Hello, Welcome to "Travel with Suri".
This trail is a 67 mile stretch of trail that extends from the Ray Miller trailhead in point
mugu state park to the trailhead in will rogers state historic park in Los angels.
For those not familiar with southern California geography,
this means a decent thru hike now exist from the legendary pacific
coast highway in Ventura county all the way to heart of Santa Monica in Los Angeles.
Welcome to the famous backbone trail, Santa Monica.
We started our hike from the will rogers state park around 6AM. The park will open only at 8AM,
so you can park your car outside the state park and then start hiking.
For the first 5 or 6 miles, when you look to the east, you will get a bird's eye view of downtown
Los Angeles. The sunrise over the Los Angeles was spectacular. The backbone trail named for
its spine-like route along the crust of the mountains was first envisioned in the 1970s
and with the help from a collaboration of agencies 67 miles of the trail were completed by 2016.
The original idea to connect existing trails together resulted in trail conditions ranging
from single track trails to old fire roads. The trail is unique in that it is
a rugged wilderness experience but always within a few miles of major urban areas.
Some segments are even within the city limits of Los Angeles and Malibu.
In this hike, you will enjoy the Mediterranean ecosystem found only
in five places in the world experiencing its many unique plant and animal communities.
Part of the wilderness experience comes from the sage and chaparral ecosystem that offer only low
brush and virtually no trees for shade. This will be a hot and dry hike most of the year.
That is eagle rock. Eagle rock is a prominent sandstone pinnacle
in Topango state park in the Santa Monica mountain. The original name is elephant rock.
Musch trail camp is located approximately 10 miles. It is a small campground located in
the eastern part of the Santa Monica mountain of Topanga state park. Here campers can camp in style
under eucalyptus trees and enjoy amenities such as water, restroom and picnic tables. The trail is a
bit of roller coaster with elevations changing from coast to 3000 feet top of sandstone peak
with drops and climbs into and out of canyons and from peak to peak throughout its length.
You can see the rock climbers climbing the rock here.
This trail is used by hikers, trail runners, backpackers and in some sections mountain bikers
and horseback riders. Don't be fooled by the trail beachside origin. This is
a mountain climbing route, you are going from sea level up to 3000 feet and back down again.
Water is scarce on the backbone trail and it was important to plan ahead. We left several
water caches at easily accessible road crossings and trail crossings. camp sites are extremely
limited along the backbone trail There are only a few designated campsites nearby the trail.
The real impact of the backbone trail is the option of a thru hike so close to Los Angeles.
For those who want to experience a solid thru hike or even a decent multi-day backpacking trip,
the backbone trail will make this a possibility practically within the city limits of Los Angeles.
We started our hike at 6AM am and completed 34 miles that
is 50 percentage of the 67 miles at around 9:15PM. It was a killer hike.
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