AGUA DULCE TRAIL GETS $1.5 MILLION; THREE-MILE SECTION TO BE MOVED FOR HIKER SAFETY.

Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer

With federal money approved Monday by President Clinton, a three-mile portion of the Pacific Crest Trail through Agua Dulce will be relocated from high-traffic areas to increase hikers' safety and preserve open space.

U.S. Rep. Howard ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, announced the $1.5 million appropriation Tuesday at Vasquez Rocks County Park, a historic natural preserve area and popular destination for an estimated 100,000 annual visitors and through-hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail.

The money will be used for land surveys and easement acquisitions needed to relocate the three-mile portion of the national trail within Agua Dulce, according to National Forest Service officials, who must provide a progress report and action plan to Congress' Appropriations Committee by March 1. Public hearings will be held throughout the trail site selection and construction processes, officials said.

The existing leg through Agua Dulce brings hikers and equestrians from Angeles National Forest land off Sierra Highway, through open space at Vasquez Rocks, beneath the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway and back into national forest land off Soledad Canyon Road. Hikers are exposed to traffic dangers along sections of the trail that parallel or cross paved roads, including Sierra Highway and Agua Dulce Canyon Road.

McKeon said funds were chased for the last three years and finally secured through the 2000 Omnibus Appropriations Act, which also funds several other government agencies.

``It seems like to get anything through Washington takes years if you're lucky and decades if you're not,'' McKeon told representatives from the Forest Service, Los Angeles County Parks Department, Agua Dulce Town Council and Pacific Crest Trail Association.

Bob Ballou, executive director of the Pacific Crest Trail Association, sought McKeon's help in getting federal funds to begin increasing safety along the 31-year-old trail, a 2,650-mile trek over the Pacific Coast between United States borders at Mexico and Canada.

Like the trail's counterpart on the East Coast, the Appalachian Mountain Trail, hikers come from all over the country and world to walk the entirety of the challenging Pacific Crest Trail, Ballou said.

But unlike the legendary Appalachian Mountain Trail - which has received more than $200 million in federal money for safety improvements and private land acquisitions - the Pacific Coast Trail only now is beginning to receive similar funds since completed in 1993, officials said.

The $1.5 million relocation project in Agua Dulce is the first such undertaking, Ballou said.

McKeon worked with the federal Appropriations Committee to put into the Omnibus Act language that describes how many narrow easements, coupled with encroaching development, offer inadequate protection for many sections of the trail in Agua Dulce. The act appropriates money for the purpose of providing ``a much more scenic route and significantly higher quality hiking experience for all trail users.''

Forest Service officials said initial trail improvements funded from the $1.5 million appropriation will be prioritized by sections that pose the most danger to hikers and equestrians.

Throughout the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, more than 300 miles are located on right-of-way easements on private property, officials said.