Hiking the ‘Rugged’ Remote OC — Fremont Canyon

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Steep elevation, uneven footing, stone formations and wildlife are what OC residents face erstwhile they hike Fremont Canyon.

What they find is unique.

Located connected the outskirts of Irvine Regional Park, the nature preserve tin lone beryllium accessed connected docent-led activities and hikes.

“Fremont Canyon is precise remote, wherever fewer radical person gone,” said Joan Steiner, an Irvine Ranch Conservancy (IRC) docent starring a hike done the canyon’s Coal Mine Trail.

“You tin get to areas wherever determination is nary telephone reception, and you cannot scope anybody by radio,” she said.

“The scenery is conscionable spectacular, it’s a existent wilderness experience.”

However, it’s not arsenic fashionable arsenic different hikes.

That’s due to the fact that of the terrain and elevation, according to IRC Spokesman Scott Graves.

But that doesn’t halt the regularly scheduled hikes.

“We bash regularly big a wide scope of activities successful Fremont Canyon,” said Graves successful an email. “However, the country is much distant and rugged owed to the terrain, truthful we aren’t capable to big arsenic galore activities with little trouble ratings.”

The conservancy rates their hikes connected a standard of 1-5 depending connected the distance, elevation and terrain.

The quality preserve’s situation – location to Scrub Oak, Chaparral Beargrass, Manzanita and different flora – expands into Cleveland National Forest and Chino Hills State Park, acting arsenic a corridor for upland lions and different wildlife to question through.

Other wildlife specified arsenic the Speckled Rattlesnake and Spiny Granite Lizard tin beryllium recovered successful the canyon’s rocky outcroppings.

Hikers tin scope the Fremont Canyon Weather Station connected the Coal Mine Trail.

This station, which operates utilizing solar-powered sensor towers, records upwind conditions successful the area. In terrible Santa Ana upwind events, upwind gusts person measured implicit 90 miles an hour.

Residents besides walk remnants of the county’s past on the trail, similar an abandoned ember excavation that was operational successful the late 1800s to aboriginal 1900s.

“The country has a past of mining, peculiarly for coal. The Coal Mine Trail is named for this feature: a century-old mining operation,” said Matilde De Santiago, Program Coordinator successful Restoration Enhancement with IRC, successful an email.

The Black Star Mining Company operated the aboveground ember excavation – wherever the aboveground was scraped for resources and transported by mules to Anaheim up to San Francisco.

The onshore is conscionable 1 country of the county’s wilderness tracts owned by OC Parks wherever the mining institution operated.

[Read: Discovering Orange County’s Black Star Canyon Wilderness Park]

The aboveground excavation did not run long, according to De Santiago. All that remains contiguous is simply a vein of ember disposable on the trail.

Residents tin besides enactment successful unpaid stewardship opportunities successful the country erstwhile offered.

“Stewardship opportunities connection the nationalist the accidental to enactment with the taxon of peculiar concern, Tecate Cypress. This hardy-looking Cypress has tiny cones that merchandise their seeds successful effect to a circumstantial biology trigger: fire,” said De Santiago.

“Too predominant of fires successful this country implicit the past period has caused this delicate histrion to go stunted for aboriginal growth, limiting its chances of survival.”

Over the past 2 years, the canyon’s staging country became location to an enhancement task wherever respective Tecate Cypress and Coast Live Oak seedlings were planted.

Although determination presently nary stewardship activities scheduled successful the area, determination are other stewardship activities successful the Irvine Ranch Open Space and hikes successful Fremont Canyon.

Erika Taylor is simply a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow and photojournalist. You tin find her connected Instagram @camerakeepsrolling oregon email astatine etaylor@voiceofoc.org

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