Campaign for Mission Trails bridge where Max Lenail drowned meets goal

On January 29, 2021, Max Lenail was finishing a long run around Mission Trails Regional Park when he attempted to cross the San Diego River near the Visitor Center Loop trail. It was a stormy day, and the river was swollen and running strong. There’s no official bridge to cross the river in this section of the park, but most visitors choose to do so by walking across a concrete-encased sewer main that acts as a sort-of man-made dam. It had turned into quite a stormy day, so the usually tranquil river was swollen and running strong.

The sewer enclosure usually has visible rocks on top of it that hikers can use as steppingstones to cross over the river; on this day those were likely completely submerged. Max’s car was nearby in the visitor center parking lot, so it became a choice of crossing a treacherous river and getting back to his car in five minutes or reversing most of the run he had just completed and getting back to his car over an hour later. After speaking with a hiker who had just made it over the crossing, Max decided to roll the dice and cross the river as well. Something went wrong on his attempt though, and he drowned in the San Diego River that day.

Since his death, Max’s parents, Laurie Yoler and Ben Lenail, have been leading a charge to get an official bridge built at the river crossing where he drowned. One year later, their efforts seem to be paying off.

“We really are kind of running the show,” Ben explained. “We’re working with the park and the park foundation, but we, the family, are really the ones that are driving the project. We had an open bid for the job. We hired KPFF to be the project manager and they have started the work. In 2022, it’s all going to be about surveys and permits. The new target dates that everybody gave me are opening of the bridge around February 2024 — in time for Max’s 25th birthday, which is March 26th, 2024.”

He continued, “It’s a two-year project. Construction will probably be end of 2022 and shouldn’t take more than six months because a lot of the components of the bridge are prefab. But, that said, it’s a hundred-foot-long bridge. It has to be elevated. It can’t touch the water. It’s in an environment that has all kinds of complexities, so it’s a big project.”

The family has raised $900K for the project so far and have secured a state grant for an additional $1.5M. Ben noted a donation from an unusual source — the college where Max was enrolled at the time of his death.

“We got a completely surprise donation, $25K, from Brown University, which is very unusual because typically universities don’t give money to non-profits. They want to raise money for themselves. So, that was beautiful,” Ben said.

Ben is confident that the combined $2.4M they have raised so far will be enough to fund the entire project. If they have surplus funds, he thinks that money could go towards ADA infrastructure, “a combination of usefulness and beautification,” at the Jackson Drive parking lot and the trail leading down to the river. The bridge itself will be a bit upstream from where the current trail crossing is located and will be about six to eight feet in width.

“It’s gonna have a sort-of pretty outer shell that’s shaped like an ‘M’ as in ‘Max,’” Ben added. “That not only adds an aesthetic element, but it also protects the structure against the elements.”

It’s a bridge that Ben’s older son, Alex (27), could have utilized when he retraced Max’s final run during a late December downpour.

“He video-called me from the river,” Ben explained. “I could follow him on Strava, and I was very worried."

Ben continued, “I was really like, ‘What is Alex doing? Is he going to kill himself? Does he want to re-enact what happened to Max? Is that the plan?’ I was really worried, but then he called me from the river. He was OK. He had been able to cross the river."

Ben is expecting about a hundred people to be present at the same river crossing at noon on January 29 to celebrate the one-year anniversary of his passing. Ben says the family is still “crushed with sadness,’ but that connecting with Max’s friends has provided Ben and his wife with solace and joy.

“Those kids love us,” Ben explained. “We are way past the point of them doing it for charity. They absolutely love to hang out with us. We feed them a wonderful meal — the kind of meal that Max would have cooked. Those kids, they want us to mentor them, to care for them, and that’s the way we are keeping Max’s spirit alive.”