Beleaguered Big Sur businesses set to receive some relief in the form of expanded trail, shuttle service

Residents and businesses within the 30-mile zone of Highway 1 in Big Sur currently closed off from both the north and the south will see some relief come July 1 in the form of an expanded trail open to the general public and a new shuttle service.

The 1-mile trail, which runs from the Big Sur Ranger Station through the woods to Big Sur Taphouse, has only been open to residents and employees of the closed zone for the past few months. The California Conservation Corps is hard at work preparing the trail for July's added foot traffic by installing a railing and doing general cleanup, according to Mary Adams of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.

July 1 also marks the start of a local shuttle service to ferry people between available parking at Andrew Molera State Park in Big Sur, the trail heads and local businesses. A price per ticket for the shuttle to be operated by SUR Travel has yet to be determined but "we'll make it as low as we can," Adams promised.

About $275,000 to operate two shuttles on each side of the trail is also being provided by Monterey County's economic development fund.

Adams says it's necessary to bring business back to one of the world's most famous coastlines. "This is one of the international bucket list trips and there is concern that we may fall off the bucket list," she said.

Kirk Gafill has been the general manager of Nepenthe Restaurant in Big Sur since 1985 and he's lived through his fair share of wildfires, storms and mudslides, but he's never witnessed a situation quite like this. "This is truly the granddaddy of them all."

A perfect storm of natural disasters has led to a large portion of Highway 1 being shut off from tourists and the outside world.

The northern entrance is expected to reopen by Sept. 30 when work wraps up on the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge, which sustained considerable damage during the winter storms in January and February. On May 20, near the aptly named "Mud Creek" 30 miles south, 1 million tons of dirt buried a quarter mile portion of Highway 1. The future of that section of the road is to be determined.

Gafill has kept Nepenthe open mostly to for the benefit of his workforce but he's felt the strain. During a normal summer season the restaurant will serve up to 1,000 paying customers a day. At present that number is closer 30 or 40. His normal tourist season staff of 130 has also been whittled down to approximately 20 people. "We're really getting tested by this one," he said.

On Friday, Congressman Jimmy Panetta used Nepenthe as a meeting space to hear the recent concerns of his constituents. Afterwards, Panetta, who represents California's 20 ^th Congressional District, discussed a range of goals to get the area back on track.

"You had one person who actually received his SBA loan for his business. You had another person who did not," he said referring to the U.S. Small Business Administration's policy of providing low-interest loans to businesses impacted by natural disasters. "And so, it's making sure short-term that we follow up with the SBA to make sure that that loan is tracking and that they are in line to get the appropriate funding."

Panetta also spoke about the need for Washington, D.C., area politicians to be made aware of his constituents' stories, with hopes that local infrastructure will become a top priority. Friday's meeting coincided with the Trump administration's "Infrastructure Week."

One local's story hit particularly close to home for Congressman Panetta. He heard from a father who is an employee of Nepenthe. The man took him through the logistics of hiking the trail to get his daughter to school each day. As a family, they soon realized that regular shoes were not feasible in the muddy terrain, so his daughter began wearing her soccer cleats on the daily hike and bringing an extra change of clothes. "Most kids don't have to deal with that," he said.

Later Panetta learned that the man's daughter is a classmate of his own daughter, Siri.

Panetta, Siri and his second daughter Gia had hiked the trail themselves that morning to live the experience. "I've always seen this job as being a bridge around the district to Washington and back and that was basically part of the discussion we just had," Panetta said.