Welcome to the Foundation’s seventh 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.
Holiday greetings!
A very merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and best of the New Year from everyone at the Foundation! 2003 the next Annual Holiday Party!
This year’s Holiday Party was such a success, we’re just going to have to hold another next year. So be warned!
We were thrilled to adopt out a number of trees, as well as a couple of miles; and we welcomed another group of Friends to the Foundation. Thanks for all your support, folks!
Many thanks to our hosts Luce Forward who generously sponsored the event for us, with Board member Phil Jelsma (partner with the firm) and Friend of the Foundation, Shawn Payment (Office manager).
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.
Volunteer of the month award!
Hats off to Mandy Oglesby, out on the road as lead support for the Twin Team on their three-day bike/hike of the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail. Here’s an e-mail we received this month:
To whom it may concern;
On the night of December 1st I was broken down on the 94 east freeway in the fast lane. I had a flat tire and it was quite terrifying. A very kind young lady pulled over and ordered me back into the car while she changed the tire and sent me on my way. I do not remember her name, but she had a sticker with this Web address on the side of her gray SUV. She was very sweet and an excellent representative for you and your organization. Please give her my thanks!
Sincerely,
Sharon Kyler
Tick alert!
Look after yourself and your pets out on all trails this season. Conducting lab tests on ticks and a wild rabbit, the Department of Health has found the disease, tularemia. Also known as rabbit fever, tularemia can be transferred to humans through tick bites, drinking foul water or by handling infected animal carcasses. Symptoms of the disease include fever, an ulcer at the bite area, inflamed eyes and swollen, painful lymph glands. We encourage you to wear light-colored clothing, long pants and long-sleeved shirts. You could also apply insect repellent to clothing and shoes. For more information on trail safety, including ticks, click here.
Take only photos…
This could be the outdoors photo competition of 2003 for San Diego County, if not the entire USA! - ‘Take Only Photos’. Based on life on and around the Trail, there’ll be 13 prize opportunities with thousands of dollars worth of prizes. Twelve winners will have their shots published as the online San Diego Sea to Sea Trail’s calendar, and the final winner’s photo (of the 12) will be the Trail’s official poster. Prizes to date include a complete Yakima roof rack system, $100 Gulf Coast Grill gift certificate, four Ultimate Passes to all Balboa Park’s museums and galleries, a full suspension mountain bike and hot air balloon passes. For more information and entry forms, click here.
Renowned ‘Twin Team’ out on the Trail!
You may remember from last month’s E-News that the famed Twin Team was to hike and bike the entire Trail from east to west over the Thanksgiving break. Well, they pretty much did the entire trip in the three days planned, their only break having to come back down the eastern side of El Cajon as the bushwacking got just too thick and the night just too dark.
For a great review of their adventure, prepared by lead support Mandy Oglesby, run your cursor to the downloadable file at the very bottom of this page.
Trail days – the work goes on!
We’re so nearly there! There’s hardly anything now to finish off the Trail section in Los Penasquitos Canyon from Black Mountain Road to the I-15. To make a difference and have some fun, join us for the next Trail workdays on January 5 and 19. Check-in time is 0830 at the Rangers’ trailers off Black Mountain Road. Please note that we’re back to Sundays. E-mail Kristen if you would like to join us and for directions.
Work was canceled December 21 as the rains swept away bridges 2 and 3 (and we can’t find #3 yet!). “As the region is so soggy," says Los Penasquitos Ranger Gina Brown, “the entire Los Penasquitos Preserve has been closed til we get a good stretch of dry weather. The trails are very muddy and very soft. If we let people in it causes a lot of damage to the trails. Also, our policy is that no vehicle, not even a Ranger’s, can enter the Preserve after a rain. That means no emergency response, therefore we have to keep people out to keep them safe." We’ll keep you updated on its reopening. STOP PRESS: The Preserve has now reopened! And volunteer and Friend of the Foundation, Shawn Payment, has found bridge 3, 30 yards downstream on the western shore! But the two eastern bridges aren’t yet back in place, so it may be a bit tricky getting through this section.
Trail days – new section!
We have a new section of Trail that urgently needs our attention. Working with the City of San Diego Park & Recreation Department Open Space Division, we’re going to be focusing our efforts in Sabre Springs, from Springhurst Drive to the top of the hill as you head east (Thomas Guide p1190 A6). It’s only about a quarter of a mile, but there’s been some serious erosion with the last few rains, and we need to rebuild the Trail so it doesn’t get any worse.
Planned Trail Days are February 9 and 23, and March 9 and 23. This will be a lot of fun, and we’d love to see as many of you out there as possible. We even have plans to make the March 23 date a real wopper ‘Trail Day’. Please e-mail Kristen if you would like to join us and for directions.
Web pages you can add to
The Trail’s Web site is your Web site, and there’re a number of pages we’d love to get your contribution to. Done any of the Trail and want to share it with others? Then have a look here and tell us all about it. Following our Trail Directions and have some advice? Let us know. You’ve a special book (or two) that inspired you to get out into the great outdoors? Then click here and let us know yours.
In the News
We hit the pages of Backpacker magazine this month (and they call it the February issue?)! Page 58 if you have your own issue. There’s also a great article on the ‘pure wander’ of the Trail in the latest issue of San Diego Outdoors. For these and all our coverage, click here.
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 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
Like most good causes, it all costs money! For a minimum of $35 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?
During World War II, the US Army dropped dummy atomic bombs into the Salton Sea in practice runs prior to the bombing of Hiroshima.
