Off Trabuco Canyon

Posted on May 17, 2004 in Hikes and Trails The Orange

The noise of the OHVs sandpapered our ears as we climbed the 400 foot scarp to the first mesa. We then turned with the eastern slope to pull ourselves along the rim of a box canyon. Ten or so steps onto the tableland, the traffic noise from the dirt road disappeared and we heard the mockingbirds, the towhees, and the sparrows. No one went this way. Too dangerous for mountain bikers, too obscure and strenuous for Orange County day hikers. In places, meadows of deerweed, white sage, rye grass, and mustard overgrew the trail. We pressed on to our objective, a point one third of the way up the 1500 foot face of the trail, marked it with a cairn, and came back down, setting up another cairn at a junction on our way back. Coming down along the rim, I spotted a single puma track pressed into the hardened mud. The last rain had been weeks ago. No one had come this way since then.