![]() ![]() This made planning a bit harder, and forced me to go specific distances between campsites, rather than simply stopping when I was tired, or found a good site to stay the night. Because the National Park Service doesn’t recognize the BBT as a “complete” long distance trail yet, camping is illegal outside of designated campgrounds. Musch Camp is a first come first serve hike in camp in Topanga State Park and it’s the only official campground that’s actually on the BBT. It brought me a lot of peace of mind though, because it meant that if I couldn’t find purified water access, I might have natural sources I could filter throughout trail. I was honestly surprised to see water at all, but it was only there due to the recent Southern California rain. On the way to Musch Camp I had my first creek crossing of the whole trail. It is uphill, but this section, around the Hub and Eagle Rock, is one of the BBT’s characteristic fire road sections, which means the ground feels solid, even though it’s steep! I stopped to take in the view at Eagle Rock, and then headed downhill toward Musch Camp. It meant I was in familiar territory, if only for a minute, and that brought me a sense of relief.Įagle Rock is only about 1.5 miles from the Hub. Reaching the Hub was a huge deal to me because I’d gotten there on day hikes plenty of times. It has a little shelter, bench, and a pit toilet on trail. The Hub is a spot on the BBT where a bunch of different trails spur off of. ![]() I was just under 7 miles into my 10.5 mile day. The summit is reached via a small spur trail, but it was a small mountain I’d never summited before, so I lugged myself and my pack up only to sit in the wind at the top and almost have my fruit snacks blow out of my hand. Temescal Peak was my first (and only) true summit of the hike. ![]() The terrain was narrow in parts, but solid, although some sections were very overgrown with grasses and plants from the recent rain. The flats in between ascents were a welcome reprieve. I had to remind myself that this was normal–I just wasn’t used to the weight–and keep walking. I was only 2 miles into a 70 mile trek and already struggling. It had been a while since I’d gone on a backpacking trip, so the weight was definitely affecting my speed and as I reached the first “summit” of my hike, after a site called “the bridge,” my thoughts were a chorus of, “What did I get myself into?” Because of this, I was unaware that my warm up for my thru hike would be a pretty immediate ascent from the Terminus until Temescal Ridge. Since there is no BBT guidebook, I knew mileages and campsites along my WeBo route, but my knowledge of elevation gains and terrain was super limited. ![]() I started at the Eastern Terminus and was officially heading Westbound (WeBo?). The trail spans the Santa Monica Mountains from Will Rogers State Historic Park (Eastern Terminus) to Point Mugu State Park (Western Terminus). While people do thru-hike the BBT, there is very little information on doing it in its entirety online, and there is no official guidebook, so starting out that morning, I only had a vague idea of what to expect. I grew up in the Santa Monica Mountains, so hiking this trail all the way through had been a dream of mine since I fell in love with hiking in my early twenties. On February 6, I set out to start my 70-mile thru-hike of Southern California’s Backbone Trail (BBT). ![]()
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