Top 10

Top 10

Post-hike

watering holes 2. Cerro San Luis -

SLO Brewery

You know the feeling. You're sauntering down the last mile of trail and the dregs of the water bottle you hauled with you are missing the mark. You've worked hard and are feeling like you've earned the guilty pleasure of putting back a beer or two.

In this Top 10, White Ledge has planned so far ahead we're pairing trails and ales. Check the trail off your list first, and then find the conveniently located breweries and pubs to replenish following the triumphant trot to the peaks. We won't hold it against you if you're motivated as much by the beer as the outdoorsy excursion.

1. Gaviota Peak -

M-Special Brewery

Gaviota Peak has to rank as one of the grandest 2,500-foot-high lookouts on earth. Eyeballs beware of the richness afforded by this sweeping scene sprawled out along the Gaviota Coast. It’s a steep climb from Gaviota State Park off Highway 101 up either Trespass Trail or Gaviota Peak Trail (climb one, loop down the other). Our opinion: Head up fire-road Gaviota and descend single-track Trespass to maximize views on the downward trot.

M-Special Brewing Company is the hot spot to cool off after the ascent to Gaviota Peak. Head south on Highway 101 to Storke Road in Goleta. The brewery is in the industrial zone at the corner of Hollister and Storke and is accessed from Hollister.

Drink up: Among M-Special’s pantheon of posthike pick-me-uppers is the American Lager. It’s a sparkling thirst quencher best enjoyed on the patio on a summer afternoon. If your mood is calling for more of a sledgehammer than a rubber mallet, opt for the Lazy Eye Special Double IPA.

Hike Cerro San Luis, aka Madonna Mountain, for a breezy out and back loop on a volcanic outcropping (one of the Nine Sisters). The 4 ½ miler is easily accessible to downtown SLO (Marsh Street and Highway 101 trailhead) and is one of those strolls (1,100 feet of elevation gain) that soaks serenity into your skin.

SLO Brew has been on hiatus, but we pardoned its progress expecting the new and improved tap room and pub will be up and running this summer on Higuera Street and offering the same quality product it has been known for since 1988.

Drink up: After a summer hike, there’s no match for the Cali-Weisse, SLO Brew’s spin on a Hefeweizen. The Cali-Weisse being a hoppier and less banana/clove variety still leaves room for a lemon wedge if you want it. The SLO Brew team has been salivating for its reopening and says dirt bag hikers will have the red carpet rolled out for them for beers and pub fare.

Lizard's Mouth

Boyd

Summer 2016

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Top 10 3 . Lizard ’ s Mouth Cold Spring Tavern

OK. Maybe Lizard’s Mouth isn’t a hike, but who’s ever had a bad time there? Boulders and unbeatable views of Goleta make these quick hikes and scrambles rank high on the fun scale.

No two trips to Lizard’s Mouth are the same, because the big outcroppings keep begging your creativity and daring you to get more vertical.

Cold Spring Tavern is a rustic outpost

Figueroa Mountain, one of the most diverse play areas in the region. This year ’s spring bloom was phenomenal and had parades of looky-loos heading up the very accessible Figueroa Mountain Road. Davy Brown Campground is up Happy Canyon Road from Highway 154.

Figueroa Mountain Brewery is of course right up the outdoors crowd’s alley. The original taproom in Buellton is the most accessible from its namesake mountain and it just has the air of being “the original,” the place where original lovers of the beer can say, “I was here when Figueroa Mountain Brewery was but a twinkle in its founders’ eyes."

Peak on a clear day, over rolling Ojai Valley and out to the tantalizing Channel Islands, the grandest and most varied of the grand.

Ojai Beverage Company is the place to elbow up for dozens of the best craftbeer pours from California and beyond.

You’ve earned it after spending the day climbing to Ojai’s highest peak. This place has choice eats for further caloric recharge and a full fine liquor and wine selection to take home.

Drink up: With 50 beers on tap, you’ll have to do some research to discover the one for you.

6. Franklin Trail -

Figeroa Mountain

Island Brewing Company

throwback to its 1865 origins and looks like it has stayed true to its stagecoach-stop genesis. A weekend trip to Cold Spring (following your pleasure trip in Lizard’s Mouth) is a memory maker off Stagecoach Road. Eat the chili and tri tip, drink the local craft brews and take in the lineup of bands and singer songwriters. There’s hardly a more complete Saturday afternoon sojourn than the trip to Cold Spring.

4. Figueroa Mountain - Figueroa Mountain Brewery

The Davy Brown trail from Davy Brown Campground can be a haul. Leave early; return late afternoon. The payoff is a stunner of a 360-degree view from 16

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Drink up:

We recommended hiking Davy Brown Trail from the campground, and Figueroa Mountain happens to pour its Davy Brown Ale. This is one of those smooth sipping brown ales that nails it on balance between malty and delicate hoppy bite.

The newest addition to Santa Barbara’s front-country trails is Franklin Trail, Carpinteria’s only direct access to the Santa Ynez Mountains. It climbs from avocado orchards to multiple ridgelines at a current distance of 5 ½ miles from the trailhead near Carpinteria High School to the end of permissibly passed trail. Franklin is still growing and will eventually reach the crest before dropping down into the backcountry for some serious ocean to over-the-mountain backpacking.

Island Brewing Company is visible from Franklin Trail. Carpinteria has as many breweries as traffic lights (three); the most seasoned (15-years-young) is Island Brewing Company, which knocks it out of the park with its views and brews. Put your elbow on the fence and act smugly as the Pacific Surfliner passengers envy your brew.

Island Brewing Company

5. Nordhoff Peak - – Ojai Beverage Company

Pratt Trail to Nordhoff Peak can be a big day of hiking. Take Signal Road to its highest stretches from downtown Ojai to find the trailhead. Start early because that sunshine blazes this exposed and rugged 11-plus mile out and back. White Ledge considers the view from Nordhoff

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Franklin Trail

Drink up: The Avocado Honey Ale lands high on the list of liquid perfection scoring points for both setting (Carpinteria is avocado central) and satiation (it packs a smooth, crisp punch). If you’re looking for something a little thicker, try the King Tide, a wellbalanced Imperial IPA.

dropped into the Sespe Wilderness from a different planet: Piedra Blanca. We’re not sure why it takes on the singular— translated to white rock—but there are many, many outcroppings that rise in a profile of a pirate’s dental molds. Take a bite out of as many and as steep and as high of rocks as you wish. It’s a thrill a minute at Piedra Blanca with the right kind of attitude.

Deer Lodge is a place everyone needs to check off their list, simply because it’ll blow your mind. Part biker bar, part deliciousness and perfect roadhouse tavern, this place will either leave you wanting to be part of it or relishing in its woodsy and wild environment. It’s on Highway 33, the only artery into and out of Rose Valley Recreation Area.

brewery that pours new experimental ales with each switchback on life’s path.

Drink up: The beers rotate as regularly as the earth at Bang the Drum, but of the current pours, the King Mate is top-notch quenching material.

10. Cold Spring

Trail - Telegraph Brewing Company

You’ve got to keep going to Montecito Peak on the hike out of the foothills from Cold Spring Trail head. It’s hard, and it’s hot. That’s why we recommend a cold beer after this hike. Cold Spring Trail is one of the most rewarding climbs in

Piedra Blanca trail

7. Santa Paula

Canyon - Topa Topa Brewery

Hiking from Thomas Aquinas College on Highway 150 between Ojai and Santa Paula delivers waterfalls and watering holes worth a day of play. The Santa Paula Canyon hike is a popular spot and short jaunt up from Ventura for a quick rustic reward.

Topa Topa Brewing Company derives its name from its nearest mountains and waxes poetically about peaks in its beer titles. What’s not to love? Head into Ventura on Highway 126 from Santa Paula and over to Thompson Road to find Topa Topa, an industrialchic taproom that recently celebrated its 1-year birthday.

Drink

up: The Weekend Session IPA offers some oxymoronic qualities: lightness, crispness and fullness. That’s a balancing act appropriate for the hiking afterparty.

8. Piedra Blanca -

Deer Lodge

Up Highway 33 into Rose Valley Recreation Area there’s a place that got

9. Bishop Peak Bang the Drum Brewery

The tallest of Nine Sisters, she’s also the most alluring. Bishop Peak stands over San Luis Obispo like a sentinel, ever watchful of the inhabitants below and beckoning them to climb her. The trailhead at the top of Highland Drive reveals a single-track 3.5-mile loop to reach the 1,500-foot summit. In case, you missed the tallest sister reference, Bishop is the tallest of nine volcanic plugs laid out from San Luis Obispo to Morro Bay. Bang the Drum Brewery is all about the vibe, a spirited atmosphere welcome to your hiker ’s high. You can bang this drum that drum or your own drum at the

the Santa Barbara frontcountry and on a gloomy summer day can place you above the marine layer for an afternoon in the heavens.

Telegraph Brewing Company has been on the scene since 2006, before the craft brew environment became so rich in Santa Barbara. Its dedication to handcrafted perfection leaves you feeling like the brewer put in some extra TLC just for you.

Drink up:

Our top choice for a beer after heading down Cold Spring is, what else, the Los Padres Saison.

The Belgian dry-hopped and unfiltered Saison quenches thirst and possesses a complex body appropriate for your contemplative and meditative post-hike Indian Creek mind frame. | Summer 2016

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