Photo Friday from the Crystal Springs Reservoir

We were thrilled to join the San Mateo Department of Public Works and San Mateo County Parks to open Skyline Bridge over Lower Crystal Springs Dam last Friday, January 11th. The new bridge, and the pedestrian lane on top of it, connect to a new trail section south of the dam.  

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of visiting the region's newest bridge and trail section, you're in luck. We happened to take a bunch of photos of the bridge and the stunning Peninsula Watershed around it.

Happy Photo Friday and have a great weekend!

The new Skyline Bridge, atop Lower Crystal Springs Dam, has a separate trail for pedestrians.

View of the protected pedestrian lane on the bridge, Lower Crystal Springs Dam beneath it, and Crystal Springs Reservoir.

The new southern section of trail is now open to the public where it connects to Skyline Bridge.

Crystal Springs Dam Bridge Opens January 11

The County of San Mateo is inviting pedestrians and bicyclists  to experience the new Crystal Springs Dam Bridge on Friday, January 11 at 2 p.m. They will have a unique view of the bridge and connecting trails before the road opens to vehicle traffic at approximately 4 p.m. that day.  Scheduled speakers include Senator Jerry Hill and San Mateo County Supervisor Carole Groom.

The bridge opening also provides access to a new segment of the Crystal Springs Trail that is just under one mile long and offers additional views of the Peninsula Watershed. The trail ends just north of Highway 92 and Skyline Boulevard.

A shuttle service will be available to transport event attendees to the bridge from the Youth Services Center at 222 Paul Scannell Drive in San Mateo beginning at 1 p.m.  No on-site parking will be available at the bridge itself. Bicyclists are welcome ride to the site or use the shuttle service which can accommodate bikes.

Winter Watch on the Ridge Trail

Winter conditions have spurred a new schedule of activities along the Peninsula Watershed's Fifield-Cahill Ridge Trail. We've lined up a diversity of hikes and bike rides throughout January, February and beyond. 

If you go--

The time is right for checking out one of our most striking evergreens (the venerable Douglas fir known as “old Doug”). Also  look for red-tailed hawks (mostly juveniles on the hunt at this time of year). And watch for newts. After months of seclusion in their leafy, dry-weather shelters, the newts might be seen now, inching their way along or across the trail to enjoy the more palatable winter wetness. 

Events range from easy 4- or 5-mile round-trip strolls to all-day excursions across the entire 13-mile route. All of them are led by one or more of our knowledgeable volunteer trail leaders, and space is limited to 20 at most.

For more specifics, and to reserve a spot, please visit sfwater.org/ridgetrail.

Happy Holidays from the SFPUC

We hope you are having a restful and joyful holiday season!

It doesn't snow very often on the Peninsula. A photographer named George Fanning found himself in a winter wonderland on the Peninsula Watershed on January 30, 1922.

Here a couple of his photos to enhance the holiday mood.

San Andreas Reservoir

View from Pilarcitos Dam, looking downstream toward the keepers cottage.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Holiday Season!

Bring on the Rain--Completed Watershed Erosion Control Project Will Safeguard Pipeline AND Native Plant Life

Crews have finished a key project to control heavy volumes of eroding soil and rock that threatened to damage a major drinking water pipeline along the Crystal Springs Reservoir shoreline below parts of the Sawyer Camp Trail. 

The specially fabricated "holey concrete" blocks, installed by hand into the hill, will allow returning young native plants to sprout through and around the newly stabilized slope. 

 

Holey Concrete! Plant-Friendly Blocks Will Halt Erosion Near Sawyer Camp Trail

Crews have been installing vegetation-friendly concrete blocks into some slopes near Sawyer Camp Trail to stabilize them as part of a late-year erosion control project.  

The area is normally wetland habitat, and the innovative blocks are designed to allow future young plants to sprout through them and flourish after the project is finished. The work is being done to shore up the soil and rocks that were sliding into the nearby Crystal Springs/San Andreas Pipeline along the reservoir shore. 

The pipeline transports Crystal Springs reservoir water north to the San Andreas Reservoir and then the Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant. Those local reservoir waters are then blended with Hetch Hetchy regional water for distribution to Peninsula and San Francisco customers. 

Thanksgiving on the Watershed: Wild Turkeys—Pardoned by Circumstance

Wild turkeys flourish here and there throughout the Peninsula Watershed. Our watershed keepers are particularly used to a flock of 20 or so that routinely pass by their office, a mile or so in from the staff entrance near I-280. 

The approximately 36-square-mile space provides an ideal diversity of habitat for the opportunistic foragers, which roam a couple of miles a day to feast on grasses or scratch in the woodland leaf litter for insects, seeds, acorns, blackberries and other plant or animal fodder. 

Since the long-protected watershed is also designated as a State Fish and Game Refuge, the turkeys that dwell here are safe from one of THEIR potential predators, the human hunter. 

Happy Thanksgiving to them and  all of you, from all of us.