Sweetwater Authority is a publicly owned water agency that is the third-largest water retailer in San Diego County. Unfortunately, it is nearly dead last in the county when it comes to allowing recreation on its two reservoirs, Loveland and Sweetwater.
At Loveland, Sweetwater Authority officials allow a token recreation program on a five-mile stretch of shoreline at the northeast end of the lake. It's hike-in only, so it's off limits to those with any physical limitations or health conditions that might blow up during a hike, moderate on the east side, strenuous and dangerous on the western mountain side.
ED ZIERALSKI / Union-Tribune
Be prepared to hike in if you want to fish at Loveland.
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Built in the Sweetwater River Gorge in 1945, the reservoir captures a river that once ran through it from the Lagunas to San Diego Bay. For years it served fish daily and nightly to the camouflage-wearing poacher set who gained access through the Cleveland National Forest, government land that once blanketed the lake. It was mostly a water storage reservoir, with the exception of what back in the day was called Government Cove, a quarter-mile or so stretch of Forest Service land that was open to fishing on the northwest shore.
That changed in 1996 when the Sweetwater Authority negotiated a land exchange with the U.S. Forest Service. Sweetwater Authority paid $2.2 million for 883 acres of Terry Brown's splendid backcountry getaway, Rancho Samagatuma, and traded it to the Forest Service for 1,550 acres of land around Loveland Reservoir.
That land deal not only enabled Sweetwater Authority to gain control over the diverse habitat and watershed surrounding Loveland, it also allowed the water agency to shut the public out from two-thirds of Loveland.
Fishermen received more fishing area, though it still was a small token of shoreline. Meantime, hunters, hikers and others gained access to the upper section of Rancho Samagatuma, a beautiful oak woodland with Englemann oaks and a rich valley whose ridges border Samagatuma and Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.
Instead of the quarter-mile long Government Cove, fishermen were given access to five miles of shoreline on the northeast end of the lake. There's also a parking lot, portable toilets and trash cans and a well-kept trail leading to the lake. Railroad ties were used to make stairs for the last quarter-mile of the descent from the parking lot. It was dedicated and opened Jan. 14, 1997.
Today, fishermen park in the lot and make the half-mile trek down the stairs to the valley. Trails at the bottom take fishermen east or west, but either way you go, make sure you have plenty of water and pack a lunch.
On a recent Tuesday afternoon there were just two vehicles in the parking lot. They were taking advantage of a fishing program that truly offers anglers a unique and solitary experience, rare in Southern California. But considering how little of the lake is used for recreation, and considering how limited fishermen are in not being able to use kayaks or float tubes, or even wade, Loveland could be so much more for those who want to use the lake.
This is the 17th in a Saturday series on San Diego County's lakes. To see previous stories and a map of area lakes, go to uniontrib.com/sports/outdoors.
