Los Gatos Creek Trail closed due to reservoir flood spillover

LOS GATOS, Calif. (KTVU) - Portions of the Los Gatos Creek Trail in Campbell and Los Gatos are now closed because of spillover from the Lexington Reservoir, which reached capacity Tuesday. The time the Lexington Reservoir was this full was back in 2011 before the drought.

Harvey Christensen has lived in Los Gatos 55 years. He was among the visitors who braved the heavy rain and high winds to see the reservoir like this firsthand.

“It’s just awesome,” said Harvey Christensen of Los Gatos. “It’s good to see this. We need the rain.”

According to the Santa Clara Valley Water District, it is one of four reservoirs Santa Clara County now at capacity and spilling due to the series of storms.

“It’s causing some issues because the ground is so saturated and our reservoirs a lot of them are full,” said Marty Grimes of the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
               
The Lexington Reservoir is so full, it's releasing over the spillway and into the Los Gatos Creek, forcing parts of the popular walking and bike trail near the creek to be closed for safety concerns.

"Some parts of the trail are certainly going to be underwater so people should not be using those trails and staying away from those areas that are close to the creek,” said Grimes.

The wet weather also caused problems with downed trees. Crews were busy in Los Gatos cleaning up a large tree on Winchester and Newell that fell onto the roadway. High winds also made driving difficult.

“This is pretty incredible weather,” said Ray Gapasin of Campbell. “We haven't seen anything like this in more than 10 years maybe.”

“We are excited that California is finally recovering from the drought,” said Jelena Gapasin of Campbell.

Back at the reservoir, the Gapasin family called the intense rain an encouraging sign. Other residents looked forward to a few days of drying out.
               
"I think we can have a little less,” said Christensen. “Let it soak in. We don't need all of this rain.”

Besides the Los Gatos Creek, emergency officials are also monitoring the Uvas and Little Llagas Creeks in south Santa Clara County. The water district doesn’t  it expect it to reach the flood warning stage, but are keeping an eye out.