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[RC] NO trails in So. Calif - beth glover
Some of you maybe saw the rescue of a family from a raging stream with a two month old baby...they tried to cross the rapids in a raft, the baby fell in, they saved the baby. Well that is about 3 miles from here, and usually that stream is a mosquito puddle. I've been hiking (scouting) our mountain trails, and one in particular was jaw-dropping to see the incredible power of what must have been a wall of water/flash flood tearing through the canyon. There was a small horse ranch with an asphalt road that went over a trickling creek, it had a very large storm drain, since they had weathered the El Nino, and other storms in the past. Their driveway is now a 10 foot ramp that leads to a 20 foot cliff and a ravine that is about 50 to 75 feet across, twisted pipes of steel and concrete are all that are left of the drain. Their deserted horse trailers are close to falling into the abyss, and their former riding arena is hanging in mid-air. The trail that was beautifully groomed by friends with tractors, is ripped away, no remnants left. You could pick your way across the sandy riverbed, but then would come to piles of boulders, cliffs, and ripped trees. Interestingly, there is an old rock wall that used to be about 3 feet high, farther up the road. Now it is a good 10 feet high, and the lower 7 feet are sparkling and new. Who knew that 7 feet of sediment had built up over the last 50 years or so, and now is washed away. Well I have a little psychic ability and I see miles of riding on asphalt in my future. Today I rode around on streets that are luckily closed, so no racing motorcycles, no trucks, no hot rods, and I was looking for any surviving trails. I found one walking trail about 2 miles long that had a deep erosion in the middle of it, but you can kind of pick back and forth across the holes. Unfortunately, more rain comes tonight, so who knows what will happen. I keep flashing on Julie Suhr talking about training for her very first Tevis by riding around a golf course. Yesterday, a very good friend told me that all his trails were gone, and they could just ride around the golf course. Uh oh!!! Well at least my asphalt roads are steep hills, but all we can do is walk. I must take my horse to the trainer to learn how to use their hot walker and maybe I can borrow the neighbors, to get the horse to stretch her legs. Sorry to complain, many of you are buried in snow. Its just that since the fires, our great trails that went for a nice 20 mile loop and you could drive trucks on them easily, are deserted cliffside ribbons, and the county has abandoned them, and it is sad. Sometimes it sucks to live in Southern Calif....where the prevailing sentiment is to go to the mall. Even fitness walkers go to the mall. Hell at this rate, I'll have police horses ( so bombproof) and I can go get a second job riding around the parking lot of the mall! ha ha Here's to hoping we all find a good trail in the near future. Beth Glover
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