Thursday May 8, 7.4mi/11.9km

Stearns Wharf (0.0/10ft) to Ridge of Montecito Peak (7.4/1920ft) (CA)

I slept in a bit, but still made it to the free hotel breakfast. After a final shower, I left and made my way down to Union station. These old train stations have some really cool architecture.

I took the Pacific Surfliner train, which made a bunch of stops but got me to Santa Barbara in about 2 hours. It was surprisingly nice.

The train station in Santa Barbara is only like four blocks from the ocean, so it was a short walk to the start of the trail.

There were lots of fancy shops and restaurants including one that had one of my nicknames.

Officially, the Hot Springs Trail starts at the end of Stearns Wharf. There were more little shops, mostly beach themed or seafood restaurants.

Of course I had to get a starting ice cream cone.

Looking West toward the Channel Islands.

The requisite starting photo.

As I was walking back toward land, I noticed there was a pretty nice beach all along the shoreline.

For a mile I followed a paved multi-use path which followed the shoreline, and was lined with really tall palm trees and flowers.

It felt so much different from the Desert Trail already! pretty soon I left the shore and ventured inland on a series of suburban streets and sidewalks. This sign seemed hilariously unhelpful.

I hiked by a little shopping center so I stopped at the Vons to get some last minute snacks and drinking water, and the post office to mail a mother’s Day card.

Appropriately, the route followed a road named Hot Springs Road the entire way up into the mountains.

The road got smaller and smaller, and the houses got larger and larger, I saw one had a for sale sign so I scanned the QR code. “Great deal, reduced to $7.9M”. Yikes. Finally I was off the road and onto the trail network.

Almost immediately, I crossed a little freshwater stream.

The juxtaposition from the Desert Trail was entertaining. I passed a running creek in the first 4 miles of this trail, on the Desert Trail it took me 400 miles to do that! On the other side of the creek, the trail was on a 2-track road, which started climbing steeply up into the mountains.

A new type of wildflower!

Higher up I recrossed the same stream, but up here it was obvious there was Hot Springs nearby.

The entire area smelled of sulfur and minerals, and the water had all these hot water organisms growing in it. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find the little Montecito Hot Springs, but I stumbled upon it easily enough right next to the trail.

And it was much bigger than I thought, there were about a dozen pools scattered up and down the creek.

So I stopped and took a soak! The pools were nice and big and each could fit three or four people, and it had a nice sandy bottom. After that I hiked another mile up the hill to the top of a ridge, and since it was getting close to dark I found a little spot to squeeze my tent into, between some bushes. The view back down into Santa Barbara was pretty stunning.

What a great first day on the Hot Springs trail!