sbrobert
By Robert Bernstein
What a wonderful group of 18 hikers we had for a beautiful Sierra Club hike to Mission Ridge on a perfect day!
Here are my photos in several galleries along with an amusing little video!
The biggest challenge for the hike was finding parking for the Tunnel Road trailhead! Huge thanks to Jurij, Martha and others who were willing to drive the rest of us. Even when we headed back it was completely full all the way down Tunnel Road. There has been a suggestion that an earlier start time might help. But others said that it is crowded even early in the morning.
After that mad scramble for parking, we headed up the Edison fire road from Tunnel Road. A brief bit on the trail to Inspiration Point before turning right onto the Tunnel Trail. Then a long, beautiful climb on Tunnel Trail with non-stop vistas.
Fellow Sierra Club hike leader Kristi led the way at times as I kept the rest of our group together. Behind her in this ascent photo are other power hikers Jurij (who recently hiked at the Mount Everest Base Camp) and Martin.
We paused on the Tunnel Trail when we got to the junction for Mission Ridge. This is a bit before the junction of the Rattlesnake Connector Trail. This point is about 1,500 feet above the gate at the trailhead. At this point we posed for a group photo.
One of the new hikers felt that was enough for her, so she headed back down at a leisurely pace with her friend and my wife.
The rest of us headed up the steep, primitive trail of Mission Ridge, full of spectacular views!
There were interesting rock formations here
The recent rains brought out flowers and little ferns
At the top we took a leisurely break for lunch and enjoyed the spectacular views in all directions!
We could see straight across to the rock formation of Gibraltar Rock and Flores Peak where I recently led other hikes
Special thanks to Sharon and all of her church friends who she brought along! Looking forward to more hikes with this energetic and joyful group! Sharon is at the right end of this group shot near the summit.
Here Sharon posed with regular Sierra Club hiker Tatiana
Then a trek across Mission Ridge with spectacular views down the coast
Fellow hike leader Kristi got to the end of the ridge ahead of the rest of us. She scouted up Edison Road past the junction and found a way cool little labyrinth. This prompted people to walk it, crowded as it was!
On our descent on Edison Road we came to another amusing rock art piece of nested hearts!
At santabarbarahikes.com you can see all of the Sierra Club hike listings.
Prickly Phlox is correct, EASTBEACH. Sorry for the slow reply as I have been working on my next article which is more complex. Yes, “La Cumbre” means “the peak”. Just as the “La Brea tarpits” means “the tar tarpits”. If I have told you once, I have told you a thousand times: There is no need to be unnecessarily redundant.
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By the way, the lizard is a female Western Fence Lizard. The males often have blue on their undersides, so this lizard is often called a “bluebelly lizard”.
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Condor John GNUSMAN thank you very much for the very kind words. Thank you for all that you do to help preserve and protect our environment and to support the Sierra Club. The Condor Call is the premiere publication on the good, the bad and the ugly in our region, environmentally and otherwise.