will easily surpass 100 degrees.  The mild 80 degree weather that we encountered today was quite delightful.  Well, time to turn around.  I have to pick up my son.  Otherwise, the trails up here could keep me busy all day...

Overlooking West Simi Valley on your way down...
 

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