Specializing in fully catered pack trip adventures, permitted for the entire Los Padres National Forest. Graham’s a 6th Generation Santa Barbara Native. Worked for outfitter and artist Tony Alvis until his death 5 years ago, and the outfit was left to me. Mule Packer for the Forest Service here in The Los Padres. I pack all of the tools and food provisions for the forest service with my mules, eve
n pack dynamite. When packing for the forest service, I travel on my horse with 10 pack mules in tow, loaded with 150 to 200 pounds a piece. Guided on Santa Cruz Island, before the Park Service got it. Was a packer and hunting guide in Montana and Idaho. Played football out in Missouri at Southeast Missouri State on an athletic scholarship and graduated from that school with a degree in Outdoor Recreation. I’ve spent my days here in Santa Barbara County packing and guiding in the mountains, working cattle ranches and guiding on Santa Cruz Island, trying to hang on to the history of the good ol’ days. When cattle ranching on our Channel Islands and throughout the hills here on the coast were a general way of life. Like a lot of cowboys I’ve turned to wrangling more “dudes” rather than cows finding it more profitable. Through outfitting I find it most rewarding to be able to show people the back country and let them discover what they’re missing. With horses, mules and good food, my clients get a taste of what it used to be like here in California. I’m lucky enough to meet people from all over the world and from all walks of life. I’ve never had a bad trip. It can be hot, it can cold, it can be wet and right now it’s a bit dry but it’s always beautiful on horseback and an adventure with Los Padres Outfitters. “You can see what man has made from an automobile, but you can see what God has made from the back of a horse.” C.M. Russell
Each trip whether it’s a two hour ride, all day adventure or week long pack trip is customized to suit the group. I do this because I thoroughly enjoy it. I want my clients to have a great experience that is safe and most of all have fun. To list some of the services we provide: we do horse drawn wagon trips through the Los Padres National Forest, for those who would rather ride in a wagon than on horseback, fully catered horse and mule pack trips, hiking trips where our customers hike between camps with a light pack while there gear is packed, camp is set up for them and food is prepared when they stroll in to camp after a day of exploring, fly fishing trips, where you can hook a native rainbow trout for dinner. We take painting groups, where we will pack in to an area then drop out clients off with their easel so the can have a peaceful day of painting the country side. Also do photo trips with photographers attempting to photo wildlife such as black tail deer, California black bears, silver foxes, grey foxes, and red foxes, also a huge array of birdlife including golden eagles and the occasional condor. Beach rides, trail rides, wine and cheese rides, riding lessons, packing instruction cattle drives, birthday parties, carriages for weddings and other events. Santa Barbara is such a great place to visit, a place where you look one direction and see the Pacific with Santa Cruz Island just 26 miles from the coast and the other direction we have the Los Padres National forest that is 2 million acres big. Lots of our visitors will spend the day sailing or taking the Condor Express out to visit the island then join us for a ride in the back country on a mountain adventure or a quick sunset beach ride before they return to "The Grind”. A new thing that I have started to do more of is instructional pack trips for those that are interested in learning about horsemanship and packing in the mountains with horses and mules. The experience is combined with a pack trip so its hands on. We’ll even cover safe trailering and traveling with your horses. You not only get the benefit of instruction, you get the fun pack trip experience as well. We cover all the basics of horsemanship and packing so that a person can be a confident rider, horse handler and potentially do something like this on their own. Lots of people that have horses get board of them because they just don’t get out and do stuff with them. It’s amazing what you can find when you get out there on horseback and discover new things, some people discover themselves. This is a nice experience for couples to enjoy. I do back country pack trips all year but the favored time to go is definitely spring,
March, April and May. When it’s really green, lots of water, just getting warm enough to swim, we ride to the hot springs in the Sespe, which is a natural flowing creek with a series of hot pools, not like you normal sulfur, stagnate hot spring. We always take our time on the ride in to camp, stopping to swim and to have our lunch and of course a cold beverage. Best time for wildflowers too. No one has ever been attacked, by a wild animal. We do see an occasional mountain lion though and must be careful. Lots of rattle snakes, everyone wants to try them, I make Dutch oven rattle snake ordourves that are good after shooting them off my horse. Also we pack things in to camp like live lobsters and sometime we make ice cream in camp in the winter and pack it in during the summer. I packed live lobsters in for a group, we were camping in the snow, we turned all of the lobsters loose and they were crawling around in the snow, the group thought that was great, they all got to pick their own lobster out of the snow. I keep thirty head of horses about ten of them mules. The horses that I use in my operation are quarter horses. My horses get rotated on a grass pasture; they have hundreds of acres to browse on Rincon Mountain overlooking the famous surf break Rincon Point, also known as The Queen of The Coast. When they are on the ranch, they get fed oat hay that we grow and bale in Upper Ojai. Hannah and I were married at the Historic Santa Barbara Mission on July 11, 09. We spent ten days sailing throughout our channel islands for our honeymoon. Our families Ranch where we live in Carpinteria just South of Santa Barbara is called Ivy Oaks, we grow avocados here and I keep some horses as well. The barn where I grow up is over 100 years old and the main Craftsmen house where my parents live now was built in 1909.
