Sunday May 11, 11.2mi/18.0km

Matilija Creek (45.2/1600ft) to Ojai (54.3/1440ft) (CA) +2.1mi to Ojai

I knew that I didn’t have far to walk today, so I slept in and didn’t leave camp until almost 8am. The dirt road was easy walking but then quickly took a turn to cross the creek, which was clearly a makeshift crossing, probably from when the creek flooded its banks 2 years ago.

These huge flowers had a wonderful smell that permeated the valley.

In less than 10 minutes it became a paved road and I entered a tiny fancy little neighborhood.

And this geriatric chocolate lab tried to follow me for a little while, it was adorable.

Most of the neighborhood houses were fancy and had gates on their driveways, and some had confusing little signs.

It was a long road walk, I was on pavement for over 5 miles, and in some places the road was in need of some serious repairs.

The guidebook mentioned a lake down there, all I saw was a grassy meadow and a dilapidated old dam. Not sure what happened to the lake.

And then I had to walk paved highway 33 for over a mile, which was much better than I expected. All the traffic was going slow, since there were tons of cars parked on the roadside where people were enjoying swimming in the creek.

And then I hit the best quality trail of the hike so far.

It climbed up a few hundred feet and I could see the town of Ojai far below me.

Nice little path.

More views.

When I got to my planned camping spot, it was only 2 pm, so fine. I’ll just relax and read a book for a while. But when I looked around I saw there was no practical place to camp as the trees had burned and it was just brush left. I quickly came up with a plan B, and found a campground in town (all the hotels are crazy expensive). So I hiked down into town, to the bus stop at the main intersection. Fortunately the main intersection also had an ice cream shop.

It’s a fancy little town. Lots of little boutique shops and vegan restaurants and kombucha places.

I would describe the architecture as Old Spanish mission style.

I rode the $1 bus/trolley to the Vons grocery store and did a resupply for the next trail section. When I saw these cookies I pretty much had to buy them!

From there I walked to the little campground, at Camp Comfort. I had already eaten dinner at the grocery store Cafe so I quickly setup my tent and then hopped in the shower. I was getting ready for bed when I met my nice camping neighbor Juliana, who travels a lot we had some fun stories to swap.