Southern California Oregon

Mountain Bike Damage

New Wilderness Legislation

The PCT is at risk. Approximately 250 miles of the trail corridor are owned by landowners other than the managing partners (i.e. the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and California State Parks.) Most of these miles have very weak or non-existent easements. The existing easements are typically substandard, being only 8-20 feet wide. Currently, passage is usually permitted; however, trail conditions and user experiences vary widely on these easements. There are dangerous road-walks, hazardous logging operations, ski and other incompatible commercial areas, residential areas, trash problems, and a host of other activities and situations never envisioned when the National Trails System was created in 1968.
In order to protect the trail from further degradation and enhance the user experience, the Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA) and the managing partners are working together to identify and prioritize land acquisition projects. As part of our coverage of such PCTA Trail Protection projects below are photos of places where the current experience is not befitting of a National Scenic Trail and updates on our progress to improve the conditions.

This photograph shows an area where the PCT runs along side-slopes just within the border of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park along the east and north sides of Terwilliger Valley. Private property adjacent to the trail and park has been subdivided for development into two- to five-acre hillside “ranchettes,” some of which will sit on leveled plots above the trail. Because the PCT runs along the slopes, the housing plots and dirt roads often go unseen by trail users but the proximity remains unsettling. An OLR (optimal location review) was completed for this portion of the trail a number of years ago but, says PCTA Southern California Regional Representative Suzanne Wilson, “land parcels have been further subdivided since the OLR and we need to revisit this issue again.” Potential options for improvement include relocating the trail deeper into Anza-Borrego Park or helping to purchase private parcels that could be added to the park and help buffer the PCT from development and associated trail experience degradations. “The PCTA has received a grant that will allow us to complete corridor land acquisition planning in California,” says Liz Bergeron, PCTA Executive Director, “As part of this land acquisition planning, we’ll be better able to understand what’s needed to improve the trail experience – now and in the future – in the rapidly changing Terwilliger Valley.”

Eventually, this dusty, waterless trail route across the Antelope Valley, the western arm of the Mojave Desert, along the Los Angeles Aqueduct will be a relic of the past. The PCTA and the Forest Service are in negotiations with nearby Tejon Ranch (which owns 270,000 acres 60 miles north of Los Angeles) to relocate the trail up off the valley floor and onto Blue Ridge (elevation 5,400 to 6,000 feet) in the Tehachapi Mountains. As part of this process (it will likely be ten years before the new 35-mile trail relocation will be ready for use, says PCTA Southern California Regional Representative Suzanne Wilson) the PCTA is advocating for funding to allow the U.S. Forest Service to purchase land from Tejon Ranch and to route and build this new portion of the PCT through what will be 100,000-acre Tejon Ranch Preserve.

Just south of where the PCT passes beneath Interstate 10 in southern California, at the end of the PCT’s current road-walk through Snow Creek village, trail users encounter this “No Trespassing” sign despite the fact that the trail is, indeed, open for use by hikers and equestrians. “As you can imagine,” says Liz Bergeron, Pacific Crest Trail Association Executive Director, “it’s quite confusing for trail users in this area.” The PCTA, the Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management (or BLM, which manages adjacent land) are currently undertaking an “optimal location review” (OLR) to potentially route the trail away from Snow Creek Village and local water district private property. The OLR is looking at the possibility of taking the trail east, across the alluvial fan below Mt. San Jacinto and away from Snow Creek Village and the road. Another option is to move the trail off of the road and onto natural tread alongside it, thus placing the trail on public BLM property. If this option is chosen, there may also be the opportunity to create a new trailhead with improved signs including information and maps explaining the land management in the area, with the goal of making it less confusing and more inviting for trail users.

This photograph was taken just north of where the PCT passes beneath Interstate 10 in southern California near the location of the old thru-hiker refuge and trail angel operation (no longer in service) known as the “Pink Motel.” The PCT passes through private property in this area and, as you can see, portions of that private property are currently filled with refuse including old cars and machinery. Some views of the “junk yard” are partially shielded by camouflaged netting, which in itself is not befitting of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail. An optimal location review (OLR) is looking at a potential re-route of the PCT in this area. One route being considered would have the trail head up Whitewater Canyon from under Interstate 10. There is, however, an approximate 50% likelihood that multiple factors will make such a re-route impossible. “If we cannot relocate the trail,” says Suzanne Wilson, PCTA Southern California Regional Representative, “we will try to work with the landowner to improve the conditions you see here.”

Several threatening circumstances affect the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) close to its southern terminus at the California-Mexico border (near the small town of Campo, Calif.) where the trail travels through private property for approximately three miles. The region, just south of Highway 94, is shown in the photograph above. As you can see, the trail experience in this area is already degraded by houses and utilities within view. What you can’t see is that motorcycle use is also affecting the environment and the trail itself. A potential threat is a proposed route for San Diego Gas and Electric's Sunrise Powerlink project, which would further negatively affect aesthetics from the trail as well as hikers’ and equestrians’ experiences as they head into the Hauser Wilderness (the southernmost wilderness area through which the PCT passes.) As a possible solution – one which would provide long-term protection for the trail and its surroundings — a local land trust has shown interest in acquiring, protecting, and stewarding lands in this area. If this were to occur (PCTA’s Suzanne Wilson has met with the land trust to discuss collaboration on the project) PCTA volunteers would take on the role of managing the local trail corridor. Talks are still underway.