{"id":1236,"date":"2014-05-31T14:34:52","date_gmt":"2014-05-31T22:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=1236"},"modified":"2018-09-09T14:38:56","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T22:38:56","slug":"exploration-on-the-crht","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=1236","title":{"rendered":"Exploration on the CRHT"},"content":{"rendered":"

So for the last couple of weeks I have been out exploring and researching the California Riding and Hiking Trail (CRHT) here in San Diego County.\u00a0\u00a0 The history of this trail dates back to 1945 when the state\u00a0legislature \u00a0passed the California Riding and Hiking Trails Act which called for a 3,000 mile multi-use loop trail between Oregon and Mexico.\u00a0 The 3,000 miles never happened but over 1,000 miles did get built\/designated.\u00a0 Here in San Diego county there is about 108 miles of the trail with only 76 of being used.\u00a0A portion of those\u00a076 miles are having legal\/access issues as some\u00a0land-owners (not just private but other government agencies) are denying access to the public right of way easements.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is worth noting that the\u00a0County Parks and Recreation Department has officially put this trail into its Master Trails Plan.\u00a0 Most of my research has been using their official GIS data on where they recognize the trails to be.\u00a0 There are some deltas between their data and\u00a0the\u00a0current and\/or historical trail that\u00a0can actually\u00a0be found.\u00a0 The trail segments vary in quality from sublimely superb to completely obliterated by pavement.\u00a0 There is a lot more to tell here and I hope to gather up and publish some of the information on the various segment issues in the future.<\/p>\n

The trail passes through some of the trail systems that I have reviewed on the site.\u00a0\u00a0The \u00a0Otay Mountain Loop<\/a>, Hollenbeck Canyon<\/a>, Cuyamaca State Park<\/a>, and Oriflamme Canyon Loop<\/a>\u00a0reviews all have a segments of the CRHT passing through them.\u00a0 The Warner Springs area has been my latest bit of on the ground research on the CRHT route.<\/p>\n

\"20140530_092817\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are still bits to the original trail (as intended) still in use and accessible.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4279\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Back in the\u00a01940s and 1950s when many of the section were designated that used\u00a0old truck trails, cattle routes\u00a0and farm roads as the trail.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That might\u00a0have been okay back then but as civilization came along some of those\u00a0truck trails and farm\u00a0roads have been widened and paved making them completely worthless as a trail.\u00a0\u00a0 It seems that there was never any mitigation made to reroute the trail.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pictured\u00a0above\u00a0here is\u00a0an old chapel that is still on\u00a0a dirt road that the CRHT uses.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4209\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lost Valley Road (Which on some maps is called Lost Creek Road) is one of those segments where the CRHT used this\u00a0dirt road that has since been paved (still single wide) \u00a0and the trail was not rerouted.\u00a0\u00a0 This would be a nice dirt road climb with good views of the valley below.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4216\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The picture above is of the gate on the CRHT that uses the\u00a0abandoned section of\u00a0Lost Valley Road.\u00a0 A 1\/2 mile\u00a0up the CRHT the PCT joins\u00a0onto the CRHT.\u00a0 Now keeping in mind that bicycles are allowed on the CRHT there is a bit of interesting co-use going on.\u00a0\u00a0For \u00a09\/10ths of a mile\u00a0the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) uses the CRHT trail as its route and of course all of the PCT signage says \u201cNO BIKES\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Now the Pacific Crest Trail was not established until 1968 a full 23 years after the CRHT.\u00a0\u00a0 This is not the only place were PCT co-use antics occur.\u00a0 Up in the San Gabriel mountains, a 1\/4mile section of the PCT was rerouted onto the Burkhart trail (a nice long open to bikes single-track) and the PCT folks tried to close that 1\/4th mile section of the Burkhart trail to bikes.\u00a0 It is complete\u00a0onsense.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4222\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is a view along the section of the 9\/10ths of a miles of the CRHT discussed above.<\/p>\n

\"20140530_105411\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A fair portion of the CRHT route in this area sees far to much of this action.\u00a0\u00a0 Landowners illegally denying access to a public right of way easement.\u00a0 The CRHT uses the dirt road pictured above but the Vista Irrigation District has removed all of the CRHT trail signs and has locked the gates.<\/p>\n

\"20140530_090559\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a>It also looks they have removed some of these notices as well.<\/p>\n

\"20140530_100347\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is just one of the tasty bits of trail that these landowners are attempting to deny the public access too.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to publish more information in the future as\u00a0I\u00a0gather it up. In the interim here is a\u00a0Google\u00a0Earth\u00a0file (KML)<\/a> extracted from the San Diego County GIS data base.\u00a0 It also has some additional data in it and is what I consider a working document.<\/p>\n

More Stuff Like This<\/h3><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t East Mesa and Oakzanita<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Escondido Exploration<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t A Rising Sun Ride<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t NorCal Peep Tour of the SART<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n<\/div>