In History’s Footsteps

Slipping into the shoes of Juan Bautista de Anzafor a day isn’t easy. Just ask Thousand Oaks resident Burt Elliott.

To reenact the Spanish explorer’s 1776 trek through Ventura County, the 63-year-old Elliott on Tuesday ran seven miles through bumpy, hilly country, then hopped on a mountain bike, rode 22.1 miles in the hot sun, took a cookie and coffee break, then got back on the bike and rode another five miles.

Joined by a small group of fellow stalwarts, Elliott traversed the county as part of a relay team re-creating Anza’s original 1,468-mile trip from Mexico to San Francisco.

The 53-day journey, sponsored by the nonprofit Heritage Trails Fund, began in Mexico on Oct. 12 and will conclude later this month on the shores of San Francisco Bay. It mirrors Anza’s trip and follows a path designated in 1990 as the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail.

With the cooperation of the National Park Service, the Walnut Creek-based group arranged the relay partly as a means to celebrate Anza’s journey two centuries ago to bring 240 settlers, more than half of them children, and 1,000 head of livestock from Mexico to San Francisco. But the colorful reenactment is also intended to encourage more people to use the trail systems throughout California.

“We hope we’ll call attention to the value of the trail system,” said Nancy DuPont, executive director of the Heritage Trails Fund.

DuPont organized the trip, which began in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, continued through Arizona, then over to California and up through Riverside and Los Angeles counties before entering Ventura County. She is the only person who will travel the whole length of the trail, riding her white Arabian gelding whenever possible.

*

“I spent a year behind a computer preparing for this, now I’m spending two months on the trail,” DuPont said.

Paralleling the original route of the explorer as closely as possible, the Ventura group, mostly Thousand Oaks residents, traveled on horseback Tuesday over mountain trails in the Conejo Valley, and on bicycles through back roads in Camarillo and city streets in Oxnard and Ventura.

They carried an old-fashioned mochila, a saddlebag containing proclamations from Mexican officials. And strapped to Elliott’s waist was a plastic bottle filled with water dipped from the San Miguel River in Sonora, water that will be poured symbolically into San Francisco Bay at journey’s end.

“I’ve got to remember, this one is my drinking water,” Elliott joked, patting a second plastic bottle on his right hip.

As soft morning light filtered through an oak grove in Thousand Oaks, Elliott set out jogging on the Los Robles Trail, carrying his precious liquid cargo and closely followed by DuPont and four other participants on horseback.

*

Local organizer Gina Smurthwaite said the Anza Trail is about 80% completed through the Conejo Valley. Connections are still needed through two new developments, Lang Ranch on the eastern end of Thousand Oaks and Dos Vientos on the edge of Newbury Park.

The city’s open space agency is applying for a $100,000 federal grant to complete the trail. In the western part of Ventura County, the trail will be less rural, following surface roads. Eventually markers will be put up designating the historic trail.

At Two Winds Ranch in Newbury Park, Elliott stopped running and started cycling. The equestrian participants waved goodbye as he rode off with half a dozen members of the Conejo Valley Cyclists club--all brightly clad in yellow shirts--and several mountain bikers.

Anza definitely took longer getting over the Conejo Grade. The group arrived at Olivas Adobe in Ventura more than an hour ahead of schedule.

“We had the advantage of pavement and gears and wheels,” said Mark Langton, a member of the Conejo Open Space Trails Advisory Committee who rode his mountain bike down winding Potrero Road.

Elliott, who turns 64 today, said he was exhausted during the bike ride. He got a little help from Jeff Alexander, another member of the trails committee, who pushed on his bike seat when the going got tough.

*

But when the bikers saddled up for the last leg of the Ventura relay, a five-mile ride to San Buenaventura Mission, Elliott passed on the opportunity to climb into a car to finish the journey.

“They’re riding, so I’ll ride with them,” he said, gesturing at his companions.