Humber Park closure, October 2023

Has anyone been up here the past couple of days? How is the parking? Can you drop off people and gear in the Humber Park lot?

D Bwrote:

Has anyone been up here the past couple of days? How is the parking? Can you drop off people and gear in the Humber Park lot?

There’s no access to Humber Park, except from the end of the Ernie Maxwell Trail on Tahquitz view Drive.

I’m told that parking on Forest Drive is getting a little busy, you can access Suicide easily from there.

As I said earlier, you can park on Forest Drive legally but someone later may park on the other side of the road from you, and you could get towed.

Current status:

The entrance to Humber Park is completely closed. The closest parking spaces along Forest Drive are filled with construction materials. There aren't many cars on Forest Drive right now, but it's Tuesday- that will certainly change over the weekend. There are many 'No Trespassing' signs posted in the yards and driveways of the homes along Forest Drive.

Apogee - thanks for the updates. So they are putting in new pavement? Or is the parking getting expanded?

There is a retaining wall being installed on the downhill side of the road, starting near where the driveway of the last home along Fern Valley Road (inside of Humber Park) up to the last water tank. This section was showing signs of collapsing, and the pitch was down into that home’s direction. It was especially noticeable (and dangerous) during last winter’s snows.

According to the Granite Construction Project Engineer, installing this retaining wall will require complete removal of this section of the road.

Thanks 

Thanks Apogee and MP Merchant for the updates and insight. I'm coming from 2+ hours away so trying to be there that early on a weekend to ensure a spot on Forest Drive seems like a gamble. Hopefully it really is only a 2 week closure but I recall seeing the sentiment that it'll be longer. Anyway - appreciate you guys 

in this thread -  mountainproject.com/forum/t…;- Mountain Rocketman said, "the residents of Forest Dr voted down making their entire road No Parking, not sure why. So currently parking is allowed year around on Forest Dr unless you're blocking a driveway or emergency access."

They won’t be busting out a measuring tape to check the 24’, they will just tow you at their discretion.

The local tow company just does what the Sheriff tells them to do, you will have no recourse and will have to pay them to have your car released. There is no ticket to dispute, you have to pay the tow company. You could park perfectly legal in the morning and then someone later on will park across the street from you thus blocking access and your car could get towed, I have seen it happen.

This isn’t LA, your norms don’t apply, this is Locals Only.

What would it take to make the signage obvious so it is legal to park on the shoulder of the uphill side of Forest Drive,   and only illegal on the downhill side?

Such logic can take a long time to settle in to the Wild Wild West of rural, unincorporated Riverside County…

Edit to below: Touche!

apogeewrote:

Such logic can take a long time to settle in to the Wild Wild West of rural, unincorporated Riverside County…

Unlike of course in metropolitan areas where logic and rationality walks hand in hand with impeccably  law-abiding high character.

tom donnellywrote:

in this thread -  mountainproject.com/forum/t…;- Mountain Rocketman said, "the residents of Forest Dr voted down making their entire road No Parking, not sure why. So currently parking is allowed year around on Forest Dr unless you're blocking a driveway or emergency access."

What would it take to make the signage obvious so it is legal to park on the shoulder of the uphill side of Forest Drive,   and only illegal on the downhill side?

A strongly worded email!

As of noon today (Saturday), Forest Drive was completely lined with parked cars (mostly on one side of the road)- there were several cars parked along Fern Valley road, right in front of the 'No Parking' signs. It's anybody's guess as to how long it will be before towing starts happening.

While parking is extremely difficult, they are apparently allowing pedestrian traffic to walk up the road into Humber Park- so there's that. This may be related to the stage of construction that is currently underway- not clear if pedestrian passage will be allowed to continue as the project progresses.

Edit: there is word that the construction plan has changed to install a guard rail along that section of the road, rather than a full removal of the road and retaining wall, and that they hope to have it completed by next Friday. That would explain the foot traffic that is being allowed into Humber Park right now.

Hiked up the Ernie Maxwell Trail from the Tahquitz View Drive Trailhead to Humber Park today (Monday, October 9th).

Huge piles of sand at Humber Park, stretching from the Ernie Maxwell Trailhead down to the Water Tanks.

On the trail, the usual handful of casual hikers with kids and/or dogs; no climbers seen. BTW, from the trailhead at Tahquitz View Drive it's about 2 miles and 30-40 minutes to the Lunch Rock Climber's Approach Trail.

The Granite Construction supervisor today confirmed that the (much more extensive) retaining wall has been abandoned due to structural issues with the material in this area- instead, a guard rail will be installed to keep cars from pitching over the edge of the road into the resident's home. Granite is currently planning on having the road passable by this Friday (10/13), though the guard rail won't be installed until a later time. Theoretically, this should make Humber Park usable by this weekend, assuming that their work goes as planned, and neither Riverside County or the USFS have some other restriction on using it.

apogeewrote:

The Granite Construction supervisor today confirmed that the (much more extensive) retaining wall has been abandoned due to structural issues with the material in this area- instead, a guard rail will be installed to keep cars from pitching over the edge of the road into the resident's home. Granite is currently planning on having the road passable by this Friday (10/13), though the guard rail won't be installed until a later time. Theoretically, this should make Humber Park usable by this weekend, assuming that their work goes as planned, and neither Riverside County or the USFS have some other restriction on using it.

A car did once slide off there, flipped, and landed in that driveway.

Several years ago we beat a hasty retreat off of Suicide due to a sudden and unexpected flash snowfall. By the time we got to the car there had accumulated a couple inches of slushy stuff and as we tried to turn the car in the downhill direction we started uncontrollably sliding sideways towards the dropoff . Just as I was opening the door to bail some little berms had managed to build up against the tires stopping our slide. Had that not happened we could have definitely used some guard rails.

The agony is over!

Humber Park has been re-opened, with full access to all trails. This is the road repair that was done on the way into the Park:

There is good, solid asphalt in place, and downslope pitch was corrected. (Guard rail installation is still pending.) All of the construction debris has been removed from the Park, and full parking access is now available. This is the status of Forest Drive (the normal parking area for Suicide Rock) as of today:

Lots of equipment in the closest parking areas, but plenty of cars have found space above this.