Pescadero Creek County Park (PCCP) Project(s) - Basic Information Post

Hey friends (including friends I have not yet met):

Nowhere in San Mateo County is more remote, or under-explored, than Pescadero Creek County Park (PCCP). The largest of the Pescadero Creek Complex Parks, it has over 25 miles of hiking trails, a variety of habitats, and a myriad of streams and tributaries. Hosting everything from Steelhead Trout to Santa Cruz Cypress, it is likely to reveal more gems and secrets if we make a long-range plan to collectively visit and document the place. I have made a personal commitment to do this, in anticipation of this park being on the schedule for a future BioBlitz (or two or three or twenty) as part of the coalition between Sequoia Audubon, San Mateo County Parks, California Academy of Sciences, and the California Lichen Society. It is my personal goal to walk every mile of trail within the park. This will call for some VERY long walks, careful reading of topographic maps, two-car set-ups, and companionship (for safety, for friendship, for fun, and for discovery of a wider range of organisms).

@arnel started this project a few years ago in conjunction with a Christmas Bird Count assignment here, and we are now together repurposing it for more extended iNaturalist participation. I will eventually transform it into an automatic project, but for now I am retaining it as a traditional opt-in project, so remember to document anything you see in PCCP and add it to the project manually. I know it is something of a pain, but it is only temporary, until I can clarify the borders of the park (specifically the northern border with Sam McDonald) to my satisfaction (right now, iNat is defaulting some observations made in Sam McDonald to PCCP).

For those of you who don't know this park, there are three RELATIVELY easy access points -
1) from the west, the Hoffman Creek Trailhead is contiguous to Memorial Park on Wurr Road. This is the easiest access point from Pescadero and the coastside.
2) from the east, the Camp Pomponio Road comes off (rather inconspicuously) from Alpine Road, and leads to a parking area for the Tarwater Trailhead
3) from the southeast, there are numerous contiguous trails that start from WITHIN Portola Redwoods State Park (trail markers 77, 80 and 82 if you are using the map)

There are also the following difficult points of access
4) Dropping down into PCCP from Sam McDonald can be done on the East Brook Trail (see trail markers 29, 30, 31, 32, 33) from near the Hiker's Hut
5) Dropping down into PCCP from Sam McDonald can also be done on the West Brook Trail from near the Jack Brook Horse Camp (see trail markers 27, 28 for orientation to this). This trail may be closed due to bridge damage currently (as of 2019)
6) There is a private property easement to/from Big Basin Redwoods State Park (see trail markers 84, 85 for orientation), but this is currently closed at least through the summer of 2019 (see the notice on the Big Basin home page for more information - http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=540 and take a look at the park map's northeastern point for a sense of where that easement enters - http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/540/files/BigBasinRedwoodsFinalWebLayout2018.pdf )

Fascinating history of the park, and why it is so undeveloped - that's how the people wanted it! This article also contains a full list of all the creeks and tributaries in PCCP. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pescadero_Creek_County_Park
This article details how the undeveloped state of PCCP may be the only good thing ever to have come out of Proposition 13 - https://parks.smcgov.org/pescadero-creek-park-history
The park map can be accessed here - https://parks.smcgov.org/sites/parks.smcgov.org/files/PescaderoComplexMap-Nov2018-FINAL-web-formatted.pdf

Look for more announcements soon, but keep this one on file, due to the links and explanations herein contained.

Jennifer Rycenga
a.k.a. gyrrlfalcon

Posted on May 14, 2019 06:22 PM by gyrrlfalcon gyrrlfalcon

Comments

INVITING THE BIO-BLITZING POSSE! Please read the above, join this group, and, at some point in the next two years or so, visit (or revisit) this amazing park!
Once you join the project, search for suitable observations from previous visits you may have made to PCCP, and add them to the project. If you don't want to be a part of this conversation, drop me a personal note here on iNat asking to be removed from this message
@tui @dpom @leslie_flint @metsa @merav @kewright @sea-kangaroo @catchang @damontighe @rebeccafay @kestrel @jmaughn @rjadams55 @moonlittrails @finatic @robberfly @clem @eddiebug @geodani @alvarojaramillo @kueda @loarie @tomv @rademacherdan @vermfly @aaron17 @sdstratt @marshalldinowitz @tlaloc27 @wildmarin @adrained @leftcoastnaturalist @truthseqr @mary-nguyen @bratworst @dmosur @joshuabobcatstacy @bob-dodge @caseygirard @bluevalhalla @ericsimons @clarkia11 @joseph103 @libbing_life @dwightagan @cmaci @jesca67 @moventrice @sennesand @laurajc @k6cdb @bigsurwild @dkincmbria
As for you, @tiwane, you, my friend, are a human being whom I wish to invite to this group!

Posted by gyrrlfalcon almost 5 years ago

Thank you for the invitation @gyrrlfalcon ! I look forward to exploring this park. :-)

Posted by rjadams55 almost 5 years ago

I'm on it, @gyrrlfalcon!

Jim

Posted by jmaughn almost 5 years ago

I lived next door to this park for 6 years and have hiked every trail in it more than once! It's truly an amazing place. If ever needed, I could very likely get a small group access to the park from either of the YMCA camps nearby.

Posted by kestrel almost 5 years ago

@kestrel - where haven't you lived? LOL! Yes, locations for access, especially to remote sections of this already remote park, are high on my desiderata list!

Posted by gyrrlfalcon almost 5 years ago

Sounds like a few visits are in order in June/July.

Posted by catchang almost 5 years ago

Precisely @catchang ! Creative placement of numerous cars, remembering to bring lunch, mapping out of cool hikes, massive data upload - the whole works!

Posted by gyrrlfalcon almost 5 years ago

You got my attention gyrrl ... ;)

Posted by sennesand almost 5 years ago

@garth_harwood and @graysquirrel - Hope you can join!

Posted by gyrrlfalcon almost 5 years ago

Sounds like fun. I love this park.

Posted by metsa almost 5 years ago

@gyrrlfalcon Count me in for any hikes - I'll be there if I can make it! I'd also be excited to stay at one of the trail camps if there's ever a desire to do an overnight foray.

Posted by kestrel almost 5 years ago

Oh, rats. Looks like I now have to share one of my favorite escape destinations. But wait, they're all cool naturalist types - I'm good with that! Happy to help however I can.

Posted by garth_harwood almost 5 years ago
Posted by gyrrlfalcon almost 5 years ago

Wow, looks awesome -- we have to go!

Damian

Posted by k6cdb almost 5 years ago

Lots of herps in this park, for sure!

Posted by gyrrlfalcon almost 5 years ago

@gyrrlfalcon You may definitely count me in wherever there be a gathering of "cool naturalist types" ;-) in the name of science (as well as having a splendid time together, of course!). I was so enamored by the bounty of observations gathered during the Huddart Park Bio-Blitz, that I felt inspired to thoughtfully spend my "birthday money" on compact & lightweight digiscoping equipment (my iPhone 10s can now be connected by specialized adapters to a Celestron Hummingbird 9-27x56mm ED glass Micro Spotter, or an Orion Grandview 12-36x50mm Spotting Scope) to be able to extend my passion for birdlife into adding much better quality photographic observations that I could easily store on my iPhone as well as download directly to iNat :-) . Now I'm truly ready to go find and photograph one of those adorable Wilson's Warblers (and so many more birdies!) that I hope to run across while exploring this park

Posted by forestgirlannie almost 5 years ago

Count me in. It is a great park with lots of potential goodies to be observed.

Posted by bratworst almost 5 years ago

@gyrrlfalcon - Would love to be part of this! I'd like to invite @tony_ventrice, too.

Posted by moventrice almost 5 years ago
Posted by moventrice almost 5 years ago

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