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Sam McDonald, a unique and interesting 850-acre facility, is located approximately 3 miles west of La Honda on Pescadero Road. The park actually represents contrast between two separate natural environments. The northwesternly half, near 400 acres between Pescadero Road and Highway 84, is principally a lush growth redwood forest. The 450-acre portion, southeasterly , is primarily open ridge, grassy knolls and patchy brush areas. From this ridge area, vistas of the Butano and Skyline Ridges, and the Pacific Ocean can be seen.

Location:  Google Maps Link

Directions:

From 101 or 280: Take Highway #84 (Woodside-La Honda- San Gregorio Road) west to La Honda. Turn left 1/2 mile past village center in La Honda on the Pescadero Road. The park entrance is on Pescadero Road and 6 miles from the turn-off.

From Hwy. #1: Take Pescadero Road turn-off. Go east on Pescadero Road about 11 miles to the park entrance.

Project Lead: tbd

Additional Information: Participants should bring water, sunscreen, sturdy shoes, lunch and normal precautions against poison oak exposure (work gloves, long sleeved shirts and long pants). The Trail Center provides tools, training, gloves, and refreshments after the workday.

Project: Quarry Park Half Moon Bay

Quarry Park

Activities: We will continue working in a new place for Trail Center: Quarry Park in El Granada. We will complete a reroute of the Quarry North Ridge trail. Details of the location and parking for the day will be sent to volunteers who sign up in time.

Volunteer

Project: Quarry Park Half Moon Bay

Quarry Park

Activities: Our next work day celebrates National Trails Day, also Saturday June 2, and we will be working in a new place for Trail Center: Quarry Park in El Granada. We will be re-routing the Quarry North Ridge use trail. Tasks will include a lot of brushing to open the trail corridor and initial tread construction. Details of the location and parking for the day will be sent to volunteers who sign up in time.

Volunteer

Project: San Mateo Memorial Park - Mt. Ellen Trails

Mt. Ellen Trails

Activities: We will continue the work we started on the Mt. Ellen trails, with the goal of finishing the Mt. Ellen Summit Trail. If time permits, we would also do brushing and tread maintenance on the Mt. Ellen Nature Trail, repairing tread damage from large downed trees, and replacing some retaining structures on the Mt. Ellen Nature Trail.

Volunteer

This 517-acre park is located in the community of El Granada, 25 miles south of San Francisco, and just 4 miles north of Half Moon Bay's historic district. From Highway 1 in El Granada, exit at Coronado St. and follow the signs. The entrance to Quarry Park is located at the corner of Santa Maria Ave. and Columbus St.

Added in 2014, The Wicklow Property is a natural addition to Quarry Park in the quaint coastside community of El Granada. It includes 478 acres of grassy hillsides, coastal ridges, a massive eucalyptus forest and pine and cypress groves. There is a system of trails throughout the property that go right up from the playground, restroom and parking lot already present at Quarry Park. Trails meander through meadows, forests and the quarry floor, and lead to destinations like a cool, algae-covered lake and a raised boardwalk at the harbor view vista point.

Location:  Google Maps Link

Directions:

From Highway 1 in El Granada, exit at Coronado St. and follow the signs. The entrance to Quarry Park is located at the corner of Santa Maria Ave. and Columbus St.

Project Lead: Judd Volino

Additional Information: Participants should bring water, sunscreen, sturdy shoes, lunch and normal precautions against poison oak exposure (work gloves, long sleeved shirts and long pants). The Trail Center provides tools, training, gloves, and refreshments after the workday.

Project: Sugarloaf Mountain Open Space - City of San Mateo

Photo Album: 1801-06 Sugarloaf Mtn 

The Trail Center started 2018 with a bang at Sugarloaf park (Laurelwood Park) in San Mateo.. We had about 40 volunteers show up on a beautiful winter day to continue constructing the new “Segment 3” trail at Sugarloaf. This new trail will connect the Amphitheater Trail that we built a couple years ago with a major trail junction on the south-central side of the park. This was our third workday here, following a poison oak removal day and regular workday both in September. We split into 4 crews to handle the large number of volunteers. We had a few crewleader trainees on hand to continue their apprenticeship towards becoming full-fledged crew leaders. Big thanks goes to the crew leading pairings of Lisa and George, Aaron and Karl, Hank and Eva, and Judd and Lianna. The trainees all did a wonderful job guiding their crews to create magnificent new trail.

Lianna and Judd tackled the most involved section that included about 100 feet of trail construction from scratch over fairly difficult conditions. The enthusiastic crew was able to nearly finish their section with the help of a few folks from other crews at the end of the day. This crew worked the uppermost section of the new trail that is within 100 feet of the existing Amphitheater Trail. Steep banks and clay were among just a few issues they had to deal with.

The crew just below was expertly led by Eva and Hank. Their crew not only finished the section of trail between the two switchbacks and built the lower switchback (including retaining structures), but they were also able to build—unexpectedly—the upper switchback and approaches. With just a few finishing touches, this whole section will be complete.

Karl and Aaron led the crews just below. This crew worked quickly to finish the trail all the way from the lower switchback to the crossing of the illegal bike trail. Impressively, they also built 3 drain dips along the way. A combination of Eva’s and Karl’s crews also started the process of closing off the illegal bike trail. They hauled large logs and a lot of cut brush to block the route, as well as building a few drainage structures on the old trail to help keep it from eroding even more severely than it already is.

Last but not least, the lowest crew led by George and Lisa expertly completed the trail from the illegal bike trail into the gully and all the way out to the proposed retaining wall. Not only that, but they also had time to start widening another 75 foot section of trail beyond the retaining wall.

As usual, the day concluded with fine refreshments delivered by Larry and a lively social hour. Thanks also goes to Judd who towed the tool trailer to the event. We were also able to award Trail Center shirts to 3 more volunteers: Tim, Lucy, and Melissa. The long-sleeved wicking shirts are only awarded to volunteers that attend at least 8 trail events, so these folks should be commended on their continued commitment to local trails and the Trail Center. The next time you see them, make sure you congratulate them on their accomplishment.

With a decent turn out of volunteers in April, we should have no problem cutting a ribbon to signify opening the new trail officially to hikers. I encourage you all to come out on April 21 to join the celebration and fun.

Dave Croker
January 22, 2018

Project: Hidden Villa - Los Altos 

Photo Albums: Long Bunny Loop

On Saturday, December 2, Trail Center completed its first work day at Hidden Villa open space and farm on a portion of the Long Bunny Loop Trail as it parallels an Adobe Creek tributary. We were lucky to have a very strong turnout of about 28 volunteers, including many teenagers.

We had a cool, overcast day for pleasant working conditions. The area of the Long Bunny Loop we worked on weaves among bays and oaks, with occasional openings for more shrubby vegetation. Fortunately, there was only a small portion of poison oak.

The key goals for this work were to replace deteriorated retaining and step structures, improve switchbacks, general tread widening, and brushing. This was also an opportunity for several crew leader trainees to put their recent training to work.

Bill Farrell’s crew focused on replacing two retaining walls totalling 24 feet at the first switchback in the project area. Members Dave K., Frank H., and Lucy made short work of the first wall and did a great job installing and filling in the tread at the second one, before moving on to other tread improvement tasks a bit downhill on the other side of the creek. Bill noted a couple additional places in this stretch that could use more retaining walls.

Crew leader trainee Helen Shaughnessy, backed up by Larry Stites, worked with a very enthusiastic group of high schoolers and one parent to tackle the next two switchbacks. They needed to restore the width of the landings and tread throughout. This involved a lot of dirt hauling to avoid sending the soil onto Bill’s area below. They also trimmed back some downed logs and removed debris that had narrowed the trail.

Hank Magnuski oversaw the next section, joined by Woody Collins and several other experienced volunteers. They did lots of brushing and cleaning of the inside edge to bring the corridor back to a more comfortable width.

Lianna Jewett, a trainee buddied with Hank, and assisted by Jerel, led another crew of teens. They carefully brushed back a section that included some poison oak and performed a lot of tread improvement in their initially assigned area and then further up the trail. Later Hank’s and Lianna’s teams decommissioned a steep shortcut across a gully by scarifying the trail and adding logs to discourage further use of that path.

Karl Mosgofian, in his first outing as a crew leader trainee, focussed on rebuilding a set of steps that had been overtaking by slough filling them in on one side and erosion on the other. Crew member Tom Morse, who knows a thing or two about step construction, and another volunteer not only replaced the planned 9 steps, they also built them with returns that will better hold the soil and then had time to replace an additional 3 steps to finish out the whole course. We were grateful that Jesse, a Hidden Villa staff member, was willing to run up additional materials to this crew and others throughout the day.

Finally, Scott Farnworth, a crew leader trainee and Hidden Villa staffer, led the third group of teenagers (who were out for their second TC project) and a parent, along with experienced volunteer Melissa. Their team was able to construct about another 32 feet of retaining walls at the uppermost section of the site along with doing some tread work. In this area, Woody ended up trimming back some rock and doing a bit of stone work to make a gully crossing more easily navigable.

This was a really satisfying start to working with Hidden Villa to help maintain their trails. We appreciate all that the property management team of Wes Mills, Jesse Dolan and Scott Farnworth did in getting the materials purchased and staged close to the site to allow the crews to get working quickly. We also acknowledge March Sidel, who did a walk-through with Judd to help prioritize projects and get agreement on the work with the stakeholders at Hidden Villa. We look forward to returning in the coming years to giving more love to the Bunny Loops and other trails that Hidden Villa identifies.

Judd Volino
1/14/18