It was kind of cheating, heading back into the Santa Barbara backcountry in June, when temperatures are normally scorching by this time of year.  But after record snows in the Sierra forced me to abandon an early-season backpack up there, I was able to nab a couple hardy hikers to do some exploring closer to home, with the intent of scouting out some possible longer trips in the area.  After a long drive over some punishing dirt road, we found the canyon quite dramatic - remote, all to ourselves, a moonscape of post-fire recovery interspersed with mysterious old-growth groves of oaks and spruce that were miraculously untouched by the area's 2007 fire.  Late season wildflowers greeted us at every step, but so did loads of prickly cattails and weeds gone to seed.  When the trail got brushy, it was mostly with wild roses - pretty when they're blooming, but a prickly nuisance much of the rest of the time. Not sure we'll be back to this neck of the woods, but it was definitely nice to see some new, strikingly different terrain and enjoy it with some similarly adventure-minded hikers.

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