Trail Maintenance in the San Mateo Canyon Wilderness.

Good News: After a lengthy shutdown due to Covid-19, the Forest Service is allowing us to restart our trail maintenance activities. Trail maintenance typically involves cutting back plant growth to maintain the trail corridor and repairing tread problems that develop from erosion. Both female and male volunteers participate. The events occur monthly from October into June, weather permitting. We provide the tools and volunteers provide their time and effort.  Anyone who would like to assist with this essential work is encouraged to contact John Kaiser (jkai39@gmail.com). All help will be greatly appreciated. You can see a listing of specific events on the Calendar of Events page.

Many people who hike on the trails of the Santa Ana Mountains are not aware that the maintenance of those trails largely depends on the efforts of volunteers. Since the 1970s, Sierra Club volunteers have devoted thousands of hours to keep the local mountain trails safe and available for hiking. Initially the Orange County Group organized these activities under the leadership first of Ken Croker and then of Allyn Cooksey. Ken was the driving force behind the creation in 1986 of the San Mateo Canyon Wilderness. 

In the early 2000s, the planning of the trail maintenance activities passed to the Santa Ana Mountain Task Force, a Sierra Club entity created to address several conservation issues in the mountains; the task force was jointly sponsored by the Sierra Sage and Orange County Groups from the Angeles Chapter, together with the San Gorgonio Chapter of the Sierra Club. Although resolution of the original conservation issues ended the task force, the trail maintenance activities continue under the joint sponsorship of the Sierra Sage Group and Orange County Group. For the past 15 years, the Club’s trail maintenance activities have focused on the trails of the San Mateo Canyon Wilderness.  

Update of 12/30/2021