TRUE TRAILBLAZERS; INCH BY INCH, WEBSTER LOVINGLY CREATES FOOTPATHS IN THE LOCAL MOUNTAINS.

Byline: Matt Purdue Special to the Daily News

Ron Webster's hands tell his secrets.

Their rough-hewn ridges and canyons mirror the landscape of the mountains that are his passion. Their color - a tone between oak bark and dried blood - match the hue of the powdery soil Webster is shoveling on this choking-hot morning in a small canyon carved from the Santa Monica Mountains.

Within earshot of the dull buzz of rubber against concrete on the San Diego Freeway near the Sepulveda Pass, Webster is in another world. In fact, he is in the act of creating another world, scratching out a new footpath, inch by inch.

The boots of countless area recreationists have trod on his handiwork, along any one of the hundreds of miles of trails Webster has forged or maintained in the Santa Monicas.

For more than two decades - first as a volunteer and now as a paid professional - Webster has been aligning, digging, chopping and picking, all the while earning a reputation as a one of the best trailblazers in the state, if not the nation.

``I guess I've always had an urge to do things with my hands,'' said Webster, 63, his clear, blue eyes flashing in the morning sun. ``Everybody's supposed to be an artist; we try that, but most of us never are. This is what comes as close to art for me. It's the only way I've been able to express myself.''

Webster, who resides in Culver City with his wife of 10 years, Mary Ann, builds trails the way it was done a century ago - by hand (with the exception of an occasional chain saw on particular nasty stretches).

First Webster bushwhacks through the dense chaparral, calling on years of experience to help him flag the best route - one that will withstand nature's constant erosion process while enveloping the hiker in what Webster lovingly calls ``the woods.'' Next come the shovels, picks, axes, saws and hoes, wielded by fellow Sierra Club members or paid crews of ``unsung heroes'' - the Los Angeles and California Conservation Corps.

``Basically what I'm doing here is a dying art,'' said Webster, who has worked on about 70 percent of the existing Backbone Trail. ``The feeling at other recreational areas is that in order to build a trail in-house, you've got to have mechanized equipment. The kind of trail you see here you're not going to see everywhere.''

Sometimes, Webster toils in solitude, as on this trail near the 405, blazing a path he hopes to complete by Halloween. A trail crew usually completes about a half-mile per month. So far, Webster's finished about three-quarters of a mile, working as much as eight hours a day since early in the year.

``I like spending some time alone,'' said Webster, dressed in an old pair of jeans and a blue work shirt, his thick salt-and-pepper hair sticking out from under a crusty Raiders cap. ``In some ways, I'm like a married hermit.''

For the last 15 years, the retired machinist has been paid for his weekday work by the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council via grants from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. He still volunteers on weekends.

``His motivation is not money but what he can do for the mountains,'' said Webster's longtime friend Milt McAuley, a Canoga Park adventurer and author whose book, ``Hiking Trails of the Santa Monica Mountains,'' has become the local trekker's Bible. ``You can't find anyone more dedicated to the mountains than Ron Webster.''

Indeed, Webster seems driven by an undying love for the Santa Monicas, although he might be the last to admit it.

``One of my sayings is, `I only have this job because I'm immune to poison oak,' '' he said with a grin. ``God forbid I should win the lottery and my wife makes me go on a cruise for a year. I would probably come back and be very susceptible to it.''

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Photo

Photo: (color) Ron Webster, a true-life trailblazer, leads volunteers to the Phil Leacock Memorial Trial, where they will perform maintenance work.

Evan Yee / Daily News