SHELLY McKNIGHT and her husband, Matthew Haynes, seemed to have a good life in the Los Feliz Hills. They owned a home in a chic area, had jobs in the film industry and traveled the world on vacations.
But both felt something was missing. When a motorcycle trip in 2002 to look at property took them north into Tulare County, they discovered Springville, population 1,109, a former sawmill town built on the Tule River, and knew they had found what they were looking for: a simpler, more rural life.
Last year, McKnight, 39, and Haynes, 42, joined the ranks of those who have headed to more remote areas to escape city pressures. Many are baby boomers buying homes for recreation; others simply want to sample a rural lifestyle. In a recent study conducted for the National Assn. of Realtors by Harris Interactive, three in five boomers surveyed said their idea of a perfect location to retire in was a rural area or small town.
Since 2000, much of California's rural population growth has been due to city dwellers who have decided to move to the countryside and, perhaps, commute from there, according to John Cromartie of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service.
Of those who have left Los Angeles for more rural locales, said Hans Johnson, research fellow for the Public Policy Institute of California, the vast majority "are going to nearby locations in the Inland Empire and the high desert." Although many still commute to urban areas for work, Johnson said, some scramble to eke out a living.
What these transplants from cities and suburbs find is that it takes fortitude to deal with rural life: Amenities are fewer, the doctor or grocery store may be a long drive away, cash and muscle power are needed to maintain rural property -- to clear brush and trees, dig wells, haul water and take care of septic systems and roads.
It's not for sissies. Winifred "Win" Wood, 86, and Dorothy "Dot" Swain Lewis, 91, live in Idyllwild on a 2-acre parcel with a view of Tahquitz Peak. Friends since their days as Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II, they make their home in the San Jacinto Mountains of Riverside County.
Lewis, who was sidelined this year after she broke an arm walking a neighbor's dog on the hilly terrain, usually clears the land herself, with only the heavy trees taken out by machine. This spring, volunteers from the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council, based in Idyllwild, came to cut brush and transport it out.
