Guadalupe Group Blog

Guadalupe Group Blog

Little Sur River - Pico Blanco

I pass Dave coming up from the river’s gulch, clean now after a dip. He says it’s fine. I know it’s cold. The river below is white and loud, the gulch and the towering redwoods on both sides make it rather dark compared to the bright light on the compground meadow. I pass the bend, and lo! -a twenty foot waterfall into a 60’wide pool, and deep.
What a surprise! I’ve nearly forgotten the fall’s presence. It was autumn, low water, that I saw it first, just a few years ago. Now it’s impressive so much more. The delights of the Big Sur region.

I find these Big Sur redwood glades (most often gulchs) spectacular to the imagination. The beauty of tall, straight boles reaching skyward, those trunks, 4,5,6 feet across at chest level, the largest things by far in this coastal forest. I forever find myself expecting to find one just larger than the last. Everywhere they cast shade, deep shade, for they have dark leaves on long branches, drooping down to take advantage of bright light at the sunlit edge, or a possible opening made by another fallen giant. Not only the leaves throw the shadows but the quantity of standing wood, it’s like a wall of standing lumber, blocks the light, only vertical rays slits reach the forest floor, brown with spent leaves and twigs. The understory improvished.

The next day we are off to see the further reaches of the water shed. As long as the trail follows the marble (so is named Pico Blanco, White Peak) and faces south, we travel through grasslands, but more sheltered slopes or soil changes makes the chaparral or forest close in. This trail hasn’t been maintained for many years, lots of fallen logs to climb over and brush to push aside or duck beneath taller leaners, not too bad with day packs, I wouldn’t want to do it with heavy pack. The full impact of Sudden Oak Death syndrome is apparent here. All the Tanoaks are gray skeletons. The ever present small landslides with attendant trail disappearances make for challenging tracking. We finally reach the upper level of the south Fork, redwoods and chain ferns obvious. Redwoods
don’t extend much past the fog and unless they can tap into the stream’s water, they don’t climb the slope. Much more light down here. We lunch, watching the full current, not hoppable across yet, listening to its sweet chatter as well as that of the spring birds. Mellow. We return by mid afternoon, 12 miles round trip.

Everywhere on the this trip, underneath oaks, where sufficient light entered, sky blue Iris’s were blooming better than I’ve ever seen in the past. They were the dominant wildflower this time. The half mile reach of riparian redwood forest at the trailhead is worthy of a gentle day hike by the more sedentary person. It was like a quiet Big Sur State Park forest - no crowds. Try it sometime.