The San Mateo County highpoint is a non-descript bump along the spine of the Santa Cruz Mountains called Long Ridge, located in the south part of the county in a private housing development. I was here last year (December 19, 2000) and hiked a nice trail in from the highway (CA-35) about two miles through pretty California coastal woodland. Eventually I came into the open at the ridge, and hiked toward the summit, chagrined to find it was fenced and there was a dog patrolling the area. I was about 200 feet from the top and maybe just 15 vertical feet below it, but the fence looked electric and the dog probably wouldn't have been too friendly so I admitted defeat and hiked back to my truck. I will say the hike was rather nice.

A year later, I was up here again for a quickie highpoints tour and a visit with my sister who lives in San Francisco. I was able to make arrangements with the landowner well in advance and we established a "date" for me to visit. The day came and it was a nasty, cold and very stormy day, the whole state being slammed by a major winter Pacific storm. I left my sister's place in San Fran early and made the 50-mile drive south to Saratoga where I gassed up and poked around a bit, as I was still early according to the time we set to meet.

Finally, I drove on up, entered into the development and parked below the man's property. It was a short "hike" up his driveway to meet him. He was friendly and surprised I was here given the conditions. After a short chat I made the "official" visit to the highpoint, then went back in to talk a little more with the man. For now he was living out of a camper/trailer, with plans to build a large home on the property. He seemed curious about this hobby and why people would come from so far to visit this point. But our visit went well and overall, he seemed like a decent guy. My whole visit with him maybe covered 30 minutes, as I had a few hundred miles of driving to do to get home. As an amusing sidelight, I told him about my hike a year earlier and about the dog. He confirmed he owned the land back then but had no idea who the dog belonged to.

With my visit done, I proceeded down the highways eventually staying the night in Mojave up in the desert past Bakersfield, then arriving home the next day. It had been a fruitful Bay-Area highpoints trip and a nice visit with my sister.

Update: For years access to this highpoint was coordinated by a ranger with the Open Space coalition, who worked in concert with the landowner to allow visits on an irregular basis. This worked well until recent years. Some people have stealthed this highpoint and have incurred the wrath of the landowner. For now (2009) it appears access is closed for the foreseeable future. This idiot has not helped the situation any:

Idiot

In case the link eventually dies, a runner "with an obsession" in the Bay Area gets hopelessly lost for a week in the Snow Mountain Wilderness in Colusa County. He also pissed off the San Mateo highpoint landowner with his hare-brained actions.