EISPIRATEN

So I've been staying just off Maricopa hwy, 30+ miles up the mountains from Ojai, and we decided to go hiking. Now the nearest trailhead is like 10 miles away so of course we just walked up the nearest ridge and followed it uphill. We headed up on deer trails sometimes on all fours! The deer paths sometimes followed up steep terrain! Other parts of the deer trail were so well used it looked as if people had forged a switchback! But we were still on private property and knew it was only animals on this part of the ridge. It made me realize just how old some of those animal trails actually were! After a few hundred feet climb we reached the top of the ridge. We followed along the ridge top for a few hours making our way though the scrub oak, manzanita, etc. We explored our way and found a trailless canyon. Next time we are going to head above the canyon and see what's beyond it. We saw what looked like a cat pile, a lot of deer tracks, fox feces...it's so convenient... Living in the mountains. If I was a surfer, I'd live on the beach.

John Muir would be proud. He also spent some time crawling through the brush around here.