Santa Anita Plea: ‘Git Along, Mule’

For more than 60 years, cabin owners in Big Santa Anita Canyon have relied on a team of mules and donkeys to lug supplies from the last stretch of paved road above Arcadia to their own steep, rocky recesses in the San Gabriel Mountains.

The pack animals stabled at Chantry Flat are more than just a romantic holdover from a bygone era. In this Internet age, they still provide the only means of carrying food, propane and building materials to a rugged nook of the county less than 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

And, truth be told, it’s really not a mule train anymore--it’s seven donkeys and four horses.

Residents of the canyon in the Angeles National Forest had feared that the service would come to a halt by the end of this month, jeopardizing a way of life in the mountains that dates to the Gold Rush era. But now it seems the team may stay on the trail.

The lead character in this 21st century Western is Kim Kelly, a 44-year-old New Jersey native, who bought the mule train business last summer for $160,000 before getting a key permit from the U.S. Forest Service--although she did get a contract with the agency to haul trash out of the area. Kelly moved into the small tin-roofed cabin next to the stables and began shuttling her team up and down the mountain.

To her dismay, the Forest Service supervisor sent a letter last week, saying that her application for a business permit had been denied and that she must vacate the premises, with her animals, by the end of March.

On Tuesday evening, Forest Service officials said they had reached a tentative agreement with Kelly that would allow her to stay until she can file another application for a permit. Forest Supervisor Jody Cook said the meeting was positive, but that she would not know until Thursday whether the deal could be implemented.

The letter from the Forest Service alarmed Kelly because it said she must not only leave, but tear down the old stable, the cabin and the snack bar on the front porch, where locals have gathered since the Great Depression.

“There would be nothing for me to sell,” Kelly said. “The money is gone. This is my livelihood.”

Cook said she intended for Kelly to take only her personal belongings. “I am not expecting her to remove the buildings,” Cook said. “I understand the value those buildings have to a lot of people.”

More than 80 cabins are scattered for several miles under the giant alders that shade Big Santa Anita Canyon--one of the most scenic areas in the San Gabriel Mountains, known for its ponds, waterfalls and lush landscape. The trails are too narrow for off-road vehicles and the stream crossings are treacherous, leaving residents dependent on Kelly’s pack.

Although they rely on her, some of the cabin owners say Kelly does not have the experience to run the business. “She’s a gutsy woman, but I think she bit off more than she can chew,” said cabin owner Glen Owens.

Dan Apodaca, a cabin owner and former California Lottery commissioner, said Kelly needs more help. She runs the business by herself; previous owners used two or three people, he and others said.

But Apodaca appreciates the mystique of the mule team as much as the practicality. “There’s this wonderful romance to it,” he said. “When we have guests, we try to have the mule team arrive with supplies right in the middle of the party. People love to see it.”

He and other cabin owners worried that the fracas over the permit would spell the end of the mule team and, more significant, could be part of a larger effort to force the residents, most of whom live there temporarily, out of the forest.

“The mules are the lifeline of this canyon,” said cabin owner Dave Smelter. “And once they go, the cabins are next.”

The cabins in Big Santa Anita are on land leased by the federal government. The leases are good until in 2008.

Elsewhere in the forest, other cabin owners have been watching the dispute. “I’m very scared about this,” said Barret Wetherby, whose family has owned a cabin on the West Fork of the San Gabriel River since the 1890s. Wetherby says he has had a good relationship with the Forest Service in recent years, but he is concerned about the agency’s new management.

“There’s a fear that they are going to start shutting things down and we won’t have any say,” said Wetherby, who is president of the San Gabriel Canyon Property Owner’s Assn.

Cook said the Forest Service has no such agenda. It was simply following the guidelines required by the federal government in awarding the special-use permits, she said.

“I know the pack station has been an integral part of the canyon,” Cook said. “And I know the cabin owners value that service. I have no desire to run the cabin owners out of the canyon.”