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SDTrailFit, San Diego, CA (2026)

05/11/2026

Thanks to Myles Magallanes for letting me about a downed tree on the PCT south of Storm Canyon overlook. I got pics plus an excellent location description. Drove up to Mt. Laguna super early to clear the tree in advance of the upcoming PCT50. Note I left one cut end portruding a bit into the trail with the hope that it will steer runners and hikers away from the leaning live tree. Don't hit your head on that sucker! Still lots of green grass and wildflowers. This section of the trail has gotten brushy so it's getting on our to-do list for the upcoming season.

05/03/2026

TrailFit is now on summer vacation and I wanted to take a minute to give some shout outs. First, thanks to all our ultra runner volunteers. We had just over 100 volunteers who worked on various trails in the Cuyamaca and Laguna Mountains, including the Secret Canyon trail in the Pine Creek wilderness. Everyone who came out really impressed me with a great work ethic and that is reflected in how nice our trails are looking.

Thanks to Athletic Brewing for a generous grant to support our TrailFit program plus several cases of their delicious non-alcholic beer. Wonderful flavor and a wide variety of brewing styles to choose from. As a homebrewer myself, I approve of this beer.

Kudos to our trail crew leaders: Scott Crellin, Jose Llanos, Evan Goodwin, Tom Cross, Doug Gillingham, Jon Good, Zhen Low and his son Lukas, Luke Thomas and John Vanderpot. They took out crews this past season and I expect great things to come from them in the future! Extra kudos to Kevin Cadieux who came all the way down from Idyllwild several times to lead crews to work on Secret Canyon.

More thanks to our very long-term trail worker Eric Paavola. He has been a regular for many years on our Tuesday projects over in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and he also works with us over on Mt. Laguna when needed. Another long-term volunteer, Ken McIntyre "retired" from trail work recently but up to then, he was also a regular going on over 25 years. Thanks K-Mac for many many years of trail work service as well as many many pints of delicious dark ales.

Thanks also to the race directors for SD100, Oriflamme, PCT 50, The Peak, Mt. Laguna Trail Marathon, Noble Canyon and ABC 50. They have made generous contributions to support TrailFit (plus we need all their runners out on the trails to stomp down and suppress the weeds!).

Are our local mountain trails perfect? No, but they are pretty darn nice. Come late fall, TrailFit will be back in action to continue our quest for the best trail system in the known universe. We will also have some Tuesday projects with CRSP staff, at least until it gets too darn hot. If you want to join us on a Tuesday outing, just drop me an email: [email protected].

Lastly, thanks to San Diego Ultra Running Friends and its board of directors. They are the bedrock for the ultra running sport in San Diego. If you aren't a member, join up soon! OK, that's a wrap and I look forward to seeing everyone in the fall!

Ken Bonus

04/30/2026

It's been another busy week. On Tuesday, Eric Paavola and I met up with park staff and other volunteers to continue working on the Deadhorse trail near the Sweetwater River crossing. We mowed down a veritable forest of poison oak near the river so passage is pretty clean now. Also reopened the old hiker river crossing that provides access to a few boulders so you can hop over with dry feet. Forgot to get pics. More work needs to be done as we have not been on this trail since pre-covid. For now at least it quite passble on foot.

Late yesterday, I got a report of a downed tree at Penny Pines from one of the directors of the San Diego 100 mile race. So, early this morning I drove up and cleared that tree, which was blocking access to the PCT. Then, I drove on over to Lake Cuyamaca to spend the morning helping with race set up. Lovely weather, should be a great race tomorrow!

04/21/2026

Today I met up with Darcy Tehero of North Face along with five of her co-workers. We brushed out a section of the PCT near the old air force road. Several trophy cuttings were taken by the crew! Wonderful crisp spring day, lot of wild flowers. Post-work lunch at the Roost. Oh, did I mention this gang was from North Face? They were certainly showing off the team logo in their attire! And for those of you who like fancy nail treatments, this confirms that doing TrailFit work won't hurt your manicure.

04/19/2026

TrailFit was back in action today on the PCT near Lucky Five. I met up with Evan Goodwin, Myles Magallenes, Tri Nguyen, Aster Phi, Mile Wacreh, Anthony Libman, Taylor Wirth and Joyce Johnson to work on the trail north of Lucky Five (part of Oriflamme and SD100 courses). Lots of wild flowers in bloom and we tried to leave as many as possible untouched. Thanks to Taylor for bringing two additional volunteers from his trail running group to help today. I was busy running The Obliterator and Evan helped the crew lopper the uphill stuff I couldn't reach. Great teamwork and the trail looks fabulous. Wonderful view out over the desert on this section. And I was (nearly) 74 years old today when I learned that GU now makes stroopwafels! So tasty. Thanks to Myles for the share. And what are the odds of having two Miles/Myles on the same crew? Nice picnic lunch, post-work, back at the Roost. Then, a run down to Alpine to meet up with the SD100 gang for the final volunteer meeting before the race. I will be there on Thursday for the set up. The trails are ready for the race!

04/14/2026

Thanks to Jose Llanos for reporting a big downed tree on the Redtail Roost Spur/Loop Trail (aka Big Laguna #4) that is part of the SD100 course. Eric Paavola and I drove up to Mt. Laguna today to clear it. Two experienced sawyers, two chain saws and like magic, the trail is open. After we wrapped up this project, we drove down to the Deadhorse trail in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. We trimmed back brush, including a lot of poison oak, where the trail crosses the Sweetwater River (part of the Cuyamaca 100K course). Alas, we soon discovered a whole lot more P.O. up the trail so we'll be working to get this cleaned up before the race. Post-work lunch back in town at the fabulous West Coast Smoke & Taphouse. Thanks to Eric for being the chauffeur!

04/08/2026

Today we honored long-time runner and trail work volunteer, Ken McIntyre over lunch at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. Ken (the first of Los Tres Kens) started doing trail work there over 25 years ago. Over that span, he has contributed thousands of volunteer hours along with various dispensations of Scottish wit and lore and a love for all things UConn. Pre-lunch, we brushed out a badly overgrown section of the Cold Stream trail and then met up with more park volunteers and staff to enjoy grilled burgers and dogs, chips, cookies and plenty of dark ale in honor of Mac. Note that he is sporting a vintage TrailFit t-shirt! Kudos to Clyde and park staff for the cooking and organizing this event. More kudos to Mac's wife, Betsy, for driving him up to Paso for lunch. Happy trails amigo and may the ceanothus never grow faster than you can trim it!

04/04/2026

After a very early scouting hike on the PCT today, I met up with Jim Dascoulias, Eric Paavola, Zhen and Lukas Low, Doug Gillingham, Jose Llanos, Evan Goodwin and John Vanderpot. We spent the morning doing training on the safe removal of downed trees using handsaws. I had found a bunch of downed trees near Horse Heaven group camp so we worked in that area to develop practical applications for various downed tree scenarios. Also passed along several saws to be kept at our North County tool stash. Post-work, we had a great lunch together at the Roost. Shoulda taken more pics but I got wrapped up in the instruction process. Hats off to our crew leaders for giving up the morning and kudos to Jim and Eric for serving as additional instructors. It always feels good when we can pass the knowledge on.

03/28/2026

Today's crew consisted on Sue Lanz, Kyle Lanz and Ben Harner. We met up at the Roost and carpooled over to Desert View picnic area to brush out the PCT heading north. We really rocked and rolled today on the trail! Cleared .5 mile including removal of a downed tree that we'd heard about last week from some thru-hikers but didn't locate. Thanks to John Kinney on last weeks' crew to pin point the tree and now it's cleared. Still unseasonably warm up on Mt. Laguna but plenty of green grass and wildflowers in bloom, including wild sweet pea. On my way home, I stopped off at the SURF aid station at Sweetwater for the SD100 training run. Fun to see everybody! Got a report of brush and poison oak issues on the Monument trail so putting that to the top of our to-do list. Cooler weather ahead, thank goodness.

03/22/2026

Yesterday, Evan Goodwin led a crew consisting of Graham Roff, Leslie Allen, David Harlow, Riley Robertson and Aghaim Hamza (sorry if I mispelled but tried my best to read the hand writing) to work on the Big Laguna trail just west of the Rathole aid station. They cleared the whole section up to the fire road and then enjoyed a nice lunch at the Redtail Roost. Look at the flowering lupine! Thanks to the whole crew for the excellent work on the trail. Now if we can just get a bit more rain.....

03/14/2026

I got up to the Redtail Roost on Mt. Laguna early this morning and caught a wonderful sunrise! I met up with Jianhua Ding, Edward Wang, Christopher Johnson and John Kinney to work on the PCT near the Horse Heaven connector trail. I fired up the brush cutter and laid into the overgrowth while the rest of the crew were right on my heels stashing. We knocked out about .5 mile. Also chatted with several thru-hikers and day hikers who expressed their appreciation for our efforts. I drove crew over to the Prado group camp so they could get a look at the first permanent ranger cabin, built in 1911. The Forest Service has plans to restore the cabin and eventually rent it out. We also got a report from a hiker of a downed tree near Sunset View picnic area but we never found it. Lunch was calling so maybe we weren't terribly diligent in our search......A lovely day on the mountain, only about 70 degrees.

SDTrailFit

05/11/2026

05/03/2026

04/30/2026

04/21/2026

04/19/2026

04/14/2026

04/08/2026

04/04/2026

03/28/2026

03/22/2026

03/14/2026

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