Unhappy Trails : Storm Damage Casts a Cloud Over Hikers’ Sunny Outings

It was an idyllic day for a hike--warm, clear and fresh. Birds chirped in the verdant canyon, splashed by nature’s paintbrush with the first blooms of spring. The gurgling creek, swollen with abundant rainwater, cascaded over rock falls.

But for a recent Hermosa Beach visitor to Topanga State Park, the serenity of a walk in the wilds became a painful lesson in nature’s treacherous side.

Sidling along a sliver of the trail that remained after a partial washout by torrential rain, Maureen Garcia slipped, breaking a wrist and an ankle. Rescuers had to carry the 59-year-old family therapist half a mile out of the canyon on a litter, and twin casts now remind her of her error.

Garcia’s experience is a somber warning that sunshiny days may still cloak a surprise behind the silver lining to the seemingly endless clouds of winter. Trails ringing the Southland have been badly eroded by washouts and blocked by rockslides.

“We’ve had a lot of damage all over,” said Russ Guiney, superintendent of the Malibu sector for the state Department of Parks and Recreation. “We advise people to be careful out there. They need to exercise some caution.”

Although she describes herself as a novice hiker, Garcia said she never considered the trail where she was injured to be dangerous. “There were lots of people there doing fine. I guess I was just a little too self-assured,” she said.

Although regionwide statistics are not available, federal officials estimate that storm damage repairs to the 200 miles of trails in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area will cost more than $250,000 and take until the end of summer to complete. More than 550,000 people visit the 22,000-acre national parkland annually.

State and county officials said it is still too soon to assess the toll on their trails, but asked that mountain bike enthusiasts and equestrians stay off muddy trails until they can fully dry to prevent further damage.

Most of the trails that have been checked are still passable on foot, although the going can be tedious, officials warned. Streams now cross many usually dry trails through canyons and meadows, and waterfalls have cropped up in unexpected places.

“The creeks are not dangerous; they are not going to sweep anybody away,” Guiney said. “But people are going to get their feet wet if they intend to hike in the mountains.”

A few trails, particularly in areas of the San Gabriel Mountains denuded by the 1993 wildfires above Altadena, have been closed temporarily to hikers. In the Santa Monica Mountains, a road from the Circle X Ranch area into Happy Hollow Campground near Agoura will remain closed to vehicles throughout the summer, a park official said.

In Big Tujunga Canyon above Sunland, several trails are impassable because of the high volume of water still rushing out of the mountains, said Julie Molzahn, a district recreation officer for the Angeles National Forest.

“People should use caution anywhere in the forest right now,” Molzahn said, adding that rangers have not yet been able to assess the condition of the 250 miles of trails in the mountains above the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys.

Portions of more than 300 miles of trails maintained by Los Angeles County have been closed sporadically, said Jim Compos, head of county trails maintenance.

He said budget cuts have reduced his staff by half--to only six workers. Most of the trail repair and maintenance is provided by volunteer groups of mountain bike riders, equestrians and members of youth organizations such as the Boy Scouts. A countywide cleanup is planned for April 29-30 in celebration of California Trails Day.

“As soon as the sun comes out, a lot of disgruntled people want us to open the trails,” Compos said. “We’re jumping back and forth to all the hot spots as quickly as possible. We just want to be sure people can get through safely.”

In addition to areas above Altadena, portions of trails are closed in La Canada Flintridge and in the Santa Susana Mountains above the west San Fernando Valley, he said.

Representatives of several biking and equestrian groups said excursions had to be canceled in March because of rain and subsequent destruction along trails.

Equestrian Trails Inc. called off a ride last month over Los Pinetos Trail, which runs from Sylmar to Placerita Canyon State Park in the Santa Clarita Valley.

“A bunch of the trail is washed away and we couldn’t even get into the staging area,” said Gwen Allen, a spokeswoman for the group.

A separate outing planned by the Arabian Horse Assn. of the San Fernando Valley was canceled twice last month, first because of rain, then again on a sunny weekend when the trails up Little Tujunga Canyon in Sunland were found to be impassable.

Countywide, sheriff’s emergency teams respond to more than 900 general rescue calls a year, ranging from plucking stranded or injured adventurers out of canyons to assisting in the birth of premature babies, said Lt. Brock Simon of the special enforcement bureau of emergency services.

Separate statistics are not compiled for trail-related incidents, but Simon said 10 rescue operations in March--more than usual--stemmed largely from skiers and others who got into trouble as a result of the unusually heavy snowfall in the San Gabriel Mountains.