SoCal hiking: Sespe Wilderness hike near Ojai isn’t for tenderfoots

My story on a hike into the Sespe Wilderness in the Los Padres National Forest east of Ojai to check out the legendary Sespe Hot Springs solicited lots of e-mails from readers, some of whom wanted to know if they could make the trek on a mountain bike.

The answer is a definite no.

The only modes of transportation allowed in a designated federal wilderness are horses or your own two feet. The hike from the Half Moon campground near Mutau Flats along the Johnston Ridge Trail is 9½ miles each way–a long, hard trek, particularly with little shade along the way.

But there is an equine alternative to hiking.

Los Padres Outfitters, based in Rose Valley, has been taking visitors into the wilderness for 40 years. A pack trip from Lion’s Camp trailhead takes all day and costs about $200 per person, depending on the number of people on the trip.

For more information, go to the website or call (805) 331-5961.

— Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo: Sespe Hot Springs, by Hugo Martin]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11, 2008 at 5:59 pm by Hugo Martin and is filed under California, Outdoors & Adventure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.