Tag archives: hiking trails
“So I promise that I’m not going to build a trail that has landslides.” – Montecito Trails Foundation representative to CRAHTAC, 11/14/22 How soon promises are broken… We can’t predict when weather will cause damage to trails, but thanks to highly trained agency staff such as geologists, we are given insight to the types of […]
Last week, Santa Barbara County’s Riding and Hiking Trails Advisory Committee (aka CRAHTAC) approved a plan to realign .6 miles of Montecito’s McMenemy Trail. According to Montecito Trails Foundation (MTF) Board President Ashlee Mayfield, the section of trail in question has significant issues and has been on the docket for improvement since at least 2008, […]
John Muir once wrote, “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you… and cares will drop away like the leaves of Autumn.” The Santa Barbara Historical Museum’s latest exhibition celebrates the region’s increasingly popular hiking trails and public lands. Isolated by COVID, locked out of their gyms, and finally […]
A new exhibit at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum celebrates the region’s hiking trails and public lands through historic photographs, paintings, and historic items from the museum’s collections. Take a Hike, Save the World is a visual journey through our Eden by the Beach’s most scenic areas, as seen by artists and photographers beginning in […]
In mid-September, my husband Michael and I hit the road and traveled to Kellogg, Idaho, to ride the rails. Our locomotion, however, was pedal-powered and the iron rails had long been torn out, leaving behind two rail corridors: one of the Union Pacific Railroad and the other of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific […]
Congratulations and a big thank you to all of those (whose many names are too numerous to list here) who worked so hard to get the Hot Springs Neighborhood Trail completed. We have lots of wonderful hiking trails in our local hills and mountains, but safe paths through our community are sorely lacking. Let’s hope […]
The public’s right to use and enjoy Los Padres National Park and a number of its trails has little meaning when the public has no practical means of accessing Hot Springs Trail and others. Conflicts arise between private landowners and the general public who wish to enjoy wilderness areas that are not accessible without parking […]
On May 17, 2021, a car was parked on Mountain Drive near the corner of East Mountain Drive and Hot Springs Road. It was barely sticking into the road, less than other hikers’ cars further west, near Ashley Road. A note was placed on it which said, “Park here again and you will be towed […]
A newly built pedestrian pathway along Hot Springs Road has sparked some neighborhood controversy, which was discussed at the Montecito’s Land Use and Transportation Committee meeting this past Tuesday. Bucket Brigade founder Abe Powell, who was an integral part of the County-led road enhancement project, explained to the Committee that the impetus for the trail […]
On December 31, the Montecito Trails Foundation (MTF) held its inaugural New Year’s Eve trash pickup event on local trails, with dozens of members fanning out along some 90 miles of trails in the front country above town as well as community trails within Montecito, Summerland, and Carpinteria. Because of COVID-19 concerns, the group encouraged […]
On Thursday, January 31, the Montecito Trails Foundation held its annual meeting at the San Ysidro Ranch’s Hydrangea Room; the first event held in the historic meeting room since it was inundated with four feet of mud during the 1/9 debris flow last January. “It’s nice that we are able to keep moving forward following […]
Montecito Trails Foundation will host its annual barbecue on Sunday, September 30, at Crane Country Day School. “It’s less of a fundraiser this year, and more of a thank you!” said Ashlee Mayfield, MTF board member. The Foundation has been hard at work restoring the Montecito network of trails since the Thomas Fire and debris […]
More than 80 volunteers turned out last weekend to help Montecito Trails Foundation restore the McMenemy, Old Pueblo, Bud Girard, and Saddle Rock trails as part of the Foundation’s Trail Recovery Day. “It was an awesome day, and we are so thankful for everyone who came out to help,” said MTF board member Ashlee Mayfield. […]
For more than 50 years, Montecito Trails Foundation (MTF) has overseen the maintenance of Montecito, Summerland, and Carpinteria trails, making them a safe, reliable place for community members to explore both the foothills and “low land” trails. Following the Thomas Fire and subsequent mudflow, the group of volunteers realized the scope of their work had […]
