Equestrians hoping for happy trails
Hillside development encroaching on Sunset Ridge's rural identity
By Mary Schubert
Staff Writer

ALTADENA -- Horses and their riders hit the road Saturday to enjoy local mountain trails and rally support for efforts to restore stretches that have become inaccessible as a result of hillside development.

About 90 equestrians convened in Loma Alta Park, which has a dirt riding ring, to sign up for the trek along the Altadena Crest Trail, nicknamed Rattlesnake Trail.

"The rural environment that we loved here was starting to disappear. We're getting less and less access to the trails," said Tracy Sullivan, president of Altadena Equestrian Resources, the group that sponsored the event.

With the horseback riders far in the lead, Sullivan led a group of hikers along the trail, the beginning of which parallels Sunset Ridge Road, a three-rail white fence separating the two.

The paved Sunset Ridge, a former dirt path, leads uphill to one entrance of the 269-home La Vina development.

A trail once crossed through the land where the gated community now sits. Construction on La Vina began in the late 1990s, and the builders -- Compass Homes of Costa Mesa -- are completing the final phase.

What once were uninterrupted dirt routes are now periodically "broken" by stretches where the horses have to cross paved streets like Sunset Ridge, Sullivan said.

There are plans in the works to build a new gymnasium in county-owned Loma Alta Park, and Sullivan pointed out a new parking lot on Sunset Ridge Road -- next to the horse trail -- earmarked as a pickup-dropoff spot for parents and kids.

"There's no way that a child running to the gym isn't going to terrify a 1,500-pound animal," Sullivan said.

Altadena Equestrian Resources has been reaching out to La Vina residents and other property owners along the horse trails to grant easements so that trail users can pass through.

"We want to unite with the like-minded residents of La Vina," said Mike Capkanis, an avid hiker on the trails, whose wife belongs to the equestrian group. "We're really close to being able to stitch this together.

"We're not trying to gain access that never existed. We're trying to preserve what always was," Capkanis said.

-- Mary Schubert can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4456, or by e-mail at mary.schubert@sgvn.com.