‘Trail Mix’ takes a proactive approach to maintaining Laguna Beach’s trails

The Laguna Canyon Foundation and OC Parks are embarking on a proactive, rather than reactive, trail maintenance program in Laguna’s open space.

Laguna Beach based-Troy Lee Designs, a company that offers helmets and apparel for off-road activities, hosted a launch party June 4 that raised $8,000 to protect and improve more than 42 miles of hiking and bicycling trails in Laguna Coast and Aliso and Wood Canyons wilderness parks.

Foundation officials are dubbing the initiative Trail Mix.

For the last five years foundation and OC Parks staff and volunteers have tended the trails, but due to staffing issues, maintenance usually occurred only when necessary.

But the new program is a “very innovative new way of working with county parks to take a strategic look at the trails and identify some fixes and improvements to make now rather than emergency repairs,” foundation Executive Director Hallie Jones said.

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The idea behind the program is teaming professional trail specialists with volunteers, who will focus on keeping water from funneling down the middle of trails and configuring turning areas if necessary to keep cyclists on the paths, all while protecting the native habitat.

Water allowed to funnel down a trail can create deep gouges, which is what foundation and parks officials want to avoid.

If a trail has a gouge, hikers and cyclists will veer around the crevice, potentially widening the trail.

One way to combat erosion is carving away portions of the trail bed to allow water to naturally move off the trail. Some of the trails evolved over time from former ranching roads.

“Everything we do is keeping water off the trail,” Jones said.

“We work with the natural contour of the land, and use gravity to move water where we want it,” Jones wrote in a follow-up email.

Volunteers will also place rocks along the borders of certain portions of trails to indicate where hikers or cyclists should be moving.

If a turn is getting a lot of heavy use, teams may pack damp dirt along the edge, creating a berm.

“Trails don’t survive unless a biker can make a turn,” trail consultant Michael Hall said. “A berm acts as a firewall that keeps the user on the trail.”

The foundation hired Hall, a Laguna Hills resident whom Jones said has a vast knowledge of both parks, and Alan Kaufmann, who worked with the Arizona Conservation Corps, for his trail restoration expertise.

They will not tackle trails one-by-one, but rather concurrently. Workdays are held most Thursdays, and the second and fourth Sundays, except during the summer, Jones said.

The list of trails scheduled for work in Aliso and Woods Canyon includes 5 Oaks, Mentally Sensitive, Car Wreck and Lynx. In Laguna Coast, targeted trails include Camarillo Canyon, Old Emerald and Stagecoach South.

Funding for the maintenance comes primarily from donors, and events such as the reception at Troy Lee Designs, Jones said.

For more information about the program, or how to become a volunteer, visit lagunacanyon.org/trailmix or call (949) 497-8324.

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Bryce Alderton, bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce

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