Countywide : Ranch House a Rest Stop for Bicyclists

Once a home for the foreman and his seven sons, the McFadden Ranch House is now an oasis for bikers who use the Aliso Creek bike trail.

Built in 1915 by rancher James McFadden, the freshly painted and refurbished house sits within lush, dense growth near Trabuco Canyon.

Run by the county, it offers water, shade and an idyllic setting for tired bicyclists making the 15-mile ride on the bike path.

Two large Italian Cypress trees frame the ranch house, and rows of flowering rosebushes lead past a sculptured grass lawn to its porch.

Around this well-tended landscaping, nature grows wild.

“It’s very rare to have a historic building left by itself in a natural setting like this,” said Eric Jessen, planning chief for the county Harbors, Beaches and Parks Department.

“Everything is left just as it was many years ago.”

The house is part of Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park and serves as an office for park ranger John Gannaway, who maintains an interpretive center in the wooden building.

There is no car access to the site, about a quarter of a mile south of El Toro and Live Oak Canyon roads. Visitors are strictly bicyclists, hikers and equestrians.

“It’s a great rest stop,” said Gannaway. “We get quite a few people who rest at our picnic tables, get a drink of water and visit the interpretive center.”

The center puts together a sampling of Whiting wildlife. Inside are pelts of indigenous gray fox, mule deer and coyote.

Gannaway displays samples of local flora and fauna as well as an aquarium filled with native fish, such as arroyo chubs and sticklebacks.

“Except for bears, we’ve got about every form of wildlife there is in Whiting,” Gannaway said.

The ranch house was built by the McFadden family to serve as a home for their foreman and his seven sons, Gannaway said.

Along with large herds of cattle, the family tended to fields of beans, watermelons, hay and corn.

The property passed through several hands in the following decades, with the house leased out as rental property.

In the mid-1980s, the Baldwin Co., a development firm, purchased the ranch house for use as a sales office.

When the county took over the property in 1989, there was no doubt that the ranch house would be preserved, Jessen said.

“Once we saw what was there,” Jessen said, “there was no way we were going to demolish it.”

The interpretive center is only open when Gannaway is present.

To contact the ranger at the McFadden Ranch House, call (714) 589-4729.