Councilman Seeks Phones on Trails for Area Hikers

Anyone who has ever slid down an embankment near a batch of beaver-tail cactus or has been stuck in the knobby knolls of Boney Mountain near dusk knows the feeling of pure fear.

What if I get stuck out here in the wilderness? What if I hurt myself?

For those who don’t yet tote cellular phones in their backpacks and hip sacks, Councilman Andy Fox is proposing a way to reach help quick: solar-powered telephones strategically placed throughout Thousand Oaks’ 80-mile trail system.

Fox said the idea came to mind after last week’s sexual assault of a woman along a trail west of Triunfo Community Park and a recent family hike.

“We have extensive trails surrounding the city, and we encourage tens of thousands of people--the disabled, young children, senior citizens and families--to use them,” said Fox, a Los Angeles firefighter. “The need to access 911 is fairly high.”

While assaults are rare, accidents do occur on the multiuse trails that crisscross Thousand Oaks’ 14,000 acres of open space, said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathy Kemp, who also serves as Thousand Oaks’ police chief.

Most accidents aren’t serious, she said. A mountain biker takes a tumble. A rider is thrown when a horse is spooked. A hiker hears a disconcerting growl or rattle in that clump of sage. Someone gets lost or runs out of water miles from the nearest juice bar.

But the Santa Monica Mountains and hills surrounding the area are the site of about 10 search-and-rescue missions a summer, she estimated--when a child goes missing, a hiker doesn’t return home on time or a suicidal person heads to the hills with a gun. In hot, dry months, brush fires often lick through the chaparral.

Installing solar-powered cellular phones near trail heads and in remote swaths of trails is a good idea, she believes.

“The most recent assault along Triunfo Canyon just brings that into crystal-clear focus,” Kemp said Friday.

“So often, people assume that everyone in our community has cellular phones. But not everyone does,” she said. “Prompt notification is the very foundation in fire and police response. I don’t want to sound too melodramatic, but how quickly we get there can mean the difference between life and death, between arresting a suspect and not arresting a suspect.”

Fox said he plans to bring the solar phone idea to the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency, of which he is a board member, later this summer. The idea--which is also being considered for Orange County trails--had been discussed before by the open space agency board members but never acted on.

At first, Fox would like the agency to consider installing the phones near trail heads. Depending on what parks and city staffers recommend, adding phones to more remote areas might be wise too, he said.

The phones would be used in conjunction with literature about hiking tips: hike with a friend; bring a cellular phone if you have one; tell people where you are going and when you will be back.

An avid outdoorswoman, Councilwoman Linda Parks said she had mixed feelings about the proposal. Everyone wants to feel safer, she said, but she worried that the clunky phone boxes would compete with the natural surroundings.

For that reason, Parks, also an agency board member, said she would consider installing the phones at trail heads but would oppose them along the paths themselves.

Teaching more people about trail dos and don’ts is the best way to ensure safety, she said.

“When people go out into nature, it’s to get away from it all,” Parks said. “A lot of people want to get away and not take society and technology with them on the trails. . . . There are better ways to protect personal safety without detracting from the natural experience.”

Cellular phone boxes in the wilderness and in public places are becoming increasingly common, said Sebastian Gutierrez, who sells such phones for Irvine-based Comarco Wireless Technologies. The boxes dot a popular jogging path in Austin, Texas, and line the bike path along Sacramento’s American River Parkway.

The technology is not cheap, however.

Gutierrez said the boxes, similar to those that line California freeways, cost up to $3,300 each, and installation can add about $700 to $1,000 more. However, bulk discounts are available to public entities.

While cost is a consideration, Fox said he believes that residents in the country’s safest big city would not be overly deterred by the financial impact.

“Say $30,000 gets you 10 phones--that’s a pretty decent investment in safety,” Fox said.

Stretching out after a late afternoon ride near the Los Robles Trail, mountain biker Quinn Tarentieff agreed.

The 22-year-old waiter said he bikes about twice a week in the warm months. While he carries an emergency kit with ointment and bandages and usually bikes with a friend, Tarentieff said he does not own a cellular phone.

“It’s a great idea,” he said. “There have been many times when I’ve run into little problems out there--I sprained my ankle, a friend got some pretty bad cuts. I can only imagine having a big problem and being four, five, six miles out.”