Happy trails

Who among us doesn’t love the great outdoors, especially with the many hiking opportunities we have in the area?

“I never saw a discontented tree,” California nature lover John Muir once said, regarding his love for nature.

Last week in Calabasas, officials dedicated the new Anza Trail, a more than one-mile portion of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail that runs from Arizona to San Francisco by way of Southern California.

Although the trail is shadowed by urban surroundings— cars from the nearby 101 Freeway can be heard whooshing by—its history is profound. It also represents the first trailhead within the Calabasas city limits.

As students in the elementary grades are taught, history in California started long before the Gold Rush. The Anza Trail is a important landmark in California history that dates back to 1773 when the King of Spain wanted to secure an overland route to Northern California and prevent coastal encroachment by the Russians and other Europeans.

With the opening of the new local trail, the public can now hike where the adventurous Juan Bautista de Anza and his colorful entourage once walked. If you tune out the cars and slip back into nature, then the mountains, the foliage and the nearby Las Virgenes Creek are just as beautiful as they might have been two centuries ago.

But as Steve Harris of the Mountains Restoration Trust pointed out at the dedication ceremony, “Trails are an art as you walk them and have an experience; it is not by happenstance.”

The interpretive route has been brought back to life through the hard work and dedication of the MRT, the National Park Service and the city of Calabasas. The trail begins at the western end of Calabasas Road and continues west to Las Virgenes Road. It was built with the help of a $150,000 state grant.

Visit the Anza historical trail today and take a walk in history’s footsteps. Bring your bike or bring your horse, but most of all, bring your sense of adventure. You won’t be disappointed.

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