Nov 24th 1916 Monterey American – Forest Trails Being Improved
Persons who travel frequently in the mountains of the Santa Lucia range within the Monterey National Forest will no doubt remember the “sore spot” in the Gamboa Trail on the seaward side of the main coast ridge just over the summit. The trail crosses north of Cone Peak, dips down into a fork of Big Creek, and then climbs up again to “La Jollita,” running for a distance of about two miles on grades ranging from twenty-five to forty percent.
Since many of the people on the Monterey coast are obliged to pack their supplies in and driver or pack their produce out by this route, the steepness is a serious matter.
Forest Supervisor H. G. Merrill has secured authority from District Forester Coert Dubois in San Francisco to rebuild this stretch of trail on a grade of about fifteen per cent, provided the land owners who are interest will co—operate. Already George Gamboa, Aaron and Paul Harlan, Santo and Tim Boronda and Ty Dani have pledged themselves to help and Ranger Robert Finley, who is in charge of the Forest Service trail crew, says he will have the project completed by New Year.
(Provided by Sylvia Trotter Anderson)
Wow! A major transportation problem solved in 6 weeks with common sense and cooperation. To do that now would take a 6-year environmental impact report, at least 6 law suites and a $6 million budget (which would be 60% over budget by the time the project was finish 6 years late).
Cool article, great comment by Ken.
I am loving this series, too. I have a few more lined up, but I rely on Sylvia, and she hasn’t sent me anything for a week or more. Still more to come!
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pulled out the topo map to look at where/what this is and golly, I can see how rough and steep it is around there ! super tight lines on the topo. November the right time of year to do that work too, a bit hot in summer up there.
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The date of the Gamboa Trail improvement has been void in my historical collections. I heard many stories of the “up and down” aspects of the original trail. My folks traveled many a time over it. The rerouting was done through much hard granite. I was told the project was worked on by the early CCC group.
Stan Harlan—Apr. 21, 2019
Nice. Thx, Stan
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For Stan..a follow up article from the San Luis paper of 20 Jan 1917 – Ranger Robert Finley whose crew from the Monterey National Forest reported the ‘new’ Gamboa Trail was completed and the trail around Cone Peak is finished.
Thanks, Sylvia, I forwarded it to Stan, just in case he doesn’t check back here. 😉
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