McCoy Trail Wins IB Patch Readers Choice for Best Hike

With near , McCoy Trail has won the Readers Choice poll this week for the best place to hike in or near IB.

The trail begins near the Tijuana Estuary Vistitors Center on Caspian Way and winds south to another trail that leads to the river mouth.

McCoy Trail is named after Mike and Patricia McCoy, who were part of a group of local environmentalists who fought for the land to be granted federal protection.

Efforts to build a marina in the estuary were moving forward at the time. Residents voted in favor of a marina project but U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services purchased the land and in 1980 the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge was born.

The federal government decalred a national estuarine research reserve two years later.

Today it is one of 29 research reserves nationwide.

Patricia served on the City Council until 2010, and Mike still works part-time at the Imperial Beach Pet Hospital.