City, Landowners Tangle Over Access to Mt. Woodson

If past years are any indication, probably 100 or more people will make the 1 1/2-hour uphill trek on July 4 to the top of Mt. Woodson, just east of Rancho Bernardo, for a view of virtually every fireworks display in San Diego County.

And Moose Whitcomb says every one of them most likely will have trespassed on his property.

Moose isn’t too happy about that.

These days, Gordon (Moose) Whitcomb is butting heads with San Diego city bureaucrats in a debate over just how people who want to hike or climb boulders atop the publicly owned Mt. Woodson should get there.

They’ve got essentially only two choices. One is to hike six miles from Poway Lake to the west. The other is to walk through Whitcomb’s chain-link gate that is prominently marked: “No Trespassing” and “Warning, Private Property. Unauthorized Vehicles or Persons Prohibited. Violators Subject to Arrest.”

Hikers Blatantly Cross Property

On weekend days, a hundred or more hikers park their cars on the narrow Mt. Woodson Road in front of Whitcomb’s and neighbors’ property, walk blatantly through Whitcomb’s gate, cross a small concrete bridge that he says he owns and hike the two miles or so to the top of the popular climbing mountain.

At the top, they’re greeted by a steel-and-aluminum garden of radio and microwave transmitters and repeaters, used by such folks as the FBI, the county Sheriff’s Department, Pacific Bell, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and any number of private businesses that rely on radio, telephone and cellular phone networks for their work.

The top 396 acres of Mt. Woodson, which is in unincorporated territory, is owned by San Diego, and for decades city maintenance crews and private technicians have driven to the top to care for the mountaintop communications outpost.

Through those years, the top has been a lure, too, for hikers and boulder climbers, who say that Mt. Woodson is perhaps the finest hiking mountain in Southern California, and one of the most popular boulder fields in all the world, for enthusiasts in the growing sport of bouldering.

And for all these years, to hear Whitcomb and neighbor Linda Taylor tell it, they’ve been getting to the top illegally, across their properties.

Finally, they say, enough is enough. They’ve threatened to cut off public access to the top of the mountain, to the consternation of climbers and the city attorney’s staff, which contends the access is legal.

“It’s healthy and moral to have people up on that mountain, having a great time and to climb. We don’t want the mountain shut down. We don’t want to be inflammatory,” said Taylor, whose home telephone has been used countless times by hikers and climbers needing to make an emergency call for medical help after taking a bad tumble.

“But the responsibility and liability for someone getting hurt shouldn’t be thrust on private property owners,” Taylor said. “The county or city need to set up a staging area--on their property--for hikers and climbers. It shouldn’t be in our front yards.”

Says Gerry Dawson, an attorney for Whitcomb: “The city is earning money for the operation of this (communications) facility. It ought to use some of that money to solve the problems caused by the operation, and not cast the burden on the people living down below.”

The basic issue is public access, but the story is a bit convoluted.

The city has maintained the mountain top for more than 25 years, and for much of that time none of the local property owners much cared about an occasional hiker walking across their land to get to the top.

‘One of Best-Kept Secrets’

But the challenges afforded by Mt. Woodson, once considered “one of the best-kept secrets” among San Diego County’s hiking and rock-climbing community, seeped out. The number of outdoor enthusiasts increased dramatically in recent years, as hikers sought out the clear-day views of Catalina and climbers challenged themselves to scale like Spider-Man up the sides of smooth-faced boulders the size of homes.

For years, the city’s main access road from Mt. Woodson Road to the top crossed through Taylor’s property. Several years ago, the access road was rerouted. Its path now crosses a tiny wedge--just 10 feet or so--at the corner of Whitcomb’s property. Taylor, who had barely tolerated the traffic across her land, quickly erected a locked gate at the old road entrance, but hikers didn’t much complain. Instead, they just wandered down the tree-lined street 30 yards or so to Whitcomb’s property.

So Moose Whitcomb went into action.

“People should have the right to use the mountain, but they shouldn’t have to go through my property to get to it,” he complained.

Whitcomb took the city to court and filed papers akin to a divorce proceeding, seeking what amounted to a restraining order usually reserved for keeping distance between estranged spouses. In this case, Whitcomb tried to force city crews to keep their distance from his property. The restraining order was routinely approved--but later rejected after a court official noticed that the restraining order had nothing to do with a divorce, but a property rights brouhaha.

Next, Whitcomb erected what amounted to a stone fence across his little bridge, to literally stop traffic. The city would have nothing to do with that, and called Whitcomb.

“But I succeeded in getting their attention,” Whitcomb said.

Now Whitcomb has an attorney--Dawson--who is meeting with Deputy City Atty. Rudy Hradecky in hopes of resolving the access issue out of court.

Proposed Solution

Whitcomb has offered his idea of a solution: that property owned by the county--and leased to the California Department of Forestry, next to his property--be established as a “staging area” complete with parking, chemical toilets and other amenities. Access to that staging area, he says, should come directly off California 67, not Mt. Woodson Road. That way, not only will hikers and climbers not be traipsing across his property, but also they won’t be jamming the little street with their cars.

The forestry department isn’t pleased with that proposal. Battalion Chief Jack Story, at the fire station at Mt. Woodson, said the idea of using a CDF driveway to allow hikers and others to park next door to the station will cause all sorts of grief to his people in security and liability, not to mention traffic blocking the driveway.

Another possible solution is being floated: Use the county parcel that is leased to the CDF as a staging area, but that access to it still be across Whitcomb’s property. At least the cars will be parked off the street, the logic goes.

The county of San Diego “is caught in the middle of this,” said Lari Sheehan, deputy chief administrative officer. “If (the CDF) is willing to make the property we lease to them available, and if the city is willing to do the necessary improvements and maintain the area, we’re willing to look at making the land available. But we’re not in the fiscal position to be opening up new public facilities, especially since we’re closing down eight parks.”

Hradecky isn’t even convinced there is an issue about public access. He maintains that there is a public easement across Whitcomb’s property, despite what he says.

“We (city crews) have access, and the city has never prohibited public hikers from using it as well,” he said.

So is it legal or not to cross Whitcomb’s property for a hike up to Mt. Woodson?

“Anyone who attempts to engage you physically (to stop access across the property) would be ill advised from a legal point of view,” Hradecky said.

“We are discouraging public access,” said Dawson, Whitcomb’s attorney. “But I’ve advised my people not to get in a confrontation with anyone, and to not lock anyone out until this is resolved. But I’ve told them to take pictures of the people, and their vehicles, in case we file suit for trespassing later on.”

Rock climber and attorney Randy Vogel, who provides legal counsel for the American Alpine Club, said such access debates are growing in frequency.

“The Mt. Woodson problem is typical of the kinds of access problems that are developing in the ‘80s and can be expected in the ‘90s, because of the increased urbanization of previously rural areas where small climbing areas exist,” Vogel said. “There are conflicting interests between landowners and the outdoor enthusiasts who traditionally used their land for years.”

But Vogel said various rock-climbing groups are likely to not directly intervene in the Whitcomb-city debate.

“I’m sure the city will take whatever measures it deems necessary and reasonable to get its access, whether by easement or eminent domain. They won’t have their access cut off. And when they preserve their access, it will be for climbers and hikers as well,” he said.