End Pavement

A story in the Press Enterprise has a tidbit on progress of the Santa Ana River Trail (SART) at the eastern end of the San Bernardino Valley: “San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Actions — 4-11-07″:

The board agreed to solicit bids to complete the last phase of the Santa Ana River Trail from California Street in Redlands to the Seven Oaks Dam near Highland.

The project, estimated at $600,000, will connect to a trail system that follows the river’s course through Riverside and Orange counties, eventually reaching Huntington Beach.

Previously on End Pavement:

• First SART explorations
• First SART explorations (photos)

Elsewhere:

• Official SART planning page
• Santa Ana River Trail | Celsius1414

Here are some photos from yesterday’s hike.

In the Blaine St. parking lot at the bottom.

This is a Floss Silk Tree, visible alongside the road as you walk up to the trailhead. I love this tree and always take pictures when we come through here.

Close up of the Floss Silk Tree.

Part way up Two Trees Trail, looking back down on Riverside. That’s Sugar Loaf on the right.

Part way up Two Trees Trail. Photos up here seem always to come out like impressionist paintings. :)

Otis digging food out of his pack while we take a breather in the parking lot halfway up.

Pharaoh takes a break while I check out directions.

Confirming the GPS is pointing things out properly. ;)

Alex spies an interesting bird and sneaks up for a picture.

From the midway parking lot, looking up the trail leading to the top.

On our way again.

Alex and Otis work out the local geography.

That white shape is part of the giant letter “M” overlooking Moreno Valley, at the top of Box Springs.

Pharaoh is pooped. :)

Reche Peak to the left, with Reche Canyon and the area around Hulda Crooks Park just beyond.

Last October, Alex and Otis and I, along with Pharaoh the standard poodle, took a hike up Box Springs Mountain, chronicled in this post on Celsius1414: “Box Springs Mountain, Riverside County”. Before today, I’d done that hike three times, I believe. Also, we’d done the Two Trees Trail twice. Today, we combined the two hikes.

Alex had borrowed a GPS unit to try out today, so hopefully we can get some real data off of it later.

Here’s a view of both trails in one 3D picture (click for larger):

Parking is in a dirt lot at the farthest end of Blaine Street in the vicinity of UC Riverside, at 1245′. A short distance away is the trailhead for the Two Trees Trail, about 100′ higher. The top of the trail is at about 2305′. Around 1.5 miles one-way to the top, through some nice terrain that gives great views of the university and out to downtown and beyond. Here’s a 3D view of this trail by itself:

Here’s the rest of hike from the perspective of the other side of the mountain:

This portion is about 2.3 miles one-way with a 725′ elevation gain from the parking lot. According to the map, this is officially Box Springs Mountain Road, but it’s dirt in various states of repair all the way up, providing access to the various towers and antennae dotting the top.

The views were hazier today than they have been in the past, so not as much could be seen past a certain distance. Despite this, however, there is still much to see.

The tally for the day:

• 8.04 miles
• 1,805′ elevation gain
• A little under 4 hours

I should have some actual photos later on. Photos here.

With this hike, I’ve also officially gone over 100 miles for the month, combined walking, hiking, and biking mileage, which was a goal of mine.

Some cameraphone photos from the Santa Ana River Trail exploration last Saturday.

This is next to Washington St in Colton, about where I entered.

Looking the other direction. Nobody else was on the trail during my 6-mile round trip — a handful of ATVs buzzing around in the riverbed, but that was it.

The trail heading under a railroad bridge — pretty much every flat surface had some sort of graffiti in evidence in the Colton/Grand Terrace section.

Under the La Cadena Drive bridge.

Looking to the right from the previous picture, the “on/off-ramp” for the SART from La Cadena. This is what I had been looking for via the older Google Earth imagery.

And turning around from the previous pair of photos, the lovely bike path ends. This is looking “down-river” toward Riverside, and the paved section stops…

…which never stops me, speaking of End Pavement. ;)

The temperature was alternatively comfortably cool and chilly as the sun moved in and out of the clouds.

Mid-construction. Looking good so far.

Whoops! Well, so much for that. :) Actually, it would have been easy enough to bypass, but I was about 11.5 miles from home late in the afternoon, so this was as good a place as any to turn around, about three miles from where I entered in Colton.

Ah, but what’s this? Off to the left, a promising dirt road heading into a canyon, with dozens of crows or ravens flying around. Time to explore!

Mostly heard rather than seen, dirtbikes were running here and there in the distance — otherwise, no people.

Pretty standard steep SoCal canyons, with various pathways heading hither and yon. Worth another look someday, whether on foot or two wheels.

So, a successful initial expedition, with some current and potential routes between Riverside and the east end of the San Bernardino Valley. Can’t wait until the whole trail is done from the mountains to the sea — it’ll be an awesome ride.

After plans fell apart for our big hike Saturday, with cancellations and postponements and whatnot, I struck out on my own for a bike ride — only the third of the year, but the combination of high-enough temperature, lack of wind, and desire finally coincided. I had extra motivation, thanks to my interest in finding out more about the Santa Ana River Trail.

The SART, in case you weren’t aware, is a mixed-use trail that will eventually stretch from the San Bernardino Mountains to the ocean, following alongside the Santa Ana River. Portions are already completed, and the rest is either under development or in planning.

While investigating the off-freeway area around the I-10/I-215 interchange (technically in Colton, I believe), I’d been looking for routes over the eponymous terrace in Grand Terrace that didn’t involve the rather intense grades at Barton Rd or Mt Vernon. I’ve cycled the former several times both directions, but sometimes you don’t want to expend that much energy.

On the other side of the 215, there are several dead ends thanks to the Santa Ana, apart from the Mt. Vernon Bridge to the north. I’ve been all around there on two wheels often enough, but hadn’t taken the time to explore much in earnest. Last week, I happened to be passing by in my car and decided to take a few minutes to check things out more closely, concentrating on finding a route that might connect the dead-end Washington with La Cadena, whence I could connect downtown Riverside with San Berdoo, Loma Linda, or Redlands.

Eureka! I found a lovely paved bicycle path going in both directions, which is so funny as it was just hidden from my view on the other side of a large dirt berm/hill from where I had been on my bicycle last year. :) Back in the car, I identified the SART’s dotted line on the road map, and followed the river with my finger to downtown Riverside. Sweet!

Then I had to find out where best to get on the thing around there. After a bit of sleuthing, I tracked down an actual SART “on-ramp” on the south end of the Mt. Vernon bridge over the Santa Ana. If you pull up that area in Google Earth, the imagery is a couple of years out of date, but you can see where the ramps go from the road down to the river.

So on Saturday, with the 8-mile hike cancelled, I decided to take my first nice, long bike ride of the year. I took some photographs that I’ll post another time, along with more details of the area, but suffice to say for now that I’m excited for that future time when I’ll be able to do a Crest-to-Coast Century. :) That’s something I’ve been contemplating for a couple of years now, ever since I initially did some research on the SART for this Celsius1414 page.

Last May, an article in the San Bernardino Sun (no longer available online that I have access to) covered getting the middle part finished. If you head over to the official SART project site and download this PDF map, you’ll get a good sense of the current state of the trail, including the portions I explored on Saturday. Again, more details to come.

The final tally for Saturday:

• 25.16 miles
• 28.9 MPH max
• 10.0 MPH avg

Due to weather conditions up in the Pisgah Peak area and our lack of proper gear, we decided to postpone that hike. Instead, we returned to Hulda Crooks Park and explored farther. Thanks to the additional climbing and distance, it was a good second hike, pushing our fitness a bit farther for bigger challenges later in the year.

Unfortunately, Alex was sick at home back in Hollywood, so Otis and I sallied forth, accompanied as always by the intrepid Pharaoh.

3D view of terrain (click to enlarge).

• 9.04 miles
• 910′ elevation gain*
• 4 hours car-to-car, with a couple of short breaks

(* = The difference between the parking lot at 1360′ and the highest point at 2270′. Hopefully we’ll have GPS capability hooked up soon to get better numbers.)

We kept going from the turning-around point of the previous hike, through some nicely hilly terrain.

Our legs were definitely getting a good workout…

…as were our cardiovascular systems.

It was also colder, as witnessed by the patches of snow and ice still lurking in various shadows.

There were no motorized folks careening around this time, thankfully.

The occasional tracks clued us in on the local denizens, but we also spied several coyotes in the distance, and the usual assortment of hawks and ravens kept us company throughout…

…not to mention a garter snake braving the chill to sun himself on the trail.

If I write a book on hiking, say "Travels with Pharaoh", this should be the cover picture. :)

Thanks to the late start at 1 PM, we had to hurry things along at the end. The sun was falling early behind Reche Peak, as evidenced by the long shadows.

Always exciting to explore new terrain, even if it isn’t too far from home.

This almost seemed like a Mediterranean scene we came across, despite the temperature — a large nursery we inadvertently came through from the back, leading to San Timoteo Road.

Stuck at a train crossing. :) This is currently closed to cars while they construct a bridge.