Ruts on the trail where a new rolling dip was built

CORBA’s adopted trail, the Los Robles Trail West in Thousand Oaks, wasn’t in very good shape this spring after the winter rains. Long segments were wildly overgrown by mustard and thistle, and some steeper sections had deep ruts. Over the years, the tread of the trail had become U-shaped in cross-section. The natural rims keep rainwater on the trail, where it runs down the middle, taking soil with it and forming a jagged rut.

COSCA hired professional trail workers to fix up the trail in the spring. They cut back the overgrowing weeds and filled in the deep ruts. Unfortunately, they didn’t build water diversions (‘rolling dips’) to keep future rain from running down the trail and reforming the rut. Furthermore, the center of the trail, where the rut had been filled in, was much more loosely packed than the rest of the trail, making it much more susceptible to water erosion.

The rain that we had in the last two weeks of October was enough to start carving new ruts. At the beginning of November, a rut a few inches deep had formed on one of the steeper sections of the trail.

CORBA trail crew members and local residents Danusia Bennett-Taber and Steve Clark spent three hours fixing up the trails. They built two rolling dips on a steeper segment, one near the top and another just above a very steep part. These water diversions will redirect rainwater off the trail so it shouldn’t form another rut. They also filled in the rut on the very steep part at the bottom. Being protected by a rolling dip from above, this rut should not reform once it is packed down by trail users.

View a short photo gallery of the work that was done.