Closing the Gap

It sounds like an urban myth--hiking through the wilds of Los Angeles for days at a stretch, bedding down at night in remote, pristine campsites.

But that’s the idea behind the Backbone Trail, a nearly complete 70-mile trail that hugs the spine of the Santa Monica Mountains from Pacific Palisades to Point Mugu.

November is Backbone Trail Month, and for the next four weekends you can join organized hikes or work parties on the trail. Of course, all this hoopla is designed not only to raise awareness of the trail, but to point out a six-mile gap and a drive to raise funds for completion.

These day hikes, organized by the Sierra Club’s Santa Monica Mountains Task Force, run the gamut. You can opt for a six-mile amble to an 18-mile trek--or for the more adventurous who don’t mind a little bushwhacking, a seven-mile excursion over a new segment of the trail.

The Backbone Trail has been decades in the making. Pieced together from existing trails, fire roads and newly built links, it meanders through a patchwork of public parkland. It takes hikers over wind-swept ridges with sweeping views of the ocean and the inland valley, and deep into oak-studded canyons cut by streams.

Even though the trail is within 15 minutes of more than 1 million residents, it doesn’t get heavy use--especially the kind of use that its backers envision.

“It’s not used as an overall trail,” said Ruth Kilday, executive director of the Mountains Conservancy Foundation, which is spearheading the trail’s completion. It draws day hikers, but not those who see the trail as a backpacking adventure over several days.

Despite the missing link, you can still hike two hefty chunks of the trail. At the east end, a 46-mile stretch runs from Will Rogers State Historic Park in Pacific Palisades to Trancas Canyon.

The six-mile missing link of trail straddles the Los Angeles-Ventura County line, followed by 18 miles of unbroken trail from Circle X Ranch through Point Mugu State Park to the beach at the west end.

For backpackers who crave uninterrupted days of hiking, campgrounds along the route are few and far between with spots in Topanga State Park, Malibu Creek State Park, Circle X Ranch, and at the beach in Point Mugu State Park.

Kilday wants to add more. In fact, a coalition of agencies that spent the last two years studying the trail has recommended that the number of campsites be boosted to a dozen, spaced no more than six miles apart.

If bedding down on the ground exceeds your comfort level, Kilday has hopes for a gentler way for hikers to do the trail: a string of bed-and-breakfast spots. She envisions residents in communities near the trail, like Malibu or Westlake Village, turning their roomy homes into overnight stops for weary hikers.

She thinks it would be appealing to “someone going through the empty nest” syndrome. Of course, zoning changes would be required and some sort of shuttle service provided to cart hikers to the trail.

“For some people a campground is just fine,” Kilday said. Others want a prepared lunch, dinner, a shower and a comfy bed waiting for them at the end of the day. Except for drawing more people to the trail, the bed-and-breakfast approach wouldn’t impact the mountains, she said, because these homes already exist.

But the main push right now is finishing the trail so that hikers can trek from one end to the other. Last year the Mountains Conservancy Foundation launched a drive to raise $4.5 million to purchase the remaining 420 acres and build the six-mile missing link. The goal is to round up the money by 2000 and open the link soon after.

So far, $200,000 in private funds has flowed in with contributors buying literally a foot ($100), a yard ($300), or a signpost ($400) at a time. (Matching government funds are also available.) With their donations, contributors receive a “certificate of ownership.”

“It gives people a sense of pride and ownership,” said Garrie Mar, director of development for the foundation. “It promotes the idea of conservation and stewardship.”

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BE THERE

Here is a list of activities scheduled during November, Backbone Trail Month. (Call for directions to locations and other information.)

Saturday, 8 a.m., trail maintenance work on Dead Horse Trail in Topanga State Park; (213) 222-4600.

Sunday, 8:30 a.m., 8 1/2-mile hike on Fossil Ridge, Saddle Peak and Piuma trails, above Malibu; (818) 716-6918.

Sunday, 8:30 a.m., 7 1/2-mile hike, Tapia Park to Saddle Peak; (310) 398-0774.

Sunday, 8:30 a.m., 11-mile hike, Will Rogers State Historic Park to Deadhorse Trail Head; (310) 559-3128.

Nov. 16, 8:30 a.m., 18-mile hike, Malibu Creek State Park loop with added Upper Solstice-Castro Crest loop; (310) 606-3171.

Nov. 16, 8:30 a.m., six-mile hike, Tapia Park to Dark Canyon, return via Piuma Ridge Trail; (818) 342-2894.

Nov. 23, 8:30 a.m., 6 1/2-mile hike, Tapia Park to Century Lake loop; (818) 716-6918.

Nov. 30, 8:30 a.m., seven-mile hike (new trail section), Newton Canyon to Trancas Canyon; (818) 347-6433.

For more information about the Backbone Trail or these activities, call the Mountains Conservancy Foundation, (310) 589-2400.