Come enjoy a beautiful hike in the northern Sespe Wilderness!  The trail runs 5.6 miles (one way) along Piru Creek to a campground near series of deep pools worn into sandstone by Piru Creek. The total distance will be roughly 11 miles round trip.

We'll be hiking through our proposed Sespe North Wilderness area addition, with discussions on Wilderness History, Public Land protection, with Special Guest Naturalist Ken Niessen attending! .

Ken has been working as a contractor for Channel Islands National Park for the last several years, mapping and monitoring rare plants and evaluating restoration sites. He worked for the Los Padres National Forest for several years before that, mainly on the Ojai Ranger district, mapping rare plants and invasive species, and has worked on projects with the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy and the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. Further back in time he worked on plant projects in Baja California and the Mojave Desert, was a naturalist in the Peruvian Amazon, monitored reef fishes in Panama and was a horticulturalist at the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden. He has a Masters in Botany from UC Berkeley, and has been an author on a bunch of botanical papers.

Ken lives in Meiners Oaks, Ojai Valley, with his wife and daughter. He started hiking and backpacking in the Los Padres National Forest in the 70’s, and is still at it.

Please RSVP to Matt Sayles [masked].

Meet at Nordhoff High School Parking lot in Ojai, CA at 8:30 a.m. to carpool.

We'll be leaving at 8:45 sharp, so if you're late, meet us at the trail head or on the trail!