page_title: Camp Pico Blanco
section_title: Double Cone Trek
hierarchical_section_title: Camp Pico Blanco / Activities / Double Cone Trek
caption_attribution_description: English: The "Window" seen from the Ventana Doublecone peak in the Ventana Wilderness in California,United States.
context_page_description: Camp Pico Blanco is an inactive camp of about 800 acres in the interior region of Big Sur in Central California. It is operated by the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council, of the Boy Scouts of America, a new council formed as a result of a merger between the former Santa Clara County Council and the Monterey Bay Area Council in December 2012. The camp is surrounded by the Los Padres National Forest, the Ventana Wilderness, undeveloped private land owned by Graniterock, and is located astride the pristine Little Sur River. The land was donated to the Boy Scouts by William Randolph Hearst in 1948 and the camp was opened in 1955. The camp was closed following the Soberanes Fire in 2017, and has remained since then after Palo Colorado Road was severely damaged the following winter. Monterey County has been unable to budget the funds required to fix the road.
  The camp vicinity is an ecologically diverse and sensitive environment containing a number of unique animal and plant species. It is located at 800 feet elevation on the North Fork of the Little Sur River south of Carmel, California.
context_section_description: The Double Cone Trek was conceived in 1966 by Camp Director Chet Frisbie and Program Director Red Bryan. They sent three summer camp staff and Eagle Scouts—Bill Roberts, Terry Trotter, and Martin Woodward—to check out a multi-day hike around the camp. Roberts secured a measuring wheel from the Sierra Club. Trotter conducted nature surveys, noting the various flora and fauna at campsites, and took photographs. Woodward was tasked with noting all the campsite amenities or lack thereof, and all three brainstormed about the merit badges that might be worked on during the trek. The hike circles the Boy Scout camp, beginning at Bottcher's Gap, eastward around the Ventana Double Cone though Hiding Canyon and over the Pine Ridge Trail, west over the Big Sur River to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, and then back east through Pico Blanco Public Camp to the Boy Scout camp. Portions of the last stretch of trail were so overgrown at the time that Roberts had to carry the measuring wheel.
  Before camp started in 1967, Roberts took a contingent of the summer camp Scout craft staff on a training hike. George St. Clair led the first group to complete the hike that summer, and two more troops completed the trek that year. Camp sites, mileage points, and GPS coordinates are shown in the table. Each Scout who finished the long hike was awarded the Double Cone Trek patch. The trek, part of the camp's former high-adventure program, is no longer supported.
caption: The "Window" seen from the Ventana Doublecone peak in the Ventana Wilderness.
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