It is believed the historic Coast Walk Trail in La Jolla has been used for some 9,000 years.

Nonprofit Friends of the Coast Walk Trail, Inc. formed by concerned neighbors to protect, improve, and maintain the trail originally used by Native Americans, has only been around for 13 of those years. But in that short time, ample trail restoration work has been accomplished, as Brenda Fake, chair of Friends of the Coast Walk Trail board, will tell you.

Fake conducted a recent tour of the slightly more than half-mile long coastal bluff scenic trail between Torrey Pines Road and Coast Boulevard, an urban retreat offering a dazzling color palette and incomparable views of nature, wildlife, and the ocean.

“Five or six years ago this whole thing failed,” said Fake, standing on the bridge pointing to a spot on one end of the trail off Torrey Pines Road. The trail stretches along the bluff ending near The Cave Store, a souvenir shop at 1325 Coast Blvd. with a tunnel and wooden staircase of 145 steps leading down to Sunny Jim’s Sea Cave.

“The trail was here,” said Fake gesturing off the bridge. “What we did was realign this trail. We don’t build anything permanent out here. Everything has either been redone or is stuff that could easily be removed.”

Friends’ focus is on the safety and environmental preservation, restoration, and enhancement of the Coast Walk Trail. The goal is to ensure continued use and enjoyment for the community today and tomorrow.

Toward that end, the group has established a vigorous program of removing invasive non-native vegetation and replacing it with colorful and practical native plants that help anchor the soil and bluff. “We’re mitigating erosion that is destined to happen,” noted Fake.

The group has done extensive trail work to help prevent erosion, as demonstrated by the fact that the morning of the tour with this reporter, it had rained but the trail was completely dry a couple of hours later.

“Two years ago, we resurfaced the trail with decomposed granite and a lot of little rocks, so that, when the water comes down, it disperses as opposed to cutting (the soil),” said Fake adding “it helps mitigate the mud issues with rain.”

Coast Walk Trail, designated a historic asset in 1990, is a “paper” street managed by the City’s Transportation Department. “It was originally going to be a road along the bluffs in the 1920s, but this wasn’t a place to put a road,” Fake noted. “It’s called a paper street, though it’s a trail. Technically, it’s a road.”

Friends of Coast Walk Trail is a 501(c) under federal tax guidelines. “If we donated money, we wanted to be able to do it as a tax benefit,” said Fake. “So we created a 501 C3.”

Pointing to a sign on the trail’s bridge, Fake said, “This has a new logo with a QR code that takes you to a guided tour and history of the trail on our website.”

Trail restoration and maintenance are challenging and never-ending. Fake said social media, unfortunately, is making the task of preserving the trail even harder. “TikTok is our biggest enemy now,” she said. “It’s dangerous for people to come down here (the gulch the bridge crosses) and use an unauthorized chair and swing, and it’s adding to erosion. I’m all for access. But there’s overuse.”

Throughout the trail tour, people of all ages, some on bikes, walk or ride the trail. It’s obvious they’re enjoying the surroundings.

Fake discussed how trail work is paid for. “Everything is grassroots community fundraising,” she said. “That’s been the most surprising, humbling, wonderful thing, the residents giving as much money as they have to maintain this asset.”

But the trail work is all necessary. “If we don’t do what we’re doing – the trail erodes,” said Fake adding, “We want to take care of what we’ve got. So we’ve repaired several trail benches, fixed the trail, put in the decomposed granite.”

Down at The Cave Store end of the Coast Walk, Fake noted that part of the trail, which features wooden stairs, fences, and a viewing platform overlooking the ocean, has also been restored. “We’re not here to redesign or do anything different than what we’ve got,” she said. “It’s just repair and replace.”

Added Fake: “The cliffs had eroded to such a point that we had to move the fence posts in about six feet. We repaired the fence. It’s all done with treated wood, which can last 30 or 40 years.”

The trail is also a natural, open-air garden and zoo with plenty of birds and pinnipeds. “We have Torrey Pines that only grow here, and it’s the most endangered pine species,” noted Fake. “We have brown pelicans that are also endangered.”

Pointing to the fence surrounding The Cave Store, Fake talked about a future trails project. “We’re going to sell plaques to put up on that fence to raise money and for people who want to leave a legacy,” she said adding she has a yearly trails maintenance budget while admitting, “I could spend every nickel of it.”

With a sense of pride, Fake pointed out the historic Coast Walk Trail is one of many reasons why people worldwide visit La Jolla. “It’s probably the best little urban trail in San Diego,” she said adding, “We’ve really seen a community rally around something, and during COVID, it was important.”

Of trail restoration and maintenance, Fake said: “It builds community and people can see it. All of us that started this… We weren’t paying attention to who was watching. And now, of late, people have been acknowledging the efforts. That’s been pleasantly surprising, kind, and good.”

Added Fake, “This is less a reflection of us – and more a reflection of our community.”

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE TRAIL’S RESTORATION/MAINTENANCE

Board of the Friends of Coast Walk Trail: Dr. Paul Teirstein, treasurer, Carolyn Edds, secretary, Erin McConkey, student outreach/ native plant specialist, Shannon Smith, member at large, The Cave Store owner.

La Jolla Sunrise Rotary: Steve Cross, Loretta Smith, Steve Andres, Randy Large.

Bishops Community Service “Trail Squad” team: Maddie Cramer, Steven Yin, Shinjoe Sakamoto.

La Jolla High School: Will Spann.

2022 La Jolla Boy Scout Troop No. 4 Eagle Scout projects: Emmet Holden (Eagle Scout mentor), Jimmy Sundstrom, Nathaniel Cumming, Nick Thomson, Nico McCann.

La Jolla.ca: Peter Godfredson, Max Lawrence.