Backpacker Magazine – December 2000

California's Chumash Wilderness: Spritual Salvation

The condors know all about Chumash Wilderness, but luckily, the masses in Los Angeles don't.

by: Vaughn Clark

Tags:
• California
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• Los Angeles
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• Adventures
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• Weekends
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• Secret spots
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Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to travel all the way to the Sierra Nevada to find wild country in southern California. In fact, there's wilderness aplenty hidden surprisingly close to Los Angeles.

Located just a long commute north of downtown L.A., the 38,150-acre Chumash Wilderness in Los Padres National Forest can restore a backpacker's spirit. The indigenous Chumash tribe still considers Mt. Pinos a sacred site. The 8,831-foot peak (Iwihinmu to the Chumash) is also a Condor Observation Point and Botanical Reserve. It's one of several places in the West where California condors, only recently brought back from the brink of extinction, soar over their native habitat, their 9-foot wingspans silhouetted against the sky.

From the top of Mt. Pinos, the Tumamait Trail winds westward across a high ridge forested with Jeffrey pine and white fir. Deep canyons cut the lower elevations into a maze of rugged, chaparral- covered terrain, and the hillsides flower with lupine and Indian paintbrush. Creeks and springs support a menagerie of wildlife, including mountain lions, deer, and more than 300 species of birds.

Five miles from the Mt. Pinos trailhead, I hopped on the Nettle Springs Trail and descended to a backcountry campsite at Mesa Springs, where my only company was an ornery rattlesnake. I deferred (the snake was there first), and overnighted instead on a nearby rocky outcropping overlooking the pinon pine-forested San Emigdio Mesa. As coyotes yipped far below, I watched bats flutter across the orange-sunset sky until the only lights belonged to the stars above.

In the morning, I strode to the top of Sawmill Mountain. The 360-degree view offers a dramatic view north across the San Joaquin Valley and down the steep gorge of the Cuddy Valley, a place the Chumash call the "trembling land" (it's on the San Andreas Fault). It's a vision of still-wild California, in a wilderness not far from the off-ramp.

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