Copy/Repost Hike

Though the drought has loosened its grip somewhat on Northern California, Southern California has remained warm and dry most of this winter. So it seemed a shame when one of the few storms we got this winter was forecast to roll in on exactly the one March weekend we had made plans to go backpacking. Luckily, though, the storm blew through on Friday, leaving Saturday and Sunday deliciously fresh and green and clear. But we decided to forego the fresh snowfall and muddy roads of our Plan A adventure and instead settled on a Plan B itinerary at a lower elevation in the Santa Barbara backcountry where snow and tire chains wouldn't be obstacles.

Our payoff was enormous: green hillsides carpeted with wildflowers, rushing streams, and otherworldly rock formations begging to be climbed and scrambled. The real payoff, however, was time spent with friends old and new, sharing a campsite under the stars, with a babbling mountain stream and the calls of owls and frogs serenading us to sleep.

 

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