Sid Gally in Tuesdays PSN says that the woes between the trail users and La Vina have been going on for a long time — in fact, ever since La Vina was a tuberculosis sanitarium:

"Canyon Owners Seek Access to Cabins" was the headline of a column in the Pasadena Star-News of May 11, 1928.     

The 80-year-old complaint of restricted access to Millard’s Canyon reads like something in the news today …

Gally quotes a letter from Miss Elma Holloway, the resident of a cabin in Millard Canyon:

"I am one of a group of 35 cabin owners in Millard’s Canyon, about three miles north of Pasadena. Our cabins are all on ground leased from the government.

"At the time I purchased my lease, about six years ago, there was a good road and wide, smooth trail from the rim of the canyon to the top of the ridge.

"There were 30 cabins in constant use, all kept and owned by refined people who love the out-of-doors. This trail, which crossed the La Vina Sanitarium grounds, had been used for many years as a highway. The trail is a long distance from the sanitarium and is not even within sight of it.

"About two years ago the officials of La Vina, an institution which was placed there long after the cabins had been built in the canyons, set guards at the entrance of their property and refused to allow anyone to pass."

Miss Holloway, in her letter, also described how La Vina had diverted water from the canyon and its falls to a private pipeline, causing trees to die and wildlife to disappear.

The cabin owners were denied access to this water until they went to court and were given permission to pipe water to their cabins.    

Of course, access to trails near La Vina remain a bone of contention (and the subject of lawsuits) to this day!