11-2-07 // Online Exclusive: SoCal Trail And Fire Damage Report

Skeletons of abondoned bikes remain on this photo taken near Poway and Rancho Bernardo, CA in San Diego County Thomas Gabehart, Team Cal Coast Bicycles

2007 has been one of the driest years to date in Southern California, turning the region’s perimeter of coastal mountains and hillsides into parched kindling, some of which haven't burned for 100 years. Then last week the Santa Ana or "devil " winds, as they are sometimes called, whipped up from the high deserts of the east and bore down on the region like a giant offshore hair drier. Inevitably, fires started, from natural and unnatural sources, leading to one of the worst fire situations in the state's history.

More than a dozen fires across the state stretched from north of Los Angeles to the Mexican border. Flames burned nearly 600 square miles, an area larger than New York City, resulting in at least one death, the destruction of 1,300 homes and the evacuation of more than one million people.

The region is home to many industry companies, including Shimano, Oakley, Haro, Ellsworth, Felt and NiteRider, among others, but there were no reports of damage to any of those businesses. At Bike magazine headquarters in San Juan Capistrano, we spent the week indoors as soot and ash rained down from the sky covering everything with fine dust.

Some of the local trails didn’t fare as well, with several popular trails suffering significant damage from the fires. Although vegetation will grow back, trail closures are likely for the next several months.

The good news:
Many popular trails systems escaped the fires. Some, but not all of these areas include: Chino Hills, the Fullerton Loop, Aliso Woods, Chiquito and San Juan off Ortega Highway, Crystal Cove, the Christianitos Trails near Trestles, Daley Ranch, Tenaja Truck Trail, Black Mountain in Rancho Bernardo, Iron Mountain, Santa Luz, Otay Lake, Cuyamaca and Sycamore Canyon as well as the San Gabriels and southern Santa Monicas, including the Sullivan Canyon, Mulholland, Back Bone and West Ridge trails.

The bad news:
Some of the confirmed destroyed trails in Orange County include: all of Whiting Ranch, part of Santiago Truck Trail, part of Harding Truck Trail and Maple Spring. The fate of Silverado Motorway and Joplin are suspect but unconfirmed. Whiting Ranch in particular still has several hot spots that could flare up. For now, the park is closed and rangers there have asked riders to stay out.

Burned trails in San Diego County include: Sweetwater, Lake Hodges, San Pasquel, Nate Garrison Grade, Gomez Trail, Santa Margarita River, Lake Poway, the north side of Mount Poway and part of the Elfin Forest. Hollenbeck Canyon, Black Mountain in Ramona, Lake Morena, Buckman Springs and the Anderson Truck Trail are also suspect, but unconfirmed.

The Arrowhead Fire in San Bernardino devastated an area already overrun with forest fires in year's past, but there haven't been any more reports of damage to trails in the Big Bear area.

The length of trail closures will vary. Many trails need to be rebuilt, re-routed or reconstructed to alleviate erosion issues. Regardless, the trails will come back. In the Laguna Beach fire of 1993 Crystal Cove and part of Aliso Woods suffered extreme damage, but did recover. It took about a year before they opened the trails to mountain bikes again, but the vegetation eventually grew back and few signs of the inferno remain.

For more up-to-date info about the trails affected by the recent SoCal fires check out Mountainbikebill.com

Good thing they have Thermonuclear Protection-The Santiago, or Whiting Ranch, fire stopped right at Oakley's doorsteps.