Greetings from the La Cañada Flintridge Trails Council,
This year, we are celebrating our 50th year of incorporation, and what an exciting year we have planned. Our community is unique for having both trails and an organization to preserve them.
Our Trail Council stewards 23 miles of trails and bridle paths that wind through the homes and hills of La Cañada Flintridge. Our purpose is to preserve the trails and raise awareness about them. We partner with the City of La Cañada Flintridge and the County of Los Angeles on trail maintenance. On occasion, the Trails Council has applied for Southern California Edison grants to assist with trail repairs. Of course, nothing happens without our greatest asset, our community. It takes a village to keep our trail system natural and healthy for future generations.
The 50th celebration will begin with a quarterly newsletter and an active blog on our website. There are so many stories to tell. Our history goes back to before the city of La Cañada Flintridge was incorporated with many visionary leaders who did remarkable things. One example is when the Trails Council along with City leadership worked together to complete a 12-mile continuous city trail loop around our town. The loop was final completed by working with Cal-Trans on one final segment a walking bridge across the I-210 Freeway!!! That is a story worth hearing.
This year, a new trail segment, the Sister City Friendship Path, will be added to the network improving access to Cherry Canyon. The path will run along the northwest of Descanso Gardens property. Designed as a multi-use trail for hikers, cyclists, equestrians, and dog walkers, the trail rises gently from the valley floor through shaded oak groves, providing unique vistas of our town, eventually intersecting with the Descanso Trail above the lower switchbacks. This project has been in development for over five years, and we are happy to report that is scheduled to be open by early Spring 2024.
This year, the Trails Council, due to popular demand but mostly because not many people still own a DVD player, will be posting a video that charts the Trails from its first steps to what we enjoy today. The video shows several familiar faces and provides rich historical footage of La Cañada Flintridge that is worth seeing.
We also want the public to share stories and pictures about your own trail experiences. This can be done through our website, LCFTrails.org, or by sending an email directly to info@lcftrails.org . This will also insure you get future newsletters about trail activities and calls for support. The community is our best ally and the eyes and ears for trail maintenance.
Mother Nature never stops molding the landscape. Rain and windstorms cause erosion and downed trees impede access, but through your donations we are able to participate in partnering with the City to look after our trails and continue to keep them open and enjoyed by all. If you have donated in the past we thank you and ask you to consider donating again in celebration of our 50th year anniversary of stewardship! If you haven’t donated, we ask you to consider joining the cause, together we can and have made a difference. Donations I n the past have been used to assist in improvements or to come expedite repairs following a recent storm, or as a primer to get work projects started with our partners. Please consider becoming a member of the Trails Council on our Donation page.
The Trails Council thanks you for all your care and support. We look forward to seeing you on the trails.
Yours truly,
Tom Reynolds – President, LCF Trails Council