In early August, the City of Temecula said it would put 75 solar-powered lights along the Great Oak Trail. The city's stated reason was the end of summer and "daylight fades quicker." Eleven weeks later, the darker evenings have shown up on time. The most recent city status report, dated September 30, still put the project at the contract stage, with no construction schedule. Daylight saving time ends Sunday, November 1, at 2:00 a.m. That afternoon, the sun sets over Temecula at 4:56 p.m.
On paper, the lights are a fix for exactly this part of the year. In practice, the city's own records give no start or finish date, and the likeliest outcome is that this year's shortest days reach the trail before the lights do.
What the city promised in August
Patch reported on August 6 that the lights would run along the path from Deer Hollow Way to Loma Linda Road. Construction was "expected to begin next month," meaning September. The same story said the city had not announced a completion date.
The story also explained who the lights are for. Patch passed along the city's description of the trail:
"a popular route for Great Oak HS students and those traveling to and from Pat Birdsall Sports Park."
That quote names the people the lights are meant for. Students heading home and families going to games at Birdsall use the trail late in the day, and from November on, that's when it gets dark.
Where the project actually stands
The newer record is the city's Public Works project status report, dated "As of September 30, 2026." It lists the work as Great Oak Trail Lighting, project PW21-16, and describes solar lights "adjacent to the northeast side of Pechanga Parkway from Deer Hollow Way to Loma Linda Road."
Here is the status as that report describes it:
- July 16 to August 13, 2026: the project was publicly advertised for construction bids.
- After bidding closed: bids were opened and the results were posted on the city's online bidding platform.
- September 22, 2026: staff would recommend that City Council award a construction contract to Earthscapes for $260,348.00.
The status entry gives no construction start date, no length for the work, and no completion estimate. It also mentions no trail closures or detours for the construction period. Patch's prediction of a September start has been replaced by a report that, at the end of September, still described the project at the contract-award step. That's the most current public picture. The City Council's October 13 agenda included approval of the September 22 action minutes, but the meeting page listed those minutes as draft, with actions and results not yet posted.
A city project doesn't go from contract award to working lights in a few days, and nothing published so far points to a short timeline. The report and the August announcement both say the same thing: completion date not announced.
Two numbers in the report
The status report lists two figures for the same project.
| Figure in the September 30 report | Amount |
|---|---|
| Listed project cost | $1,083,724.35 |
| Recommended construction contract, Earthscapes | $260,348.00 |
The construction contract is about 24 percent of the listed project cost. The report doesn't break down the rest, and this post won't guess at it. It does show that the bid isn't the whole project. By the time a contractor is chosen for something like PW21-16, the city has already done a good deal of work, and the project number shows it has been in the city's pipeline for a while. For anyone waiting on the lights, the useful takeaway is that the installation contract is one step in a longer process, and the step it was waiting on in late September was the contract itself.
The Old Town Trail followed the same calendar last year
Temecula has done this before, and that project lined up with the time change in the same way. In October 2025, Patch reported that 27 solar-powered light poles were going in along the Murrieta Creek trail, also called the Old Town Trail, between Moreno Road and First Street. Completion was expected in November. The same project added a gate so students could bike directly to Chaparral High School. A city newsletter item about the same work ran under the heading "Now through November."
Put the two projects next to each other and a pattern shows. Both were announced around the time evenings start getting shorter. Both were timed so the work would land in the darkest months. Last year, the Old Town Trail work was scheduled to run into November, past the clock change. This year the Great Oak Trail project is at an earlier stage on the same date, with a contractor recommended but no construction schedule published.
The Great Oak Trail project is also nearly three times as large, with 75 lights against 27. If the Old Town Trail project was planned to run into November, there's little reason to expect a larger one with a later start to be done this year.
How short the evenings get
This is the timeline the lights are behind on, using timeanddate's Temecula sunset table:
- Thursday, October 22: this post goes up, with daylight saving time still in effect.
- Sunday, November 1, 2:00 a.m.: clocks fall back an hour.
- November 1: sunset at 4:56 p.m.
- November 14: sunset at 4:46 p.m.
The jump on November 1 is the big one. Overnight, an evening walk that used to be in daylight is in dusk. After that, sunset keeps creeping earlier by about ten more minutes over the first two weeks of November. By mid-month, the sun is down before 4:50. A walk home from a late practice, or a lap after the workday, will be at least partly in the dark for the rest of the fall.
Using the Great Oak Trail this fall
For anyone new to it, the trail is small and simple. Bike Temecula Valley lists the Great Oak Trail at 1.8 miles, fully paved, with 101 feet of elevation change. It runs along Wolf Creek in southern Temecula, completely separated from traffic, with Patricia H. Birdsall Sports Park at one end and Friendship Park at the other. The lighting project covers the stretch next to Pechanga Parkway between Deer Hollow Way and Loma Linda Road.
Parking is easiest at the Birdsall end. The city's facility page puts the park at Pechanga Parkway and Deer Hollow and lists about 460 parking spaces. That's a large lot for a trailhead, which helps on weekday evenings when games and practices are filling the fields. Starting at Birdsall puts you right at the Deer Hollow Way end of the lighting segment.
At 1.8 miles each way, a full out-and-back from Birdsall to Friendship Park and back is about 3.6 miles. With the November 14 sunset at 4:46 p.m., a walker who starts the round trip around four o'clock will finish after dark at a typical walking pace. A shorter loop from the Birdsall lot keeps more of the walk in daylight until the lights are in.
What to watch for next
These are the next public signs that the lights are actually on the way, in roughly the order they'd appear:
- The final September 22 City Council action minutes, once posted, for the outcome of the Earthscapes award recommendation.
- The next Public Works project status report on the city's Document Center, which would update the PW21-16 entry with a start date or schedule.
- Construction notices or detour signs along Pechanga Parkway between Deer Hollow Way and Loma Linda Road, once crews are mobilized.
- A completion announcement from the city, which neither the August announcement nor the September report has given.
Until one of those shows up, the safe assumption is that the trail will be unlit through the fall time change and the short days after it.
The Great Oak Trail is one of those everyday details that shape how a part of town works after five o'clock. Those daily routines are what I follow most closely in the communities I serve. If you live near Pechanga Parkway and want to talk about what's changing in your part of Temecula, Erin Archibek Mills is always glad to hear from neighbors. Let's Connect.
