On Sunday 8/26 during my hike I spent a few minutes on the upper slide area widening and lowering the pitch of the emergency trail. It is apparent that I am not the only one doing it
and the trail across the slide is slowly getting more passable. The County is trying to get all of the approvals it needs to actually reopen the toll road in the upper area but who know when that will be. While talking to a trail companion about the lack of progress on repairing the trail she suggested that I write more letters and perhaps get a petition and a web site going. Anything to get the attention of the people who allocate the resources. I probably won’t do any of those things until “Beyond Borders” is launched but I can update the blog and email my current contacts about it.
The Toll Road is still closed and will be for a long time because the lower slide that is in the City of Pasadena is so unstable that it may not be repairable and a new road will have to be built. No apparent progress has been made in surveying the site or beginning repairs.
In this picture you can see a couple of deer walking on the lower slide area. They were actually starting small slides as they walked. In the lower portion of the picture you can see the fragment of the trail that intrepid hikers have carved through the scree. I understand that it is extremely unsafe but the alternative is the Walnut Canyon Trail, also called the Horse Trail but it is very steep and in bad repair.
The Big Slide
On the trail down Yesterday I met an employee of the Nature Center who agreed that the Walnut Canyon trail needs repairs before it starts to rain. If it rains hard this year part of it will wash out so badly that it will be extremely expensive to fix. A few years ago the county park people found the resources to get a brilliant Bobcat operator and within a week he really did a great job of improving the trail. I hope that they can do it again. If you want to see some action on this idea contact Mickey Long at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center. Contact information to follow.