Saratoga News
News
Planning a walk to the Pacific? This may become a place to start
Quarry trail may connect Saratoga to the Pacific
By Jason Sweeney
The Saratoga-to-the-Sea Trail is a vision kicking around inside the heads of some hikers and backpackers. They envision a trailhead near Hakone Gardens where backpackers would set out on a three-day trek up and over the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
A 65-acre former quarry owned by the Santa Clara County Roads and Airports Department is on the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains between Saratoga and Sanborn County Park. If a trail was constructed through the quarry, the Saratoga-to-the-Sea Trail would become a reality.
For trail proponents, that reality came one step closer at a May 2 meeting of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. The board voted 5-0 to direct county staff to work with the city of Saratoga to determine the feasibility of developing a joint use agreement that would allow a trail through the old quarry.
Supervisor Liz Kniss brought the issue to the board. "I have faith the city and county will develop a mutual agreement to allow a pathway from Saratoga to Sanborn Park, and in doing so, will facilitate access to a great natural asset," Kniss said in a press statement.
A trail from Saratoga to Sanborn County Park would connect to the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail, a popular hike that begins at the Saratoga Gap on the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The trail winds through redwood forests into Castle Rock State Park and down into Big Basin State Park. Hikers emerge 34 miles from the mountain ridge onto Waddell State Beach on the Pacific Ocean. Hiking the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail can take two to three days.
The Saratoga-to-the-Sea Trail would extend that hike by moving the trailhead down into Saratoga.
"We've been trying to get this done for quite a while," said Pattie DeMellopine, chief of staff for Kniss. "No one had the money to buy the land. A joint use agreement to allow the city to use the periphery of the parcel seems like the best solution."
Michael Murdter, director of the Santa Clara County Roads and Airports Department, will work with the city to see if a joint agreement that allows for a trail through the quarry is feasible. "It's a fairly steep slope with vestiges of the old quarry there," he said.
A fence parallel to Highway 9 keeps trespassers out. The defunct quarry provided road materials for the county decades ago. "It's fairly overgrown with vegetation and trees," Murdter said. "It's pretty green."
Murdter said he would need to determine if a trail would negatively affect the value of the parcel. The county might some day decide to sell the land and it does not want to see it lose value, he explained. A trail that cut through the center of the parcel could lower its value. Liability for injuries or assaults on hikers would also be an issue that needed to be looked at, he said.
If Murdter and the city can work out an agreement, it could go before the board of supervisors for approval by mid-June.
"If it goes through, then we go out and look for money to build a trail," Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith said. "It's easier to get money from interested people when you have a plan on paper rather than some pie-in-sky idea.
"This trail would add enormously to our ability to hike in our beautiful hills," she said. "It would be a connector trail to other trails in the county. It would mean having a trail in our area that would be a draw that would bring people into Saratoga."
