8 June 2004

Rob and Doug,
 
Much thanks to both of you for the information.  In the following text (more
verbose than required) I will describe what I know about the trip as related
to Indians Road. 
 
Over the past Memorial Day weekend my wife and I drove down to Arroyo Seco
from Berkeley, our plan being to see if we could ride our bikes from the
Arroyo Seco Campground to the Escondido Campground on Indians Road.  If this
was possible, it would mean that a group of 4 could drive (in one car) to
Arroyo Seco, lock up a bike, drive to Escondido, go down the river, and then
have someone ride the bike back to retrieve the car.
 
Anyway, we were turned away at the Arroyo Seco kiosk since the park was too
full.  Having come so far we decided to drive to Escondido and try the ride
in reverse.  However, we were stopped by the military police and told access
was not allowed since 9/11.  Note that our entry was denied before we even
had a chance to show our drivers license, registration and proof of
insurance (all required by the military police).  

Driving back north on 101, having given up all hope, we decided to try to go
back to Arroyo Seco in hopes that they were now letting people in.  The
third time was the charm and around 3:15 pm I set off on my bike on Indians
Road.  My primary goal was to ride all the way to Escondido and in the
process see if the road was passable (park rangers had told us it was
blocked by a landslide).  Smartly, my wife remained behind.  I estimated the
trip to be about 10 miles each way and guessed I would be back by 5 pm.  
 
After one downhill leading to a bridge the road went up for many unrelenting
and exposed miles.  I only kept going since I knew it would be all downhill
on the way back.  Despite the grade and heat the road was in good shape and
easily navigated by bike.  However, after ~ 8 or 9 miles I reached a saddle
and hadn't yet come across the slide.  I didn't want to continue since: I
was already exhausted, I didn't have a watch, going downhill towards
Escondido would mean uphill to get back to Arroyo Seco, and I already drank
most of my only bottle of disgusting luke warm Gatorade.
 
But I did continue, and shortly came to the slide that I easily carried my
bike across.  After the slide I kept going towards Escondido, going down two
more gentle slopes before reaching a long, flat, and straight stretch of
road.  Riding across it I found an old sign lying on the side of the road
indicating that I was in Hanging Valley.  At the end of the long flat the
road started to go down again; I conceded defeat and started back to Arroyo
Seco.  At 5:50 pm I found Emily in the day use parking lot that was due to
close in 10 minutes.  I jumped the river and then we headed home, stopping
in San Jose for Vietnamese sandwiches.

Based on the adventure above and additional research done during the
following week I can make the following conclusions.

a) Walking (or riding a bike) on Indians Road from Arroyo Seco to Escondido
is possible and if done very early or late in the day would be quite
pleasant as the road is generally wide (i.e. you don't get scratched raw by
the vegetation) and well graded (i.e. not steep).  However, no water is
available at all and 99% of the road has no shade whatsoever.  Note that
after my bike ride I traced the route with TOPO and found that I was just a
mile or two from Escondido; I am assuming that this un-traveled part of the
road is in condition similar to the part I traversed.  The following
information is from TOPO:

Distance from Arroyo Seco to Escondido via Indians Road, 13.3 miles
Elevation at Arroyo Seco, 936 feet
Elevation at Escondido, 2145 feet
Highest point on Indians Road, 2889 feet
Total Elevation Gain, 3427 feet
Total Elevation Drop, 2218 feet

b) Access to Escondido through Fort Hunter-Liggett
(http://www.liggett.army.mil/) is still available despite our recent
experience getting turned away.  I have called the base and found that
access is available 24 hours a day and if an area is closed, it will only be
for a few hours to allow for training exercises.  Before a trip, you can
call the base and get road closure conditions up to a week in advance.  We
plan to do this in the future and record who and when we spoke with.  If the
military police try to turn us away at the gate again we will say we talked
to XXX on XXX and he said XXX.  If that doesn't work we will either ask to
speak to a commanding officer or wait for training exercises to finish.

Casey