#16 September 2003
Welcome to the Foundation’s sixteenth 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. Well, this month we’re recovering from TRAIL DAY 2003 – hope you all had as much fun as we did! A huge thanks to all of you who helped support the TRAIL, and the Foundation, this year!
Maxim of the month
“Time spent doing trail work shall not be deducted from your life!"
Anon.
Trail updates
Additional news from Ranger Gina Brown in Los Penasquitos Canyon, re the closure of the Trail east of Black Mountain Road. Many of you will have noticed that the Trail is now also closed not just up to I-15, but also on into Sabre Springs. Gina spoke with the contractor, 3-D Enterprises, who is removing the old Poway sewer treatment plant, and has thus blocked off the Trail. “The Trail will be closed for about three months because of safety issues," said Gina. “In fact, the complete trail, from I-15 east to Sabre Springs is now closed. They are going to be moving a lot of equipment around and a lot of material. The good news is that they are donating their time and equipment to help us with the Trail. Unfortunately for Trail users, to have a well maintained trail we have to close them sometimes." The good news is that the area will be restored with native plants, and negotiations are underway to try and find a safe route around the ‘danger zone’. We’ll keep you posted!
The California Native Plant Society San Diego Chapter is holding its annual native plant sale on Saturday October 18th at Balboa Park, Casa del Prado Courtyard, in San Diego. The event is open to Society members at 9:15am, and to the public from 10am to 3pm. If you’re not a Society member, never mind, you can join at the event. In addition to Southern California native plants, posters and books on sale, there’s also free advice from experienced chapter members. For more information, please click here, or phone 619-685-7321.
Rreview of TRAIL DAY 2003!
We had a ball! We were thrilled to welcome 127 volunteers to this year’s TRAIL DAY 2003 - an entire camping weekend up at Lake Cuyamaca, based at Los Vaqueros Group Camp, and working on the Conejas Trail. When finished, the Conejas Trail will be a side route from the Sea to Sea Trail to Cuyamaca Peak.
REI once again adopted TRAIL DAY 2003 as its annual Service Project, and the REI team made a huge impact on the Trail, and the Saturday night party!
We also welcomed Trails.com as a lead co-sponsor this year - everyone attending TRAIL DAY 2003 received a FREE Trails.com Trail Finder, giving them complete access to 
30,000 trails and trips! And, of course, the San Diego Mountain Biking Association (SDMBA) was present, not only helping to organize the event, but also in strength as volunteers.
Saturday we worked on the Trail, enjoying breakfast courtesy of JC Resorts’ Rancho Bernado Inn and Starbucks, with lunch gratefully delivered by Subway (Navajo Rd), and liquid refreshment from Gookinaid. A huge thanks to Rancho Cuyamaca State Park’s own Trail Angels, for their guiding care and leading hands! After a great barbecue dinner that night, the Amazing Dana regaled all with his own amazing brand of magic and humor.
Sunday shone with a variety of activities to chose from, including SDMBA-guided mountain biking; a guided hike up Stonewall Peak to capture some of San Diego County’s most awesome views; REI clinics on map reading and using a compass and GPS; and, from our very own Bill Gookin of Gookinaid, a variety of orienteering courses.
Many thanks to all our sponsors of TRAIL DAY 2003’s annual opportunity drawing! This year we had packs from Kelty and Gregory, Nikwax Care Kits, Princeton Tec headlamps, Alpine Beer Company T-shirts, Pacsafe, SDMBA-donated goodies and Hornblower Cruises & Events! Everyone also received a certificate for their participation on National Public Lands Day, as well as NPLD’s fantastic color poster!
And a huge thank you to Frank Motors Toyota for the minibuses to schlep us all around!
This month’s Web site
This month we’re featuring the work of a dedicated trail volunteer, who helps keep trail maintenance alive on a national basis – ‘Campy’. Campy is the PCTA Central California Trail Coordinator, a constant trail worker, and the founder and ‘victim’, as he calls it, of http://www.trailprojects.com. While of course we encourage everyone in San Diego to come and help build and maintain the Sea to Sea Trail, we appreciate that we have many readers from all over the US (and world!) – so get out and support Campy and all those wonderful trail angels who are volunteering to ensure that we all have trails and thus access to the backcountry!
Joint Agency retirements
A fond farewell to two familiar faces who have helped the Sea to Sea Trail/Trans-County Trail to where it is today - John Quirk, Chief Ranger for San Diego Coast State Parks, and Bill Lawrence, Senior Park Ranger for the City of San Diego, are both retiring this month. Hopefully this won’t be the last we see of them! Bill was a tireless team leader for TRAIL DAY 2003 (and 2002) and will remain a familiar face working with the Foundation.
Backpacking light!
Backpacking Light is partnering with GoLite and others to offer next year’s Long Distance Hiking Grants. Backpacking Light will be collaborating with equipment manufacturers to provide both cash and equipment support to individuals or small parties conducting backcountry expeditions that are unique, innovative, and consistent with a lightweight philosophy of human-powered travel. Deadlines for submission of proposals requesting funds for the 2004 calendar year are due November 30, 2003. For more details and a pre-proposal form click here. Good luck!
2003 Water Monitoring Day
Hold the date, folks – October 18 is this year’s World Water Monitoring Day. Last year you all helped make San Diego the US’s largest and most successful Water Monitoring Day – this year we want to do even better and help get even more school children out into the field to learn all about watershed management. San Diego County’s watershed is rich in biological resources and diversity, but much of this has been depleted or is currently threatened – you can help protect it. For more info click here - and we’ll keep you posted on activities coming up.
Extra updated Trail maps
With the trusty help of dedicated volunteers, we’re now offering marked-up USGS topo maps of the Trail as it currently stands. Courtesy of Philip Erdelsky, we’ve now maps from the Pacific Ocean down Oriflamme out in Anza Borrego. Click here to see them. Philip is regularly adding maps to the site, so keep an eye out for his updates.
Trail goodies
Here’s the perfect opportunity to show you care in your support for the Foundation and the Trail, and to tell the world you’ve been out there. For your very own Foundation T-shirts, travel mug, coffee mug, Trail baseball cap and bumper sticker, just click here.
Book now for OE2003 events
Book now for our Outdoors Education 2003 events for middle school children, to be held along the Trail and looking at environmental issues facing San Diego County. For all information on the events, click here. Our OE2003 events now have a very cool flyer – if you’d like copies to distribute at a middle school near you, please e-mail Kristen. NB. Please note that the July 22 event at the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretive Center has been moved to October 18; and the September 14 Los Penasquitos Lagoon event has moved to October 26.
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.
Sign up as a Friend of the Foundation for 2003
To assist us in our ongoing mission, 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.
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.
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.
Did you know?
San Diego County is rated one of the 25 wildlife hot spots in the world.