Day 882: Backbone Tail Latigo Canyon to Castro Crest - Newton Motorway

Backside of Castro Crest

Day #882 * Hike #1107 * New Track #865
Backbone Trail - Latigo Canyon to Castro Crest - Malibu, CA
Newton Motorway
Tuesday April 16, 2013
My Tripometer: 1 Hour * 2.5 Miles * +650 Feet

Trailhead

Directions:
From the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills, exit on Kanan and head south towards the PCH.  Pass the Bachelor House, the tunnels and Mulholland Highway.  About a half mile past Mulholland, turn left on Latigo Canyon Road.  Follow Latigo around and around for a dizzy 3 miles.  There is a dirt turn out to the left.  Park in there and begin your journey...

Begin with a slight uphill.  This is my third time approaching this trailhead but it is the first time actually wandering down the trail.  My anticipation was to begin climbing up to Castro Crest.  However, I was way wrong!  The trail heads a couple hundred feet lower...

 Into the forest and cross the dry creek

 Finally out of the forest and up, up and into the sun...

 and keep climbing higher...

 Looking over Latigo Canyon Road...

 Closing in on the very noticeable mountain mound

 random rocks along the trail

Approaching the junction, we will loop to the right up there

 The trail I ran from

 looking out and beyond...

 Ocean Views

 Backbone to Corral Canyon (next time)

 Castro Crest off Limits

At the 4 way junction, there is a sign to the left which reads private road end in 0.5 miles.  I believe this is what is considered Castro Crest.  I opted not to take it because I heard it was off limits.  Instead, I turned left, snapped the picture at the top of this blogpost and then zoomed in and shot the picture above.  Yep, off limits indeed.  Somebody does not want you to summit Castro Crest.

This unnamed trail opposite of Castro Crest offered nice views as well.  At this top I intersected a lady running with two dogs.  She advised that the trail I was on would head back to Latigo Canyon Road.  Ah, perfect, a loop trail today!  In the picture above, she went down beyond this point, not towards Castro Crest.  She said it leads to many little trails and abandoned houses.  Hmm, may want to look into this some time.  For now, I am in a rush to complete the loop and then work a shift at Chill Out...

 Views///

 My House

 Road heading back to Latigo...

Hmm, okay???

Newton Motorway

Okay, so it appears this road is called the Newton Motorway.  This is where I intersected with Latigo Canyon.  I would estimate that the Backbone Trail back up from here is only about a half mile, much quicker than the zig zag up and down climb along the actual Latigo Canyon Trailhead.  From the road, I turned right and jogged back to the car.  It was only 0.3 miles from here to complete the loop.

Although the hike was complete, I now had to get out of Latigo Canyon.  I opted to continue down towards PCH.  About 7.3 miles and very dizzy later, I made it.  Long drive, interesting geology along the roadway but I was happy to reach the openness and overall flatness of the ocean drive.  It took me nearly an hour to reach Chill Out Frozen Yogurt.  I was a good 30 minutes late for my shift...