Chumash Trail / La Jolla Valley Hike

What a fun hike this was. As normal, took about 30 minutes to make the climb. Rested several times and took in the view. At the fork in the trail, could have went to the right and continued along (kind of) the ridge and worked my way to Mugu Peak. I should have done that.

But instead, I went the place I have not yet been to. The wind was blowing pretty good and the La Jolla Valley had nice tall green grass. Followed this trail and took a right turn and went on a bit, until reaching some tall bushes, then stopped, turned around and made my way back. While I was paused, checked the GPS to see if there were any geocaches nearby. There was, one right off the trail on the way out so off I went.

Finding that geocache was fairly easy. It was just off the trail and under a little branch. Opened it, signed the little log book, and off I went, continuing on my way out. While making a slight climb out of the valley, it got really windy, like 40 mph at least windy. It stayed that way until reaching where La Jolla connects to Chumash.

The decent, from 700 feet to sea level (parking lot) went as expected. About 8 people or so were making their way up. I took some photo's but the camera ran out of battery so I just put that away. Reached the bottom, looked and read the warning sign's and checked myself for bugs.

Found TICKS! YUCK! Removed the visible ones, these would be those that are on exposed skin and I was hoping that was it. When I got home and checked myself, I had three more. Got those and took a hot shower. Then proceeded to clean out my gear.

Bottom line, I did not spray myself with "Off'". Ended up throwing away my hiking shoes, shorts, bib's, shirt, socks. Figure it is not worth de-lousing anything with the exeception of my back pack. I put it in a plastic trash bag, sprayed eco-friendly inside the bag and tied it off for 24 hours. So this morning I opened it, washed with soap and water twice, then hung outside and rinsed several times using a water hose.

It was not worth it. Plus, we had to clean where I walked in the house to make sure nothing fell off. I'm really sorry for placing that Saturday extra work for nothing.