PCT May Be Rerouted Through The Tehachapi Mountains

A new land acquisition could reroute the Pacific Crest Trail through California’s Tehachapi Mountains, the Los Angeles Timesreported Wednesday.

The Tejon Ranch Conservancy, one of the state’s largest private landowners, has announced a 10,000-acre conservation easement that would allow the trail to shift 38 miles from its current track through the flat Mojave Desert to the rugged, elevated backcountry of the more scenic Tehachapis. The new trail would also hew closer to the original 1930s design of the PCT, a route that had to be modified when the government could not get the necessary permissions to build in Tejon Ranch.

The changes are still quite a ways off, however. Although the Tejon Ranch land acquisition is a promising first step, PCT Association officials told the Times that it could be “many more years” before breaking ground on the new route.

Read more: Los Angeles Times