Well my wife wanted to go for a hike on Sunday and wanted to go to the newly opened North Etiwanda Preserve. http://www.specialdistricts.org/2/nep/trail.htm The North Etiwanda Preserve was officially opened on October 3rd 2009. It is a walking trail in the foothills of …. You guessed it, Etiwanda which is in the north east corner of Rancho Cucamonga, CA. The weather was a warm 75-80 degrees with a mild Santa Ana wind blowing which kept us cool. It is an easy walk for us. Both in our 40’s and not necessarily the epitome of physical fitness. But hey at least we’re getting out and trying. Our 10 year old son also made the hike with us. These are the photos we took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/riptyd/sets/72157622537730795/

The Preserve is in the foothills and the trail is mainly old fire, water, and electrical service roads. Most of the trail is flat and smooth. I saw a couple of people with jogging strollers but would not recommend the whole trail for such activities. The trail meanders around with many stone and mortar structures that show how the area was an early part of the water collection and distribution of the late 1800’s Inland Empire. There are also some that show the local Native Americans of the area and the Earthquake feature of these foothills.

The Main trail is a 3.22 mile loop with 625 feet of elevation gain. There are a few little secondary trails that range from 300-500 feet to other points of interest. There is also a 1 mile “out and back” trail near the mid point of the hike that goes to a Gauging Station. The trails are signed very well but the signs were poorly done in there construction. These beautiful trail markers are signed with very informative and colorful signs. Unfortunately they are made of cardboard and were glued to the mounts. They have almost completely come off and are now being weighted down with rocks to keep them from blowing away. Hopefully they will come up with something more permanent in the near future.

This appears to be a very popular nature hiking area. The Sunday that we were there, we crossed paths with at least 20 other runners, hikers, walkers, and a group of Cub Scouts from pack 658 That were passing through the preserve on a separate 3 mile “out and back” hike to a small local water fall. We hope to do that hike on our next trip.

Pleas visit their website at http://www.specialdistricts.org/2/nep/trail.htm for more information and directions.

Remember to always hike with plenty of water and your 10 essentials.