For years my husband David and I drove along Highway 280 dazzled by the expanse of pristine open space to the west and the large body of water in the rift between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the high-speed corridor on the plateau above San Mateo County’s bayside communities.

We would strain our necks at 65 mph peering down to the fault zone to scan for evidence of a public access.  Finally, on a day we tagged to explore a stretch of the San Francisco Peninsula, we discovered a trail above the fenced San Andreas Lake. The lake began as a natural sag pond on the San Andreas Fault and was expanded into a 4.4 square mile catch basin in 1868 by building a 100-foot high earth dam that actually survived the 1906 earthquake.  We read that winter storms had wreaked havoc on the 15-mile string of public trail above the lake causing sections of the Camp Sawyer and Crystal Springs links to be closed. Our goal was to trace as much of the reservoir on bike or foot as was possible. Some sleuthing led us to Skyline Boulevard in San Bruno and the northernmost trailhead.

We hopped on our bikes eager to pedal this trail system paralleling the Peninsula Watershed’s over 20,000 acres of forested slopes protected by San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC).  We shared the paved San Andreas multi-use trail with walkers and joggers for a couple of miles. The path weaved away from the road under a canopy of green to eventually reveal views of the lake across to the fog-enshrouded western shore.  Our meander ended abruptly at a “closed” sign, but a bike lane detoured us to the south end of the trail surprising us with a historical marker above the lake.  Captain Gaspar de Portola’s expedition had made their “First Camp” at this location after discovering San Francisco Bay on Nov. 4, 1769.  We were so excited to stumble on State Registered Historical Landmark #27, you would have thought we were the first ones to set foot here since Portola. This find alone would have made the trip special, but there was more to discover so we backtracked to the car and onward to the next trailhead.

Much of Redwood City’s Sawyer Camp Trail section was still closed, but fortunately, one of the prettiest paved cycling sections to the south, though only 1.5 miles, had been recently reopened along the scenic Crystal Springs Dam, known as the “largest concrete structure in the world” when it was built in 1888.  Riding along, we spotted a sign for an unusual eco-inspired physical activity. The “Trail Plogging Station,” a unique hybrid of jogging and litter pick-up that originated in Sweden around 2016, encourages trail users to use one of the buckets, trash grabbers and rubber gloves provided to pick up litter as they add “bending, squatting, and stretching” to their workout. My mind immediately started churning on how the eco-conscious activity could be adapted to cycling.

Back on the road, we drove south to the Highway 92 Half Moon Bay junction and parked on Cañada Road.  We walked along the grassy slope to breathe in the reservoir’s full panorama rather than the usual glimpse from the rearview mirror.  Although this trail was restricted to hikers, joggers, and equestrians, it led us to a staging area for “Bicycle Sunday,” a San Mateo County event I vaguely remembered reading about without ever figuring out where it was. Every Sunday, a 2.5-mile segment of Cañada Road is closed to vehicles from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. for the safe enjoyment of cyclists and “non-vehicle users”.  I immediately added Bicycle Sunday to my bucket list.  The afternoon was melting away so we hopped back in the car eager to see what else lay ahead. We had barely gotten rolling when we saw a sign for the Pulgas Temple, but had no idea that we were actually at the terminus for the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct. We parked and followed a path highlighted by various interpretive panels about the history of the aqueduct going back to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The path led us to an aqua reflection pool at the base of a Corinthian monument erected in homage to the Sierra water that had been corralled to flow to this very point on the San Francisco Peninsula where it rushed on October 1934. Having spent time hiking at the pristine headwaters of the Tuolumne River in the high country of Yosemite National Park as well as above Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, there was something momentous and reverent about standing at the exact spot where the Tuolumne River ends its 167-mile journey.  The 3 million people served by the Hetch Hetchy Water System would agree that water is worship-worthy.

We ended the day’s wanderings on a marvelous note in Woodside at the neighboring Filoli English Country Estate originally envisioned as a self-sustaining farm.  Agnes and William Bourn, owners of the Empire Gold Mine and strong utility company investors built their over 54,000 square-foot retirement dream mansion in the heart of a 654-acre domain at the foot of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Enough of the main historic house is open to the public to get a sense of the scope of such a project in 1917 and the opulence of the Bourn’s lifestyle. I had heard of Filoli’s grandeur imagined by San Francisco architect, Willis Polk, but I had not expected the extravagant aesthetic vision to so seamlessly incorporate various structures, a 16-acre maze of formal gardens and meticulously landscaped grounds. A 1-mile nature trail introduced us to Filoli’s former agricultural fields and untamed woodlands across the Fault Creek footbridge that marks the rub between the Pacific and North American plates.

We spent our last Filoli bubble moments on the Quail Café terrace contemplating William Bourn’s motto – Fi (Fight for a just cause)- Lo (Love your fellow man) – Li (Live a good life).

Linda B. Mullally and husband David share their passion for travel, outdoor recreation and dogs through articles, hiking books and photography at Falcon.com and Facebook