Fremont Ridge Hike

I broke my wrist scouting a hike with friends, so I am unable to lead my usual hikes that involve some rock scrambling. My latest hike for the Humanist Society of Santa Barbara was a fairly easy hike on the Fremont Ridge Trail. However, it coincided with that brief but intense heat wave a few weeks ago. Making for a rather small group.

Here are my hike photos.

Here we were at the trailhead. You might recognize Ruben Pedregon at far left in this photo. He is a Solstice regular, along with Beth Amine, who is next to him.

Beth Amine is known in many different circles in Santa Barbara. She is a dancer, a dance teacher and a choreographer and she organizes many dance events in town that I have covered. She is also a life coach. And she is also a superb artist. If you have ever been out on Stearns Wharf you have seen her whale art on the side of Moby Dick Restaurant. Here my wife Merlie posed with it, along with Beth’s explanation of her art.

Even though it was a toasty day, we were fortunate to encounter some beautiful flowers in bloom.

I believe these are pearly everlasting flowers. They naturally preserve themselves after blooming.

One feature of this hike is the view it offers of the former Knapp’s Castle. The last time I led this hike you could still see remnants of the original Knapp’s Castle. But it is now reconstructed as a private residence.

We also encountered interesting rock formations like this one.

You can almost feel the heat in this trail photo.

The Fremont Ridge Trail continues almost all the way down to Paradise Road. But we only went far enough to get views of Lake Cachuma and the Santa Ynez River Valley.

Here is a closer view of the Cold Spring Arch Bridge and Lake Cachuma.

At this point I took out my little drone and took two short video clips. Here they are merged together.

I usually would end this hike with an exploration of the pine forest off to the right on the way back. As inviting as that shade would have been, we were done with the heat and decided to quit while we were still enjoying the hike!

You can see the schedule of all of our local Humanist Society hikes and other events here on Meetup. Everyone is welcome! https://www.meetup.com/humanist-society-of-santa-barbara/

– Robert Bernstein