RECREATION / STEVE HENSON : Trail Builders Open New Horizons

Aggressive real estate developers leaving a glaring trail after plowing through pristine wilderness. Remote areas besieged by workers who cut and slash and build.

Those are ugly thoughts.

When Bob Mezak’s crew is through, however, the wilderness remains. His is development of the least-intrusive kind.

Only a trail is left behind because only a trail was constructed.

Three trails that will enable hikers and mountain bikers to enjoy an area of the Deukmejian Wilderness Park near La Crescenta previously difficult to traverse will be open to the public beginning April 29, which not coincidentally is National Trails Day.

The trail building was supervised by Mezak, project coordinator for the Glendale Parks and Recreation Dept. He employed the California Conservation Corps and a trail-building company for the work.

“Trail building is methodical and painstaking, but the rewards are great,” Mezak said.

A just reward for these trail builders was reaching the top of the Rim of the Valley Trail, a challenging 1 2/3-mile hike that leads out of lush Cooks Canyon, eventually making an elevation change of 1,195 feet.

“There is a spectacular view,” Mezak said. “You can see the entire San Fernando Valley, part of the San Gabriel Valley, most of Los Angeles and all the way to Catalina Island on a clear day.”

Rim of the Valley was also the most-challenging trail to build. It begins by following a lush stream bed, with the trail winding back and forth across the water by way of rock bridges that do not obstruct the flow of the stream.

Called a gabion, the bridge is a 3-by-3-by-5-foot wire cage filled with rock and wedged into the stream bed. Water runs through the gabion and hikers can step across its surface.

“They last indefinitely,” Mezak said. “Some in other parts of the park have been there for 30 years.”

The other two trails are less challenging for hikers. The Dunsmore Canyon Trail parallels a stream and changes elevation only 705 feet over a tad less than one mile. The trail is very wide because it also serves as an easement for county vehicles to maintain the stream.

The 1 1/2-mile Le Mesnager Loop Trail is named after the family that ran a winery on the property in the early 1900s. Like the other two trails, it is part of a 500-acre horse ranch the parks department obtained five years ago.

Equestrians will be welcome on the Dunsmore Canyon and Lesesnager Loop trails.

With the trails nearly completed, Mezak has welcomed the recent heavy rainfall.

“Our purpose was to create a whole new trail system that wouldn’t wash out every time it rains,” he said. “I’ve been tickled to death to see this rain because it serves as a good test for the trails.”

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Team Endeavor, that plucky quintet of local 30- and 40-somethings frantically preparing for the most grueling eight days of their lives, has no time to chew the fat.

Yet that is exactly what they’ve been asked to do by George Holland, a Cal State Northridge professor of exercise physiology, and graduate student Patty Melody.

Seven days a week, Team Endeavor trains for the Eco-Challenge, a 50-team, 370-mile race across Utah in April that will require the use of canoes, mountain bikes, white-water rafts, horses and climbing ropes.

“We’ve been training our little behinds off,” said Bill Lovelace, captain of Team Endeavor.

That in mind, Holland and Melody have scientifically developed the optimum diet for such arduous activity. Chief ingredient: Fat, and lots of it.

“Generally you carbo-load for endurance events,” Lovelace said. “But with such a long duration, and working at a lower intensity, we want more fat in our diet.”

There is little chance the fat will cause unsightly love handles on Lovelace or his teammates--which include his wife, Louise. Team Endeavor has been training constantly since August.

A typical week includes endurance runs and several hours of weightlifting on Mondays and Wednesdays, endurance runs and horseback riding lessons on Tuesdays, several hours of rock climbing on Thursdays and a 6 p.m.-to-midnight hike on Friday nights.

Some weekends are spent canoeing, cycling, running and climbing. Others are spent “orienteering” somewhere in the desert or mountains.

Loosely defined, orienteering means finding your way home by way of map coordinates. Based on their schedule, members of Team Endeavor don’t find their way home very often any day of the week.

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There will be something awfully fishy about the large band of people hanging out at Ventura County and Malibu beaches after midnight this weekend.

Fishy as in thousands of silvery, slippery grunion invading the sand to find a nice soft spot to spawn. Grunion season begins this weekend and continues through early August.

McGrath State Beach in Ventura and the south end of the Ventura Pier are two favored spots to catch the spectacle.

To catch grunion, make sure everyone 16 or older has a fishing license. The edible fish can be legally caught until April 1 and after May 31, and they may only be caught by hand.