Pine Valley Trail, Carmel River Trail -part 2
After crossing the river 12 or 13 times the early season poison oak started
to make itself more apparent. It was everywhere. It was inching onto the
trail on both sides. We began to mumble about the inevitability of getting
some poison oak. The trail climbed a bit over a saddle and descended again
back toward the river. At this point Dana, who was taking up the rear with
Dave and Sudeep, was quoted as saying, "I fundamentally believe we
are not going the right way."
We set up camp quickly and hung our nasty, funky, soaking socks and shoes out to dry and cooked dinner. The dogs crashed out. Mojo rolled into a ball on some nice soft dirt and slept. Natty bundled up next to their tent and did the same. Odog curled up in my lap and passed out. We were all thinking the same thing. After warming up a bit by the fire, we all went to sleep. The next morning we took care of business (pumping water, eating breakfast, breaking camp) and previewed the last stretch or trail we had left. A dozen more river crossings to go. Jeremy again opted to hike the rest of the trail in his Tevas. The rest of us decided to suffer with wet boots. The next several miles were moist to say the least. The river crossings were waist deep at times and with the rushing water, they made for challenging obstacles. While the river crossings were challenging, the poison oak situation was getting worse. It totally infested the area. Every inch of trail between Hiding Camp and Los Padres Dam was almost totally surrounded by poison oak. From now on,... Oak Block will be in my pack. We ran into a group heading into the woods at mile 5 who said there was only 2 more crossings. My raisin-like feet liked the sound of that. After the last crossing, we took a short break to change socks,... Jeremy finally put on his boots and socks. We climbed for a while along a couple switchbacks. The reservoir came into view. We hiked beside the reservoir for a couple miles until we finally were standing on the dam itself. With a hoot and a holler, Amy yelled down to Brian, Jeremy and me from the trail. We were almost home. The trail continued pass the spill way and finally to the Los Padres Dam trailhead. My Pathfinder was very happy to see me! I was very happy to see it! The best part about the trip was being able to bringing the dogs along. Ventana Wilderness is one of the few places nearby that allow dogs off-leash. Odog, Mojo and Natty appreciated that. We all arrived home feeling tired, and excited. Also, all of us (except Sudeep) had our legs covered with the dreaded poison oak. Jeremy who had done the majority of the hike in Tevas had it the worst. He had P.O. all over his feet! Dana had to take a couple days off, Amy had to go to the doctors to get some ointment and anti-histimine pills, I had to take a half day. Furthermore, the ticks had been an issue. We removed MANY ticks from the dogs. I pulled at least a dozen ticks off of Otis, and one off Dave, and one off Jeremy. Dave removed one more a day later, and Brian did too. A couple days later, while reading through the guide book, I discovered an update at the back of the book,... It warned that most of the Carmel River Trail would be mostly if not completely overgrown with poison oak and infested with ticks... damn books.
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Joe and Amy over Los Padres
Dam.