Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship Celebrates Tenth Anniversary of Emma McCrary Trail in Pogonip

Time really does fly when you’re having fun! We cannot believe that it’s already been ten years since our staff and volunteers opened Emma McCrary Trail alongside the City of Santa Cruz. Since its opening, nearly a million people have used the trail to access the outdoors in the heart of Santa Cruz.

Before the construction of Emma McCrary Trail (EMT), that northernmost portion of Pogonip Open Space Preserve was dubbed “Heroin Hill”, a problematic drug hangout. Emma McCrary cut straight through the muck to bring new life and purpose to this naturally beautiful part of town, just minutes from Pacific Ave. The Emma McCrary Trail, built and funded by Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (our former name) in 2013, was the first trail to open in the City of Santa Cruz since 1999. Its design and construction was led by our two current leaders, Drew Perkins (Trails Planning Director) and Matt De Young (Executive Director), and it took over 300 volunteers and 3,400 hours of trail work to finish construction.

The results of this hard work speak for themselves: this beginner-level 1.5-mile trail receives roughly 100,000 trips each year from hikers, cyclists, and equestrians. Emma McCrary Trail provides essential connections between trail networks throughout the City of Santa Cruz, UC Santa Cruz, and other nearby open spaces like Wilder Ranch. It’s where many mountain bikers learn to take their first turns, and is a beloved fixture in the local outdoor recreation landscape.

“My son, Miles AKA Trout, grew up learning to mountain bike on Emma McCrary Trail,” says Karissa Paxton, a Santa Cruz resident. “We started when he was three, and we would head out to the trail nearly every week and tackle the climb, making it a little farther with each visit. He always got Skittles or gummy bears as an incentive to really push himself. I will always remember the day that Miles could finally ride the entirety of Emma McCrary; it was such a thrill to see his skills develop as he grew! I’m grateful for SCMTS and the family memories EMT’s provided over the years.”

We talked with former MBOSC President, Mark Davidson, about opening day. Here are his thoughts:

“On that date we had a nice ceremony attended by at least 100 riders, hikers, equestrians and public officials celebrating the completion of the first trail the "new" MBOSC delivered on. The ribbon was cut and the general public rode and hiked the trail to upper campus. The equestrians had a small ceremony during the previous week and it may have been one of the rare occasions that horses rode the Emma McCrary Trail. A dream was fulfilled and we connected downtown Santa Cruz to upper campus via the levy. It truly unlocked the potential of Santa Cruz to be a mountain bike-friendly town.

I can't state how important it was to build and open this trail. The Emma McCrary Trail changed the politics around mountain biking in Santa Cruz. During this process, mountain bikers went from "wheeled locusts which are a plague on our open space." to a political and economic constituency consisting of all ages, genders and economic backgrounds. A constituency which quickly got the reputation of getting shit done. Our work with the community on the bike festivals - which were happening concurrently with the trail construction - spread our good reputation. Both the festivals and the Emma McCrary trail acted as a feedback loop for fundraising, volunteers and good will for both projects. We built allies all over the county during these years. For a while, local politicians would actively court the mountain biking vote.

I'll never forget the words of Mayor Hillary Bryant to me that day: ‘Lots of groups come to city council with proposals and most of them fail. The mountain biking community can deliver on their commitments.’”