Trail Center Workday - Sugarloaf Mountain

Sugarloaf Mountain

This beautiful park has serene walking areas and trails leading to Sugarloaf Mountain. Laurelwood Park & Sugarloaf Mountain (225 acres) is the City of San Mateo's largest contiguous park and open space. This park was recently outfitted with a new play area, picnic areas, and a new restroom.

Sugarloaf Mountain is San Mateo's green thumb that sticks up just south of Hwy 92. It comprises of open space land that is largely undeveloped, either with homes or trails. There are five near vertical fire breaks that ambitious hikers use to get to the top for probably the best viewpoint on the mid peninsula. Through the years one use trail has also been taken to get up there too. It's steepness is only a bit less taxing as the fire breaks. All these routes are treacherous in the wet season.

In 2006 San Mateo developed an in depth master plan for trails on Sugarloaf Mountain with improvements to adjacent Laurelwood Park. In 2011 the city received a grant and highly renovated the playground, picnic area, and added a restroom to Laurelwood Park. But the Sugarloaf Mountain side of the plan would be delayed indefinitely for lack of financing and priority. Tom Morse, a Trail Center member, approached the city about getting a trail built on Sugarloaf. By using volunteer labor and just the cost of materials, the City became interested. It took almost 3 years to go through the planning and political process, but finally we were given the "green light" to make this happen.

Our project will be to re-route and rebuild that use trail to be more friendly and inviting to all hikers. The proposed route we will be building, mostly from scratch, is approximately 0.4 of a mile long to gain 320 ft. in elevation. The first two dates we will be working under the shade of oak, buckeye, and bay laurel trees.

Location: Laurelwood Park, San Mateo, California - Sugarloaf Mountain Trail

Directions: The park is located at 3471 Glendora Dr., San Mateo, CA.

From Interstate 280 take Hwy 92 east:

> 2nd exit is DeAnza Blvd, exit then make a right turn to be heading downhill on DeAnza.
> park across the street from 1400 / 1404 DeAnza.
> walk down paved path to meet in front of restrooms.

From Hwy 101 take Hwy 92 west:

> take West Hillsdale Blvd exit, then make a left to go downhill.
> make a right at stop sign (Gendora Dr).
> make a left at first stop sign (Shasta Dr).
> follow Shasta Dr till it dead ends at bottom, be aware of red zone parking.
> walk down paved path to meet in front of restrooms.

Agency: City of San Mateo

Supervisor: Justin Knowles

Project Lead: Marilyn Green

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.

Saturday, April 19, 2014 - Sugarloaf Mountain Trail - Day 8 - Earth Day Event

Activities: This will be our final day at Sugarloaf Mountain and we expect to complete this project and have a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

As part of the Earth Day celebrations we will end the day with a special picnic/BBQ feast.

You won't want to miss this special day. Please sign up now.

Meet at 8:30 a.m. in front of the restrooms.
Volunteer