Going Off the Beaten Path : Volunteers Work to Clear a Rancho Mission Viejo Trail

Up in the county’s back country, far away from freeways and busy malls where her teenage brethren hang out, 17-year-old Jane Coffee paused a moment and took in the view of Rancho Mission Viejo.

She noticed a couple of hawks flying low over ridgelines in search of food and miles of raw, wild land with the distant outlines of the mountains of Camp Pendleton on the south and the Santa Ana Mountains to the northeast.

“It’s really nice out here,” said Coffee, part of a small band of volunteers who drove past a gate, then hiked a mile. Now they were raking and clearing trails.

“We were saying on the drive in how sad it would be that this all might be bulldozed by the time we all have kids,” she said. “We’re kind of glad that there’s a conservancy to allow this area to stay like this.”

Consciousness-raising was not on the agenda for Saturday’s project. But Laura Cohen, executive director of the Rancho Mission Viejo Land Conservancy, which sponsored the project, said she didn’t mind.

For three years, Cohen has headed the nonprofit group that manages 1,200 acres owned by the ranch and offers programs such as guided nature walks, wildlife workshops and astronomy events.

On Saturday, Cohen dispensed advice about coming across mountain lions and rattlesnakes, before handing out water bottles and tools to nearly two dozen volunteers.

The workers then spent more than three hours under an unusually warm December sun clearing a half-mile trail overgrown with sage scrub, buckwheat and deer weed.

Among the volunteers were students from St. Anne School in Laguna Niguel and El Toro High School, which Coffee attends and is president of the campus environmental club.

Nearly all the students didn’t mind getting up early and arriving at the trail head before 8 in the morning.

Courtney Chu and Stephanie Flora, both 13 and from St. Anne, agreed that they liked being in the back country where it was quiet and they could experience nature.

“I like it because it’s pretty up here and it has a lot of open area,” Courtney said.

Stephanie said they were there to satisfy part of their school’s community service requirements.

“It’s nice to know that at least some areas won’t be paved over for a shopping mall,” she said.

Donald Kunze, a longtime conservancy volunteer and environmentalist from San Clemente, has been hiking the area for years.

During a break he said, “even if Y2K causes something to go wrong, you can always come out here. It’s peaceful.”

Farther up the trail, Lisbeth Benoit of San Clemente was stooped over with her daughter, Peyton, 7. Together they planted buckwheat and sage by cupping their hands over the wild brush and stripping off wild seed. They then dug a small hole in the barren soil, dropped several seeds, covered them with dirt and repeated the process.

“This was perfect,” Benoit said.