SAN ONOFRE -- Around morning campfires and across picnic tables, campers in San Mateo State Campground pondered the meaning of "life after the toll road" Friday.

For these outdoor enthusiasts, opinions of how a six-lane toll road that would bisect this fifth most popular of 270 state campgrounds were predictably one-sided.

"It's going to ruin this campground," said Carol Campbell, who was out walking her cat Luccy in the chaparral that insulates one campsite from the next. "If nothing else, they'll shut (the campground) down."

Traffic noise will drown the whisper of ravenís wings and the croaking of the arroyo toads, said Larry Smith, who with his wife, helps maintain the campground. Instead of the deep night full of stars, headlights will sweep the campground, he said. Views of concrete pillars and metallic guardrails will replace the mountain views to the north.

Proponents of State Route 241 say the road is needed to relieve traffic congestion on Interstate 5 through Orange County. Some opponents say the road will actually increase San Diego County traffic on Interstate 5 south of San Clemente, where the road will join the freeway.

The Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency is expected next month to approve the final environmental studies and the preferred route for the 16.9-mile road -- the final link in a 67-mile system of toll roads through Orange County designed to relieve congestion on Interstate 5. The final section would connect CA 241, which now ends in Rancho Santa Margarita, with Interstate 5 just south of San Clemente.

The road would enter San Diego County four miles northeast of San Clemente. In its four-mile run through San Diego County, the toll road would hug the northern border of San Mateo State Campground, coming within a little more than a football field's length of the closest campsite.

Campbell said no effort at mitigation will succeed in shielding the area from traffic noise. The road-building agency has proposed erecting a sound wall to shield campers from traffic noise.

"There is no sound wall they can put up to absorb the noise," said Campbell, who has written her legislators and the governor asking them to oppose the alignment.

Even if the wall does do its job, Smith said, the traffic noise will bounce off the mountainside right back into the campground.

Campbell challenged anyone to sample how the campground will be degraded by experiencing the Canyons RV campground located -- ironically -- at the north end of CA 241 where it intersects CA 91.

"It sucks," Campbell said. "Itís $45 a night, you hear just massive traffic, and thatís what it would be like here. You couldnít pay me to go back there."

Added Smith: "I could drive out onto the freeway, put my four-ways (flashers) and get the same experience."

Campbell lamented the loss of another escape from the so-called rat race. Orange County doesnít have many campgrounds, she said, listing Doheny, San Clemente, San Onofre and San Mateo.

"I do this to get away from the hustle and bustle under all these trees," she said raising her arms and spinning around, a smile playing across her face. And she prefers San Mateo to all others, she said, because of its natural beauty, the quiet, the large private sites, and its proximity to the beach.

Campbell, Miller and others in the campground Friday said there must be some other route that does not claim the canyon.

The board of directors for the transportation agency will meet Feb. 19 in Mission Viejo City Hall to consider approval for the final environmental studies and the roadís alignment. The board was scheduled to vote on Jan. 19 but delayed for one month at the request of two members of the governorís cabinet.

The land is owned by the Department of the Navy and is controlled by Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. The Navy leased the land to the California State Parks department in 1971 when then-Gov. Ronald Reagan and President Richard Nixon dedicated San Onofre State Beach and San Mateo State Campground.

"I firmly believe one of the greatest legacies we can leave to future generations is the heritage of our land," Reagan said in 1971, "but unless we can preserve and protect the unspoiled areas which God has given us, we will have nothing to leave them."

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Contact staff writer Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or pireland@nctimes.com. To comment go to www.nctimes.com.