Sacred Oaken Loop
The early fall heat had kept Forest and I in the canyons and city parks fishing and exploring the streams, but finally fall shown through this past Sunday with a high in the 80s, so we headed up into the Santa Susannas to see what we could see in a place called "Sacred Oaks Ranch," accessible along Browns Canyon Rd.
The road down into Ybarra Canyon was a little rough, but paved and passable for my mighty Spark. Forest squealed with laughter at some of the bigger bumps. We parked beneath one of the sacred oaks and made our way down a little stream, still trickling this time of year. Forest loves nothing more than exploring a mountain stream, and he was delighted to come upon a "deeper pool" dug into the sediments, even if no fish were evident.
A little further down was the Santa Susanna's own "Bridge to Nowhere" stretching Indian Jones-style across the creek, bringing the traveller to nothing but the twisted branches of a fallen grandiose sacred oak.
We navigated up and out of the canyon, rising out of the oaks and into the scrub, in the process Forest becoming very interested in my phone's GPS tracking, following our position on the map. Like father like son. I would have taken a photo of the young navigator, but my GPS navigator is also my camera!
Reaching the top of the ridge, Forest triumphantly wielded a piece of 2.5mya Saugus Formation sandstone as the valley sprawled behind us.
The rough, partially overgrown use trail along the ridge north took us through the striking 47-42mya Llamas Formation, which appeared packed full of what I believe were shell fragments and other marine fossils.
Rocky Peak and the craggy exposures of the Chatsworth Formation dominated our southern skyline.
Near the summit, we came across a fresh skull of what looked like a wild boar. Are there wild boar roaming the Santa Susanna Mountains?! What is this skull??
Forest wanted to bring it home, but I explained to him that the coolest things encountered in the backcountry we leave where we found them.
pushing through scratchy dead wildflowers, we joined a road and Forest made a hat out of an iron mystery object, hoping to create some shade for himself in the now blazing sun.
We now encountered a variety of horse stables along our route, populated with dogs and a few chickens. Forest is a bit weary of larger animals, but the horses seemed so gentle and happy to see us he ventured a few pets.
Forest also wanted to bring a skeletal wildflower back home with us, and carried this specimen for half the hike. No humans could be seen in this horse and dog town, but the residents encountered were friendly.
Arguably too friendly! This big guy followed us a good mile from its home, and even chased after my car all the way out of the canyon, before I feared for its well being now being more than a mile from where we met him. So I drove all the way back to the stables with the big friendly loping dog still in chase, and it finally decided to stay with its horse friends.
Forest did very well on this sometimes steep hike and sunny hike. I only had to carry him for maybe a quarter mile.
2.32 miles and 832ft of gain.
