Tread top 10

Top 10

Top 10

adventure ideas

of 2016

Paul Lang

1

Camp at Channel Islands National Park

Let’s face it. If you haven’t camped on a Channel Island, you must in 2016.

And if you already have, it’s time to try another island (you can camp on all five within the park). Santa Cruz is only an hour away by Island Packers’ boat out of Channel Islands Harbor, but its pristine wilderness and sweeping vistas sets it back in time a couple of centuries. If you’re feeling more adventurous, pitch a tent next to the windbreak at an inland camping site on Santa Rosa Island.

Each island requires a moderate trek with gear to reach camp. Beware of silence and seclusion.

Need to know:

You must pack all of your own food and water.

You must pack out all of your trash.

You must reserve transportation first and then a campsite.

Secure food & tents to prevent the spread of hantavirus, carried by island mice.

For further information, visit www.nps.gov/ chis/planyourvisit/camping.htm

We don’t want to hear you say, there’s nothing to do. Here’s the tip of the iceberg.

Tread recommends a variety of outdoor activities, some always at your fingertips and some that lend themselves to the types of challenges that will keep you fired up for another year of pushing your boundaries. Some of this stuff is just plain old fun.

Jody Pesapane

2

Dive an MPA

3

SUP to an oil platform

The Marine Life Protection Act set aside Marine Protected Areas as underwater preserves that have been compared to underwater National Parks. While it’s illegal to fish them, you can still snorkel and dive them. Ventura Dive & Sport, 1559 Spinnaker Drive, has everything you need to be transported under the seas. The company offers two and three tank dives from its boat, The Raptor, at Anacapa and Santa Cruz islands, which feature Marine Protected Areas and are known for large fish sightings like black sea bass. Contact Ventura Dive & Sport at (805) 650-6500.

You might think an oil platform is an eyesore off the coast, representing a triumph for industry over the environment, a ticking time bomb waiting to contaminate the ocean. Still, if you’re anything like us at Tread, they call to you. Why? winter 2016

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Chuck Graham

Because we can see them and we like a challenge. Platform Holly is less than two miles offshore of Ellwood Beach in Goleta. We recommend traveling in a pair, for obvious reasons. The shear size of the platforms from a close vantage point will open your eyes to the jaws of industry, particularly when it’s just you walking on water to the base of the oilpumping behemoths.

4

Ski Mount Pinos

There are many places to find the white stuff in the Tri Counties, but Mount Pinos, on the border of Ventura and Kern 18

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sprays of poppies, lupines and monolopias. Bring a camera for the flowers and the chance at a pronghorn photo op (Be sure to #treadcalifornia on Instagram.).

Carrizo has two primitive campgrounds.

7

Watch the sky rain meteors

Your best bet to combine camping and stargazing in the summer of 2016 could come overnight on Aug. 12. Head to Nira (see Weekend Getaway, page 20, for details) and direct your eyes upward for The Perseids meteor shower, one of the

Do the Pier to Peak Half Marathon

We like the Pier to Peak because it’s a challenge for experienced distance runners and a trophy race for anyone looking for a bucket list experience. You start at Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara and end up at the top of La Cumbre Peak, at nearly 4,000 feet elevation. Enter the race over Labor Day weekend or chart the course on your own time. Either way, we applaud the juxtaposition of settings this course offers. You start in an urban area at the ocean and bolt straight out of town. At the finish, you can see the start and pat your back for making it to the top.

5

counties, stands out for several reasons.

It is the highest peak in the area at 8,800 feet, and well-maintained Nordic trails abound. If you can get your hands on a splitboard and climbing skins, climb up the mountain and bomb down. Bowls on the northside of the mountain are a backcountry skier ’s or snowboarder ’s dream.

It’s a bit of a haul at two hours from Ventura and is off of Frazier Mountain Park Road, which eventually turns into Mount Pinos Road. A campground is located 7 miles up Mount Pinos Road.

For details on possible road closures following a heavy snow, call Mount Pinos Ranger District Office, (661) 245-3731.

Chuck Graham

6

Find a pronghorn at Carrizo

These speedsters that are mistakenly referred to as antelopes and look like muscled deer-goats are tough to track down, only partially because they can sustain speeds of 55 mph on a half-mile run. Pronghorn were restored to the Carrizo Plain National Monument in 1990 but the population has been challenged in the periodically dry environment.

Now only 60 to 70 remain at Carrizo in eastern San Luis Obispo County. Though it might be a tough creature to cross paths with, the hunt is a great excuse to explore Carrizo, particularly if the winter provides enough rain for the spring to blossom orange, purple and yellow

best of the year. The bright night show, a product of comet Swift-Tuttle, can produce up to 60 meteors an hour at its peak.

The moon sets after midnight, which will darken the celestial theater for a radical fit of radiation. The show centers from the constellation Perseus but can appear anywhere in the sky.

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Top 10

Prove it!

Complete one of these feats and post your photographic evidence on Instagram. #Treadcalifornia

10

8

Survey 9 Sisters

9

Add moonlight rides to your mt. bike repertoire

The 9 Sisters—Morro Rock, Black Hill, Cerro Cabrillo, Hollister Peak, Cerro Romauldo, Chumash Peak, Bishop Peak, Cerro San Luis and Islay Hill—are a series of volcanic plugs dividing the Chorros and Los Osos valleys, and although they’re not enormous (Bishop Peak is tallest at 1,559 feet) their geological formation and iconic status make them a worthy endeavor. We like lists (this is a top 10 list), so the allure of tackling nine climbs was tough to resist, particularly when they’re laid out like a Sultan’s harem between Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo. It should be noted that climbing Morro Rock is off limits, but you can still tour the Morro Rock Natural Preserve.

Also worth noting, three of the rocks jut out from private land: Hollister Peak, Cerro Romauldo and Chumash Peak.

If your typical mountain biking routes have become too typical, add a twist.

Strap on a headlamp, mount the saddle and climb into darkness. Night mountain biking is trending into popularity. You

might have your favorite trail memorized by day, but the darkness of night tosses that element of the unknown back into the mix. Danger is fun. The view from the Romero Canyon fire road of the edge of the Santa Barbara cityscape will mesmerize and leave you contemplating from whence all the twinkling lights are shining. Particularly with the shortness of days in the winter, a nighttime ride or two might be just what the doctor ordered. You might get hooked.

Join a cause

This isn’t a New Year ’s resolutions list, but Tread is guilting you into joining an environmental cause in 2016. Nonprofit groups like the Landtrust for Santa Barbara County and the local chapters of the Sierra Clubs—Santa Lucia and Los Padres chapters—do not achieve great things all on their own. It takes gutsy volunteers rolling up sleeves and getting to work or finding a few dollars to pitch in. The Naples Coalition’s quest is to save the Gaviota Coast. SLOPOST, San Luis Obispo Parks, Open Space and Trails Foundation, is working to maximize outdoor recreation in SLO. The Ojai Valley Land Conservancy works to protect the wild environs of Ojai. Being part of the crusade to expand and conserve outdoor spaces is a journey all on its own. |

Ricki Matsumura

winter 2016

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