Trail Maintenance
The hiking and nature trails located within the Crystal Lake Recreation Area as well as within the surrounding San Gabriel River Ranger District of the United States Forest Service are restored, repaired, and maintained by the San Gabriel Mountains Trailbuilders which brings in and coordinates other volunteers from Southern California and surrounding States.
The tax exempt volunteer Trailbuilders organization works closely with the USFS to perform maintenance on the trails in the region even when the region is periodically closed to the general public so that once the region is re-opened the trails are constantly in a reasonably safe condition for hikers to use.
Most of the hiking trails receive maintenance according to the availability of volunteers, weather, and other factors however some trails require a two-day restoration effort and as such require an overnight stay which makes maintenance performed on those trails less frequent.
Tototngna Trail is the exception due to the trail being badly damaged in the heavy rains and resulting flooding which took place in 2005. Tototngna is currently considered abandoned yet might be re-examined in the future to determine what is needed to rebuild the trail.
The maintenance of trails within the Crystal Lake campgrounds consists mostly of repairing the tread upon which hikers walk, removing accumulated rocks, sand, and gravel, and reworking the tread to provide a gentle slope from which rain water can flow off the side of the trail (rather than down the trail which causes erosion and a difficult, uncomfortable hike).
For some of the nature trails—such as Golden Cup and Lake Trail—maintenance and repair has consisted of volunteers hauling in many thousands of pounds of rock, gravel, and sand using buckets to fill in sections of the trails which have been damaged by rainfall. When such efforts are performed, surveys of the lay of the trail and the surrounding land is performed to design rain water runoff schemes so that future rains won't damage the repair work which is being performed.
For most of the trails bark beetle infestation of pine trees has killed many trees, and the Curve Fire of 2002 also destroyed many trees along some of the most popular trails—such as Windy Gap, Soldier Creek, and Sunset Ridge. Trail restoration, repair, and maintenance for such areas consists of bucking up fallen trees with chainsaws or crosscut saws as needed and hauling the bucked up sections of the trees off of the trail.
In some instances where hanging safety hazards exists, proactive maintenance is performed by safely pulling dead and hanging trees and tree limbs down to the ground where the hazards can be bucked up and removed.
Less frequent repairs and maintenance involves the building of rock retaining walls to hold back rock and dirt slides which can flood sections of the campground's hiking trails. Additionally rock walkways across gullies are built to afford safer hiking across otherwise unsafe sections of trails.
The San Gabriel Mountains Trailbuilders provide the tools, equipment and planning required for maintenance of the trails, soliciting and coordinating additional volunteers from organizations such as Buddhist Youth Groups, Boy Scouts of America, church groups, hiking, biking, and climbing clubs, High School students, and court-ordered Community Service individuals.
Trail maintenance within the Crystal Lake Recreation Area never ends and because of the dedicated efforts of volunteers, the campgrounds boast of many enjoyable and reasonably safe hikes.
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