Santa Monica Backbone Trail - Circle X to Thornhill Broome Beach - 16 miles

This is the best section of the backbone trail! It should be a great day hike.

-Andre

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The Hike:

Distance: 16 miles

Elevation Gain: Lots and ups and downs so 5k total. But downhill overall, so how hard can that be?

Hike Time: 8 hours

Start: Circle X Ranch: N 34.1100 W -118.9374 (https://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.1100+-118.9374&hl=en&sll=34.070471,-119.011674&sspn=0.030181,0.055747&gl=us&t=m&z=17)

End: Ray Miller Trailhead: 34.08373, -119.03586 (https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Santa+Monica,+CA&daddr=Unknown+road&hl=en&ll=34.073422,-118.970261&spn=0.124985,0.264187&sll=34.049895,-118.76392&sspn=0.500079,1.056747&geocode=FX4YBwIdyffv-CkZAJHCzqTCgDGr9SP_tQoXtA%3BFVMbCAIdY6Xn-A&oq=santa+monic&t=h&gl=us&mra=prev&z=13)

Meeting Location: Here's the tricky part... we'll meet at the end of the hike (the beach) at 7:45am. We'll leave most of the cars there and shuttle ourselves to the beginning of the hike.

We'll meet at 7:45am and start hiking at 8:15am. Everyone should watch their pace and make sure they will finish by 4pm (with an hour buffer just in case).

There is a $5 parking fee at the beach.

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Part of the Backbone Trail Series (http://venturacountytrails.org/News/0007-LATimesBackboneTrailSpread/BackboneTrail.pdf) - 60 miles of great hiking through the Santa Monica Mountains.

Backbone Trail Map (http://www.nps.gov/samo/planyourvisit/upload/BBTMap.pdf)

Make sure you have a real map, one that shows all the fire roads and other trails.

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Important information about this hike:

This is a point-to-point hike with no bail out and not much of a short-cut. Hikers generally travel in loose groups based on speed, but everyone needs to be able to hike alone. There won't be a sweeper. Carry water, food and snacks for the entire day, plus an extra liter. There is suppose to be drinking water at danielson ranch, about half way, but I don't know for sure. Cell phone reception is probably spotty at best Monitor your pace and turn back if you aren't on schedule to make it to a pickup point on time Bring a map, compass, gps, etc. If you take a wrong turn you're going to have a bad time.