Annual Rite of Going the Extra Miles : Coastal Trek Focuses on Need for Public Access

Halfway through the first day of a weeklong trek intended to illustrate the lack of beachfront access, the point was made.

The 29 intrepid hikers walked five barefoot miles of pristine Santa Barbara County beach, spying wildlife that ranged from baby harbor seals to nude sunbathers, only to see their coastal journey interrupted at the Ventura County line.

After boulder hopping past expensive Rincon Point homes at the county line--marked by a leaning wooden pole amid the rocks--the hikers were forced inland under concrete freeway overpasses, four throbbing Ventura Freeway lanes blocking their route.

“When they built the highway, they took away the beach,” said Tom Maxwell, the hike’s leader. “Only at very low tide can you walk along it.”

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Maxwell, a 73-year-old retired Cal Lutheran anthropology professor, made that journey just once. It took him 12 hours to pick his way from rock to rock.

On this day the group turned inland for a 2 1/2-mile gravel detour on the freeway’s east side, the glinting Pacific Ocean beckoning but unreachable as waves crashed against the sea wall.

“Hardening coastlines with concrete walls and riprap walls is just disastrous,” said Richard Nichols, executive director of the nonprofit Coastwalk group, adding that it wipes out habitat and causes erosion.

“Ventura is a great coastal town,” he said. “You have the beach, the pier, it’s all terrific. And then you have the freeway that completely destroys the sense of Ventura being a coastal town.”

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The 36-mile Ventura County Coastwalk has been an annual event held since 1994. Other coastal California counties have held Coastwalks since 1983.

For some participants, the trek will explode a few myths.

“It’s really a nice way for a Northern California person to explore Southern California beaches and get over that rivalry,” said Marcia Dyer-Crapo of Berkeley. “I didn’t think it would be so beautiful.”

The group will hike past the best and worst that Ventura County’s coast has to offer. There will be oil pumps and piers, World War II-era gun emplacements and Indian sites thousands of years old, unsullied wildlife habitat and an aluminum slag pile.

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As they go, volunteers from Ventura County--only one walker is a local--point out historical and geographical features as well as everything from edible plants to kelp whistles.

“I’m always looking for things that are different to do and educational,” said Deborah Donovan of Auburn, accompanied by her husband and their four children, ranging in age from 5 months to 13 years. “It’s a more bonding experience than Disneyland.”

The idea, besides pointing out the need for more beachfront access, is to promote construction of a trail along all 1,156 miles of the state’s coastline.

About 800 miles of beach is accessible at least intermittently, although special permission is needed for access to beaches on military bases. But for areas outside federal jurisdiction, the California Constitution guarantees public access up to the high-tide mark.

To help make their point, group members--who are camping out along the way--may pop in to the California Coastal Commission meeting today as they pass the beachfront Holiday Inn in Ventura.

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But awareness is growing and so is beach access, said 61-year-old Barbara Geisick of San Jose, a veteran of nine Coastwalks in the last seven years.

“No one would rather have a house like that than me,” she said, pointing to a posh beachfront residence at Rincon Point. “But I wouldn’t do it, because I don’t think that’s fair.”

The major barrier to creating a formal trail is money.

An Assembly bill making its way through the Legislature would put a measure before voters next year to allocate $20 million in bond money for land acquisition, Nichols said.

Still, sometimes getting the message across even to some coast walkers is difficult.

“This is my second favorite vacation,” announces 12-year-old Christopher Fortenbach of Concord, who is accompanying his grandmother on the walk. “Disney [World] has a private beach.”