Sea to Sea Trail designed to be "America's Winter Trail" By LAURA MITCHELL
Sunday, February 16, 2003 10:00 PM PST
Staff Writer
"America's Winter Trail" from the Pacific Ocean to the Salton Sea is almost completed and ready for hiking and limited biking and equestrian riding.
The Sea to Sea Trail is on federal and state land from the Pacific Ocean at Torrey Pines State Beach through Los Penasquitos Canyon Reserve, Sycamore Canyon Open Space Preserve to the 3,675-foot peak of El Cajon Mountain and Lake Cuyamaca to Borrego Springs and the Salton Sea.
"Nowhere else in the world can you see this variety of flora and fauna, geology, geography and biology within 140 miles of trail," Sea to Sea Trail Foundation vice president Kristen Greenaway said.
Greenaway has lived and hiked all over the world, starting in her native New Zealand. She's sailed yachts around the coast of Turkey and climbed mountains in Peru, Kazakhstan, the French and Swiss Alps and Nepal.
She hopes to promote the Sea to Sea Trail as America's winter trail because many popular trails, such as the Appalachian Trail, can't be hiked in the winter.
"But in winter you can do the trail here," Greenaway said.
The foundation plans to have the trail completed by 2006 with bed and breakfast facilities built along the way by 2010, she said.
The idea for a smaller 110-mile trail started in 1992 with a group of nine state and San Diego-area government agencies. It expanded when Jim Hagey, now the foundation's president, went to the city of San Diego with the idea of connecting the trail to the Salton Sea, Greenaway said.
The goal is to increase tourism without ruining the open space, she said.
"We're very keen on working with the chambers of commerce," Greenaway said.
Salton City resident and Imperial County Planning Commissioner Norm Niver has been working with the foundation on the educational programs.
Niver said he hopes local schools will be able to plan field trips along the trail where students can learn about natural resources.
Greenaway said the foundation is sponsoring six educational seminars along the trail this year. The first starts at the Salton Sea on April 6. The second is at the Anza-Borrego State Park visitors center May 4.
One advantage of this trail is it has at least 20 trail-heads, or places where hikers can park their cars and walk onto the trail, she said.
"The beauty of that is you are five minutes from your car but you're in the middle of nature," Greenaway said.
People can hike parts of the trail section by section until it is complete.
The abundance of trail-heads helps with another foundation goal: to open the trails and lodges as much as possible to the physically disabled, she said.
The foundation hopes to have interpretive signs along the trail describing its natural and historical resources, Greenaway said.
One of the trail's most beautiful places is at the top of a nine-mile hike from Highway 22 to Borrego Springs along the California Riding and Hiking Trail. The trail climbs out of Culp Valley to a vista point with views of the Santa Rosa Mountains, Borrego Springs and the Salton Sea, she said.
The trail is complete except for two sections in San Diego County near El Cajon mountain, Greenaway said. Not all sections of the trail are open to mountain bikes and equestrian riding, so check before making plans.
Anyone hiking the trail, no matter what time of year, should wear sunscreen, protective clothing, a hat and bring plenty of water. There is not much natural shade or many places to refill water bottles along the trail, she said.
"We say ‘slip, slap and slop' to remind people to slip on a T-shirt, slap on a hat and slop on the sunscreen," Greenaway said.
Even with all her hiking experience, she said the desert climate was a shock.
"I could feel my contact lenses shriveling in my eyes," Greenaway said.
And with children on the trail, make sure they drink plenty of water because they won't ask for it on their own, she said.
>> For more information, visit the foundation's Web site at: www.seatoseatrail.org
>> Staff Writer Laura Mitchell can be reached at 337-3452 or lauramitchell9@yahoo.com
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