Timeless Trails Update

Support Timeless Trails today and be entered to win an Ibis bike of your choosing!

As part of Timeless Trails, Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship will bring new trails to life at Cotoni-Coast Dairies, work with California State Parks to rebuild Big Basin State Park, and continue to maintain over 60 miles of trail throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains.

We’re sitting right around 2.9 miles of brand new trail built out at Cotoni-Coast Dairies, and wow, is the northern network starting to look ready for an adventure!

The crew is currently building the first nine miles of trail on the north side of the CCD property just above Davenport, a portion of which will open later this year. Almost all of the first 3 miles of trail trail has been roughed in, with tricky bridge construction and trail surfacing yet to come.

We’ll need to build three bridges before we can open the first trails, and have some new hands to help us get the job done. Battista Brigante is a skilled carpenter who has joined the SCMTS Trail Crew to support construction efforts out at Cotoni-Coast Dairies. These bridges will not only need to span challenging terrain and pits of poison oak, but they’ll also need to utilize materials that will withstand the moisture and wind of the Santa Cruz County coast.

Recently, the Trail Crew’s came upon an incredibly steep fall line on the property, and are building rock walls and retaining structures to keep the trail elevated. It’s slow going work, but this is the foundation of the trail, and it needs to be done correctly the first time. The crew is moving one rock at a time to ensure stability before the excavator moves forward.

On the plus side, the next loop of trail is flagged and funding is moving forward nicely! Thanks to our “Sponsor a Brick” campaign, generous supporters like you helped us raise over $97,000 for trail development. This loop will be the most technical and challenging trail on the property, and it’ll be an exciting build for our crew.

After months of public workshops and planning, California State Parks has released its plan for rebuilding and reimagining Big Basin! Read the vision summary here, and check out what you can expect at the new Big Basin below.

• The new welcome center will be located at Saddle Mountain

  • The historic welcome center will be honored through park interpretation

• The CZU wildfire will be a prominent part of your visit

  • In addition to interpretive signage, the forest will be in long-term recovery and feature scars from CZU

• You’ll see fewer cars in the old growth redwoods area of the park

  • Development will be limited in this area, and facilities will have a light footprint.

• Campgrounds will be located along Lodge Road and at Little Basin
  • Sempervirens and Blooms Creek campgrounds will not reopen
  • The new campgrounds will offer a variety of different types of camping experiences, with a focus on seclusion and immersion into nature

• A shuttle service will help reduce car traffic in the park

  • The shuttle will top at trailheads and allow park visitors to complete point-to-point adventures without worrying about transportation back to their vehicles

• The existing trail network will be reestablished so that hiking, biking, and equestrian use feels the same as pre-CZU.

  • Following restoration of existing trails, additional trails, access points, and camping locations will be explored.

• Rancho del Oso will be an alternative entrance to the park.

  • Trails will connect to the old growth core of the park and provide opportunities to enjoy the forest

• Online reservations for park admittance, parking, and camping may be required during busy seasons.

We can’t wait to get out to Big Basin and complete some much-needed trail work later this year. We’ll start restoration in the backcountry trails, and help bring this brand-new vision for California’s oldest State Park to life!

Volunteer Stats to Date:

So far this year, we’ve hosted 909 volunteers in the field to complete 4,290 hours of trail work. That’s nearly SIX MONTHS of continuous trail work in local open spaces!

Thank you to all of the hardworking volunteers who have joined us for recent events. You guys rock!

Welcome, New Trail Crew Leaders!

Trail Crew Leaders go through special training to ensure that volunteers have good direction and are completing high-quality work on the trails. They help us host more volunteers at events, and are an extremely important part of our trail stewardship work.

To bring new Trail Crew Leaders into the fold, we recently hosted a weekend-long Trail Crew Leader training with both online and in-the-field instruction. In addition to Trail Crew Leader trainees, staff from the City of Santa Cruz and California State Parks joined the fun to brush up on their trail maintenance skills!

Read more about the jam-packed training weekend by clicking here.