A Tour of Newly Reopened Wilderness Preserve

I took a bike ride today in the Wilderness Preserve, newly reopened today after the Bobcat Fire.

There are stretches of the trail that look very different, having been sculpted by a tractor, and other parts that are unchanged or barely changed.

The biggest changes are along the single-track section at the top of Clamshell Road. Here the vegetation has been scraped to create a fire break and the reconstituted trail looks rather different than it did before. Towards the bottom ends of the trail - near Ridgeside and Cloverleaf - there is very little change.

If you are riding a bike be aware that - as might be expected - there is a lot of loose soil that can hamper traction.

Here are my observations, starting from Ridgeside.

There is very little change on Clamshell Road until you get to the the high point, which is here. At this point the single-track section begins. Notice the potholes. I'd guess these are designed to prevent erosion when it rains, and perhaps to root out some of the non-native plants that had taken hold here.

Looking west toward the lookout point. Notice again the potholes, and of course the area used to be just a person-wide track through brush. No longer.

The post is the turn-off point to the switchbacks. Notice the fire burned right up to the fire break here.

At the top of the switchbacks, you can see the fire reached the trail.

A long downward view of the switchbacks. Previously you could not see most of the trail because of the brush; now it is visible all the way to the bottom.

And this is the same view looking up the switchbacks.

From here west the road has been scraped, with lots of loose soil on steep grades. When the road turns south, it is about the same as it was before the fire, with the exception of some brush clearance.

- Brad Haugaard