MTB Bill has some interesting commentary on this little-known trail system that never lived up to its potential.

http://www.mountainbikebill.com/blog/?p=1455

...and info from State Parks:

http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/1324/files/april%2009%20crtc%20crht%20report.pdf

I used to have a web link to an organization trying to revive it -- I think they may have moved to FB. I'll add that later.

_________________
Thus, if we are to understand the world, we should live somewhere between judgement and amazement — Alfredo Lopez Austin

^^^ Good info ODD - thanks for sharing. I'll be very interested to see further details as they emerge.
I ride several of the segments located in Hollenbeck and Otay, but I see from the KML, there are many more areas/portions to explore - actually, the indicated trail/path runs a hard-spit distance away from my house.

I spent quite a bit of time this spring on the CRHT segments between Mt Laguna and Sloane Canyon. Most segments are in good shape, but some segments have all but disappeared. Trail markings are generally spotty, but it's always reassuring to find a random sign along the way. I did see the trail leading out of Sloane toward Hollenbeck, but I haven't ridden that section.

There's a section of CRHT that goes through the Wilderness area in Cuyamaca, between S Boundary Fire Road (if I remember) and Viejas Blvd in Descanso. Because of the Wilderness designation, bikes can't ride that section anymore. And, having been out there myself (on foot of course), I have to say that the trail surface in that segment has been pretty well beat to crap by horses and it would be a thankless PITA to ride.

I tried the Facebook page that ODD mentioned, but it seems like it's gone quiet. There's an equestrian organization that was trying to revive the trail system. Could be that they would like some help.

That section - south out of Sloane Canyon - is fairly unremarkable, following along Beaver Hollow Rd. most of the time, with a few swings onto what looks like private property easements... I'm guessing that very few riders or hikers, of any type, have been seen around those parts lately and may not be entirely welcome where the trail runs close to dwellings. After that, it runs through my hood and isn't very interesting until you get over to the top of Hollenbeck. One section I'm curious about is behind the Skydive Field on the southeast side of lower Otay, over to the dam - I've been told by City workers at the lake that it's off-limits... perhaps one of those access disputes that MTB Bill mentions in his write-up.

Also, thanks for the link fuse - very informative article, and a good indication of the shared pain regarding trail access issues.

I had access to that area as a boy. Back then, the lake was much smaller, and one could just walk from Otay Lakes road, in the dirt pullout with the 'Eucs by Upper Otay dam straight across what is now lake...we called it "cow-flop meadow" after all the cowshit patties there. Otay ranch grazed cattle on all of that land that's now submerged.

There's not a lot of interesting stuff there....there was a fishermans' trail around what was once the lakes' north shore, which is roughly level with the Olympic watercraft center. That's all there was to Lower Otay 55 years ago. I caught the first fish of my life.. a Bluegill, right next to the water tower down by the dam. Back then you could walk around that tower..literally. It was high and dry. We accessed the eastern land by both walking across Cowflop Meadow and also by simply walking across the dam itself... that was permitted back before the terror-bogieman reshaped our way of looking at the world. The only stuff that was cool for me over there as a kid was an old adobe wall foundation on the hillside above the east side of the dam, and in the sheer face of the cliff immediately behind the dam, on the west side, an old mineshaft that went into the hillside for quite a ways.

Back in those days, access to upper Otay was completely restricted.

Aside from that, just a whole lotta rattlers. And the fire road. No smaller trails extending up towards Otay Mtn. or on the smaller peak that is adjacent to the dam.

I heard that McMillan has development rights/plans to that as well, but there is also some kind of preserve status on that land.....I wonder who will win out on that little contest?

The only sure bet there is on who the LOSERS will be. .........We, the People.

Right now, as Otay is, pertaining to trails, it's a lot better than when I was a kid...many more trail-miles now than then. I can't go target shooting out there anymore, but that's basically impossible anywhere in the county except on a designated target range. I figger that just goes along with having an extra 2.5 million neighbors.

_________________
Scum on a Bike

^^^ That's cool stuff Ray - thanks for sharing your personal story!
Sounds like, back in the day, the Lake was damn-near just a puddle...

It was literally 100 feet below the spillways on the dam....we used love having fun by pulling up the slack on those spillways' gate chains, and then dropping them. The resultant noise would really piss off the hundreds and hundreds of swallows that lived and roosted and nested in them.

_________________
Scum on a Bike