Whiting Ranch Wilderness 4

Posted on May 15, 2003 in Biomes Neighborhood Photos

The Serrano Cow Trail connects the path which runs along the fringes of the Portola Hills Mesa with the path that slides off of Dreaded Hill. It’s narrow and closely walled by tall stands of black mustard, the plant that the friars planted to show them the route between the missions. It dips under low oak trees and crosses the miniature creek that waters this part of the wood for the few months from February to June.

Mountain bikers don’t need to follow this path: there’s a slightly longer route called the Line Shack Road which requires them to pedal up about fifty feet of slope and make a right angle turn to get to the main trail through the wilderness. When the Serrano Cow trail was closed to them, however, they whined about the hardship. The Line Shack Road is more appropriate to bikes: it is wider and it doesn’t tear through a fragile wilderness where mule deer and other creatures come to forage and drink of the shallow waters. But it breaks a long downhill that they’ve enjoyed since leaving Four Corners, which rises maybe 700 feet above. The compromise was this: the rangers opened the trail to bikers and set a speed limit of 10 mph. Of course, few observe it, and I am just waiting for the day when one of these locusts crashes into a hiker passing through the tall grass segment of the trail and kills her.

Until then, the wildlife and we who walk slowly to enjoy nature must tolerate them.

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