Ticks on the rise in Chino Hills State Park

I don't know what "rural parts of the Park" means exactly, but I have this weekend (April 2) and last hiked 15 miles each time through deep grass (up to 24" tall) wearing shorts and have picked up no ticks. In fact, I have hiked many dozens of times in the Park over the years and have picked up no more than three ticks in all that time. So I'd really like to know where these infestations are located because I personally have seen no evidence for them. I've encountered more rattlesnakes than I have ticks!

now thats just nasty, reminds me of los angeles

My husband and I just hiked Sidewinder to Lower Aliso to the equestrian center and back on Bane Ridge. There were TICKS on Sidewinder. We sat down at the equestrian center for a couple of minutes and had several ticks on us immediately. When we got home we found 5 ticks on me and 3 on my husband. I washed our clothes and found more dead ticks. Yuck!!! We too have hiked the park many, many times and never encountered anything like this before.

We just went hiking with our dogs today and they got ticks and I got a tick. There are tons of them. Be careful and make sure you do an inspection!

Natural fires that fire fighters wrongfully keep extinguishing are natures way of controlling ticks by eliminating and keeping lower brush and high grass from harboring them. I think maybe you need to start doing control burns where ever and when ever possible. In the damp fall and winter when the grass has lost its full body, its potential to burn hot. When winds are more capable of dispersing the smoke.
It is working here for us in the Butte county aria.

I went today and my dog snuck his face into a small bare bush and came out with 15-20 ticks on his face. He was in there for less than 1 second before I pulled him out. We were able to get the ticks off of him but I noticed one on myself later. The ticks are not only in the brush they are all over the ground