SJT, Forest Closure, EHT, Events
Greetings and salutations!
We have for you a brief update covering the latest on San Juan Trail (SJT), the Forest Closure, East Horsethief Trail (EHT) and events for Saturday, June 6th, National Trails Day.
SJT Assessment
As you all know, The Warriors of the Santa Anas are keen to restore the trails damaged by the September 2024 Airport Fire. Last Monday, May 25, Memorial Day, under the authorization of the Forest Service, we performed a trail assessment of San Juan Trail. The goal of the assessment was to understand the scope of work to restore the trail. We were tasked with answering several key questions. Are there any hazard trees? Will the work require heavy equipment? How much brushing is required? Additionally, we were to provide our general thoughts on the overall trail conditions.
Two of us started from the bottom and two from the top, meeting in the middle. We were able to cover the entire trail and get an idea of the conditions throughout. The good news is that a lot of the trail is outside the burn zone and only needs relatively minor, regular maintenance: re-benching slipping switchbacks, brushing overgrown portions, clearing drains and the like.
The bad news is that a good portion of the trail is in the burn zone and is heavily damaged from the fire. In the burn zone, the trail bed is either partially lost due to erosion issues, or in other parts, so overgrown you can’t even see the trail. A prevalent issue was soil runoff in the trail bed, which causes new vegetation to grow directly in the trail, vigorously and abundantly. In the lower-lying creek and meadow areas where water and shade is plentiful, the brush is so bountiful, at times, we couldn’t tell if we were on the trail–we got lost trying to navigate these areas. There are also a number of hazard trees. These are dead and burned trees within striking distance of the trail corridor.
We are meeting with Forest Service staff this coming Friday, June 5th, to discuss next steps.
Forest Closure Order
The prior Forest Closure Order was revised when it expired on Saturday, May 23, 2026. See the new Forest Closure Order on the Cleveland National Forest website. As expected, all our fire-damaged trails are to remain closed. However, the boundary of the Forest Closure was relaxed, so that travel along Main Divide all the way to the Ortega Highway is now open. San Juan Loop Trail (not to be confused with San Juan Trail), a short loop trail by the Ortega Highway, reopened. These revisions are in line with expectations the Forest Service set and information we communicated back in March.
Surprisingly, the Forest Service reported that Coldwater Canyon Trail (6W01) and Horsethief East Trail (5W01) are now open. From my understanding, Coldwater Canyon has not seen maintenance for over a decade; it is essentially an abandoned trail, but remains in the Cleveland National Forest trail inventory as a historical artifact. Furthermore, I’ve heard that the trail exit is gone; it's now an open pit mine. It would be foolish to blindly descend this trail but the mention of it certainly piqued my curiosity.
East Horethief Trail (EHT)
The other trail the Forest Service opened is Horsethief East Trail (5W01), aka East Horsethief Trail or EHT for short. Because I haven’t ridden this trail for three years, I decided to go check it out and see the current conditions for myself. I was fully expecting a similar bushwhacking experience like we had on San Juan Trail the week prior. However, to my surprise, most of the trail was rideable. In fact, it was so good, I ended up doing two laps. Check out my video trip report exploring this trail for the first time in three years. I’ve uploaded this trail to TrailForks, since it was missing there. More people should ride or hike it, as it is a lesser-traveled gem for sure.
If you are interested in checking this trail out, come join me on Saturday, June 6th for a dawn patrol ride (see below).
Saturday June 6, 2026: National Trails Day Event
The Cleveland National Forest, Trabuco Ranger District, is hosting a “Skill Share and Potluck” from 10AM to 2PM at the El Cariso South Picnic Area. We will be there sharing what we know about trail maintenance. Come together with the Warriors and other Forest Service volunteers for this informative and fun event. Bring some food and stay for the potluck! Please RSVP with Ayla Kerrigan, Volunteer Coordinator by emailing her at ayla.kerrigan@usda.gov. This is a great opportunity to meet Forest Service staff and your volunteers working to maintain your Cleveland National Forest trails.
Before the Forest Service event, I’ll be doing a dawn patrol ride of East Horsethief Trail. We’ll start from the El Cariso South Picnic Area. The 18mi / 3.5k loop takes about 3 hours so we’ll be meeting at 6 and pedaling at 6:15. See the EHT Loop route map. This is a great loop, touring the “back nine” of Main Divide, past Los Pinos and Horsethief Peaks. We’ll drop 2500’ vertical on EHT then finish on the dirt road climb of El Cariso Truck Trail to close the loop. Please RSVP by e-mailing info@warriorsofsantaanas.org.
