Blazing a Trail Above Suburbia

At twilight, from a campsite high atop the Verdugo Mountains, trailblazer Erick Madrid feels he’s worlds away from the twinkling lights and the endless procession of cars below. But this is hardly the wilderness.

“You can hear the city. You can feel it hum,” said the 26-year-old Mammoth Lakes resident last week as he surveyed the expanse of Los Angeles and the hazy outline of Catalina Island beyond it. “It looks pretty chaotic down there, and I think I would go nuts.”

Such are the reflections of a man accustomed to woodland serenity, a dirt-caked Paul Bunyan dumped incongruously on the rim of the megalopolis to employ his wilderness skills against a distant backdrop of tall buildings and jammed freeways.

But Madrid and fellow pathfinders Bill Ossofsky and Neil Satterfield have little time to reflect as they focus on the task at hand: clearing a 1.2-mile trail that ascends a steep ridge northward from Wildwood Canyon Park in Burbank to the crest of the Verdugo Range.

The trail, set for completion in December and funded by $200,000 in Los Angeles County Proposition A park funds, has been touted as a vital link connecting open spaces, according to local parks officials and conservationists.

The project, being overseen by Burbank and Glendale park officials, is part of a larger plan to provide access to a network of roads and footpaths it is hoped will someday ring the entire San Fernando Valley. When it is completed, conservancy officials say the Rim of the Valley Corridor will allow outdoor enthusiasts to hike footpaths from Sierra Madre to Moorpark.

“This joint project between Glendale and Burbank is a wonderful new effort to link the trails in the Verdugo Mountains,” said Rorie Skei, the northern division chief of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

“The Verdugos are one of the best-kept secrets in the region.”

For all the challenge of a hike in the mountains, it’s a walk in the park compared to the labors of those who have to build the trails there.

Ossofsky and his colleagues have constructed and repaired trails across the Western states from the Rockies to the Sierras. They spend months camping in the back country, often seeing no one but the guides assigned to show the way for horses and pack mules.

Their employer, Bellfree Contractors Inc., is based in Redlands. Burbank parks officials said the company is one of only a handful of firms they found that do such work. “It’s unique,” said Deborah McMurray of the Burbank Parks and Recreation Department. “We’re very happy with them. They have a good reputation.”

These days, more jobs than ever call for work on suburban trails, Ossofsky said. And while he may emerge from a day’s work resembling a coal miner, with dust caked on his ears, nostrils and teeth, he is able to make the jobs go faster by employing machinery, including chain saws, motorized wheelbarrows, rock drills and a small backhoe nicknamed “the Taco.”

After their work is done, the men pass their time sleeping, eating or reading at the campsite, situated near a radio tower at the top of the trail. Tents are strewn around a grassy clearing amid a congregation of pine and juniper trees. On the perimeter are tables and cooking equipment. Parked nearby are their pickup trucks for runs down the mountain.

Proximity to the city also has its compensations: a half-hour down a winding and weather-beaten fire road, there’s a chance to buy fresh food at the supermarket or head to the local YMCA for a shower, which beats a cold mountain river. The mountain men also make no complaints about clear radio reception while they work, or the Southern California weather.

The trick to building a trail that will last is controlling erosion and debris that builds up along the footpaths. The men have already formed the dirt path for the Burbank trails, and over the next few weeks they will put in wood beam-and-steel reinforcements to support it. The dirt surface will be graded to ensure that water drains to one side.

In spots, the workmen will erect retaining walls to hold the hillside in place, where it otherwise might cave in and block access.

To help weekend warriors with intermediate hiking abilities, suburban trail designs such as Burbank’s include switchbacks and steps.

Whether in the hills above the urban sprawl or far off in distant mountains, the trail workers agree that the biggest advantage of their job is the freedom to enjoy the great outdoors. “I don’t think everybody is cut out for this type work, especially someone that doesn’t have a clue about the wilderness or the outdoors,” Madrid said.

Looking down on the bustling city, where he doesn’t have to live, he acknowledged sympathetically: “I could see a lot of people coming up here to escape.”