Project: Quarry Park Half Moon Bay
Photo Album: 1806-2 Quarry Park
On Saturday, June 2nd, National Trails Day, about 35 volunteers converged for the Trail Center’s first ever event at Quarry Park, a eucalyptus covered San Mateo County Park located on a hilly mountain east of El Granada and north of Half Moon Bay. David Taylor was the Trail Boss and he was assisted by Crew Leaders, Judd Volino, Karl Mosgofian, Tim Murphy, and Bill Farrell. Eva Franko assisted Karl in leading his crew. The objective was to carve out a new trail bypassing the steepest parts of what was a narrow use path up near the top of the ridge in the northeast part of the park. The trail had been previously marked by Dave Croker, Bill Farrell, and Judd Volino, and then re-flagged by Judd about a week before the event.
The initial part of the trail involved cutting a trail through a dense mixture of vines, poison oak, and other mainly invasive vegetation. Karl’s crew handled this responsibility. The next section of the trail transitioned from the “jungle” to coyote brush scrub as it climbed out of the forest and into the hillside. Judd’s crew focused on this section. The hillside afforded a spectacular view of the ocean and the Princeton marina, as the day, unlike many on the coast, was clear and sunny all day. Bill’s crew started at the top end of the reroute and worked its way downhill. Bill’s team mainly consisted of a contingent of volunteers from the Coastside Mountain Bikers group under the auspices of Ric Barker. This was the Trail Center’s first time working with this group and it was a successful partnership, with Trail Center volunteers and leaders gaining new insights into what aspects of a trail are most favored by mountain bikers.
Progress was impressive. The entire reroute was roughed in by noon, and in the afternoon work began on defining the trail’s edges and moving it toward a completable state. The upper area required the removal of a number of coyote bushes, and associated stumps, a task at which the mountain bike group seemed particularly adept.
Meanwhile, Tim’s group worked on widening the trail leading up to the reroute. Although passable, the tread was only about a foot wide, with poison oak and other plants encroaching on the trail and making the probability of contact with this noxious plant for both hiker and biker highly likely. Tim’s group did an excellent job of bringing the narrow parts of the trail into conformance with the broader, wider starting tread coming up from Dolphine Road. Once their assignment was completed, Tim’s group spread itself out at the junction of the reroute’s beginning to assist Judd and Karl’s crews.
The lack of parking, distance to the work area, and steep hills in-between necessitated the car-pooling of volunteers to the gate entrance and the hauling of the tools up in Tom Moore’s pickup truck. The recently repaired road into the site was fine except the placement of a large berm that created some challenges for Tom’s truck, especially on the way out, as his vehicle does not have a high clearance. The gunning of the truck on the way out and its flying over the berm created a highlight for the assembled volunteers and a real jolt for Tom and Dave T, who were driver and passenger respectively, as the truck landed. Thanks to Judd, Eva, and Ric for helping to ferry folks up the hill.
Larry Stites did his usual excellent job with snacks, although for the first time in recent memory, the Trail Center ran out of cold beer! Because of a last minute mix-up, handing out of National Trail Day swag had to be deferred to the next Quarry Park project in three weeks.
Dave Taylor