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The Cambrian One trail opens, another to be built and one given a rest Jo Ellen Butler At long last the Bluff Trail on the Fiscalini (formerly East West) Ranch preserve is complete! It seems like a very long time since this project was started last August and it has gone through many incarnations. Old boardwalks and bridges were replaced with sustainably harvested wood. Where possible a recycled material called “Trex” was used as a support system. At first it was thought that compacting the earth between boardwalks would be sufficient to keep the trail surface in good condition and that ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessibility would be on only part of the trail. The surfaces between the boardwalks on finished trail are now covered with a compacted road base material. This will keep an even surface so that the entire length of the trail will be accessible for ADA use. People of all abilities will be able to access our beautiful open space, enjoying ocean views, the migrations of whales and birds and the ever-changing wildflowers that grow along the bluffs. To make this trail truly accessible to all there is currently one ADA parking space at the south entry to the trail and two more spaces will be added at the north end on the ranch. This will be done at the same time that the Marine Terrace Trail / emergency access road is built. Because people with varying degrees of mobility will now be using the Bluff Trail it is important to remember that people with dogs off leash and bicycle riders should use other trails. The Marine Terrace Trail is slated to begin construction soon. It will be a combination multi-purpose trail and emergency access road. The trail / road will be 20 feet wide as required by the Cambria Fire Department. This will allow emergency vehicles to move between Park and Lodge Hills in case of fire or flood. It will also be ADA accessible, but because of the width, bicycle riding as well as dogs off leash will be allowed on this trail. While these well-used trails are quite developed, other trails on the ranch provide a wide range of experience. For me there is something truly wonderful about walking quietly on the earth’s surface, away from the crowds and the noise of feet on boardwalk or gravel. Ranch walkers will still be able to feel the earth under their feet on trails that range from the faintest track to slightly wider maintained paths. These trails have been formed by the feet of each passerby, from the smallest forest animal to the indigenous people who once lived here; from the cattle that once grazed this ranch to the people who now enjoy a quiet place to get away from it all. Each trail is a composite history of everything that has passed before. In the same way that each trail carries the past it will carry forward today’s uses to future generations. With this in mind we need to be sensitive to the wear and tear on some of our most loved trails. For instance the trail extending through the middle of the forest from the Ridge Trail has become overused. This trail was probably started as a cattle trail and over the years people used it more and more because of its wonderland quality. On this trail you are in the very thick of the forest, with a cathedral ceiling and mushrooms of every kind during the wet season. It is the lowest spot through the forest. That, combined with too many walkers and bike use during the rainy season, has created a run off area that is beginning to create a small stream. It has turned into a drain from the neighborhoods near Warren Rd. into the gully behind Seaclift Estates, contributing to the erosion problems there. With the help of Ben Boer and Chris Trimble an alternate trail was created slightly to the east and uphill from the old trail. The RanchHands and North Coast SWAP provided the labor on one of our Ranch Workdays. The trail is easy to find at the south end where it connects with the Trenton trail near an oak tree. It is harder to find from the north, so we will place a temporary sign there directing users to the new trail.
East West Ranch Update columns by FFRP Chairman Jo Ellen Butler appear regularly in The Cambrian.
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East West Ranch Update columns by SWAP Chairman Peggy Christianson appeared monthly in The Cambrian.
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Kathe Tanner is a reporter with The Cambrian since 1991, and had written a column for the paper for nearly a decade longer. She has won many statewide awards for her reporting. She moved to Cambria in 1971, and with her husband Richard, founded The Upper Crust Bakery and Catering, which they ran from 1979 through 1989.
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