This was a Monterey Bay Area Hiking Group meetup backpacking trip. 11 of us, superbly led by Maria, headed 50 miles south of Carmel to hike and camp and this little-seen treasure: the Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve. This is a private research forest and we were very lucky to be able to visit. We hiked into to Redwood Camp, dropped our packs, and hiked a loop that started in a redwood valley and soared from 100' to 2300' in a very short distance, and finished up with a dip in a hot spring. The terrain went from redwoods to grassy expanses, along with tan oaks and bay trees. We had a fantastic time!