EBasil
10-25-2004, 06:14 PM
Let's get the word out to our user groups: "Closed means Closed and a Little Patience Won't Hurt". Whether this applies to your local riding area, or to one of mine, the Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve, it's just good trail policy to stay off trails closed for "weather reasons".
In SoCal, our soils are not usually the high-percolation soils that can handle a lot of water, but are clayey, adobe-based dirt that tends to hold water, then break down into bad ruts and erosion problems, even where the plants on top haven't been burned away... This is certainly the case is Los Penasquitos.
Over the past year, the Multiuse Trails Coalition and SDMBA have performed well over 300 hours of maintenance work on one trail in Los Pen, known as Cobblestone. Our work included the establishment and cleaning of two "equestrian/no bikes" trails, and the designation of two sections of the old trail as "no horses", but most of the work was to repair water damage and to install erosion controls within the context of mostly singletrack trails.
Last Tuesday, two of us were sent in for "emergency repairs" to deal with the results of major storms, and this last Saturday, we hiked in to see how things fared. Here's an excerpt from what we found....
On Saturday, we saw evidence of two trail-runners, four-five bikes and 6-8 horses that had been on Cobblestone Trail *since the rains*, and which had to go right by the "Park Closed" sign posted at the top of the trail on the Del Mar Mesa.
We were on foot, inspecting some "emergency trail repairs" installed Tuesday night, in response to the big rains the week before and in anticipation of the big rains that arrived later last week. As you all know, Cobblestone trail(s) have been the focus of a lot of effort in trail-sharing and in many hours of volunteer trail maintenance labor since this time last year.
The good news is that the "emergency measures" held up and performed very well to divert water off the trail and reduce the rutting this trail can be known for. The bad news is that several of the berms and drains we repaired on Tuesday were badly damaged on Friday or Saturday by equestrian trail users that entered the closed Preserve and post-holed not only the trail but also destroyed repairs made to water diversion berms by stomping them into muddy holes. They also rode up/down the "whoop-de-do" section in the "no horses portion" of Lower Cobbles and inflicted serius damage to the soft slopes there.
Although the trail-runners and bikes left some footprints and some tire marks in the mud, they weren't heavy enough to damage the water berms that had been constructed of rocks and mud.
To make matters worse, after we repaired some of the equestrian-inflicted damage to the trail, we encountered a group of four coming down Cobblestone Trail. They acknowledged having ridden right past the "Park Closed" sign, and claimed they had a right to ride on the trails because "it's horse country". When reminded that the park is closed and that this applies to all users, equally, their ride leader took his horse directly up a slope *off trail* and then led his group of four back into the Preserve, down a trail just to the south of Cobblestone (directly into an area closed to horses). These four horses and their riders are stabled off the Del Mar Mesa, judging from the absence of any trailers up near the trailhead.
Much of the repairs we'd made on Saturday had to be redone after the equestrians rode over them, and this same group presumably left the Preserve by riding right up and over the repairs we'd made, for the second time, on their way out.
By the time this incident occured, Ranger Brown was off-duty, so there was no response possible, other than to seek to spread the word to our cyclists and equestrian friends: stay off muddy trails.
In SoCal, our soils are not usually the high-percolation soils that can handle a lot of water, but are clayey, adobe-based dirt that tends to hold water, then break down into bad ruts and erosion problems, even where the plants on top haven't been burned away... This is certainly the case is Los Penasquitos.
Over the past year, the Multiuse Trails Coalition and SDMBA have performed well over 300 hours of maintenance work on one trail in Los Pen, known as Cobblestone. Our work included the establishment and cleaning of two "equestrian/no bikes" trails, and the designation of two sections of the old trail as "no horses", but most of the work was to repair water damage and to install erosion controls within the context of mostly singletrack trails.
Last Tuesday, two of us were sent in for "emergency repairs" to deal with the results of major storms, and this last Saturday, we hiked in to see how things fared. Here's an excerpt from what we found....
On Saturday, we saw evidence of two trail-runners, four-five bikes and 6-8 horses that had been on Cobblestone Trail *since the rains*, and which had to go right by the "Park Closed" sign posted at the top of the trail on the Del Mar Mesa.
We were on foot, inspecting some "emergency trail repairs" installed Tuesday night, in response to the big rains the week before and in anticipation of the big rains that arrived later last week. As you all know, Cobblestone trail(s) have been the focus of a lot of effort in trail-sharing and in many hours of volunteer trail maintenance labor since this time last year.
The good news is that the "emergency measures" held up and performed very well to divert water off the trail and reduce the rutting this trail can be known for. The bad news is that several of the berms and drains we repaired on Tuesday were badly damaged on Friday or Saturday by equestrian trail users that entered the closed Preserve and post-holed not only the trail but also destroyed repairs made to water diversion berms by stomping them into muddy holes. They also rode up/down the "whoop-de-do" section in the "no horses portion" of Lower Cobbles and inflicted serius damage to the soft slopes there.
Although the trail-runners and bikes left some footprints and some tire marks in the mud, they weren't heavy enough to damage the water berms that had been constructed of rocks and mud.
To make matters worse, after we repaired some of the equestrian-inflicted damage to the trail, we encountered a group of four coming down Cobblestone Trail. They acknowledged having ridden right past the "Park Closed" sign, and claimed they had a right to ride on the trails because "it's horse country". When reminded that the park is closed and that this applies to all users, equally, their ride leader took his horse directly up a slope *off trail* and then led his group of four back into the Preserve, down a trail just to the south of Cobblestone (directly into an area closed to horses). These four horses and their riders are stabled off the Del Mar Mesa, judging from the absence of any trailers up near the trailhead.
Much of the repairs we'd made on Saturday had to be redone after the equestrians rode over them, and this same group presumably left the Preserve by riding right up and over the repairs we'd made, for the second time, on their way out.
By the time this incident occured, Ranger Brown was off-duty, so there was no response possible, other than to seek to spread the word to our cyclists and equestrian friends: stay off muddy trails.