Mountain Bike Club to ‘Adopt’ Arroyo Simi Trail

For the first time in its 14-year history, the bedraggled Arroyo Simi Trail will be cared for in the coming months by some of the people who use it.

The 40-member Rocky Peak Mountain Bike Club has signed on to adopt the well-traveled stream-side trail, agreeing to groom its greenery and keep it clear of trash, graffiti and abandoned grocery carts for an entire year, said club cleanup coordinator Al Bandel.

At about 7 a.m. Saturday, club members plan to gather at the trail’s entrance at Sycamore Drive in Simi Valley and advance down its gently sloping path, following the paved bicycle path on the north side and the earthen horse path on the south side.

“Approximately 1,500 people use this every month,” Bandel said Wednesday. “You’ll find that there are walking people, riding people, equestrian people--everybody uses it,” added Bandel, 62, a retired aerospace worker and avid bicyclist. “We’re in the process of getting it cleaned up so it’s a much better area to ride in.”

The club is the first organization ever to adopt a trail in the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, said Sharon Hamilton, head of the district’s volunteer programs.

“It’s really exciting for us,” Hamilton said. “We’d like to see more people adopt trails like this.”

The Arroyo Simi Trail runs about 7 1/2 miles through Simi Valley, from Madera Road to an unfinished portion in Las Llajas Canyon.

But the Rocky Peak Mountain Bike Club has taken on the most heavily used and heavily littered mile-long portion, between Sycamore Drive and Erringer Road, Bandel said.

“When we get done cleaning and chopping here, it’ll have the most impact on the public,” he said.

Trees will be cut back, graffiti painted over and trash picked up.

“We will park a 20-cubic-yard dumpster on the other side, and then pickup trucks will come in here and pick up the loads and take them to the dumpster for unloading,” Bandel said Wednesday as he strolled along the trail.

There will be plenty to do.

Stray beer bottles and candy wrappers lay alongside the path, while a discarded Slush Puppy cup lurked in the shade of a spreading pepper tree.

Two rusty shopping carts, one packed with trash, were sinking into the arroyo’s greenish silt.

Dead and dying yucca and century plants tipped with sharp thorns lined the trail’s edge, alongside gnarled nests of prickly-pear cactus.

“We’re going to come in here with chain saws and axes and pruners and clear all of that out,” he said. “You’ll find a lot of kids running down here, and the thorns and those things are pretty bad.”

Bandel pointed out pine tree limbs and needle-sharp yucca leaves that poked into the path--greenery that the club will clear up to 13 feet above and several feet to the side of the trail’s edge to give riders and walkers a clear path.

“This is what we have to clear out,” he said, looking at the drooping branches of a pepper tree that could catch an unsuspecting cyclist full in the face. “Once you get on a bicycle, you’d be surprised how high you’re sitting.”

Property owners along the path, some of whom have helpfully planted ground cover that keeps the soil at trail side from eroding, have complained to the park district that thick trees and brush can also offer hiding places for would-be assailants and graffiti vandals.

The tree branches will be pruned above head level to take away the protective cover, Bandel said.

The park district plans to help the club by posting signs along the trail proclaiming the adoption. The district also will mail warnings to neighboring property owners that they will be fined for over-the-fence littering. A Styrofoam steak tray and half a watermelon, for example, were found at trail side Wednesday.

Once it is being kept clean on a regular basis, the trail will be beautiful, Hamilton said.

“It’s not like you’d expect the Arroyo Simi to be heavily used,” she said. “But there’s lots of kids coming and going all the time, and in the early evening there’s lots of people out walking. It’s much prettier than I thought it would be.” Bandel said he hopes other trail users catch the spirit and keep it clean.

“Once it’s cleaned up, I think people are going to realize we are taking an effort, and if they’re using it regularly and they see trash, maybe they’ll pick it up and put it in the dumpsters, too,” he said.

FYI

The Rocky Peak Mountain Bike Club will be cleaning up the Arroyo Simi Trail from 7 a.m. to noon Saturday between Sycamore Drive and Erringer Road. Volunteers may bring pruning and weeding tools if they like, but not gas-powered grass trimmers. For information, call club president Louie Ibarra at 520-0293.