ASTREA to Fly Over Cedar Creek Falls on Weekend; Two Roads Will Be Closed

Forest Service and Sheriff's personnel will have the ability to begin citing people for being anywhere in the Cedar Creek Falls area beginning Saturday morning.

ASTREA will fly over the area throughout the weekend, looking for anyone in the area, which is in Cleveland National Forest bordering Ramona.

The Service issued this notice to the public on Friday:

"To protect public safety, the Cleveland National Forest is closing the San Diego River Gorge Trail and Cedar Creek Falls. The area and trail will be closed from July 9, 2011 through November 8, 2011.  The Forest Service can reopen the area prior to November 8, 2011 if deemed appropriate."

The closure extends for ¼ mile on both sides of the trails and the falls.

Sheriff's Lt. Julie Sutton, based at Ramona substation, told Patch that Thornbush and Ramona Oaks roads, leading to one of the trailheads, will be closed to anyone except residents over the weekend. Signs will be posted at two locations along San Vicente Road.

The closure follows the death of a 16-year-old hiker from El Cajon who was visiting the area with his cousins when he fell 80 feet into water on Wednesday, hitting rocks on the way. Emergency responders have also been concerned about the number of people partying with alcohol and becoming dehydrated on the two-hour hike back out of the area. At least 11 rescues have occurred in the past week and a few dogs have died after doing the hike. There are no indications that the hiker who died had been drinking.

Ironically, various agency representatives gathered at County Supervisor Dianne Jacob's office on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. in a meeting about safety concerns at Cedar Creek Falls. The meeting had been scheduled for several weeks and was the second on the subject. It happened less than three hours after the hiker's deadly fall.