I sit here with legs that look like lobsters. A weekend of sun and toobin, Hot springs and BBQ. Too much Natty Light and Trader Joes mixers. Throb, Pump, DeepFloat, AlohaCans, T-Boner, B-Ram and DPees . Headed out to Remington Hot springs friday night after work. Hit the tubs around 11pm. Maybe 4 other people in there. Had a good hour or so to ourselves and met a really nice Hot spring enthusiast from the area, Shoutout to him if he stops by. Nice to meet you. So after an hour a group of 15 or so crowded the spot and it was literally standing room only. It was dark, No pics. We left when two hikers started getting a little too into the PDA. All in all a good time. Camped at the parking lot. Woke up at a ripe 8 am to 100 degrees and headed to Kernville. Got a campsite about 9 Miles out of town with no one else around us and a sick class 2-3 toob run in our front yard. The rest of the weekend was non Stop toobin. We went from the powerhouse put in all the way to The lake drainage at the cemetery. If you do the long one beware of extreme exposure and lots of paddling in still water for .5 miles to get to the cars. All in all i think we got around 7-8 runs in over two days and it was amazing. Get your own directions Its not hard to find. We would suggest avoiding the large group campsites, as long as you have a pass and fire permit you can camp off road as long as your fire is about 20 feet from the river. Find yourself a nice turnout spot. The good ones go fast. Please pack out your trash. Rednecks love to trash this area, and it is a real shame. Please wear life jackets, we did not (sans girls) But next trip we will for sure. The water can be really high and don’t think you are stronger than mother nature. Also. Keep a lookout soon for Insane whitewater video from the new underwater cam!!!!
An amazing trip to this awesome spot. Had a huge posse including the likes of: Throb, Deep Float, B-Ram, D’z Nuzz, Jeff Mahotguy, The Brothers Guay, CHunt, Senior Bulge, Dr. Statutory and Megan’s Law. Took PCH most of the way from Venice. Perfect 80 degree weather and the water was refreshing. We swam at night in the pool next to the camp ground, ate the crap out of some chili dogs and sipped on the Evan Williams. Now to get to the nitty gritty of this post. Apparently the landowner no longer wants people walking on his property to get to the falls. He waits on the trail and tells people that they are on private property and cannot go to the falls. Luckily we missed him. Apparently he got into a tussle with the US Forest Service for violating irrigation issues on another plot of land he owns, so he has made it a personal vendetta to prevent people from hiking on his easement to get to the falls. There was always an understanding between him and the USFS and there are even USFS signs directing hikers to the correct route to get to the falls on his property. So the landowner is ruining everyone else’s fun because the USFS ruined his. This all comes down to money.
People buy property for 2 reasons, to live on it or to make money off of it. Since he got busted trying to make money illegally on another plot of land, he is “punishing” the USFS for fining him. The idea of owning land is preposterous to begin with. First of all this land was STOLEN from the Native Americans, specifically the Chumash tribe. The property was section offed and SOLD for a profit by the original landowners. Money is made. The landowner in this case has owned the property for over 30 years and had no issues with hikers using it as a route to get to the falls, he even made an agreement with the USFS to put up trail markers so hikers would not stray off onto other portions of his property. His complaint is that hikers will trash this place, but his complaint is unwarranted. This hike has almost no graffiti and it is such a long hike that anyone hiking in a bunch of trash and spray paint would be very dedicated if they wanted to trash the place. Since this is a semi-strenuous hike, most vandals dont bother with this spot. Also, if it is such a burden to have people walk on his land why wouldn’t he just donate the 8 feet width of trail/road that goes through his property to the USFS? This would protect him from any liability if someone was to get hurt or killed. And why would one want to own property that directly blocks the passage to such a beautiful and well trafficked place? Would you want to own a house in front of Disneyland or by an airport?
All of this would not be an issue if there was another trail to get to the falls, but there is not. Trust me, whatever anyone else says, there is NO OTHER ROUTE to the falls. The land owner has never been sued for liability issues on this property and it would be very unlikely anyone would win if they tried cause this is a USFS sanctioned trail. So Buzz Bonsall (I’m sure his real last name is Killington), you can spend every day this summer harassing hikers who are on your property. Remeber to wake up around 5am to get those early-birds and stay up late to get those stragglers. Just remember, there are two types of people in this world: people who get pleasure from helping others and people who derive pleasure from other people’s anguish. I hope you can look into your heart and figure out which type of person you are. So my statement to anyone who wants to go to Matilija Falls this summer, fucking do it. If you get stopped, play stupid like you had no idea and tell him you drove all the way from Florida to visit this place. We have been to MANY places in Southern California and we can honestly say this is one of the most beautiful hiking/camping/swimmin/cliff jumping places there is. Remember, you can’t like, own property man.
Directions as follows:
Take 101 north to 33 north in Ventura. Follow the 33 for a few miles and it will drive through town and it will veer left at a Vons. Make sure you stay on the 33 the whole time. Till you get to N Matillija Rd. Turn left here and follow the road 4 miles till it ends at a parking lot on the left. Park and post your forest adventure pass. Walk down the road past the peacock sanctuary and you will cross the stream a few times. When the road forks take the right side then it will hit a T intersection and you will take a right and hike past another dudes house. The trail will kriss/kross the creek and will and up in a tunnel of trees. The camping spot is about 2 miles from the trailhead. The First set of falls is another 3 miles up the trail.
Awesome trip to our home base. One of our fans Mike brought a rope to get to the lower ledge on the lower falls. Thanks for that brother. Directions: 210 to santa anita go north. drive till road ends and pray for a parking spot.
Awesome day all around. These are the types of days Ice Cube sings about. Tipped off about a new spot by our good buddy David Squall. Drove up to Mt Baldy and pulled off the main road to the Stoddard Truck Trail. Drove down about 2 seconds to the parking area and hiked down into the canyon. Got to the falls and chilled for about a minute before two hot hippy babes came sliding down the falls. Had no idea it was safe but lo and behold. Throb and The Pump hiked around to the top of the falls and slid down too. Hung out for about an hour then hiked back up to the parking lot to the swimmin hole under the bridge. Water was decently cold but tolerable. Jumped off some rocks into the shallow water for a bit. As we were leaving we found a pile of dead carp about 3 feet high and peeled out on it in the bad ass blazer. Also saw Clint Eastwood on the freeway heading back. Present on this trip was Throb, The Pump, Deep Float, Bnr Lvr, B-Ram, and Joey Joe Joe Shabadoo.
Directions: 210E to Baseline go left. Right on Padua, Right on Mt Baldy Rd. Drive 6.1 miles to the Stoddard Truck trail on the right. Drive down and park. Hike downstream and look for a spot to cut into the creek.
This was a long day of driving and failure. We drove through the back road in Sunland to get to the Monky Slide. As soon as we pull up we get hassled by the rangers saying that the forest is off limits. So we waited for him to drive away then we go to Upper Big Tujunga Falls and park and rush it. The entire canyon is filled with 3 feet of sediment. The pool under the falls is literally 3 feet at its deepest. Of course i left the battery to my camera in the truck and could not document this. So after leaving there we booked it to Malibu Creek tearing ass the whole way. We get there around 5 and swim for a good hour. Big Posse on this trip; Throb, Deep Float, B-Ram, Big Paynis, Murphin, Dr. Dick and Shaggy Kanz. Directions to Malibu in previous posts.