Category: County Of Los Angeles

2021 In Review

2021 has been a good year for the Ridge Route and the RRPO. We have accomplished a fair amount this year starting with two CUTRR events resulting in a clearer roadway and a better appreciation for the work we have before us. We intend to have more events in 2022 and, using the knowledge gained from the last two events, we will accomplish even more using better tools. We have also worked to survey the roadway about once a month since we gained access to the closed section. These trips not only offer the opportunity to experience the roadway and take photos, but to review what we need to do to help preserve it. Each time we go up there, we seem to find something new. Sections of original striping, wooden railing, and even some concrete curbing have been found that was thought to have been lost. Each trip is an adventure. It is something we look forward to many more being able to enjoy in the future.

The RRPO continues to have a good working relationship with the USFS, something I intend to use to help the roadway as much as possible. I know things have seemed slow and unchanging, but that isn’t the case. We are currently working with the USFS to develop a plan to reopen the roadway, keep it maintained, and restore the monuments along the roadway. It is frustrating at times but we are persistent and we will prevail. It will be reopened, it will just take time.

Reopening the roadway isn’t as easy as just leaving the gates open. The road surfacing is now over 100 years old and we want to do what we can to ensure it lasts for a long time to come. Reopening the roadway now would not be beneficial to that goal. There are steps that must be taken prior to that point. The concrete has sections where the reinforcing bar is exposed. Asphalt sections are failing. Portions of the roadway are in danger of being washed out. We need to stabilize these sections first before we would feel comfortable in having the roadway open. We are the Ridge Route Preservation Organization and without the Preservation, we’d have no Ridge Route left to protect. Our intention is still to get the roadway reopened as soon as possible, but with some restrictions to help keep the roadway safe. The main restrictions would include having the roadway open only during the dry season to reduce damage to the pavement during the winter months and ensuring overweight vehicles are not allowed on the roadway through the use of additional signage as well as working with mapping companies to reduce the problem. A study is already underway by the County of Los Angeles to potentially restrict trucks along their section of the roadway, initiated by us. Once the roadway is scheduled to reopen, we intend to work on the monuments that have long since faded away along the roadway.

All these things take time, money, and effort. We wish to thank all those that have donated their time, their money, and effort to the Ridge Route and the Ridge Route Preservation Organization. We couldn’t have accomplished what we have so far without your support. We will continue to need that support even after the roadway is open again. Special thanks goes out to Harrison Scott without whom we wouldn’t even be this far. We would also like to thank Ray Kidd with the Angeles National Forest for helping us and guiding us as USFS volunteers.

If you’d like to help with the reopening plan or any other part of the Ridge Route efforts, let us know!

Contact Information

#EmigrantFire Update

As of 1615 on September 17, the fire is at 220 acres and 5% contained per USFS. Some good news to report however. The fire appears to be focused only on the ridge between West Fork Liebre Gulch and Liebre Gulch. This ridge heads NNE toward Bald Mountain near Sandberg. While not a large distance away from the Ridge Route (average about 1.25 miles), it is enough to keep the Ridge Route safe for now. Winds have so far carried the fire only along that ridge. Our Twitter account has been a great resource for information during events like these. The feed can also be seen on the right-hand side of our website, for desktop users.

Fires like this show that we need to continue to keep the Ridge Route in good condition. Working with the USFS and other agencies as we have, we can make sure the road is in good repair not only for its preservation, but to assist with fire suppression along the roadway. Activities such as our CUTRR events go a long ways toward that goal. In August, we removed a major rockslide which could have hampered crews. Next month we will remove or at least mitigate debris on the roadway which makes travel more difficult. We need your support in this effort. Last month, we had 15 enthusiastic volunteers. You can RSVP for our October 23 event and help us continue these efforts.

October CUTRR Event

Fire on the Ridge Route – Updated

Finally some good news, mostly. The #RouteFire is mostly out and does not appear to have affected the old Ridge Route. I-5 is open and traffic seems to be flowing smoothly through the area.

There were reports of trucks once again trying to travel the old Ridge Route, which once again likely damaged the roadway. Traveling the roadway during these periods, especially with heavy trucks, can also result in injury or death due to being trapped between stuck trucks and a wildfire. Trucks can easily fall off the roadway, increasing problems for emergency crews trying to fight the fire.

We will be speaking with the Forest Service, California Highway Patrol, and the County of Los Angeles to see what can be done about this continuing problem. We have already made requests to the County for additional signage to discourage such traffic. Every report on social media touting the roadway as open, because someone saw the gates open, only makes the problem worse. The Ridge Route is not an alternate to I-5. It is not built for such traffic, which can cause irreparable damage to the historic roadway. Please, do your part to help stop this problem, however you can. We are indeed working toward having the roadway open on a more regular, seasonal basis. We’d like to have a roadway left to have open.

The Ridge Route, as it was before, is CLOSED from Templin Highway to the Tumble Inn site on a regular basis. The Angeles National Forest, including the Ridge Route, is closed due to increased fire danger until September 17, 2021. This date may be extended, and if it does we will post that information on this site.

February 2021 Update

On Saturday, February 6, We had the opportunity to travel over the Ridge Route and survey the roadway for damage from the storms, trucks, and car chase that have happened all since January 21. The storms that hit were pretty strong, closing I-5 multiple times for extended periods. As the Ridge Route itself is higher in elevation, it looks like a lot of the precipitation that hit the area fell as snow instead of rain. This may well have saved the road this time but future storms may no be so “kind”. We still have a lot of work ahead of us but at least now we have a better idea of what to focus on for now. If you’d like to help us with these tasks, join us, donate, or both. Your donation may be tax-deductible and you’ll help save this historic roadway.

As an aside, our next update may be in a different format as we are planning to move to a newsletter style soon.

Gates

Southern gate
Northern (Fisher Springs or Tumble Inn) gate

Both gates were open when we went up there. We closed them behind us each time and locked them. While we want the roadway open, the current USFS position is for the roadway to be closed and the events of January 26 definitely show why. This time, the gates were left open by contractors working on the SCE power lines a few miles north of the National Forest Inn site. We will be speaking again with the USFS to see what can be done about this problem.

Rockslides

Rockslide partially blocking the roadway below Swede’s Cut
Large boulder and additional material ready to fall

Our biggest concern following the storms was rockslides or worse, landslides. Thankfully, the roadway seemed to hold up well. Only one major rockslide was found, which was located on Serpentine Drive just north of the gas pipeline bridge. One of the rocks that fell was the rather large, close to the size of a refrigerator and probably as heavy. We saw that more rocks will fall at this location in the near future. Other problematic locations, such as Swede’s Cut and the northern end of the roadway, seemed to have minimal problems.

Truck Damage

Tire marks and trampled shoulder
First big sign of skid marks and scrapes
Looking southerly toward the sunken area where they got stuck
Closeup of the broken pavement and tire debris area
Large pile of melted tire debris and oil on the roadway

Three big rigs traversed the roadway on January 26, as we have noted in earlier reports. We found the location they became stuck, which was about 0.3 miles north of Kelly’s Halfway Inn. We noted multiple locations where they lost traction and spun their tires, leaving large amount of melted tire debris. They got stuck at a large sunken area, creating a large amount of scrapes and pavement damage. They also drove over the edges of the roadway in numerous places, possibly compromising the pavement and culverts in those areas. We are currently working with CHP to obtain information regarding those vehicles.

Signage

County signage at State 138

Following the January 26th incident, we contacted the County of Los Angeles to help with dissuading people from going over the roadway during the storms. We suggested adding additional signage at both ends of the roadway if possible. They complied and said they’d put up the signs that day. On Saturday, we saw those signs still in place at Templin Highway, Pine Canyon Road, and State 138. We want to thank the County of Los Angeles for their efforts and will be working on getting better, more permanent signage in place in the near future.

Car Chase

Tracks from where the car left the roadway
Trail where the car crashed off the road

I did mention a car chase involving the Ridge Route. On January 21, a high speed chase ended rather abruptly at the northern end of the Ridge Route, about 1.3 miles south of State 138, well north of Pine Canyon Road. The chase didn’t involve the rest of the roadway, thankfully. The car involved drove off the Ridge Route and the suspects were apprehended shortly after. It doesn’t look like the roadway was damaged but the marks are still there in the dirt.

Snow Storm Update 1/27/2021

It has been a long day but we have at least some news to report. The gates on the Ridge Route are now closed and locked per the USFS. The County of Los Angeles will be placing “Road Closed Ahead” signs today at Templin Highway and Pine Canyon Road. We will be surveying the damage caused by the trucks next month when weather permits, possibly with the USFS as well. We will be contacting CHP to find out if they have any information about the truckers involved so we can begin that process.

Google Maps and Waze are also being updated. Google Maps was updated this morning. Both closures on those sites will require updates, as getting them to mark it as “permanent” or at least “long-term” seems to be a problem. Regardless of what a GPS showed or what conditions may have been, it is still unbelievable that anyone driving a truck as large as that would have even considered going on such a roadway. It doesn’t have a centerline stripe from Templin Highway to State 138, which is a clue the roadway is not a major one. It also goes much higher in elevation than I-5, which again, is a clue it would be worse to travel. That elevation difference is one of the reasons it was bypassed rather than upgraded in 1933. Liebre Summit is higher than Tejon Pass by 110 feet and a lot more treacherous.

We all want to be able to enjoy the scenery along the roadway. Don’t destroy it for the future because you want to bypass a freeway closure or go play in the snow. There are plenty of alternatives that aren’t historic highways to do these things on.

We do need your support to keep things like this from happening again. Part of that support is to let us know if you see or hear anything regarding the roadway, such as trucks being stuck on it during a snowstorm. We don’t always get the information we need and happening upon it, such as we did this time, wasn’t pleasant. If you want to help in other ways, why not become a member, make a donation, or both. Your donation and membership is tax-deductible as we are a 501(c)3 organization.