Storms Swamped Paths in the Wild : Recreation: Rains damaged backcountry trails for hiking, riding and biking. Most repairs are delayed since wet weather isn’t over.

In La Jolla Canyon off Pacific Coast Highway, a pile of car-size boulders blocking the narrow trail gives day hikers a choice: edge delicately around a steep drop-off or scale over the top of the fallen sandstone.

Across the county in the Sespe Wilderness, the same hillside that gave way in 1992 has again oozed across the dirt trail, making for tricky crossing on horseback.

And at Surfers Point in Ventura, what was once a continuous bike lane is now a jagged pathway, chipped away by erosion from high waves.

While such damage occurs annually to Ventura County’s network of hiking and biking trails, state and federal park officials say the intensity of January’s storms has hit backcountry areas particularly hard this year.

On a single day last month, 11 inches of rain fell on Old Man Mountain in northern Ventura County--the heaviest amount recorded in Southern California that day. If that volume is any indication, rangers say, this could be one of the worst years for trail damage since 1969.

“So much of the damage is probably beyond the scope of volunteers,” who are counted on to fix ruts and washed-out creek crossings, said Kathy Goode, spokeswoman for Los Padres National Forest.

“A lot of the repair is probably going to have to be done by contractors.”

For the most part, however, assessing the scope of washouts, landslides and fallen trees in Ventura County’s mountainous areas is still guesswork.

Survey and minor repair work is beginning on the heavily used coastal trails in Point Mugu State Park at the northern tip of the Santa Monica Mountains. But the interior paths, such as the Serrano Valley Loop Trail, remain inaccessible because of muddy roads and a washed-out stone bridge.

To drive on the wet soil now, rangers say, would only deepen the ruts.

“A lot of our trails that cross creeks or ravines have some major blowouts,” said Frank Padilla, supervising ranger for Point Mugu State Park.

And in Los Padres’ Ojai Ranger District, forest service employees have been too busy worrying about flooded campgrounds to check the condition of the 226-mile trail system. None of the hiking trails are closed, although several are inaccessible because of heavy damage to the roads leading to them.

In Matilija Canyon, for example, rocks and erosion have narrowed the road in one spot to a single lane. Signs on California 33 warn that it is open only to residents.

Moreover, park officials say they are hesitant to begin work because the rainy season is far from over.

“If you have a heavy, torrential rain like we just had, conditions can change,” said John Boggs, a forest service employee who supervises trail maintenance in the Ojai backcountry.

Because it will likely be late spring before some backcountry trails are patrolled, park officials say it is impossible at this point to estimate the cost of repair.

Much of the expense, they say, will go toward filling in potholes, re-grading dirt fire roads and shoring up creek crossings.

Other major costs in Point Mugu State Park include replacing an old stone bridge that washed out at the northern end of Sycamore Canyon and repairing a water line that ruptured nearby.

Work on the water line should be finished this week, allowing water to be restored to campgrounds in La Jolla and Sycamore canyons. Once fixed, the closed facilities will reopen.

And while La Jolla Valley Canyon Trail is in relatively good shape, there is one trouble spot. At a point where the canyon walls narrow, several large slabs of rock have tumbled down the slope and landed squarely on the trail.

“It’s precarious, but people have been managing to swing around it OK,” Padilla said.

Because the boulders are too big to budge with a crowbar, dynamite will probably be used to blast them away, he said.

None of the trails in Ventura County or Santa Barbara County, where the damage was severe, are closed to hikers.

Rangers warn, however, that the terrain is likely to be more challenging than before the storms.

“They just have to be cognizant there’s some danger because of the irregular tread and the other hazards that may be out there, like loose rocks,” Padilla said.

Besides erosion, piles of brush and uprooted trees are likely to block trails in places, Boggs said.

In the Sespe Wilderness, the trail that leads out of Rose Valley has been obscured by a large mudslide just past Bear Camp. When the same spot gave way during heavy rains in 1992, the forest service rerouted the trail to the other side of the river.

Tony Alvis, a packer from La Conchita who guides trips into the Sespe, said conditions make it difficult to get through on horseback, particularly for less experienced riders.

“Anywhere that there was a watercourse, it changes so you can’t find the trail,” he said. “You’ll be looking for landmarks and they won’t be there.

“But that’s the way it goes,” he added. “You just beat a trail around another rock.”

The trails closer to cities in Ventura County also took a beating during the heavy rains but appear to have less significant damage, with a few exceptions.

In Simi Valley, half a dozen equestrian crossings washed out on the Arroyo Simi Equestrian Trail. And on the Arroyo Simi bike trail, a 40-foot section of pavement collapsed into the creek but has now been repaired.

And in Ventura, the ever-eroding bike path continued to flake away. The California Coastal Commission has forbidden state and local officials from rebuilding the path at the same site. Until a decision is made about a permanent detour, cyclists are routed inland through two parking lots.

Once the extent of trail damage is known, park officials say volunteers will be crucial to the restoration process. The forest service, state parks and the National Park Service are planning large-trail workdays this spring.

Some individuals and small groups are already beginning to cut back vegetation, fill in gullies and create a gentle outward slope designed to prevent future erosion.

For now, day-to-day work in the Boney Mountain Wilderness between Newbury Park and Pacific Coast Highway falls on the shoulders of two seasonal workers--Frank Bemis and Bud (Griz) Brown.

On a misty morning last week, they set out early to survey the short but scenic Ray Miller trail. Carrying tools originally designed for cutting fire lines, they packed the chocolate-hued dirt down, raking it across the snake-like ruts caused by runoff.

Brown, a former liquor store manager and Hostess Twinkie salesman who speaks with a soft Maine accent, said he prefers the perks of his latest work, such as the sound of coyotes howling at dusk.

There is job security, he said, in the constant struggle it takes to maintain a trail. “Nature always has the last word,” he said.

And while the Ray Miller trail was in good shape compared to others, Bemis noted a spot where a small leap was needed to cross a seasonal drainage.

“There are a lot of older people who hike this regularly for their constitutional,” he said. “It’s tough for them to get across higher spots like this.

“It doesn’t have to be beautiful, just so they can keep their balance.”