For sale: A historic two-bedroom, 900-square-foot cabin set against the backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains for the same amount many would consider a down payment on some Los Angeles County homes.
That's what Kim Kelley, owner of the Adam's Pack Station in the Angeles National Forest, is putting on the market.
Mind you, there are housemates in the package. Eight donkeys, one horse, perhaps some dogs and cats. Then there's the yearly fire danger, snakes and the occasional mudslide.
"Whoever buys this has to be someone who loves the mountains, hiking and horses," said Kelley, who set the asking price at $250,000. "It's definitely more remote up here. It's a rugged lifestyle. But it's heaven."
Built in the 1930s, the Chantry Flat pack station is about four miles north of Arcadia and 2,200 feet above sea level, yet 35 minutes from downtown L.A. if there's no traffic.
Kelley bought the one-acre property in 2000 and has been operating the pack station, which she says is the last one in Southern California. That means loading donkeys with groceries, furniture and other goods and leading them by horseback to the nearby Sturtevant Camp and to cabins as far as four miles away.
But running the pack station full time wasn't paying all her bills, she said.
In her five years in the forest, access to her pack station has been cut off about half the time, she said, because of fire dangers or flood damage.
The gate on Santa Anita Canyon Road, which leads to the pack station, has been locked to the public since April 2004 because of the threat of a blaze and more recently because a boulder blocked the artery. Fewer and fewer cabin dwellers, campers and hikers use Kelley's donkeys and shop at her general store.
"I'm at the end of rope, finances, whatever you want to call it," said Kelley, 49. "I don't know where my next mortgage payment is coming from. I thought I'd be there for the rest of my life and grow old."
Living and working on her own, Kelley depleted her savings of $50,000 trying to keep her dream lifestyle afloat. To make ends meet, she substitute-teaches in the Monrovia Unified School District. She also learned massage therapy earlier this year for the extra cash. She has three sons -- two in college, one in high school -- who often help her out when they're not at school.
