DAY 8: LA BARRANCA

DAY 8: LA BARRANCA

3 Miles  +650 Feet

8 Day Summary: 30.5 Miles  +6600 Feet

In a rush, we skedaddled out of work just after 4:00.  Ian said that this would be a quick trip but with a couple short pit stops and a start time near 4:30, we were doomed.  He stopped home, which was a good thing because without the assistance of his flashlight, it would have been quite treacherous crossing the creek, like 8 times in the darkness!  Fortunately, it did not rain much over the weekend.  Sure, Saturday morning there was a steady rain fall but a dry afternoon and sunny Sunday kept the creek at ease.

The trail head was 5 minutes from my job.  If you exit the 101 at Lynn in Thousand Oaks, you'll want to go north on Lynn.  About a mile up, you'll come to an intersection: Camino Dos Rios on the left and W. Gainsborough on the right.  Turn left on Camino Dos Rios.  Then make your first right on Calle Yucca.  Just follow Calle Yucca all the way to the end and park.  The trail head is on the left:

That's Ian at the trail head and as you can tell, the sun is going down quickly.  We wasted no time...

We followed this trail down and along the way were some pretty cool views of the Santa Rosa Trail far off to the North and a full creek several hundred feet below us.  Of course, I didn't take that picture; oops!  Instead, I took this shot near the bottom:

Ian grew up in the Lynn Ranch neighborhood above this canyon and said that this water treatment facility wasn't here then.  If you look across the way, you may notice a trail.  Those trails are part of Wildwood Park.  If we would have stayed on the Lynnmere trail, we would have been heading over that way.  Instead, Ian switched back to the left.  We first walked through some overgrown grass and then dodged our way under low hanging tangled up branches from various trees.  There was some sort of path but not one that was easily identifiable.  Shortly thereafter, we reached the creek.  Here's a 10 second video clip of the 2nd crossing:

A snap shot of the third crossing:

And then it got wild and dark:

Yeah, can't see much, and that was with a flash!  Step but step, rock by rock, we crossed back and forth along the creek in the black.  It wasn't easy, but not extremely difficult either.  There were some jumps but neither of us fell in or got our boots wet.  Finally, we hit dry land and found a Nature Preserve Sign.  We followed that for a moment but when we saw more creek and sharp ledges, Ian thought differently of it.  We had just passed a road leading up, so no doubt we took that.  I was in a hurry to get back to Ventura for Alyssa's Soccer Dinner so I hustled up the hill with Ian.  Yes, I did sweat and I'm more intrigued now than I was before going in.  We ended up by a road called Calle Pecos, I think.  So, there is more adventure down here to fulfill another day or two.  I would recommend to anyone that intends to go to Wildwood to reserve a few extra hours to absorb this natural beauty.  Day 8 complete, but not before my son Ayden at Pizza Chief: