![]() My first day will be a short 10.5 miles to the only on-trail campground of the hike, but every day after that will be between 14 and 16 miles. This will prevent any situations where people may take my water before I arrive, which is a small concern of mine for this trail specifically, where I’ll be criss-crossing a city.īecause of the inaccessibility of camping along the BBT, I’m going to have to hike longer days than I’d necessarily like to (at least for my first ever thru hike). Luckily, my family lives within an hour drive of the whole trail, so my dad will be bringing me my water caches on these nights (and maybe giving me a ride to camp). Nights three and four will be a little more complicated since those are the nights with no nearby paid campgrounds.įrom the few resources I’ve been able to find online of past thru-hikers, many people cache water for these sections. Luckily, the first two nights on trail will be at paid hiker/biker sites with nearby water at either a ranger station or in the campground itself. The thing that always stopped me from pursuing this trail in past years was the idea of water sources being hard to find, but with the recent rain in California, I’m definitely less concerned. Some of these off trail areas are going to add a couple miles along my already long days, so I might find myself catching a ride or two to avoid road walks. Currently, thru-hikers are only allowed to camp in designated paid campgrounds that are near the trail, or in places that are off trail (similar to the Oregon Coast Trail, which I’ll be completing in the fall). This will allow hikers to split the trail into smaller sections and do less planning than I’m having to do. The NPS plans to start issuing camping permits once the trail is “complete,” which will allow thru hikers to camp on trail throughout their hike. The issue that the trail being considered incomplete creates is with camping. You can still hike the entire length of the BBT though, and I plan to! The only reason that the trail is considered incomplete is because of one section where a connector trail is necessary in order to continue the trail. ![]() Camping on an Incomplete TrailĮven though the BBT is still considered by the NPS to be “incomplete,” that doesn’t mean you can’t thru hike it from the east to west terminus. This is everything I’ve learned so far about the trail in my prep for a thru hike in the country’s largest urban national park. In February, I will be setting out from Will Rogers State Historic Park and attempting to walk all 70 miles of the Backbone Trail over the course of just five days. The Santa Monica Mountains are on Ancestral Chumash Land. ![]() While the National Park Service (NPS) still considers it to be technically incomplete due to one section where hikers have to take a connector trail, it provides a long-distance hiking opportunity to people within the sprawling metropolitan city. The Backbone Trail (BBT) is an approximately 70-mile-long trail spanning the length of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. I would have been a couple of liters short and had to resort to filtering / purifying ground water.There’s a thru-hike in the middle of Los Angeles and most people have never even heard of it. Also, water became an issue on day two, having to borrow a spigot from a horse stable at a vacant home. Recommend you plan to hike from late Spring to early Autumn due to daylight considerations. Even with the break in our plan, this was one of the most memorable trips in my lifetime. We ended the trip at this point, returning 3 weeks later to complete the final leg of our journey. Our third day consisted of the hike to our intended destination the night before where family was waiting. We barely considered hiking with headlamps but wisely decided against it due to lack of knowledge of the train and upcoming terrain. We dry camped again, on the western side of the park. We would have had to make it to the eastern side of Malibu Creek but came up over 6 miles short. Our second day was a bit slower due to fatigue and more difficult terrain. ![]() Essentially, we ran out of daylight on day one and dry camped on the trail. The plan was to break up the distance in thirds and camp at an off site private campground on night one and Malibu Creek St. My brother in law and I have made multiple, long milage day hikes and wanted to attempt this as trial to an upcoming overnight trip to Mt. I attempted a thru hike during Spring of 2015, starting from La Jolla Canyon / Pt Mugu State Park and ending at Will Rogers State Park. ![]()
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