*Dixon Lake Crag Cleanup!* -- Making a difference, building community, and climbing together!

Eagle Peak, a small climbing crag at Dixon Lake in Escondido, has seen access curtailed in the wake of litter, graffiti, and general misuse in recent years. However, there is now an opportunity for the local climbing community to make a positive impact by helping restore and preserve this area!

This Saturday, the Dixon Lake rangers will host a crag cleanup event for volunteers from the community. Folks are encouraged to come out in the late morning for litter removal and light trail work...and welcome to climb to their hearts' content afterward! (Climbing gear not provided.) The park entrance fee will be waived for volunteers, and coffee and donuts will be provided!  

When: Saturday, December 8th, from 10:00 AM-12:00 PM

Where: 1700 La Honda Drive, Escondido CA -- Bear right after the park entrance; Trout Cove is the second parking lot on the left.

Who: You!    And anyone else eager to lend a helping hand!

I can answer questions here in this thread, or Ranger Kathy Boyd can be contacted for more information at (760) 839-4345. Hope to see you there!

Myself and my two doughters are in. 

Awesome, Mike! Looking forward to meeting you there. (Can't miss me, I'll be handing out donuts...) Weather forecast looks clear and sunny and almost 70 degrees!

Great stewardship!

Thank you, Adam, for permission to use your photo for the flyer! You're right: It's awesome to have an opportunity like this to practice good stewardship in the climbing community...especially at an area that could really use it! (Well, all areas could "really use" good stewardship--this is just a local example.) Hopefully we can make a positive impact, get to know and work with other climbers and rangers, and have a lot of fun climbing together afterward!

Hello again! Update: The crag cleanup back in December was a success and lots of fun for everyone involved! We had 25 hardworking, enthusiastic volunteers from the community come out and remove almost 200 gallons' worth (measured by filled-up collection bags) of litter and recyclables from the area--new friends were made, walls were climbed, and everyone had a good time!  

The Dixon Lake rangers were impressed with the volunteer efforts and excited to work alongside the climbing community! In hopes of building on that relationship and furthering rehabilitation of this climbing area, they have scheduled a follow-up cleanup event to take place next Saturday! This time around there will be an added emphasis on graffiti removal, as the rangers have allocated special spray equipment packs to be used by volunteers who really want to get down and dirty... Like before, the park entrance fee will be waived for volunteers, and coffee and donuts will be provided!
When: Saturday, Janurary 19th, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Where: 1700 La Honda Drive in Escondido, CA -- Bear right after the park entrance; Trout Cove is the second parking lot on the left.

Who: You!   And anyone else eager to lend a helping hand!

Once again, I can answer questions here in this thread, or Ranger Kathy Boyd can be contacted for more information at (760) 839-4345. Hope to see you there!

Excellent work !!!

Great job!  

MM MM it might be a good idea to let Allied Climbers of San Diego know when you schedule these events.  They have all of the gear/resources to help remove the graffiti from Dixon Lake.  In fact they got a grant from REI to buy more equipment and elephant snot to help clean up that area.   Also, I know they will be working with the park rangers to do clean up/graffiti removal events to clean all the graffiti off of Dixon Lake. They love getting as many volunteers as they can.  Plus, they can get the word out to more people to get more volunteers.  

Thank you for your helpful advice, pminearo! I just dropped ACSD a line right now. Hopefully, they will be able to lend their resources to the cleanup effort as you describe and really make a positive impact! I'm also going to drop a line to the rangers because, moving forward, it's likely best if both those groups keep up a direct connection with each other and I just sort of "slip out" from in between. (I'm a grad school student and a one-person show; I'm stretched a little thin with all this, as much as I enjoy making a difference!)

Also, I noticed you wrote "when you schedule these events" in your post. It's a small point, but just for clarity, the Dixon Lake rangers are the ones entirely in charge of scheduling, allocating, staging (all the essential behind-the-scenes stuff). They really deserve the lion's share of credit for this--just want to make that clear!    My small part only comes when they already have everything in place and a date set: They let me know, and that's when I try to help them reach out to get the community involved, post up about it and the like. Not that anyone was wondering...but if so, there you go!

MM, let me know if you'd like to invite folks from the 9,000 person SoCal Climbing meetup group to join you for this clean up!  Would love to get this posted as a meetup.  Link: www.meetup.com/socalclimbing

David, please feel free to re-post the event image/info wherever you think folks will be interested! Although Eagle Peak is a small(ish) crag, there's still a lot​ of litter to be picked up, graffiti to be cleared, and other work to be done. Furthermore, a greater turnout shows the rangers and the City of Escondido how vested local climbers are in caring for their recreational areas...and that goes a long way toward furthering positive discussions about access and other issues in the future!

Also, quick update: This will likely be the last wholly independent event, as things are leaning toward Allied Climbers of San Diego "taking the reins" of future cleanup efforts at Dixon Lake!   

Big thank you to ACSD, Nomad Ventures, Mesa Rim, The Wall, VITAL, and Vertical Hold for all getting involved and helping spread the word about this weekend's event! Also, thank you to local universities Cal State San Marcos and St. Augustine for Health Sciences for inviting their students out to participate! The weather looks clear and sunny on Saturday, so hopefully everyone will have a great time pitching in and climbing together...not to mention eating donuts!   

Good things happen when we take care of our recreational areas, and the future looks bright at Dixon Lake!

The crag cleanup is TODAY​!​ It's bright and sunny out there--if you don't have any climbing plans already, come on out and join the fun!  

How was it?  Photos of results?

I apologize, David P, for not updating this thread or responding to your post sooner!    The cleanup event was a great success: Even more graffiti and trash were removed from the climbing area, trails were cut back to ease access, new friends were made, and everyone who climbed had a great time together! Access to climbing at Dixon Lake is now easier and the area itself cleaner than it has been in a long time, and hopefully this trend will continue in the future! If so, I will do my best to stay on top of new info and keep this thread updated.

The following is a brief write-up and photo collage from one of the rangers who participated with us that day:
I hope this finds you well.
On January 19, 2019, twenty participants performed trash abatement, graffiti removal, truckloads of trimming and trail maintenance.
Your efforts make a big difference and we all appreciate it very much.
You all rock!
Peace,
Ranger Kathy