February 2015 Volume 21 Issue 2 Rancho Simi Trail Blazers A Division of the Rancho Simi Foundation RSTB CLUB MEETING Volunteers Needed!! This month’s RSTB meeting will be at: If anyone is Sycamore Drive Community Center interested in 1692 Sycamore Drive – Room B-1 volunteering for Wednesday: February 18, 2014 the work parties 5:30PM Everyone Welcome to attend! chair or the Publicity chair contact Mike Kuhn at: * Not within the jurisdiction of the Rancho [email protected] Simi Recreation and Park District. Upcoming Events Weekly hikes!! February 7th Griffith Park: Mt. Hollywood Trail from Ferndell Park* 5.2 MRT - Moderate (1,026' of eleva- Has anyone tion gain/loss) or 9-mile counterclock- ever told wise lollipop Loop - Moderate-to- you to take strenuous (1,743' of elevation hike? gain/loss) 8AM February 14th Johnson Motorway Did you know that in Simi Valley to Rocky Peak* 9 MRT - Moderate (1,600' of elevation you can take many hikes with the gain/loss.) 8AM Rancho Simi Trail Blazers and explore the beauty of Simi Valley February 18th Club Meeting The Hummingbird Trail and other beautiful locations? We The Sycamore Drive Community Meeting time have so much fun taking photos, Center - 1692 Sycamore Drive - Room is 8AM. The talking and just viewing the B-1 Everyone Welcome to attend! event will end beautiful scenery like the photo 5:30PM at noon. All above. February 21st Work Party - The tools will be Hummingbird Trail 8AM provided. Hikes are every Sunday, We will be Tuesday, Thursday, and most February 28th New Millennium removing rocks, doing some lopping Saturdays Loop Trail* to increase trail clearance and some 12.2 MRT - Moderate (1,000' eleva- trail trimming. Bring your own water, tion gain) 8AM snacks, gloves, hat, and wear sun- screen. Boots are recommended. RSTB LOGO T-SHIRTS Due to unforeseen circumstances, Meet at the intersection of Kuehner all activities are subject to change Drive and Spineflower Court. Park Sporting the beautiful RSTB without notice. Please see on the north side of Spineflower logo, these are great shirts! www.simitrailblazers.com/activities Court. Please call Mike Kuhn if you’d for event details and the most like to order at 805-583-2345. up-to-date schedule. short sleeve $12 Welcome New Members Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District long sleeve $14 Gary Hartung events can be viewed at sweat shirt $18 http://www.rsrpd.org to see what is happening next! 1 (Continued from last month) adobe. This problem has plagued man Commission and later (1982-1990) CASA VIEJA since the beginning of time and has served on the City Council. usually resulted in the relocation of res- It is possible that either one of two idences. That same short-sightedness During the early 1990s the City re- conditions could have resulted in the may have afflicted the Pico family. ceived a multi-million dollar grant from abandonment of Casa Vieja as the the Federal Emergency Management rancho headquarters. First of all, the Mike Kuhn Agency. The purpose of the grant was local fuel wood supply, which was con- (4-20-07, revised 4-30-10) to fund 90 percent of the costs of pro- fined to the Arroyo Simi, would have jects that would reduce the potential been quickly exhausted within a few for flooding during the 100-year event. years - resulting in further and further CHIVO AND LAS LLAJAS RE- The first project to be built under that sojourns for fuel. Certainly, the Simi GIONAL STORMWATER DE- program was a stormwater detention adobe site is better located for fuel TENTION DAMS dam upstream from the mouth of wood purposes than was Casa Vieja. Sand Canyon (north of the eastern While Casa Vieja’s nearby wood sup- During the late-1970s the Ventura end of the Simi Valley Town Center). County Flood Control District had funds ply would have been largely restricted Dams were also considered and pro- earmarked for regional stormwater to the wood of arroyo willows, the Simi posed on Dry Canyon (north of the detention basins at the mouths of Chivo adobe was located close to a rich sup- Simi Valley Hospital) and at the mouth and Las Llajas canyons, located just ply of both willow and oak trees. We of Chivo Canyon. (Yes, the same dam north of the Simi Valley Golf Course. do know that the end of the 18th Cen- that had been previously proposed.) The dams were considered to be the tury and the beginning of the 19th Ultimately, both dams were rejected most cost-effective way of effecting Century witnessed a severe drought, as not being cost effective. (Cost fig- downstream flood control – all the way which drove most of the Indians into ures can never be fully determined to the Pacific Ocean. An environmental the mission and rancho system as an until all geotechnical studies have document was prepared and consid- alternative to starvation. It is possible been completed and engineering ered by the county. The adequacy of that several years of severe drought plans have been approved.) With that document was challenged by an saw the drying up of the Arroyo Simi in stricter seismic standards follow the the vicinity of Casa Vieja as a general environmental group largely on the ba- Northridge Earthquake, it was deter- sis that the effects on public health of lowering of the water table occurred. mines that it would be necessary to construction-related dust-borne San This may have caused a drying of their extend both dams down to bedrock. Joaquin Valley fever spores had not well. We also know that in later years The necessity to do that had not been been considered. The challenge to the residents of the Simi adobe were considered previously. Neither of environmental document and the re- forced to seek drinking water at some those dams has been constructed. drafting and circulation of the environ- distance from the adobe during the Until recently, a portion of the Las mental impact report resulted in a two- drought of the first half of the 1860s. Llajas Channel, between the Alamo year delay in the project. By the time and Cochran street crossings, was the new environmental document had Perhaps related to the availability of relatively unimproved and underfit for been approved the cost of the two-dam fuel wood is a Spanish name exhibited the 100-year flood. In other words, project had escalated beyond the mon- on a late-19th Century survey of the there was a potential for flooding even ies available. Subsequently, there was valley. That survey map includes the during minor flood events. Monies only enough money to build the Las name "Canada de Leha" at the water from the grant were used to make Llajas Dam. At the time, the 100-year gap at the northern end of Long Can- necessary channel improvement in yon Road. "Leha" does not have a flood discharge at the mouth of Las that area. Llajas Canyon was calculated to be meaning in Spanish. It is possible that 9,500 cubic feet per second. The effect the Anglo-American surveyors, i.e., In the end, it seems that a dam at the of the dam was to reduce the discharge Stow and Power, mistook a mouth of Chivo Canyon was a bad to 500 cubic feet per second during the handwritten leña for leha (an “ñ” with a idea. Even if no one had challenged same peak event. That one dam has tilde over it). Canada de Leña means the environmental document on the done much toward reducing the hazard "firewood canyon." Oak Canyon is 1970s project, there probably would of flooding in Simi Valley. forested - as its name implies. not have been enough money to con- struct the dam. Because the dam The opposition to the adequacy of the In other words, the original choice for would have been over 25 feet in original environmental document had the location of the Pico adobe may not height, it would have been subject to been led by Ann Rock, a local citizen. have adequately considered the review by the California Division of Subsequently, Mrs. Rock was appoint- long-term supply of firewood within Safety of Dams. ed to the Simi Valley Planning reasonably close proximity of the (Continued in the March Newsletter) 2 December 13th - Sulphur Mountain Shuttle Peering out from our wind-breakers and stocking-caps, the majesty of the place was lost for us today. Thankfully, the southern side of the loop was a bit less exposed, and much more enjoyable, even though most of our views were of the Santa Susanna Field Lab. No doubt this hike was one for the Trail Blazer record books. We finished the hike in just under and hour, hiking 2.5 miles, with 660' of elevation gain. January 3rd - Big Sky Loop 17 hikers carpooled to the paved west end of Sulphur Mountain Road (off Highway 33) near Ojai on a chilly late-autumn morning. Most of the group boarded four vehicles for a scenic drive through the Ojai Valley to the eastern trailhead via Highway 150 and the paved east end of Sulphur Mountain Road which wound uphill through a lovely oak forest where we spotted a young buck. It was a gorgeous day as 13 of us began hiking westward/downhill along the Sulphur Mountain Recreation Trail (SMRT). We were soon treated to sweeping views of the beautiful 12 hikers (and one dog) met along Big Sky Place in Simi rolling green terrain between our trail and the ocean as Valley on a cold winter morning for our first hike of the new well as clear views of the Oxnard Plain and several of the year.