Wildfire threatening the SART

There is a wildfire burning near Angelus Oaks, Barton Flats South Fork Area.   Hopefully they can keep this contain south of HWY 38 and protect the homes in the area.   It would also be a horrible for the Santa Ana River Trail or Wildhorse to burn.  Major Bummer!

LAKE FIRE UPDATE AS OF 6/19/15 @ 0658 HRS:

The U.S. Forest Service is reporting that the Lake Fire is now at 11,000 acres, with 10% containment. There are currently 1,224 personnel battling the blaze with the following resources on scene: 88 engines, 1 air tanker, 10 helicopters (including night-flying), 1 air attack plane, 28 crews, 3 water tenders, and 1 dozer. Additional resources have been ordered. Highway 38 remains closed from Angelus Oaks to Lake Williams Drive. The Big Bear Sheriff’s Station will continue to provide updates as information becomes available.

You can follow along with the progress of the firefighting efforts here

JUNE 22th 2015 UPDATE

The fire has burned 17,305 acres and is at 21% contained.   If the trends continue in their current form, the Santa Ana River Trail is going to be spared from any fire damage.  Currently all hiking trails into the San Gorgonio Wilderness and the Pacific Crest Trail from Whitewater Preserve to Onyx Summit are closed.

JUNE 29th 2015 UPDATE

The fire has affected approximately 30,716 acres in size and burning in timber. It is now 50% contained. Highway 38 has been re-opened, however all areas affected by the fire remain closed to recreation purposes.

Utah Pages Added – Updated

Magic Carpet Ride
The Magic Carpet Ride Trail on Little Creek Mesa

Following up on my recent road trip to St George I have updated my Utah section of the site.   I have added the following pages:

Guacamole
The Boy Scout Trails
The Zen Trail

I also updated the Little Creek Mesa page with an updated map, GPS files and pictures from both this most recent trip and a 2013 trip.  I also have enough Utah trails on the site now, that I split them out from the “Other US Trails” section to try and make things a little more organized. (It is still a little wonky)  I also split out Colorado Trail into its own section, but that section looks a little light.   Time to plan another ROADTRIP!

Beautiful Scenery at Laguna Meadow

This past weekend Nichol and I did some camping up a Big Laguna Meadow for a couple of days of enjoying the trails in the area.

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The last bit of rain we had did the flora some good and it look downright like spring up here.

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There was plenty of color both out on the meadow and in the trees.

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Some pretty white stuff on the Big Laguna Trail.  This particular section is one of the reroutes from a couple of years.  I said it before but once again, thumbs up to the ranger out here was made it happen.

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Some color on the upper section of the Noble Canyon trail.

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Lupines near Wooded Hills.

If getting out to Laguna Mountains has been on your to-do list for a while now is an excellent time to get out there!

Boden Canyon Update

Here is some news you can use concerning the Boden Canyon portion of the Orosco – Boden Loop.   It turns out the California Department of Fish an Wildlife (CDFW) owns a couple of parcels of land in the canyon and have it designated as an ecological preserve.  The agency’s default policy is that mountain biking is not allowed on ecological reserves.   I was made aware of this by CDFW after publishing the route.   I made them aware of the lack of signage concerning trail use restrictions.   It is my understanding that the signage has probably already been corrected.    I have updated my page, map and GPS files to reflect the CDFW parcels.  Unfortunately, the CDFW trail use restrictions makes it impossible to legally loop together the Lower Santa Ysabel Truck Trail and Orosco Ridge.

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As you can tell from the pictures, the canyon is beautiful and is well worth a hike through.    The only other way you can go legally enjoy this canyon is during hunting season.  During the upland bird hunting seasons you are more than welcome to trounce around wherever you like in the ecological reserve and blast the heads off those birds with a shotgun.    I’m having a tough time trying to make sense of how the CDFW can view killing birds as a more acceptable use for this land than allowing mountain bikers and equestrians to pass through the canyon on the old road.   I’m going to leave my commentary at that for now.    If I get some reasonable justifications for the policy in the future, I’ll provide an update.  Until then beware that you can’t legally do the Orosco-Boden Loop on a mountainbike or horse.