When the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District board voted to open a new trail at the Beatty property, east of Lexington Reservoir, Dec. 10, it was a significant win for the Los Gatos outdoor community. There have been delays due to newts being killed at Alma Bridge Road by traffic. The agreement addresses this issue by opening the trail seasonally, when newts aren’t migrating during the rainy seasons. The tentative date to open this trail is in 2028, as the last time there was a multi-use trail opened (which included mountain bikers) was the Serpentine Trail—around 30 years ago.
Midpen funded this through a $650,000 grant, setting up a pilot project for the Alma Bridge Road Newt Passage Project. The intention of this project was to offer ways to protect newts from being killed around the Beatty property, where there has been a significant rate of mortality documented for the animal. Santa Clara County has owned the Alma Bridge Road since 2021, so Midpen has been partnering with them to resolve this ongoing issue. “This compromise proves that the tension between resource protection and public access doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game,” said Project Manager Mark Brandi.
Silicon Valley Mountain Bikers is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that advocates for increased mountain bike trail access with land management agencies. Whether that means opening existing trails to mountain bike use, or developing new ones, SVMTB builds relationships and advocates for that cause. Ed Dee is the vice president of SVMTB, and speaks with great excitement about this recent development, as it promises hope for this trail and potentially more to be opened up in the future. “This is huge for the community,” said Dee, explaining his excitement that all local mountain bikers will be able to get out into previously inaccessible areas. There was a trail used in the late 1970s that was closed about a decade later, to the dismay of the Los Gatos bikers community, he recalled.
New trails on the horizon
Another reason that outdoor enthusiasts are thrilled with the news is because it sheds a light on the potential for other closed-off regions to be opened, too. “This is an example of environmental concerns and the mountain biking lobby working together for a solution,” said Dee, stating that any trail that’s open for multi-use is going to include hiker access, so it’s a big win.
Local hikers will be able to access the trail from downtown Los Gatos, if desired.
The Beatty Ranch was acquired by Midpen 14 years ago. UCSC conducted studies on newt mortality over the course of three years along Alma Bridge Road, which is what has been stalling the process of Midpen opening access to this new trail. In January of 2026 along Alma Bridge Road, UCSC researchers could be spotted in yellow jackets collecting and moving newts along the road.
One of the directors on SVMTB, Jeff King, says he has kids who went to Los Gatos High School. King wants his kids and other youth to be able to reap the benefits of the nature that engulfs the town, rather than being on their phones at home. This recent deal with Midpen opens a gateway to new trails in the Sierra Azul mountains being resurrected for hikers as well as mountain bikers, which has the potential to impact the outdoors culture in Los Gatos for decades to come. Another SVMTB official, Dirk Franklin, shares his enthusiasm over the new trail. “I am really excited for the upcoming Beatty Property trails and the additional projects funded by Measure AA,” he said. “These will help make Los Gatos a true trails destination. Great for recreation and local businesses.”
The first step, according to Dee, is to educate the residents of Los Gatos with the hope of gaining some traction around the less visible territories in the mountains of Los Gatos. “The mountain bike community has been greatly misunderstood by land managers for a long time,” he said. “The misunderstanding comes from land managers thinking all mountain bikers want an abundance of man-made technical features like jumps and burns. We love the environment and we just want to get on our bikes and ride. We are responsible, and we’re not gonna be running people off the trail. The majority of mountain bikers just want to ride around in nature.”
Dee explains that the work that he and his peers do at SVMTB is around education and working with other trail user groups—many with environmental concerns. Dee said that mountain biking is one of the largest growing segments of the outdoor recreational industry in the world, and that in his role as vice-president, he and his colleagues act as the middlemen trying to translate the passion behind all bikers in the area. A multiuse trail is currently in the planning stages for Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve. They are targeting construction for that trail in Spring of 2027. This preserve currently does not have any trails open to bikers.
Where SVMTB and Midpen meet
Midpen is a regional land management agency that oversees 70,000 acres from Halfmoon Bay to Santa Cruz County with more than 250 miles of trails, with 27 trails open to the public. The first part of their mission is to buy open space land and preserve it, second is to restore and preserve the land making sure that wildlife and vegetative species are as healthy as possible, and third is to provide opportunities for public recreation in an ecological sensitive manner. “With creating this Beatty trail, we had plans to build this new parking lot. But while we were originally in the planning stages of that, we were alerted by community scientists about large-scale newt mortality issues along the roadway, particularly in the winter months”, says Mcauley. That led to a pause in the Beatty project to look at it from a scientific manner, conducting data modeling and population estimates. From that study in a single season, about 40% of the newts that were trying to cross the roads were killed by vehicles. In about 50 years if the mortality rate continued, they found it would lead to extirpation of newts in that area.
For more info: openspace.org.
