The Announcement Board

There really is no such thing as a secret waterfall. There are two kinds of waterfall that could be considered “secret”, obscure and difficult to reach. I know every nature lover has a place they consider “theirs” and while they might like to prevent littering groups of idiots from ruining their day they can’t.

Well I decided to find the second category of waterfall and immediately looked to the 1,134 miles of creeks, streams and rivers in the Los Padres. A quick look at a topo map and before you knew it dozens of places became possibilities. There are two designations of waterfall on a topo map with the most common being marked as “Falls” and the other is a uniquely named waterfall. I guess there is a third designation of no marking at all, being that I’ve seen falls that aren’t marked on a topo map.

That’s when I was passed along a link to a historic waterfall and a question. “What do you think the chances are of not getting caught?” I replied “Why, is it on private property?” The answer I got personally shocked me being that I know there is access to the area in question. “No it’s in the Condor Sanctuary.” This seems to be a bunch of bullsh*t to me because they let oil companies pump oil, even during flash flood closures.

Sespe River, Tar Creek and Squaw Flat are all in the Condor Sanctuary and we are allowed there so why are the deeper parts of it restricted? Are the Condor Keepers afraid of people looking at their birds funny? Are pictures of wild condors bad for business? I guess these self appointed lords of the wilderness granted us the privilege of enjoying small parts of the area. Public access to the waterfalls on the southern tributaries to Sespe is not allowed. If that’s the truth then I advocate the use of lead bullets and everything else that is bad for these birds.

The applicable definition of sanctuary is as follows

Sanc·tu·ar·y - A reserved area in which birds and other animals, especially wild animals, are protected from hunting or molestation.

I do not plan on hunting condors and I’m definitely not going to be molesting them so that means that I would not be violating the refuge of these wild animals. I do plan on taking some condor pictures though and I am going to have to go where condors roost to do this. I also want my condor pictures to not have lame skyscapes behind them.

I’m betting that we don’t get caught and if we do we argue our case.

• No Trespassing signs weren’t posted
• I’ve hiked in the Sanctuary before
• I wanted a Condor Picture not a Condor dinner
• I followed a road in
• Oil Companies are here, pumping oil

The worst thing I foresee happening is us being told to leave. This is more likely to happen when we’re already leaving so I don’t think it’s a big deal. I have not seen any evidence of the Condor Keepers accessing the fork of the canyon I want to see.

I know this post is long but the hike in mind is an 8-10 mile trip that should be evenly split between trailless creek bottom and fire road hiking, just like Santa Paula Canyon since ‘04. There are two big waterfalls that do not have pictures anywhere on the ‘net. The waterfall that has condors roosting is called Hole-in-the-Wall-Falls.

I’m going to call it Hallway Falls, with the lower waterfall called Gateway Falls. The rugged canyon these waterfalls inhabit will be referred to as Condor Canyon. This is going to be a new trend in how 12 Feet Under publishes locations. There will be no more directions and I am no longer calling places by their “map” names. It’s all to support the Los Padres Canyoneers and enjoy the wild horizons offered by nature.

Tags: condor, hole in the wall falls, sanctuary, waterfalls

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Jumping Trips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.