New public trail will link SLO County town to a historic site. Here’s where
A new public trail will soon connect the Dana Adobe in southern San Luis Obispo County to Nipomo’s downtown.
On Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors approved a license agreement to allow Dana Adobe to develop, build and maintain a 1.25 mile-long public path on county land between the historic property and northern Nipomo.
The walking path will provide people with a direct trail from just south of Tefft Street to the Dana Adobe, giving pedestrians the opportunity to hike up to town or walk down to check out Nipomo’s historic sites, Dana Adobe board president Jim Corridan told The Tribune.
“We thought it’d be a great idea to connect the Dana Adobe along the original Pacific Coast Railroad track,” he said.
He said the concept has been floating around for more than 30 years, but the path proposal was only recently resurrected by the Dana Adobe board.
The trail will cost the Dana Adobe about $25,000 to construct. Corridan said the organization is mainly relying on community donations to complete the path. Boy Scouts will also provide some volunteer labor, he added.
Corridan said they’re hoping to complete the trail this summer, but first the project plans have to be approved by the county.
“We want to move quickly,” he told The Tribune. “We’re anxious and ready to move forward with this”
What will new Nipomo trail look like?
The historic property — which provides visitors with an up-close look at California’s Rancho era — already has an extensive trail system with more than four miles of paths on about 130 acres of property, Corridan said.
The new trail will be a flat, dirt path that runs from Tefft Street to the Dana Adobe at Rancho Nipomo.
“To create a new trail that will connect from the downtown out to the Dana Adobe and back is just a wonderful thing,” Supervisor Jimmy Paulding said during the meeting.
Pedestrians, horses and non-motorized bicycles will be allowed on the public trail once it’s finished, according to Corridan.
Educational signage will dot the path, including information about how the area used to be a Native American trading route before it became a local stagecoach route and then part of the Pacific Coast Railroad, Corridan said.
“It’s been a transportation corridor for millennia,” he added. “Really, for thousands of years.”
The Dana Adobe also plans to construct fencing along the trail’s perimeter to respect the privacy rights of the nearby neighborhoods, he said.
In the future, they may create a community garden with raised vegetable beds near the Dana Adobe portion of the trail as well.
“We hope that citizens from across the county come down and visit and check out the property and check out the trail,” Corridan said.
