Taking Nature’s Way to Sea

It takes a little imagination to look at the oversized map of Orange County and see what Jeff Dickman sees.

Dickman, chief of trail planning for the county, can trace out the five trails and off-road bikeways that are supposed to run from hills to sea. He can point out the spots where developers have been reluctant to do their share. He runs his finger over the stretches of trail he himself has worked, giving up weekends to clear the brush.

And in his mind, he connects all the dots. Someday, he believes, there will be solid lines over the 750-mile trail system on the county’s master plan.

More than 34 years after county officials first approved a plan for trails in the county, the task is far from complete. About half the 750 miles included in the plan today have been built.

“It’s a slow process, and it can be very frustrating,” Dickman said. “But I feel like we’ve turned a corner. Over the next five, six, seven years you’ll see the bulk of this system in place.”

The plan has evolved in the last three decades. The latest proposed addition to the system is a route along the Carbon Creek flood control channel that would provide recreational opportunities in trail-starved North County.

County Supervisor Cynthia Coad has been the main force behind the idea, going so far as to promise at a recent Orange County Transportation Authority board meeting to get into shape to use the trail.

“If it’s done correctly, it could originate in the Carbon Creek Canyon park and go all the way to Huntington Beach,” she said. “It really could be very exciting.”

The proposal, county officials said, has problems. Because the route crosses busy streets, it would not be a seamless pathway, as county regulations call for. But in an area of the county where development went up before trail planning was in place, officials say it might make a nice addition for local residents.

Coad’s effort is not part of the plan’s main goal--connecting all the major parks with a cobweb of trails and bike paths that would allow someone to traverse the county without ever stepping onto a road.

With about 10 new miles added to the system each year--the combined work of developers and county planners--the goal may still be years away.

The original vision called for well-defined trails at least 6 feet in width with interconnecting loops and water available every six miles. Today, Dickman says, some trails are little more than paths in the dirt where county employees have sprayed some herbicide and pulled away the brush.

But even in the beginning, planners knew the goals weren’t going to be accomplished overnight. When the plan was passed, its authors warned: “It is important to note that [this] is a long-range statement of intent.”

Dickman works with two other people to make sure developers are including bikeways and trails in their plans. Off-road bikeways are paved paths, while trails are dirt paths suitable for hiking, horseback riding or mountain biking.

While the county builds three to five miles of new trail and bike paths a year, the trail system could not be completed without private development. Currently, Dickman estimates, about $10 million in new paths are under construction by private firms.

The county tends to be more thrifty.

“We are conservative about our fencing. We try to suggest where the trail is since we don’t have the funds to line the whole thing,” he said. “Some trails you might never know about until someone pointed them out to you.”

And without volunteers who regularly battle to keep the paths clear, those routes would be lost. Jim Meyer, executive director of Trails4All, a private, nonprofit organization with office space in a county building, said 5,446 volunteer hours were donated last year for trail maintenance.

“There was nothing altruistic about it,” said Meyer, who is an avid mountain biker. “None of the public agencies had the staff to take care of them. If we didn’t do it, Mother Nature would reclaim them.”

The group was out this weekend with 35 volunteers, working on trails at Whiting Ranch in Portola Hills, in honor of National Trail Day on Saturday.

County officials hope to make a comprehensive map of trails and bikeways in the county available by the end of the year.

“We are still missing a way to let people know what’s out there,” Dickman said. “We’ve been puttering away on a map for a few years. It just takes awhile to make sure it is accurate. I’d like to have it out by the millennium. I think of it as my millennium map.”

Blazing New Trails in Orange County

Nearly half of the 750 miles of biking, hiking and horseback riding trails envisioned for Orange County are operational. The master plan calls for five major trails to stretch from the hills to the ocean. How the existing 300 miles of trails fit into the proposed system:

Proposed Carbon Creek Trail

Source: Jeff Dickman, Trail Planning and Implementation Chief, Orange County Harbors, Beaches and Parks