After losing his home in the Eaton Fire, the work of a volunteer trail rebuilder takes on new meaning

Two months and six days after the Eaton Fire broke out, on the very same day the Army Corps of Engineers came with bulldozers to clear the rubble of his burned down home, Matt Baffert finally got back out on the mountain trails.

“Idlehour Trail…in the upper Eaton Canyon,” he said. “For lack of a better word, my second home.”

Baffert works as a construction contractor by day. In his free time, he’s an avid mountain biker and trail steward, repairing trails after wildfires, floods and other mayhem in the Angeles National Forest. In 2019, he co-founded the Lowelifes Respectable Citizens’ Club, a dedicated nonprofit group of volunteer trail builders and menders.

Erik Hillard, CFO of Lowelifes (left) talks with Matt Baffert, CEO of Lowelifes (right) ahead of a trail work day on Mount Wilson in 2023.

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Erin Stone

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LAist

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Baffert and his crew have spent thousands of hours restoring trails in some of the more remote parts of the forest, including three off Mount Wilson that were heavily damaged after the Bobcat Fire and subsequent record rainstorms. That fire was the second-largest in L.A. County history, burning more than 115,000 acres in the Angeles National Forest in 2020.

Baffert’s group, in partnership with the Forest Service, has worked on those trails since. Thanks to their work, several of them are now open, but repairs are ongoing.

Matt Baffert during better days on the trails i the Angeles Forest.

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Brian Vernor

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LAist

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After the Eaton Fire, that volunteer work became more personal than ever. The January wildfire didn’t burn as many acres in the forest as the Bobcat, but it destroyed thousands more homes, including Baffert’s in Altadena, where he and his family lived for about seven years.

Baffert grew up in Long Beach, where he used to surf, but the mountains ended up calling him inland.

“Altadena, for me, is home, and the mountains and the trails are probably the biggest piece of that,” Baffert said.

Now, his mission is two-fold — rebuilding the trails he loves, while rebuilding his own home after fire.

Assessing the damage

On the same day the Army Corps was scheduled to clear the rubble of his home in mid-March, Baffert got the go-ahead from the Forest Service to assess the damage to nearby trails.

Before taking off for the wilderness above, Baffert and a friend and fellow trail steward made a stop.

“ I really wanted to see my property before it was gone,” he said. “I don't know why I was so compelled to do that.”

The view of the upper Idlehour trail in mid-March after the Eaton Fire.

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Courtesy of Matt Baffert

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The drive through Altadena was heart-wrenching, Baffert said. Then came the next blow — to the 5.3-mile Idlehour trail up the mountain. They started their survey up at the Eaton Saddle and the plan was to ride their mountain bikes down from there.

“We had made our way maybe about one mile down the trail and the impact of the damages really started to escalate,” Baffert said. “As you progress down the trail, the after effects of rain and storms on completely burned areas just becomes more exponential.”

As they descended, things didn’t look so good — chaparral charred black; formerly lush, tree-shaded canyons now sparse; trails washed out from the recent storms.

Fellow Lowelifes volunteer and friend Eric Melanson surveys damage in the "Harvard Branch" area of Eaton Canyon.

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Courtesy of Matt Baffert

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But there were pockets of hope.

“A moment of relief washed over me seeing green on the second half of Tom Sloane all the way to the saddle,” Baffert wrote in a web post of his post-fire observations on the group’s website. “Within the green are beautiful rock staircases built by the recently passed away volunteer and master mason, the legendary Dave Baumgartner.”

Despite the heartaches, Baffert also felt a sense of catharsis of finally knowing exactly how bad it all was. Baffert said he could now plan how to rebuild the trails — and his house.

Rebuilding home

Baffert said it’ll probably be at least three years before Idlehour and other heavily damaged trails reopen to the public.

A charred landscape in the upper Idlehour trail.

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Courtesy of Matt Baffert

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Signs of regrowth as native Humboldt lilies peak out of ashy dirt in mid-March.

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Courtesy of Matt Baffert

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“There's still cleansing that needs to take place, more erosion that's gonna take place,” Baffert told LAist. “Like we saw with the Bobcat Fire, eventually things start to stabilize. Chaparral starts to grow in. Roots start to bed into the hillsides. Eventually, you start to see things starting to hold.”

The aftermath of the Eaton Fire in the San Gabriel Mountains.

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Courtesy of Matt Baffert

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Once vegetation like chaparral takes hold, Baffert said they can start repairing the trails in earnest.

“It'll always look different, but you'll build a new relationship with the land, and then you'll realize that you kind of love it just as much as you did before,” Baffert said.

Even though things will never be exactly the same, Baffert said he’ll do everything he can to regain that old sense of home.

“Altadena’s forever changed,” Baffert said. “But everybody just kind of wants what they had before. So working towards that, like rebuilding my home and rebuilding Idlehour, I think of them collectively. It's a mission and I must do it.”

Before and after the Eaton Fire on the Idlehour trail.

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Courtesy of Matt Baffert

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After the Eaton Fire on the Idlehour trail.

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Courtesy of Matt Baffert

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How to help

Baffert said Lowelifes always welcomes new volunteers. You can keep up with their post Eaton Fire efforts and sign up to volunteer here.

There are also other trail steward groups in the region, including:

• Angeles Volunteer Association
• Bear Canyon Trail Crew (and their meetup group)
• Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Association
• Mt. Wilson Bicycle Association
• Restoration Legacy Crew
• The Sturtevant Conservancy
• See a full list of volunteer groups active in the Angeles National Forest here.

What trails are now open?

On Friday, the Angeles National Forest officially reopened multiple popular trails after the Eaton Fire, including:

• Switzer Picnic Site
• Chantry Flat Recreation Area
• Upper and Lower Winter Creek trails
• Sturtevant Trail
• Sturtevant Loop
• Gabrielino National Recreation Trail (all of it is open)
• Gould Mesa Campground

See the map of all open trails here.

These trails remain closed:

• Bear Canyon Trail
• Bear Canyon Trail Camp (Hike-in Campground)
• Echo Mountain Picnic Area
• Echo Mtn Trail via Cobb Estate
• Hoegees Trail Camp (Hike-in Campground)
• Idlehour Trail
• Idlehour Trail Camp (Hike-in Campground)
• Ken Burton Trail
• Millard Trail Camp (Hike-in Campground)
• Mt. Lowe Trail Camp (Hike-in Campground)
• Mt. Wilson Skyline Park Picnic Site
• Mt. Wilson Trail
• Paul Little Picnic Area
• Sam Merrill (lower) Trail
• Sam Merrill (middle) Trail
• Spruce Grove Trail Camp (Hike-in Campground)
• Zion Trail

Keep up with the latest on closures here.

And remember, if you do visit the forest, tread lightly and stay on the trails — the land still needs time to heal, and higher traffic on trails after fires is one reason trails and landscapes can face further damage.