Tour de Peninsula funds San Mateo County Parks and Recreation, which does not permit bikes on dirt. We love parks, but we want to ride our bikes in them too. Help us boycott San Mateo’s Tour de Peninsula.
San Mateo County Parks(SMCP) has just completed it’s master plan meeting for Huddart-Wunderlich parks. Let’s just call it what it really is to mountain bike riders, a disaster plan .
Bicyclists are relegated to the same paved surfaces within these parks that trucks and cars frequent, and nothing else.
We have no options of a Bay-to-Skyline dirt path ride, even though parks 4WD service vehicles access fireroads that parallel Kings Mt Rd.
There are no options for kids when at the picnic areas of riding the short bunny loop style trails that intertwine these popular areas.
What transpired at a series of “public” meetings was nothing short of a sham. Numerous requests by local bicycle riders at every one of the meetings for off pavement riding options, were denied, and the end result of this so called public input affair is ZERO access for bike riders.
Every step of the way, the equestrian crowd at the meetings bemoaned the lack of areas they have to ride unimpeded by the bicyclists that frequent other trails areas South of Page Mill Road.
To see what the equestrians actually have as far as trails opportunities, I did some research.
Here is a list of lands open to equestrians northwest of Page Mill Road, mostly in San Mateo County:
1. Pescadero Creek Cty Park: all trails open to horses – 6,000 acres-
no bikes allowed
2. Phleger Estate – all trails open to horses – 1,257 acres – no bikes allowed
3. Sam McDonald City park – all trails open to horses – 995 acres with stables –
no bikes allowed
4. San Bruno Mountain City Park- all trails open to horses
5. Huddart Park – all trails open to horses – 973 acres – no bikes allowed
6. Wunderlich Park – all trails open to horses-942 acres with stables – no bikes allowed
7. San Pedro Valley county park – All trails except Brooks Creek and Brooks View trails open to horses – 1,000 acres – no bikes allowed
8. Windy Hill OSP – Horses allowed on all trails except the Anniversity trail – 1,132 acres
9. Skyline Trail- all open to horses – (8.5 miles total) – no bikes allowed
10. Larry Lane Trail – open for horses – 1.75 miles- no bikes allowed
11. Portola Valley trails – all open to Horses – 250 acres – no bikes allowed
12. Los Trancos OSP- all open to horses except fault trail – 274 acres –
no bikes allowed
13. Edgewood County park – all open to horses – 467 acres – no bikes allowed
The total acreage open to equestrians including trails shared
with bikes -20,711.
Approximate total acreage with trails open to bikes under San Mateo County Parks and Recreation�0.
Bicycle accessible acreage – 7,421
Does this look like diminishing access to you? The other user groups have it pretty good in SMCO public parks, and they’ll say and do anything to preserve their status quo within Huddart- Wunderlich Parks.
I’ve personally heard statements by participants of these meetings like “it’ll be over our dead bodies that your ilk will ever ride bikes within these parks” and,”it’s not that we don’t like bicycles, it’s the bicyclists we have a problem with” by the NIYBY’s (not in YOUR back yard) crew.
Note that open to equestrians and hikers only on public lands northwest of Page Mill -13,290 acres. Total acres open to equestrians in San Mateo County Parks�9,435 acres
Here are the parks open to cyclists:(please note, ALL these lands are also open to equestrians and hikers):
1. Arastradero Preserve(city of Palo Alto)- open to horse and mountain bikes- 600 acres
2. Alpine Rd. Trail- 3 miles – open to horses and mountain bikes
3.Coal Creek OSP (MROSD) – 476 acres- open to horses and mountain bikes
4. El Corte De Madera OSP(MROSD)- 2,789 acres- open to horses and mountain bikes
5. Sweeney Ridge (GGNRA)- 1,047 acres- open to horses and
mountain bikes
6. McNee Ranch State Park- all trails open to horses and mountain bikes
7. Purisima Creek Redwoods OSP(MROSD)- 2,509 acres- Horses and mountain bikes allowed on all trails except the Soda Gulch trail and the footpath from North Skyline parking lot.
8. Windy Hill OSP, Spring Ridge trail(fireroad) 2 1/2 miles.
Total approximate acreage with trails open to mountain bikes and equestrians northwest of Page Mill Rd. – 7,421
Huddart-Wunderlich parks, both publicly owned and funded lands are shut out to all things bicycle except paved roads, and for SMCP’s, the gist is, we’ll take your hard earned tax dollars to maintain these parks, pay you lip service and then refuse bicyclists even minimal access to dirt paths.
If you decide to include your bike in your park experience, just ride it on the pavement, with the cars and trucks.
What to do Now
San Mateo residents, please contact all SMCO Supervisors. Let them know your not happy about being totally excluded from SMCP lands if riding a bicycle is what you do.(Sawyer Camp trail is great for beginner and family style riding, same with bicycle Sundays on Canada Rd.). Let them know you would appreciate having some of the same options as our fellow dirt trails users, things like extended loops on dirt, Bay-to-Skyline routes, bunny loops for kids, etc.
Ask the Supervisors to support the repeal of the blatantly anti-bicycle ordinance which forbids bicycles from dirt trails.
Don’t participate in the Tour De Peninsula, coming on August 7th in Redwood City that taps cyclists directly as fund sources that benefit SMCP.
