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The Longest Mile
updated: Sep 17, 2011, 10:00 AM
By the Urban Hikers, Stacey Wright and Peter Hartmann
This week, one of us really didn't feel like hiking what we expected to be a ho-
hum area of town. It was a foggy weekend morning and lounging in a warm bed
seemed infinitely more appealing than hiking along Las Positas Road, but the
OTHER urban hiker was insistent that we carry on in our quest to walk all 256
miles of public streets within the city Santa Barbara. And so, with a very bad
attitude, the recalcitrant urban hiker agreed to get up and go. This is the hike we
took.
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We parked on Flora Vista, across from Monroe School, and set out - heading
toward Las Positas in the fog. Believing there would be precious few sights of
interest along this hike, we began taking photos of anything that might be even
remotely interesting. The foggy street and the moss in this tree were some of
the "interesting" things we saw.
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The crabby urban hiker was still grousing about having to get out of bed for a
foggy, boring hike. But when we hiked past a few California Poppies along the
side of the road, it started to become obvious that this morning hike wasn't going
to be all that bad. Here are a few of the lovely little flowers we saw during the
course of our hike.
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At the corner of Cliff Drive and Las Positas, we saw a woman hawking her cut
flowers. They were a lovely burst of color on that otherwise almost colorless
morning.
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It seems to us that the intersection of Cliff Drive and Las Positas has been in a
state of flux for a very long time. We can recall the days when the old turn lane made for very efficient travel from Cliff Drive onto Las Positas. There was no stoplight, no construction zone, and no confusion at all - just an intersection that functioned fairly well. Now, the intersection is a hodgepodge of "improvements".
It's not just a City street, but also a State Highway.
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Los Positas is the Spanish for "little springs" or "little watering holes", and was
aptly named in the 1800's. Because there was an abundance of fresh water in
and around the Los Positas area (including the Mesa) in the late 1800‘s and
into the mid-20th century, the region was prime agricultural land. The landscape
consisted of farms large and small yielding a variety of crops. Beans were the
main commercial crop grown on the Mesa in the early days, but there were also
farmers raising a variety of other crops including corn, squash, barley and flax.
Animals were also commercially raised in the area of our hike; usually pigs and
goats. The largest farm in this area during the 1880‘s was located north of Cliff
Drive between Las Positas and Flora Vista, at the present-day site of McKinley
School. It was a 264-acre farm belonging to T. W. Moore.
In researching Las Positas, we found a few aerial photos showing the
progression and development of the area of our hike. The most recent of these
photos was taken in 1986; the earlier ones date from 1967 and1954; and earliest
photo was taken in 1929.
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Turning onto Las Positas, we came across our first "posita" of the day, much to
the delight of the irritable urban hiker. The little spring was so inspirational and
so unexpected that the previously ill-tempered one suddenly became cheerful
and inquisitive...and frankly, the virtuous one became a little smug. But alas,
the urban hikers both became enthusiastically engaged in hiking what we came
to embrace as a rich and varied neighborhood in our town. The magnificent
trees, the hidden footpaths and even the rats' nests were exquisite.
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And since no description of Las Positas would be complete without mention of
Elings Park and the tennis courts, we'll show them to you and tell you just a bit
about these dandy public places. Elings Park is said to be the "largest privately
funded park in America". Prior to 1965, it was the City Dump, and thereafter
it became a park, due to the dedication and hard work of a number of localvisionaries. Originally a 97-acre park with few amenities, thanks to the incredible
generosity of the Elings family and many others, today the park is a whopping
230 acres and has sports fields, a Veteran's memorial, public art, hiking, biking
and horseback riding trails, picnic areas, playgrounds and remarkable party
venues. Recently, Elings Park assumed responsibility for the management and
maintenance of the tennis courts which have been part of Las Positas Park since
1972.
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As our hike continued, we ventured into a couple of the neighborhoods to cover
territory and mark the streets off our map. We encountered some steep inclines,
beautifully landscaped yards, creative gardening techniques, monochromatic
motor vehicles, a significant amount of rust, and the city/county boundary.
Send this picture as a postcard
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Further down Las Positas we came to another "posita" that actually looked more
like a swamp. We were pretty impressed and fascinated by this "little spring"...its
color was remarkable, and the fact that we have obviously passed it hundreds of
times without knowing it's there is also pretty cool. We took a second picture to
show just how close to the road this lovely little pond sits.
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A ways down Las Positas we came to another little footpath leading off the road
and walked up it to see what hidden treasure we might discover. We found two
things of interest - one was the remains of an abandoned bridge that appears to
have been on the main highway at some point in the past. Unfortunately, near
the lovely old bridge there was a copious amount of trash consisting primarily of
alcohol bottles and cans, abandoned household goods and garbage. It appeared
that this location has served as a homeless encampment, but we saw no
evidence that it's currently being used for that purpose. All that trash was really
disheartening.
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A little more curiosity and adventure took us around the corner, and what we
found was nothing short of surreal. It looked to be an old BMX or motocross
track...someone or some group sure put a lot of work into creating this little
playground, and we wondered if it's still in use today. Obviously at one point there used to be spectators at the track.
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Emerging from "the bush" we were delighted to see that the sun had broken
through the fog. We never get tired of looking up at the mountains, and although
the photo doesn't do justice to the scene and sunshine we enjoyed, we'll include
it to round out our hike.
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And lastly, please indulge us in a little bit of editorializing. We have hiked a
number of our city streets, and while many are "user friendly", others are not.
Unfortunately, Las Positas is not a "user friendly" route. On the morning of our
hike, we encountered a number of people on foot or bicycling, and it did not look
safe or enjoyable. In several spots along our trek, we felt vulnerable and unsafe,
and wondered why the road hasn't been upgraded to accommodate sidewalks
or other safety features. Sure, there is a bike path, but with a speed limit of 55
miles an hour, it doesn't seem like it's the type of bike path a family or novice
rider would feel comfortable using. Even veteran cyclists are probably not all
that comfortable sharing the road with cars driving as fast as many do on the
freeways. We realize that this part of Las Positas is primarily a thoroughfare
connecting one area of town to another, but is it really necessary to post a speed
limit of 55 miles per hour along this route? It seems to us that if our City Council
really wants to see more pedestrians and fewer cars on the roads, they should
make a few SIMPLE changes and make this beautiful route more pedestrian
safe. Maybe they could put future bulb-outs on hold and instead improve this
stretch of our city's roadway.
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As always, we encourage you to go out and explore our city, meet your
neighbors, keep your eyes, ears and minds open to all that you encounter, and
above all, expect the unexpected.
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