Hikers Pushing for Coastal Trail Hit O.C. Beaches

From a distance, they looked like a ragtag army on a forced hike along Coast Highway on Tuesday.

They’re not soldiers, said Richard Nichols, who with nine others has spent the summer hiking California’s 1,100-mile coastline.

“But we are on a mission,” he said Tuesday as the group hiked from Corona del Mar to Crystal Cove.

They began their journey three months ago at the Oregon border and plan to finish when they reach the Mexican border about Sept. 20, Nichols said. This week, they will be hiking along Orange County’s 42-mile coastline.

They are helping publicize the need for a continuous California coastal trail and to keep public access to the coastline open, Nichols said. Sponsors for the trek include state parks, the State Coastal Conservancy and the Ford Motor Co., which gave them a $36,000 grant.

“We’re helping people realize how important the coastal zone is,” said the 54-year-old Nichols, executive director of Coastwalk Inc., a nonprofit group based in Sebastopol in Northern California.

“If the public doesn’t realize the significance of the coast, they’re going to lose it.”

Nichols and the other hikers said the state’s ongoing battle is with development and gated communities. In many areas of the coastline, private property and military bases prevent public access, he said.

Although the public has a right to walk along the beach within the high tide line, finding a road to the beach “can be a problem,” Nichols said.

“We think the coastline is too critical for short-term gains,” he said.

The hikers average about 12 miles a day, camp in tents at night, and have their dinners cooked by Coastwalk volunteers along the route. Most of the hikers are over 50, and all agreed that despite minor inconveniences of being on the road, it has been the best summer they’ve spent.

“After three months, I miss having four walls around me,” said Beverly Backstrom, 65, a retired state worker from Santa Rosa. “I miss my own bathroom and having my morning cup of coffee in my kitchen. But there’s a different vista around every corner.”

And there is a spiritual side, said Barbara Johnson, 67, a former journalism professor at Cal State Northridge.

“I never get tired of walking along where the ocean water meets the sand,” Johnson said. “The pattern changes every wave. In fact, at least once a day, I walk in my bare feet for one hour. I feel connected to the earth and the ocean.”

On the trek, they’ve seen gorgeous sunsets, gotten permission to walk on Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant property at Avila Beach, and hiked along beachfront turf at the private Hollister Ranch in Santa Barbara County.

“It has been great,” said Bob Cowell, 55, a retired firefighter from Alameda. “We camped in a cow pasture in San Mateo and ended up shooing them off toreador-style. And we all got muddy trying to push our car out of the mud at another stop.”