Barbara Diamond Happy Trails is more than...

Barbara Diamond

Happy Trails is more than a movie cowboy’s theme song in Laguna

Beach.

“I feel closer to God when I am out there and see what He has

wrought,” said Don Black, chair of the Laguna Beach Open Space

Committee.

Folks here cherish their daily walks and they resent those who

defile the trails. They berate dog owners who fail to clean up after

their pets on the public trails. They accost smokers whose discarded

butts could cause another firestorm. They plead with the city for

enforcement of the rules.

“I see individuals smoking all the time,” said Karen Schwager, Top

of the World resident and daily walker. “It can get hairy going up to

bald men with tattoos. I have to use my diplomatic skills.”

Her husband, Gary, claimed to have no diplomatic skills, but

suggested that simple common sense should keep people from smoking or

building campfires in the open space.

“Patrolling would help, better signage would help,” he said.

And heaven help the folks who barricade public rights of way that

give access to trails that hikers traditionally saunter.

Lee Rhodes was among the 15 residents who recently protested to

the City Council about the barriers put up on unimproved Oro Street

by neighbors who object to the public using it as open-space access.

The council directed city staff to investigate whether there is an

easement dedicated for public use to what Rhodes calls the “Jungle

Trail,” which takes hikers and bikers all the way to Moulton Meadows

Park or splits off to Aliso Canyon.

“I have walked that trail since 1972,” said Rhodes, who walks for

exercise, less now than he used to because of a heart condition.

“It’s extremely relaxing. On parts of it, you walk under a canopy of

plants. It’s nice.

“The pathway and the access have changed over the years as the

city has developed. But the Quivera Street access that those

neighbors would prefer is just too steep.”

Someone has cut steps into the Quivera access point but it is

still too dangerous, according to Oro Street resident and walker

Donna Wadsworth.

“We have had neighbors fall there,” said Wadsworth, who walks the

trail three or four times a week.

“I walk for the beauty. It maintains my healthy attitude It’s

meditation for me,” she said.

City Associate Planner Scott Drapkin is likely to be the one to

investigate the public’s legal right to use Oro Street as access to

the trail. He is the liaison to the city’s Open Space Committee.

This year the committee published its first trail brochure,

mapping the West Ridge Trail, which traverses the city from Alta

Laguna Park to Laguna Canyon, and the Park Avenue Nature Trail. West

Ridge connects to the Mathis Canyon, Rock-It and Stairstep trails in

Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park.

The 2.5-mile West Ridge Trail is one of the most popular with

Laguna Beach hikers and bikers. It is rated moderately difficult.

There is parking on the east side of Alta Laguna Boulevard, adjacent

to the park. The trail closes at Sunset.

A second city-trail brochure is in the works, a task facilitated

by the use of the city’s Geographic Information System, according to

Drapkin, who was hired to get the system on line.

“The Aliso Peak Trail will be the next brochure,” Drapkin said.

“At an elevation of about 650 feet (683 feet, according to a county

map) above mean high tide, the peak is one of the highest within a

certain proximity to the ocean in Southern California. It has a huge

view.”

The fire road from Top of the World to Arch Beach Heights also

offers some spectacular views, as well as offshoots into Aliso and

Wood Canyons Wilderness Park.

“It is a popular road for people who prefer a flattish walk,” said

Laguna Canyon Foundation Executive Director Mary Fegraus.

The road is on the city’s master plan of trails, reviewed annually

by the Open Space Committee, according to Chair Black. Trails

crisscross the city’s hills and canyons, but many are not legal.

“That’s why we are putting out trail brochures one trail at a

time,” Black said. “We don’t feel it is appropriate to publicize

trails over private property unless the city has an easement.”

Black envisions a third brochure that would map the trail from

Moulton Meadows Park to Alta Laguna Park, estimating that about 60%

of the legal trails would then be mapped.

Attempts to establish a city trail system began in 1980s, when the

Open Space Commission was created.

There are three long-established trails in the Laguna Coast

Wilderness Park’s Dilley Preserve, off of Laguna Canyon Road: the

1.8-mile Bea Whittlesly Loop, the 2.5-mile Barbara’s Lake Loop and

the 1-mile To the Lake trail. All three trails are for hikers only.

Pets prohibited. Open weekends.

Open Space Committee members plan to meet at 3 p.m. Saturday at

Dartmoor for a trail hike. The public is welcome to join them.

These are the trails that take hikers and bikers back to Orange

County as it once was.

“Lagunans just don’t realize what a great resource they have at

their doorstep,” Fegraus said.

All parking areas open from 8 a.m to 4 p.m. Smoking and pets

prohibited.

Trail maps are available at the Laguna Canyon Foundation office,

303 Broadway, Suite 107 or at the park headquarters, just south of El

Toro Road. Docent-led tours begin a 8 a.m. every Saturday.

For more information, visit web sites www.ocparks.com or

www.lagunacanyon.org or call 494-9352, or 497-8324.

Volunteers are always needed by Laguna Greenbelt Inc. to help

protect the park from depredation and to educate the public. For more

information call 494-8190 or 494-9352.