The day Jabir Adamo complained about group horseback rides through his Carmel Valley property, he got a phone call.
“A lady had her horse slip on the ridgeline and fall down,” he says.
The woman was a part of a Carmel Valley Ranch tour. The resort’s trail ride program is only a month old, but for the first few weeks, it cut through Adamo’s private property abutting Garland Ranch Regional Park. “The consequential environmental damage is huge,” he says.
A Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District easement allows people to ride and hike across Adamo’s land, but organized commercial uses are prohibited park-wide for a number of reasons, including liability.
Ranch Activities Manager Megan Bowers says up to 18 people have been taking the one-hour, $125 trail rides daily. “We travel under these beautiful live oak trees that are just dripping with lacy lichen,” she says.
After Adamo complained, resort managers limited the rides to the ranch’s undeveloped acreage. “They’re riding on their own property now,” says Tony Lombardo, the resort’s attorney.
That’s satisfaction enough for Adamo, who lives in San Diego. “Unless I’m notified otherwise, they are not getting on my property,” he says.
MPRPD Planning and Conservation Manager Tim Jensen says district officials plan to discuss the potential for a special use permit with ranch managers. But they don’t want groups making money on district lands.
“We’re probably the last public agency in Monterey County that doesn’t charge a fee to come in your parks,” he says. “We provide public access to everyone.”
