A county park comeback


Final one charred by Cedar fire will be reopening next Saturday

By Liz Neely
STAFF WRITER

May 13, 2006

JOHN GASTALDO / Union-Tribune

Hikers walked along a trail at the Oakoasis Open Space Preserve. On May 20, El Capitan nearby will be the last county park to reopen after the Cedar fire.
LAKESIDE – When the wildfires blazed through the county in 2003, more than half of the county's parklands were left charred and barren.

Eleven of 23 fire-damaged county parks were closed – some for weeks and others for years – while crews worked to get the trails, preserves and outdoor recreation areas back in shape.

Next Saturday will mark a milestone in fire recovery as the last of the closed parks, El Capitan Open Space Preserve, reopens to the public.

Evidence of the fire still scars the 2,000-acre preserve off Wildcat Canyon Road , from the tree trunks burned black to the spindly and blackened branches of the chaparral, sprouting new growth.

Yet El Capitan and other backcountry getaways revered by park lovers are finally starting to resemble their old selves. White and yellow wildflowers dot the landscape. Green blankets the ground.

El Capitan has the steepest trail in the county park system and is a popular training ground for serious hikers.

JOHN GASTALDO
/ Union-Tribune

A red-tailed hawk soared above the preserve.
The 7-mile path, which is part of the not-yet-connected Trans-County Trail from Del Mar to the Anza Borrego Desert , was nearly wiped out and uncrossable in places.

The trail not only suffered from the flames, but also the heavy rains that followed. In one spot, about a quarter of a mile up the path, soil erosion created a hole about 100 feet long, 50 feet wide and 15 feet deep, said Mike McFedries, the county's district park manager.

It took six months just to repair that section, he said, and a lot of the initial work had to be done by hand before heavy equipment could blast away some of the rock blocking the path. Boulders – about 300 tons worth – were used to fill the hole, he said.

“This one was by far the most damaged” of the county's trail systems, said Renée Bahl, director of county parks and recreation.

JOHN GASTALDO / Union-Tribune

A scrub oak shed burned bark at Oakoasis.
A new swale, or ditch, was built to hold water and take it off the trail. County and National Emergency Grant crews put in thousands of hours repairing the trail, Bahl said, and volunteers have chipped in to help with the rebuilding. More benches and an overlook, part of local Eagle Scout projects, will be added this summer.

More than 15,000 acres of county parkland were charred in the fires, causing more than $15 million in damage.

Across Wildcat Canyon Road at the Oakoasis Open Space Preserve, the brush blankets the ground with green, and fresh growth sprouts from oak trees with still-blackened trunks. That park reopened last June.

“It's a great day to be here,” said Mary Lieras of Ramona, who was hiking with friends yesterday morning. It was their first trip since the Cedar Fire raced through Oakoasis, destroying everything in its path.

“I'm really glad to see these big trees are alive, that they're starting to come back,” said Lisa Gouse, also of Ramona.


Liz Neely: (619) 593-4961; liz.neely@uniontrib.com

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