Submission Guidelines for Southern Sierran

By Howard Kayton
Outings Chair, Santa Monica Mountains Task Force

The 12th annual Backbone Trail Festival will be held on weekends starting Sat, Nov 7 and continuing through Sun, Dec 6. Hikers will be able to traverse 50 of the 70 miles of this scenic trail along some of the highest ridges of the Santa Monica Mountains, often with great ocean views. This should also be appealing to those who are unable to hike their favorite San Gabriel Mountain hikes due to the recent fires.

This trail, which was envisioned by Milt McAuley, Ron Webster, and other Sierra Club volunteers, who then put their picks and shovels to work building parts of it, is now almost completed. It stretches from Will Rogers State Park at its eastern end to Point Mugu State Park at its western end. On the weekend of Nov 13 and 14 hikers will have the opportunity to hike at both ends of the trail.

The scheduled hikes are listed in the Outings Section of this newsletter. Hikes on Saturdays are from 10 to 14 miles, while those on Sundays are 7 or 8 miles. There are no hikes scheduled on Thanksgiving weekend. This hiking festival is jointly sponsored by the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force and the Wilderness Adventure Section.

Also starting in November, hikers will have the opportunity on successive Tuesdays to participate in a series of 17 of the highest or most interesting peaks in the Santa Monica Mountains, from Inspiration Peak (the lowest at 751') to Sandstone Peak (the highest at 3,111'). This series, which has often been dubbed the Even-Lower-Peaks-Series, encompasses a wide range of trails, terrain and features not often visited in these mountains. These hikes are listed in the Schedule or are available on line.