#10 March 2003

Welcome to the Foundation’s tenth E-News, an end-of-the-month monthly newsletter designed to keep you up-to-date with developments and progress related to the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail. Our big push for April is to find more volunteers for all our programs and projects - and if you’re an ultra runner needing your community service hours, then read on!

Maxim of the month

I’d rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth.
Steve McQueen

Trail updates

Great news for the Sorrento Valley Road section of the Trail, at its western end. February 25th, 2003, the San Diego City Council voted to permanently close Sorrento Valley Road between Carmel Valley Road and Carmel Mountain Road, and to convert the corridor to a bike path/multi-use trail. At the meeting Mayor Murphy and Council member Scott Peters noted that we can’t simply build more roadways to get out of congestion.

Friends of the Foundation and avid hikers Dana Law and Bill Redman recently completed the Anza-Borrego Desert section of the Trail as a two-day backpack. Accompanying them, trying to keep them on the right path, was Kristen Greenaway. While relishing the challenge and beauty of the Trail, we were all concerned at the amount of trash we encountered in the Desert. “We passed countless empty and crushed beer cans, as well as seven mylar party balloons," said Dana. “If desert users go to all that trouble to carry in the full cans into the middle of nowhere, you’d think they be able to take out the lighter empty cans," Bill added. “It just looks awful. And we were amazed at the number of dead balloons. We’ve got to make sure we don’t let go of them after the party!"

Last month we covered the beginnings of the new Trail alignment from the south side of Lake Cuyamaca further south above the 4800’ mark. The current Trail (part of the California Riding & Hiking Trail) runs next to the lake basin through a low-lying meadow that often becomes muddy and practically impassable, especially for mountain bikers. Of even more importance, this lakeside area also harbors two State-listed endangered species. On March 10 and 11, California District Trails Coordinator Jim Dascoulias marked part of a proposed new trail alignment on higher ground, with the help of volunteer Philip Erdelsky. The new alignment runs through Lucky 5 Ranch, which the California Department of Parks & Recreation recently acquired. The new alignment starts on Soapstone Grade Fire Road and runs along chaparral-covered hillsides south and east of an ecologically sensitive meadow. It emerges from the chaparral and runs through the ranch to a point on Sunrise Highway near the Pedro Fages Trail monument. It will afford good views of the lake and adjacent meadows. “Marking the trail was not easy," said Philip. “Especially in the thickets near Soapstone Grade Fire Road. Some of the chaparral is so thick that you have to crawl through or under it. Of course, the vegetation will be cut away when the trail is built." The new alignment still has to be approved by an ecologist and an archaeologist.

Out on the Trail, some of you may have noticed a yellowish orange tangle of vegetation that looks as though it’s ‘blanketing’ its host plant. According to local Trail hiker and education program volunteer John Kordela, “It’s a parasitic plant called California Dodder, or strangler weed. It can grow 10' or more of a massed tangle, with no leaves, though it does produce small white flowers. Stem growth of 3 inches per day has been recorded!"

The wildflowers are finally out this year! Avid Trail hiker Bill Redman has continued sending in his spring flower photos, and his page has been updated at Spring Flowers.

Web site nomination

We’re very proud that the Foundation’s Web site has been nominated as a best trail site for the American Trails organization’s annual contest. Visit American Trails for more details.

Toyota Desert Clean Up

You’ll have read above about the trash found on the eastern section of the Trail, from Fonts Point Wash to the Salton Sea. We’re pleased to announce that Frank Motors Toyota is sponsoring a Desert Clean Up drive for Sunday March 30 to clean up all of that trash. A number of 4-wheel drives will be scouring this section of the Trail, which runs along a series of jeep washes, to ensure we leave a clean Trail, and Desert, for you all! California State Parks has also kindly donated the use of a small dump truck to collect all found trash. If you’d like to join us, either in your own 4-wheeler or as a passenger/picker-upper, them please e-mail Kristen ASAP.

Congress approves trails’ funding

Congress has completed its FY 2003 funding package for the remaining months of this fiscal year (which started in October). In order to meet strict new targets set by the Bush Administration, Congress cut Interior spending. Conservation and recreation spending did not fare well, but some trail programs held steady. The Conservation Trust (Title VIII) was funded about $200 million below last year’s $1.32 billion. In particular, the Land & Water Conservation Fund, an important source of funding for parks and trails, saw significant cuts.

Forest Service Recreation Management received a modest increase. National scenic trails including the Continental Divide and Florida Trail received crucial operations and construction funding. The Florida and Pacific Crest Trails received $3 million each from the Land & Water Conservation Fund for critical trail protection projects. All Forest Service construction money, land acquisition money and Fee Demo funds diverted to fire suppression in FY 2002 will be restored.

The National Park Service received an overall $78.5 million increase for national park operations, but national trails received either base funding or only slight increases.

New alliance with the National Wildlife Federation

You’ll be seeing a lot more about our new alliance with the NWF in future issues of E-News and on the Web site. Working with the nation’s largest member-supported conservation group, we’re developing plans to increase the number of native habitats along the length of the Trail, utilizing as much local community support as possible. Watch this space!

New alliance with VolunTours™

Ever wondered what all those conference goers coming to San Diego could do in their spare time? David Clemmons, founding partner of VolunTours™ has come up with the perfect answer – offer them volunteer activities around the County and not only put them to work for the community, but give them a great local experience as well. The Foundation is now a newly signed supporter of VolunTours™ and we’ll be offering opportunities for individuals, companies and business travelers to make a difference out on the Trail.  

Team building opportunities for your employer

If your company wants to try something a little different in terms of team building or undertaking a local service community project, then the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail could well be just the resource you’re looking for! What better way to bring people together and make a difference for the community and for the environment by working to protect native habitats, plant trees, and build a recreational resource for San Diego County. For more details on how we can help your company achieve something meaningful, please e-mail Kristen for further details.

Make your own Trail maps!

Want to customize your own maps of the Trail? Well, now you can. We’ve partnered with MapCard and MyTopo to bring you the latest nationwide US Geological Survey topographic maps and aerial photos, lake contour data, road and highway overlays, public land survey data, and an impressive suite of annotation tools. In fact, the editors at Backpacker magazine awarded MapCard its Editors’ Choice Award for Best New Product of 2003, saying “The best one-stop map shop we’ve seen is as close as your home computer." MapCard offers subscribers the ability to customize, save and print unlimited topos and air photos. With this link, you can take a free 24-hour test drive. The site has a terrific set of annotation tools enabling you to draw trails, insert text, mark waypoints from your GPS device, etc. on your own map. Try it out by clicking here. And for an example of a customized MapCard map, check out the map on Trail Tours. If you subscribe to MapCard and MyTopo from the Foundation’s Web site, you help support the Foundation.

Trail Tours launched!

We’re launching our first series of Trail Tours! Outdoors enthusiast and Friend of the Foundation Gene Dixon will be leading our first tour along the section of the Sea to Sea Trail from the I-15 to Springhurst Ridge. Click here for all Trail Tour details, and for a (MyTopo) map. If you would like to join the Trail Tour volunteer team, and lead a hike, bike or horse ride along your favorite section of the Trail, please e-mail Kristen.

Many of the major ultra races now require their runners to have earned a certain number of community service hours to be able to enter the race. Typically, this will be either doing trail maintenance and construction or volunteering in another ultra race. We’ve already had two ultra runners achieve their hours with us - Dave Capron and Bruce Kocka - and they’ll attest that we’ve got lots of opportunities for ultra runners (and anyone else!) to join us on our weekend Trail Work Days. Please e-mail Kristen for further information.

Call for Trail volunteers!

We need more volunteers out on the Trail! 118 of you turned up for Trail Day 2002 and we hope had a great time, took home some great prizes and had a lot of good food – and made a huge difference. We want to see you all again before Trail Day 2003! We have a fantastic band of volunteers who faithfully turn up on Trail workdays – we salute you guys! – but we need to see more of you out there to ensure we get the job done, and you can get out and enjoy yourselves on a safe, complete Trail.

To encourage more volunteers we’ve come up with an idea that may encourage you to help us out. To be eligible for September’s Trail Day 2003, which will be an even bigger event than last year, spread over a two-day camping weekend, we ask that you either contribute two Sunday mornings to working out on the Trail before September, or sign up as 2003 Friend of the Foundation, for only $35. Please e-mail Kristen for further details, or click here to be a Friend – we now take plastic!

Trail days – the work goes on!

We’ve made some great progress on the section of Trail in Sabre Springs we’ve recently been working on. With a hardy band of volunteers, the water-damaged and weed-covered Trail is beginning to look brand new. There’s still more work to do, though, and we’d love to see as many of you as possible out with us on Sundays April 13 and 27 and May 11 and 25, at 0830. If we’ve finished this section of Trail before May, we’ll move on to another section.

Please e-mail Kristen if you would like to join us on these dates, and for directions. And a big thanks to Bill Gookin, who regularly pops up to not only give us a hand, but also to quench our thirst with his fabulous Gookinaid (http://www.gookinaid.com).

Stelzer Park clean-up

While just north of the Trail, Stelzer Park is keen to accommodate ten to 15 volunteers to help clean up the rubbish left by an illegal encampment. We’ll be working on Sunday April 6, from 0830 to 1230. Please e-mail Kristen if you would like to join us.

Tree planting along the Trail

Join us for a morning of tree planting on Saturday, April 12, on a section of Trailhead in south Poway. For more details, please e-mail Kristen.

New grant from REI

We’re thrilled that REI is continuing to help support the Foundation for 2003. Not only is the leading outdoors retailer helping us buy necessary trail working tools, but it’s also sponsoring the Foundation’s ‘Learning out on the Trail’ program. This is a new program for 2003, dedicated to those interested in the Trail and the outdoors, teaching hands-on outdoors-learning experiences. This will include on-the-Trail, and at REI, classes in map reading, compass and GPS, biking skills, basic and more advanced camping and general hiking skills for children, families, women’s and community groups. If you’re interested in being a program volunteer and sharing your skills in the outdoors, using great REI equipment, please contact Kristen.

Sally Ride Science Festivals

The Foundation will be hosting two workshops at the Sally Ride Science Festival on March 29, at Caltech. Anyone interested in volunteering and helping us out at the workshops, please contact Kristen. For more information on the Sally Ride Science Festivals, check out their Web site.

Ride Anza-Borrego Desert and see the wildflowers

The last time I was on a horse (I could never be good enough to call it ‘riding’) was 13 years ago in the desert behind Giza searching for out-of-the-way pyramids. Galloping 90mph I was thrown head over heels and left walking for three hours with only a hot sun and rolling sand dunes in every direction. Sandra Thorpe, owner of Smoketree Arabian Horse Rental down in Borrego Springs, assured me that I wasn’t going to have to relive my memorable experience, however exotic. As she and fellow guide Roger (a Brit from Birmingham who knew better winter weather when he saw it) led me away on one of Sandra’s western pleasure horses, I knew that this must be one of the best ways to explore Anza-Borrego and see the wildflowers for myself. Our two-hour ride was terrific. Not only did we follow parts of the Sea to Sea Trail and see the Desert finally coming into bloom, but Sandra also showed me one of her favorite secrets of Anza-Borrego – a rarely visited petrified forest. Want to join Sandra for yourself? Visit her Web site, or phone her on (760) 767-5850.

Carrizo Gorge Railway

While a few miles south of the Sea to Sea Trail, we’re helping to advise hikers and bikers that the Carrizo Gorge Railway is now an ACTIVE railroad. Dave Slater, spokesperson for the Carrizo Gorge Railway, contract operators of the San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway, said “We run trains throughout the system as well as in the Gorge at all hours of the day and night. We’re in the process of reopening the tunnels and the line through the Gorge, and all the way to Plaster City where we interchange with the Union Pacific Railroad." Dave said they’ve had many near misses with people on the property, and on and along the railroad tracks. “When people pit themselves against trains and other rail mounted equipment, they lose, every time," he said. “We’ve come very close to running over people on bridges, in tunnels and just along the tracks. Our first concern is safety." For further information, visit their Web site or e-mail the general manager, Geoffrey Scheuerman. The number for the main office is (619) 943 1943.

Sign up to the Foundation’s eScrip Program!

As another way of raising money for the Foundation’s education program, we’re thrilled we’ve been accepted into the national eScrip Program. Many of you, especially those with school-aged children, may be already familiar with eScrip. eScrip’s a hassle-free way for non-profits such as the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail Foundation that support children’s programs to raise funds through everyday purchases made at eScrip merchants.

eScrip and over 150 merchant partners have created a system that rewards customer loyalty by contributing a percentage of purchases to your chosen group. You shop the way you like to shop (grocery shopping, buying clothes, travel and entertainment). It’s simple, safe and convenient; all you need to do is register your grocery club card and debit/credit card(s). It’s also simple to register:
• Log on to http://www.escrip.com/ and go to ‘sign up’ (orange bar at the top), or e-mail Kristen for details.
• Designate the Foundation to receive contributions. Our Group ID is #150734477.
• Register your grocery club card from a participating merchant, your Chevron card and your debit/credit cards.

And that’s it! Visit eScrip merchants to shop and earn. It’s automatic! For more information, just click here.

Celebrating Earth Day 2003

As a feature of this year’s Earth Day celebrations, the sixth annual Rancho Bernardo Industrial Park’s Environmental Fair is scheduled for Thursday, April 24, 2003, from 10:00am to 1:00pm. It will be held in Sony’s parking lot located on the corner of Via del Campo and Via Esprillo.

Five major employers in the area host the Environmental Fair: BAE SYSTEMS, Hewlett-Packard, Phogenix Imaging, Sony, and UNISYS. Collectively, these five companies employ close to 7,000 highly skilled professionals and assembly line workers, specializing in applying leading edge technology to the design, development, manufacture, and support of quality electronic systems for sophisticated commercial, personal and military products. From past experience, over 2,000 employees are expected to attend the event.

The Foundation will be exhibiting at the Fair, complete with climbing wall from RockRental.com, and we’re looking for volunteers to help support our table and the climbing wall with us. Please contact Kristen for further details.

Education program update

‘Outdoors Education 2003’ is well into its final planning stages and should be a very successful series of middle school children’s educational events. With a founding grant from the Alice C Tyler Perpetual Trust, the six events will be held along various points of the Trail, focusing on environmental and land use issues. The events and their dates are:

• Desert life: Anza-Borrego Desert, Visitor Center, May 4
• Fire and meadow ecology, and mountain lions: Cuyamaca, June 1
• Trail history and life with the Kumeyaay Indians: Poway, June 22
• Coastal wetlands: Los Penasquitos Lagoon, September
• Water management: Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve (to be held as part of Water Monitoring Day, October 2003, includes 18,000 schoolchildren)
• Bird life and Salton Sea issues: Salton Sea, November 9.

At each symposium, children will work with experts in their field to learn and complete related projects. An important feature of each event will also be the opportunity for attendees to learn about career paths and interact with real scientists and researchers.

If you have middle school children interested in attending one of the events, or would like to volunteer at the events, please contact Kristen.

High-tech giving

We’ve done it! We’ve got our on-line credit card facilities up and running. Too tired to write out a check and want to save 37c? Then go plastic when you sign up as a Friend of the Foundation, or adopt a Tree or Mile. See below!

Sign up as a Friend of the Foundation or renew your membership for 2003

We’re very keen for our valuable supporters for 2002, to look on their Friends donation as an annual membership to the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail Foundation. To assist us in our ongoing mission, feel free to renew your membership for 2003, or join up as a Friend of the Foundation, by clicking here and helping us make it all happen! And don’t forget to check out our valued Supporters page.

Adopt a Tree out on the Trail!

Adopting a tree – a native California Oak or Sycamore – along the route of the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail is a gift for a 1,000 years. Not only is it a wonderful gift for someone close to you, or even for yourself, but it is an excellent way to help support the building and maintenance of the Trail. And importantly it helps preserve and add to the Trail’s native habitats. All for $100.

Adopting a tree is easy. We do all the work for you, working with the agencies along the Trail to identify the planting sites, order the five-gallon trees, plant and care for the planting sites. And for your support, we’ll send you or your loved ones, a certificate of their adoption. For more information, just click here.

National Trails Day 2003

June 7 is National Trails Day 2003, and this year’s theme is ‘Healthy Trails, Healthy People’. Months away yet, but we want to make sure you mark this day on your calendar and keep it free. We’ll be hosting some great event and we’d love for you to join us! Keep an eye on our Events page for more info.

Trail Trips for day or weekend adventures

The San Diego Sea to Sea Trail is not only an amazing thru-trail, it’s also an excellent opportunity to get out-and-about for a day or weekend adventure. Whether you’re a hiker, biker or equestrian - or a mixture of the three - there’s something for everyone, for all levels of experience, on the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail.

A new page on the Web site is dedicated to giving you as many ideas as possible to make the most of your time on and around the Trail. Where else in the world can you experience such a range of environment in just 140 miles?! Click here for the second Trail Trip.

We’re also hosting a quarterly competition, sponsored by Gregory Mountain Products, if you would like to make your own Trail Trip submissions. More details below.

Trail Trips competition, sponsored by Gregory Mountain Products

Here’s a great new competition, and a quarterly chance to win some terrific prizes from Gregory Mountain Products. We’re looking for exciting all-levels, multi-use ideas for getting out on the Trail for day or weekend hikes, using hikes, bikes or horses, or a mixture of the three. These could be activities directly following the Trail, or variations based around the Trail. All contributions will go into a quarterly draw to win a cool Gregory pack, courtesy of Gregory Mountain Products. Deadline for the first quarter competition is March 31, 2003. Click here for all our competitions and Trail Trip submission instructions.And another competition!

Just to keep you on your toes and kick into your latent exploring mode, we’ve launched the quarterly ‘Where is it on the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail’ competition. Every quarter, we’ll show a photo of an object that can be found somewhere on the Trail. All you have to do is tell us where it is. We put all the correct entries into a draw, and the winner collects. Check out this quarter’s photo, and start hunting!

Anza-Borrego Desert temperatures

Planning a trip in the desert sections of the Trail or to see the wildflowers and want to know the average annual temperatures in Borrego? Just click here.

Traveling?

If so, try Orbitz.com. Just click here and then click on the Orbitz button. Every time you make a travel reservation of any sort, the Foundation receives a commission. That means more of the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail can be built and maintained for your enjoyment, and more of its environmental and historical treasures can be preserved for future generations.

Salton Sea info

If you’ve been following the media with the machinations of the Californian water deal from the Colorado River, you’ll appreciate that the Salton Sea is under some threat. Donated by the Salton Sea Authority and the Salton Sea Restoration Project, we have a number of flyers containing all you wanted to know about this amazing inland sea but were too afraid to ask. If you’d like copies, please e-mail Kristen and we’ll mail them out to you.

Schools Community Service Credit

If you know of anyone who needs to collect credits for their community service projects, then we may be just the right project for them. We’ve got lots of opportunities for students to join us on Trail Work Days in the weekends. And if there’s an entire group or class who would like to get out on the Trail working as a team, we can arrange a workday just for them, any day of the week. The teams will by fully supervised by Rangers (as are all our workdays), and it’s a great outdoors experience! Our Volunteer Program Application Form can be found by clicking here, and includes a section specifically for California Schools Community Service Credit. Please e-mail Kristen for further information.

Become a Friend of the Foundation for just $35 annually

Like most good causes, it all costs money! For a minimum of $35 annually, you can become a Friend of the Foundation and help us in our commitment to not only creating an outdoor resource for hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians and disabled adventurers from around the world, but also a living resource for Trail users to learn about the wildlife and history of this beautiful California region. Click here and help us make it all happen!

The San Diego Sea to Sea Trail Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, making your donation tax-free.

Did you know?

The San Diego Sea to Sea Trail starts at its east end 228’ below sea level, tops out at 4,800’ above sea level, and finishes at its west end at sea level.