Trek. Save Mountains.

In February 2023, I set out to thru hike a rarely trekked long distance trail in the Santa Monica Mountains called the Backbone Trail. The Backbone Trail (BBT) spans about 70 miles of trail from Will Rogers State Historic Park on the east end, to Point Mugu State Park on the western terminus. This trail had been calling my name for years, but it wasn’t until I noticed how badly the mountains I grew up in had been affected by their proximity to Los Angeles, that I set out to thru hike it. I wanted to make a difference, and start a conversation. I wanted to educate, on the ground, about Leave No Trace and about how irresponsible recreation had affected the Santa Monica Mountains.

I grew up in the foothills of the Santa Monicas. Known as the largest urban National Park in the US, the Santa Monica Mountains is co-managed by the National Park Service, California State Parks, Bureau of Land Management, and various other conservation and preservation organizations such as UCLA. Most notably, the National Park Service manages most of this unique landscape under the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, and the first part of the range to be given official protections was Griffith Park.

The Santa Monica Mountains were one of two introductions I had to the outdoors. Some of my first hikes were done in Malibu Creek State Park and Topanga State Park. The state beaches that are a part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area were some of my most abundant teenage memories, and when I got into hiking as a hobby in my college years, I spent my weekends exploring the wildflowers and hills above my parents’ house.

I started my 2022 in Los Angeles and then spent 7 months away working a guide job in New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. When I returned to the Valley, I went up my old trail only to find that the section of wilderness in my favorite part of the ridge had been eaten up by dirt bikes in the months I was away. This space where wildflowers once bloomed in the spring and buckwheat turned dark red in the fall was now half destroyed. Along the rest of the trail, I discovered more trash than usual, and on the Parker Mesa Overlook Trail in Topanga State Park the following day, witnessed hikers blatantly violating Leave No Trace and hurting this unique landscape, potentially, without even knowing it.

I realized that so many people had no idea the impact their actions could cause. This is what prompted me to start #savethesantamonicas, a Thru Hike For Change.

The Santa Monica Mountain Range is Native American Chumash Land.

A Thru Hike For Change

I completed my thru hike of the Backbone Trail on February 11, 2023 at the Ray Miller Trailhead in Point Mugu State Park. The extreme lengths of a thru hike and the amount of miles I spent on trail allowed me to document the issues I was seeing in my home mountains and allowed me to create a space for discussion on and off trail about this mountain range that many non locals don’t even know exists, and create conversation about how to responsibly recreate on public lands in general.

It was my overall goal, more than anything, to show firsthand, how it is possible to recreate with a love for the mountains, and experience them for all that they are, while taking care of them, and in some cases that is going to mean going out of my way to extreme lengths, in order to follow LNT. Most nights, I had to travel a few miles off trail to a developed campground in order to camp, as there is currently no camping allowed on trail by the NPS. While this posed a certain challenge, I went into the trek prepared to put in extra miles, or schedule a family member to shuttle me to and from camp in order to care for the trail as much as I can while I’m traveling on it.

Very few people have completed a thru hike of the Backbone Trail, so few that I’m unable to find an official statistic. It is not necessarily recommended by the NPS to thru hike the BBT, but as an experienced backpacker, wilderness guide, and outdoor educator with a plan for camping, water, and food resupply, I feel confident in my abilities to safely complete this trail.

Throughout my trek, I carried stickers with a QR code on them that links to resources about Leave No Trace, and spent time having conversations about the impacts of irresponsible recreation with other hikers, trail runners, and cyclists on trail. I found that this was an effective way to talk about Leave No Trace and even help open hikers’ eyes to their impacts, which some people I spoke to had genuinely never thought about.

A note on Leave No Trace…

Leave No Trace is an organization that has developed a set of principles meant to be a guide for not creating a lasting impact on our public lands. The seven principles are:

• Plan ahead and prepare

• Travel and camp on durable surfaces

• Minimize campfire impact

• Dispose of waste properly

• Leave what you find

• Respect wildlife

• Be considerate of others

My goal is to educate about the importance of these principles when it comes to outdoor recreation while helping people to get outdoors in generally, especially because the ability to recreate allows to people to learn about and gain appreciation for our wild spaces, and thus inspire more action to be taken for their protection.

I am a huge proponent of the idea that outdoor recreation is a huge piece of the conservation puzzle. In order to have more voices talking about why we should protect our public lands, we need to get more people outside, and show them why these places deserve our protection in the first place. We need to teach about the plants and animals and geology, so that people start to see these lands as wild spaces, rather than just a trail to hike.

My next move, is to expand past the idea of just Save the Santa Monicas, into a new movement: Trek. Save Mountains. The idea is to help people gain access to the outdoors, teach them about Leave No Trace, and educate about how to recreate responsibly, for the safety of new Trekkers and for the betterment of our outdoor spaces.

Please join me on social media as I expand this movement, via @sunbirdsoul on Instagram and TikTok.

For any inquiries about joining the movement, please send me an email at halleswanderingsoul@gmail.com