Historic Mt. Wilson Toll Road reopening soon

Great news in today's Pasadena Star-News.
By Janette Williams, Staff Writer


Sheila Walker of Los Angeles, in the background, and Jose Rodriguez of Pasadena, hike on the new section of trail on the Mt. Wilson Toll Road Thursday August 6, 2009. A massive landslide closed the trail as a result of El Nino rains four years ago and hikers have been waiting for repair work to be completed. The gate on Pinecrest Drive is now opened for hikers and bicyclists while last touches of work are still being done near the Pinecrest Drive gate down to the bridge. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Walt Mancini)



Pasadena, CA-After nearly five years and $1.48 million, work on the Mt. Wilson Toll Road is nearly completed and the historic trail is just a few weeks away from reopening, say county fire officials supervising the project.
"Although a lot of deadlines come and go, barring any unforeseen problems, something's going to happen" in the next week or so, said Kevin Johnson, assistant chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Forestry Division, which supervised the six-month project.
No re-opening celebration is planned, Johnson said, but Guy Walters,an avid mountain-biker who lives in the neighborhood, said a "little ribbon-cutting ceremony" would be good.
"Kevin Johnson should pat himself on the back a little," he said, adding that just getting the funding was an achievement.
"In these hard times, it was pretty impressive. They knew exactly what they were doing," Walters said.
Crews excavated 12 feet below the historic 100-year-old road - originally a track widened to get the 100-inch Mt. Wilson telescope up to the observatory - and built it back up in compacted layers using wire-mesh baskets specially designed to hold the soil.
After a month of preparation, crews started work in March, first removing thousands of tons of earth that came down during record El Ni o rains of 2004-05. "It went pretty smoothly. We didn't really encounter any problems," Johnson said. "There were some little glitches on the big slide.
We had to change the course of the road slightly, but that was a quick fix that didn't amount to much and other than that everything's gone along to plan."
The project was funded by a $1.48-million Federal Emergency Management Agency grant Pasadena applied for, with the agreement that the Los Angeles County Consolidated Fire Protection District would do the work. The department uses the toll road as an access road to the Henninger Flats ranger station.

Opening up the steep, 3.75-mile trail can't come soon enough for hikers and mountain-bikers like Walters, who regularly rides to the Pinecrest Gate, the trail's entry point, to check on how things are going.
"They've done a tremendous job, it looks fantastic," he said. "It looks as though it's going to last another 100 years. It wasn't another Band Aid-type fix. Many times in the past they've had little landslides here and there and used a tractor to clear them up. This is the full effort to make sure it stays in shape a long time."
Helen Wong, superintendent for Eaton Canyon Nature Center and Natural Area, said "every single" weekend people come in and ask when the trail will be open. "Lots of folks like that hike. It's a nice uphill - three and three-quarter-miles from the parking lot to the top," she said. "If you look at the Thomas Guide, you see we're surrounded by cities you can get here from in twenty minutes. It's convenient, it has the right elements, and there's a beautiful view when you get up there."



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I miss the toll road. At one time it was the hardest ride I'd ever done. I'll be going up soon.

 

I remember thinking the same thing. And, the toll road to Henninger was my first ever night ride.

 

That is good news.

 

Gate at Pinecrest was closed this late afternoon.

and whatddup with the parking signs? 2 hour max on weekdays and no parking weekends?

 

When they give an official opening date, I'd be happy to ride it on the first day!

 

I miss this place so bad. I can't explain how happy I feel just to know it's re-opening soon. Thanks for the update. I hope I get to see some of the older hikers and docents I've met years ago. Really cool people.

 

Sweet

Nice to have this available again.

 

Nice......

 

They've been working hard on this all summer. I drive by about once a week and check on progress. Gate was open early last week but road was inpassable due to work being done just before the bridge. This was the road I started riding on when I first began mtn biking. It was less then a mile away from my house and was my early morning work out (to Henniger). I remember being pissed-off if we didn't make it to Henniger in under 30 mins. I'd be dancing if I made it up there in under 40 now. lol! With this nice weather, I have a feeling my tires will be tasting the toll road very soon.

 

haHa ha yeah when i was 32, i was clocking in at 26 min. fast guys were doin' 18 min

at 52, i am sure i'll be hard pressed to hit 40 min. maybe 36 min if i wind up the HR to max max

 

(copied from La times without permission).
Mt. Wilson road, closed since '05, is about to reopen

Work clearing debris from rain-triggered landslides may be completed this weekend on the popular hiking route above Pasadena.

• Related
• 
• Mt. Wilson trail to reopen soon

By Corina Knoll August 20, 2009 | 5:59 p.m.


For decades, outdoor enthusiasts would trudge the nearly nine-mile climb through the craggy foothills above Pasadena, following the same worn trail that workers used to haul the large telescopes to the Mt. Wilson observatory a century ago.

But rain-triggered landslides buried portions of the popular path, and the Mt. Wilson Toll Road was closed to the public in 2005. Now, after six months of construction and roadwork, the historic route is close to reopening.

"It's a wide open road and you don't have to worry about poison oak or unexpectedly running into a rattlesnake," said Altadena resident Alissa Motta, who is among hikers who have already enjoyed the restored path despite the "closed" signs that remain posted at the trail head in Altadena.

The path to the summit of Mt. Wilson is more road than trail, and at some points its width stretches to 14 feet. It's a steep incline with little shade, the scenery is stark and the road dusty, but on a clear day hikers are treated to a panoramic view of the San Gabriel Valley.

Motta, 39, said she listens to lectures from her acupuncture class on her iPod when she makes the climb, or spends the hike tromping after her 6-year-old son as he runs gleefully ahead. "It's good for kids because you don't have to worry about them falling into a precipice," Motta said.

Kevin Johnson, assistant chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Forestry Division, said that at least one more area along the route needs to be cleared before the road is officially reopened, but he hopes the project will be finished this weekend.

The repair, funded with a $1.4-million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was performed by a crew of three who used backhoes and bulldozers to move tons of rocks and dirt deposited by the landslides. Some of the rocks were loaded by hand into wire baskets known as gabions that were used to fortify the ground beneath the start of the trail.

"At the end of the day, my body was exhausted," said Jesse Gonzalez, 22, one of the workers. "Now that I look at the work I did, I'm impressed. A lot of people walked by and thanked us for what we're doing. It made me feel good."

The road has been cleared nearly to Henninger Flats, about three miles up the trail, where deer roam, there is a campground and the Los Angeles County Fire Department operates a tree nursery. On the site is a small museum where black-and-white photos are displayed of early days on the mountain when the summit was reached by mule or horse-drawn buggy.

It was the founding of the Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory by George Ellery Hale at the turn of the 20th century that forced what had been a narrow trail to be widened first to 10 feet, then 12. The first telescopes were carried on the backs of burros in pieces that weighed hundreds of pounds, according to papers written by Walter S. Adams, who helped Hale establish the observatory.

"The general public found its way comparatively little to Mt. Wilson at this time, difficulties of transportation operating to limit our visitors," Adams wrote in his 1947 account of the early reaction to the observatory.

"Occasionally some exceptional event, especially if featured in the press, would bring a throng, and we were overrun at the time of the return of Halley's Comet in 1910, when more than a few seemed to anticipate the end of the world, and apparently wished to be in close touch with those who were presumed to have inside knowledge of the various stages of catastrophe."

Vehicles were charged 50 cents to use the road, which was owned by Mt. Wilson Toll Road Co., and visitors could spend the night at the summit in cottages or a hotel. In the 1920s, automobiles made their way up the mountain top and drivers were said to hold races that wound around the chaparral-covered cliffs.

Today, besides hikers, only county and service vehicles are allowed on a path that the public continues to hold in high regard.

"There's the idea now that you buy food locally. I think the same about hiking," said 62-year-old Simon Burrow of Pasadena, who was disheartened by the closure of the road and two years ago started a blog devoted to it.

For some, the reopening is a measure of lost time. Seth Howell, 52, once rode his gray hybrid mountain bike up the road three or four times a week. Now the Altadena resident is not so sure about pedaling back to his favorite trail more than four years after he stopped.

"It takes a while to get in shape to do it," Howell said. "I may ease back into it, but I'm not as young as I was when the road washed out."

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Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

 

Re: Mt. Wilson Toll Road reopening

UPDATE: See today's post from OTB's, CaptMitch who resides adjacent to Eaton Canyon.

 

When I was racing, back in 1993, I could make it to the top in about 1:07. My buddies, who kicked my ass regularly, could make it in an hour. Ned overend says that a good mountain bike racer should be able to average 12 mph uphill! Try that on Mt Wilson.

 

Ross, are you talking one hour to the top as in Mt. Wilson antennaes from the gate?

 

Got this in an email from someone today:

"I ran into a fire captain from LA County today as I was descending from Henninger Flats. Tomorrow, the gate at Pine Crest will be officially opened from dawn to dusk each day. I rode up the toll road today as the first bike behind the bulldozer that went all the way to the top. It was fun riding down through all the loose dirt, tires floating most of the way. If you have a chance you should ride it in the next day or too, before it gets too packed down. As you might imagine, the climb in the loose dirt was a bit of a bear."

 

I rode to Henniger Flats this morning and I entered the side gate which is now open. The driveway gate is almost always closed as far as I can remember. About the parking you can always park on crescent drive. I could not find the posted hours they had temporarily typed on paper regarding the gates open & close time.

No overnight camping allowed at this time on Henniger Flats according to a posted sign. The museum was open staffed with a volunteer today and the coke machine out of order.

Lots of friendly hikers. I saw a few fast friendly mountain bikers..amazing.

 

Piranha-yeah, I'm talking one hour from the gate to the parking lot. We were bike messengers/expert racers and we could also do the Mt Lowe road in about 45-50 mins.
Right now, I'd be happy with about an hour 45min.

 

Did a quick ride to Henninger Flats this morning. The trail turned a bit loose about 1 mile in, but overall not too bad. There is one brief HAB (at least for me), otherwise all in great shape.

 

An hour from the gate to the top? Wow, that's movin!

And 45-50 minutes on the Mt. Lowe fireroad from Loma Alta to Eaton Saddle is flying as well!