EISPIRATEN

Went up from Leo Carillo and hiked through all the trails by Nicholas Flats this Sunday. The area opened up a couple of months ago. The trail up to the crest has been completely brushed and is in better shape then before the fire. The upper area is unrecognizable, where there used to be lush growth, it is completely burned. The upper area has some brushy areas through all the trails in the flats. The worst is the connector from the flats to the Malibu Springs trail. The Malibu Springs trail up to that junction has also been brushed, not sure if that occurred all the way down the hill to the road. The bridge that used to cross over the creek from the Decker Canyon TH was completely burned, you now get to cross over on the metal trestles that remain. The pond still has water but is almost completely covered by algae scum. The only positive with the fire are the views are expansive where much had been covered by high chaparral and you get a bit more sea breeze while hiking.

Thanks for the 411. I like that trail up to the flats. Did you notice the two benchmarks? Are they still intact?

I made essentially the same trek David made two weekends ago. Benchmarks are still in place and intact. Area is coming back but it's going to take time to get back to any semblance of what it was before.