Monday May 12, 14.8mi/23.8km

Ojai (54.3/1440ft) to Nordhoff Ridge (68.0/4990ft) (CA) +1.1mi to Ojai

I slept great in the campground with the little stream burbling nearby, and the chorus of frogs. I hung out with camp neighbor Juliana for a couple of hours, and she shared her nice breakfast with me. Eggs, bacon, fruit, tea… amazing!

My tea bag had a nice message, and pretty good timing given that I’m about to climb 5,000 ft today.

We had a fun conversation going all morning, when I realized it was already 10am I started packing up to leave. I was going to catch an Uber to the post office but she really generously offered me a ride. My new shoes!

I unpacked my new shoes in the lobby of the post office (along with a few delicious treats from Toppy, thanks!), and put them on. So much better! Juliana even gave me a ride right to the trailhead so I didn’t have to do the roadwalk through town.

And then from 11am onward, it was uphill almost all day.

The trail was nicely switchbacked, and even had an occasional bench to rest on.

Still going up…

After 3,000 ft of climbing, I gained a ridgeline, and had a nice break at the top of the lookout tower on Nordhoff peak.

The view to the South, into the Ojai valley:

All afternoon I followed the Nordhoff Ridge truck trail, which is drivable with 4wd but I didn’t see any vehicles.

Around mid-Afternoon I noticed some clouds started blowing in from the ocean. They were doing these cool swirling motions around the tops of the peaks.

I carried 5 liters of water from town because I knew from the guidebook there was a long dry stretch, but I did come across this little muck pond which would have been an emergency backup.

Towards the end of the day I arrived at Chief Peak, which isn’t technically on the route but is a short detour.

It was a fun little scramble and pretty quickly I was at the top.

Views:

And the requisite summit selfie.

Looking West, towards tomorrow’s objectives.

I placed a special rock on the summit, and then started eyeing my descent route.

In half a mile I was back on the road. Easy and very scenic!

I started looking for flat places to camp that were out of the wind, it seemed like I could only check one of those two boxes. So I set up in a flat spot at a wide curve in the road. It’s a little windy but hopefully the small bush provides a little protection.

After doing my evening chores, I noticed my watch told me I had ascended a ridiculous amount today.

6073 feet! I’m going to sleep good tonight.