Trabuco Canyon : Hikers Mark Reopening of O’Neill Regional Park

Five elderly hikers from Laguna Hills strode briskly along a hiking trail in O’Neill Regional Park on Friday morning. For two of them, Ann Gahimer and Victor J. Van Lint, it was a kind of celebration of the park’s reopening--this time with new rules to protect the public from mountain lions. The two had hiked at Caspers Wilderness Park on the day that it, too, reopened.

O’Neill was closed Dec. 26 after several cougars were sighted. Richard Dyer, supervising park ranger, said that about 1,800 of the park’s 2,200 acres remained closed Friday.

Although cougars injured two children at Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park about five miles to the southeast, no one has been attacked at O’Neill. But several cougars were sighted there last December, and tracks were found almost daily.

Now, children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult, and they may not stay overnight. Adults must be in parties of at least two for overnight stays. Also, one person in each party entering the park must sign a document acknowledging the danger from cougars, rattlesnakes and other wild creatures, and must assume responsibility for the group’s safety.

Caspers park reopened Jan. 2 with similar restrictions.

“We’re losing 30 of our 182 camp sites,” Dyer said. “What really hurts is that we’ll have no place for many of those homeless families who won’t be allowed to camp overnight because of their children.”

Dyer said that there had been few signs of mountain lions in recent weeks at O’Neill, except for some tracks and a sighting by a maintenance attendant in the early morning three days ago, all in sections of the park that now are off-limits to the public.

Cougars also were sighted earlier this week at San Onofre State Beach in San Diego County just south of San Clemente.