Hikers, city seek to create trails: San Mateo’s Sugarloaf Mountain to become more accessible

A group of avid hikers are coordinating with San Mateo, CA officials to provide more recreational opportunities at Sugarloaf Mountain by creating formal and accessible trails at the city’s largest park and open space landholding.

“It’s a little jewel here in San Mateo,” said Marilyn Stockdale Green, a San Mateo resident who sits on the nonprofit Trail Center Board of Directors. “The top of Sugarloaf offers some of the best views on the mid-Peninsula and it has not been accessible. Really there’s use trails up there, some very steep fire breaks that people hike up, but there’s never been a hiker-friendly trail to the top.”

Currently, many visitors scale up the steep slope via old fire break cuts or have created their own paths toward the vista. Volunteers and the city now seek to formally align trails that were established by repeated use and create new access paths to Sugarloaf Mountain from Laurelwood Park that will discourage visitors from veering off course and contributing to erosion.

The Trail Center, an organization dedicated to promoting trail access in the Bay Area, stepped in with a group of hiking enthusiasts to realign a user-established trail and create an easier path to the top of the mountain. In June, the group finished the route that fragments from the main Tenderfoot Trail through the Oak Woodlands. In all, the city seeks to create at least 3.43 miles of hiking trails and renovate about .82 miles of multi-use paved trails. The city would also create formal trails connecting to the San Juan Canyon Open Space in Belmont.

Read full story…

 

The following are paid links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.