Wilderness Preserve has been reopened

The Wilderness Preserve has been reopened. It was closed because of extensive fire-break grading by bulldozers.

West of Sunset Bench, the trail is marked as not recommended for bicycles, but not being very bright, I took it anyway.

The switchbacks are rutted but passable, although I walked my bike in quite a few places (I’m not totally stupid), and happily, quite a few of the hairpin turns at the corners of the switchbacks are intact.

West of the switchbacks the road is not too bad at all, although in places it is quite muddy, which makes it difficult going up and downhill. The road down along Arcadia Ridge is muddy and unstable, so I took it very slowly.

Regarding the dozer cut areas, Hillside Wilderness Preserve Supervisor Eugene Suk writes that, “we are looking to get those areas improved soon.”

The area just inside the Cloverleaf gate is essentially unchanged except for a couple fallen trees blocking one of the paths, and they took out all the palm trees west of Crudgington Station. :-(

The trail should get a lot better as it dries out.

- Brad Haugaard.