Sugarloaf volunteer helps visitors share respite in nature

Inside Sugarloaf Ridge State Park’s quaint visitor center, Susie Albrecht is bursting with energy and quick on her feet.

The phone rings, and Albrecht stands to answer it from behind the wooden reception desk stacked with walkie-talkies, tangled cords and a long paper list filled with camping reservations.

Then she moves swiftly through the aisles, organizing nature books, stocking ice cream and ice pops in the freezer and welcoming visitors with a bright grin.

“If you take this trail, at the top of the mountain you’ll have a 360-degree view of the entire area,” Albrecht told a cyclist as she placed her finger on a black-and-white map of the park.

The cyclist had walked into the visitor center looking for quarters to use for the park’s showers. But, Albrecht decided, why not mention a few biking trails she knew she would love, too?

It’s typical for the Guerneville retiree to go above and beyond as a volunteer, which is why she has such an important role at Sugarloaf.

But for as much as she gives, she gets something in return, too.

“It’s a place of refuge, restoration and connection,” Albrecht said about the park. “If there’s a week where I don’t come, it feels like I’ve missed something. This park is a part of me now.”

Finding refuge in nature

When the world jerked to a stop in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, Sugarloaf park, nestled in the Mayacamas Mountains in Kenwood, became a place for many of us, sheltering at home, to escape to for a short while, a grounding place for us to find refuge.

Albrecht, a volunteer since 2019, has made sure it stays that way.

“She’s played such a crucial part in continuing to keep this park alive,” said John Roney, park manager at Sugarloaf. “We want to be a resource for our community. Because of her creative ideas and resourcefulness, we were able to do that. She’s amazing.”

At the park, Albrecht wears several hats and is known as one of the “park ambassadors.”

She checks in campers, answers phone calls and restocks and organizes snacks, brochures and supplies. She recommends hiking and biking trails to visitors and patrols the park for damaged trees and sick animals. She leads evacuation fire drills.

She even updates and maintains the park’s popular “Wildlife Sightings” board, a white board where the flowering plants, birds, butterflies, animals and critters seen in the park are recorded with colored markers. Another volunteer created the sightings board, but it was displayed nearly a mile away from the visitor center.

So Albrecht decided during the pandemic to bring it to the visitor center, too.

Nearly every weekend, she’s at Sugarloaf, volunteering with enthusiasm and a smile.

“This park was high in demand (during the pandemic), so it was our responsibility to keep it alive and open,” Albrecht said.

For her dedication to keeping Sugarloaf park running smoothly and accessible to visitors, Albrecht has been selected to receive the North Bay Spirit Award for October. A joint project of The Press Democrat and Comcast, the award highlights volunteers who demonstrate exceptional initiative for a cause, often identifying a need in the community and finding an enterprising way to fill it.

Sugarloaf closed in March 2020 and reopened two months later, as staff adapted to the pandemic by finding ways to enact COVID-19 restrictions without losing the essence of the park. Albrecht played a massive part.

She helped develop procedures that aligned with county guidelines, such as installing clear plastic screens to prevent virus transmission between park staff and visitors and displaying menus outside of food sold in the visitor center, to limit foot traffic inside.

People who know her can’t help but mention their appreciation for her resourcefulness and vitality.

“She has this manner about her that’s contagious. She’s always on the move, always willing to help,” said Nadia Mayard, campground manager since 2020. “If we could clone her, that would be fantastic!”

Volunteering at Sugarloaf

In 2018, after realizing she wanted to improve her health, Albrecht enrolled in “Hiking for Fitness,” an eight-week program at the park that entailed a group hike every Saturday. This was how she first got to know Sugarloaf. Soon, she learned to love it.

In the hiking program, she made a friend who one day mentioned a presentation at the park about volunteer opportunities.

“I thought, ‘That could be interesting!’” Albrecht said. “By that time, I had such an appreciation for this park. It felt like home. I felt that it would be a thank you for helping me get into fitness again.”

Over a couple months, she shadowed park volunteers. She decided to dedicate her time to the park.

When Sugarloaf reopened in May 2020, many volunteers who were at high risk for the COVID-19 virus didn’t return. That gave Albrecht the opportunity to step in, help and keep the visitor center operating.

“I love meeting all the people that pass through this park,” Albrecht said. “Getting to learn where people are visiting from, getting to meet all the kids, hearing their stories. It’s one of my favorite things about it.”

A family of volunteers

Volunteering for a greater cause isn’t new for Albrecht.

Before pitching in at Sugarloaf, Albrecht volunteered in San Francisco for years, helping to repair homes for homeowners, renters and nonprofits.

After moving to Sonoma County, she kept up her volunteering, packing and distributing food boxes at Redwood Empire Food Bank and repairing homes for low-income people with Rebuilding Together Petaluma.

Volunteering has been a longtime practice in Albrecht’s family. Growing up in Denver, Colorado, she watched her grandmother and mom volunteer at different organizations.

“Neither one of them directly told me that volunteering was important, but by simply watching them as a kid, I was impacted,” Albrecht said.

She remembers tagging along with her mom, Elinor, a volunteer at Assistance League of Denver, to drop off clothes and household items for families in need at its headquarters.

Her grandmother, Mildred, for more than 20 years volunteered at Saint Luke’s Hospital Auxiliary in Colorado, offering coffee to visitors in waiting rooms, working at the reception desk and bringing books to patients.

In the 1970s, Albrecht for a few summers was a candy striper, a hospital volunteer at a rehabilitation center. Dressed in red-and-white pinafores, she’d retrieve patients from their rooms and bring them to occupational or physical therapy appointments.

“Sometimes, you’d see the same patients for weeks. Other times, you’d return to their room and realize they were gone. That was always a good sign,” Albrecht said. “I loved watching the patients’ progress. It always felt good to be a part of their process and give back.”

City streets to the outdoors

Before moving to Sonoma County, Albrecht was the city type.

She lived in San Francisco for nearly 30 years, working 60-hour weeks in an office, directing or managing teams. On her days off, she’d check out new restaurants and operas.

Then, in 2011, she left her job as a communications director at Charles Schwab Corporation, a financial services company, and headed to the rolling hills and white barns of Guerneville to retire.

In 2018, Sugarloaf Park found her.

“I spent a lot of time exploring back roads at first. I fell in love with the rural character and the outdoors. I rode my bike and went on solo hikes in the mountains,” Albrecht said. “But I wasn’t as focused on the nature as I am today. This is home now.”

Now, Albrecht understands how important it is to slow down and create space for quietness in our busy lives.

At a time when some can’t visit in person with loved ones, are out of work or struggling emotionally, the park has become a place for people to seek out clarity and peace.

“It helps people slow down and helps us realize that there’s a world bigger than us outside,” Albrecht said. “There’s this beautiful creation all around us all the time. There’s something to gain from that connection.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mya Constantino at mya.constantino@pressdemocrat.com. @searchingformya on Twitter.