Backbone Trail Thru Hike: A Morning Climb and Wildflowers

Day four on the Backbone Trail will always be remembered by me as my easiest day on trail. I was fresh off a zero-day and my feet were feeling better after my struggle on day two. The morning air was frosty, which was perfect for the first section of trail: a 1,500-foot climb out of Malibu Creek State Park.

While I was dreading the steep uphill I was going to be facing almost immediately, I also knew that I only had 12 miles to clock that day, which kept my mindset in good spirits.

The ascent out of Malibu Creek was hard, don’t get me wrong. It was steep, it was along one of the BBT’s many famous fire road sections, and it was the first place I saw a potential mountain lion track, which was unsettling in the cooler temperatures of the morning.

After the Climb

Once I got to my high point of the day, I felt like I was cruising. From there, the BBT climbs up again along the rocks of Corral Canyon, which will forever be one of my favorite parts of the BBT, even though it’s short. Here, I got to hike on sandstone rather than a dirt trail, and that will always be one of my favorite types of terrain to hike on. The rock here was beautiful and pale pink and orange, and I got to tell a few people about my mission to spread better education surrounding responsible recreation in the Santa Monica Mountains.

From Corral Canyon, the trail dips down again into a long and gradual section that goes into a deep and green canyon below.

Stoke Levels: High

Despite my morning’s steep fire road climb, I cruised through the canyon quickly. I was feeling good. I was moving with my pack in a way I didn’t think I could, and I ended up in the Castro Peak area a lot sooner than I’d originally thought I would. The canyons in this section were a series of stream crossings and lush green plants, so I made a point to slow down and enjoy the rare foliage here in the Santa Monicas, since I know it will quickly disappear with the heat of summer.

After the Castro Peak area, though, the trail starts to do the other annoying thing that the BBT does on the regular (the first being fire road sections). The trail tends to send you up to nearly the tops of mountains, only to then have you hike down to the deep bottoms of canyons, and then back up out of them.

I could see the road that I needed to cross to get to my last section of trail for the day, but I would meander for about a mile just trying to reach it.

Latigo Canyon and a Tunnel View

The last section of this quick and cruisey day for me was Latigo Canyon to Kanan Dume Road. This section is only 2.3 miles long, and while it does dip all the way down to the bottom of the canyon, it’s a very gradual section of trail. Here, I got amazing views of the ocean at points, and got to slow down and enjoy the many wildflowers that were starting to bloom, like the wild cucumber and mustard plants.

The last view of the day is from the top of a tunnel. The Backbone Trail actually goes above one of the vehicle tunnels on Kanan Dume Road, and while I knew this section was coming up, I didn’t realize I was on it until I looked down and saw the cars. Something about being up there made me feel like I was on top of the world. I only had two days left on trail, and the BBT was just getting prettier by the day.