Peninsula Trails. Jean Rusmore

      The San Andreas Reservoir now fills the valley, which for centuries before the coming of the Spaniards was the site of Native American villages. As Portolá’s party was searching for a site for a mission and presidio in the northern part of the Peninsula, his diarist and historian, Father Francisco Palou, and his scout, Captain Fernando Rivera, went through this valley on November 30, 1774. Palou named it San Andrés, honoring that saint’s feast day.

      Later, the earthquake-fault valley north of the present dam site was included in the Rancho Feliz, where Spaniards grazed cattle and grew wheat. There were no Spanish settlements here, reportedly because of trouble with bears. It is now surmised that the bear population may have exploded when the cattle provided an increased food supply.

      With the coming of the Anglos in the 19th century the valley became a place of small farms and a dairy. In the mid-1880s farmers and herdsmen were still hunting down marauding bears and mountain lions that were attacking their cattle. San Francisco’s Spring Valley Water Company began buying up the farms in the valley in the late 1860s, and the lands have been kept as a watershed from that time. The bears are now gone, but the vast and still-wild watershed (also a State Fish and Game Refuge) harbors a great variety of animals, probably including mountain lions, a few eagles and some endangered species.

      The first 2.4 miles of the San Andreas Trail are paved, from the San Bruno Avenue/Skyline Boulevard entrance to Larkspur Drive. From the end of this paved path to the Sawyer Camp Trail entrance at Hillcrest Boulevard, hikers and equestrians take a cleared and maintained 0.6-mile path in a wooded corridor next to the freeway. Runners use the trail frequently, perhaps because the forest floor is springy underfoot and the air fragrant with the scent of pine needles. Bicyclists must travel on Skyline Boulevard to Hillcrest Boulevard, where they turn right to the paved Sawyer Camp Trail.

      In spite of the noisy presence of the freeway, you can enjoy the outlook to the west as the path winds through groves of Monterey pines and old plantings of cypresses, with vistas of the lake below and the western hills beyond.

Sawyer Camp Trail

      A historic road of singular beauty extends for 6 miles through the San Francisco Watershed lands past the sparkling San Andreas and Crystal Springs lakes. The road is paved, but open to hikers, equestrians, and bicyclists only. The camp that gave the road its name was in a small flat in the San Andreas Valley where in the 1870s, Leander Sawyer trained performing horses for circuses. Later he ran an inn here for travelers on their way to Half Moon Bay.

      The sunny meadow by the creek where Sawyer had his camp had earlier been home to the Shalshone Indians (a tribelet of the Ohlones), who hospitably offered wild fruits and seed cakes to Gaspar de Portolá’s expedition when it passed this way in 1769. During Sawyer’s day, wagons pulled by teams of eight horses hauled wood over the road on their way to San Francisco and stage coaches used it as an alternative route from San Francisco to Half Moon Bay.

      When San Francisco took over the Watershed lands, narrow, winding Sawyer Camp Road was kept open and later fenced on either side for protection of the Watershed. San Mateo County closed the road to motorized vehicles in 1978, and it is now officially the Sawyer Camp Historic Trail.

      Jurisdiction: San Mateo County: 650-363-4020

      Facilities: Trail for hikers, bicyclists, and equestrians; picnic tables, restrooms, water at Jepson Laurel picnic area and north end of trail; telephones

      Rules: Open dawn to sunset

      Maps: See map, San Mateo County Jogging, Exercise and Bicycle Trails and USGS topos Montara Mountain and San Mateo

      How to Get There: By car from I-280: (1) North entrance at Hillcrest Blvd: (a) Southbound—Take the Larkspur Dr. exit and go south on Skyline Blvd. to Hillcrest Blvd., then west under freeway to trail entrance on right; (b) Northbound—Take Millbrae Ave. exit and go north on Skyline Blvd., then west on Hillcrest Blvd. to trail entrance. (2) South entrance at Crystal Springs Rd: (a) Southbound—Take Hayne Rd. exit and go south on Skyline Blvd. to parking beside entrance gate on west side of road; (b) Northbound—Take Bunker Hill Dr. exit, cross over freeway, then go north on Skyline Blvd. past Crystal Springs Dam to entrance gate.

      By Bicycle: Use the same approaches from Skyline Blvd. as for cars.

      Distance: 6 miles one way

      Time: 3 hours. A car shuttle is practical here. Shorter round trips on part of the trail from either end make good hikes.

      Elevation Change: 400’ loss from north to south

      Entering the trail at the north end, the first 1.75 miles descend from Skyline Boulevard to San Andreas Lake and its dam. The woods and lake are a pleasant introduction to the trail. Summer winds often ruffle the lake and drifts of fog sweep over the hills. On the far side of the dam look for a commemorative plaque that marks the hundredth anniversary of the dam’s completion in 1869. From here the trail heads south along a shady walk between the creek and a hillside of bay trees. Fern-covered banks bloom with purple iris and scarlet columbine. You may see the very rare shrub leatherwood, with its small yellow blossoms. It is found in only a few places in San Mateo County (one of them is Edgewood Park). The Indians used its tough, flexible branches for lacings.

      In a small clearing along the way, about 30 yards west of the trail, is the venerable Jepson Bay Laurel, thought to be the second-oldest and largest in the state.