We’re in a four wheel drive truck driving up a battered dirt road in the foothills above Ventura. The hills are lush after the recent rainfall. We’re in the Harmon Canyon Preserve.
The 2100 acre preserve north of Ventura is normally busy on a sunny day like this with hikers, and mountain bikers. But, the massive January 9 storm devastated its trails, forcing its indefinite closure. It's one of a number of popular trails in the Tri-Counties hard hit by the storm. We stop on a section of the dirt road which is also the main trail.
"We're looking at Harmon Canyon Creek...we are looking at one of our creek crossings that was impacted by the recent storm. This creek crossing is currently impassable, even with a four-wheel drive," said
Daniel Hulst, who is the Ventura Land Trust’s Stewardship Director. The non-profit trust owns and manages the preserve.
He says without seeing the destruction, it may be hard for some people to understand the closure. "The weather is beautiful, the plants are green, but the challenge to that is the preserves is closed...there are hazardous condition."
Harmon Canyon Creek crosses the preserve’s trails eight times, and many of those spots are impassable.
Hulst says it’s the same situation at the Land Trust’s preserves on the Ventura River, which are also closed to the public
The Land Trust’s preserves are just one example of what the storm did to recreational open space in the region. There’s widespread damage to many popular trails in the Tri-Counties.
"We're looking at over 100 roads and trails across the Los Padres and on other open access public land parcels that have been impacted by the rains," said Dillon Osleger, who's the Executive Director of Sage Trail Alliance. The more than three decade old non-profit helps create, restore, and maintain trails in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. "There's a lot of stuff to fix."
Back on one of the trails in the Harmon Canyon Preserve, officials with the Ventura Land trust say the damage was caused by some unprecedented local rainfall. "For the season total, we're at almost 20 inch of rain for Harmon Canyon...keep in mind, the season average is about 12," said Hulst.
The hope is to have the lower part of the preserve open in a month and a half to two months.
The Ventura Land Trust’s Outrech Director's Leslie Velez says it’s going to take the help of volunteers, and donorsto get the trails rebuilt, and reopened.
With the region getting a break from the rain, there are some place you can go to hike. Osleger said in Santa Barbara County, Elings Park just reopened its eight miles of trails. And in Ventura County, lower portions of Gridley Trail in Ojai could reopen Sunday.
But, those involved with preserves, and public lands They say even though it might be a nice day, many popular trails are not only closed because they need repairs, they are unsafe and even dangerous.
