The Verdant Hills of the East Bay: January 23-24, 2016

Looking east from the Berkeley Hills toward the cloud-covered flanks of Mt. Diablo

Trails used on this leg:

http://www.ridgetrail.org/pinole-watershed

http://www.ridgetrail.org/kennedy-grove-to-tilden-regional-park

http://www.ridgetrail.org/tilden-regional-park-to-redwood-regional-park

The hallmarks of this excellent weekend of walking were rain, mud, sparkling views, squelching shoes, and lots of laughter. Donna and I got about as muddy as was humanly possible from the ankles down; but the walks were so gorgeous, it hardly mattered.

With our hardy friends David and Ruth, we started in the Pinole Watershed, where we signed in at a little kiosk with our East Bay Municipal Utility District permit. The Horsemen of Contra Costa County had erected a plaque nearby in 1952, honoring county sheriff John A. Miller.

Miller was noted for his trick shooting, practicing a policy of scaring crooks away from the County so they would not work here, thus lightening the load of apprehension. He never wore a pistol during the eight years he was sheriff because, as he said, "I didn't have to." http://www.co.contra-costa.ca.us/83/John-Miller

The rain started as we ascended approximately 600 feet to the ridge above Fernandez Ranch. Between the clouds, the views were stunning.

Stormy skies above the San Francisco Bay

In time, our feet, the mud, and the cow dung all became one.

Bare branches of the oaks

On Sunday, washed and scrubbed, and with Michaela and Joe, we headed south to Redwood Regional Park.

Looking east from the Berkeley hills

Mt. Diablo

Mt. Diablo has been an almost constant presence on our hikes. When we began our BART circuit, we walked past the mountain as we headed north. Now we are walking past it again as we head south. While the mountain might resemble a volcano, it is actually a pile of many complicated layers. Its oldest rocks are basalt from 100+ million years ago, formed at a zone of seafloor spreading. That basalt is now on Mt. Diablo's summit. Below the basalt are mixed layers of "young" folded and faulted sediments that have formed sandstones and shales.

Photos of the weekend are here.

Photos of the whole BART hike so far are here.

A Strait, Some Bridges, and John Muir

November 27-29, 2015

Trails and maps used on this leg:

http://www.ridgetrail.org/vallejo-benicia-buffer

http://www.ridgetrail.org/vallejo-benicia-waterfront

http://www.ridgetrail.org/al-zampa-memorial-bridge

http://www.ridgetrail.org/benicia-martinez-bridge

http://www.ridgetrail.org/martinez-city-streets-to-carquinez-strait-regional-shoreline

http://www.ridgetrail.org/mount-wanda-trail

We started this 3-day walk as the sun set on Friday evening. With our flashlights, we charged up the ridge that connects Vallejo and Benicia, and our view over the entire early-nighttime San Francisco Bay was replete with deep, shiny purple, dark blue, and black. This is clearly a great trail, and someday we'll walk it again when the sun's up.

Mt Diablo from Hulet Hornbeck Trail, Martinez

The next morning, we began our bridge-filled day with a view of these two! In 1927, the first major bridge that crossed the San Francisco Bay was built here across the Carquinez Strait, connecting Vallejo with Crockett. In 1958, the cantilever bridge pictured below (left) was built to accommodate eastbound traffic, and it is nearly identical to the 1927 bridge. In 2003, the new suspension bridge opened, and the original 1927 span was demolished a few years later. The new bridge was named after bridge worker Al Zampa (1905-2000), who famously survived a fall while working on the Golden Gate Bridge. Here is a short interview with Zampa.

Al Zampa Memorial Bridge (right)

Benicia waterfront

The Bay Area Ridge Trail to Martinez

Heading up Mt. Wanda early Sunday morning

We are looking forward to more walks in the East Bay this winter.
Do you want to join us?

More photos are here!

Yountville to American Canyon: Vineyards and Summits
October 17 and 18, 2015

Looking north from Rockville Hills

Trails walked on this leg:

Yountville Cross Road/Highway 29

http://www.ridgetrail.org/skyline-wilderness-park-and-napa-solano-ridge-trail

http://www.ridgetrail.org/rockville-hills-regional-park

http://www.ridgetrail.org/lynch-canyon-open-space

http://www.ridgetrail.org/hiddenbrooke-trail

We travel a ways by car to get to our trail segments for this portion of the trail. For that reason, we have been trying to hike in several parks and open spaces each trip. You can see that this leg packed a bunch of miles together!

Fall is a perfect time to walk in Napa and Solano counties. Summers can get so hot here, but now it is lovely, plus we have the added bonus of walking in the autumn slanty-light golden colors. The photo below shows the incredible lushness of botanical life that results in this deep mix of marine and volcanic soil here. San Pablo Bay once extended into this valley, and the mountains to the west are a combination of uplifted ancient sea floor and volcanic rock.

In the Napa Valley, looking west from Hwy 29

We are happy that Napa County is taking on the challenge of creating the ridge trail in their community. Getting from beautiful ridge parks to beautiful ridge open spaces requires some connectors through the urban areas sometimes, and the first trail segment of the day was south through the Napa Valley through the town of Yountville. Though the route itself is near a busy and straight highway sometimes, the views of the surrounding vineyards and rolling hills were lovely.

The kitchen garden for the restaurant, French Laundry, on the route through Yountville

We were delighted to discover Skyline Wilderness Park. We set up our camp here at noon, then spent the afternoon walking up the beautiful ridges there, partly along the eastern boundary of Napa State Hospital. This facility was established in 1875, which might coincide with this historic dump site.

Looks like a resting place for #10 tins from the Napa State hospital, maybe? This was the start of the trail in the Skyline Wilderness

Looking north to Napa Valley from Skyline Wilderness Park 

In the morning, we drove over to Fairfield and wandered through the peaceful open spaces of Rockville Hills and Lynch Canyon. I've always wanted to walk in these open rounded grassy hills that pop up just beyond the bay near Highway 80!

Looking northwest from the Rockville Hills Regional Park

Hiddenbrooke Trail in American Canyon was our last hike of the day, with the fading light of the day raking over the oaks and hills. We heard meadowlarks calling, saw hawks overhead and reveled in the views down across the bay to Mt Tam, the Golden Gate Bridge, Mt Diablo, and beyond. Looking out over the bay from the ridge above Hiddenbrooke, we can see much of our hiking history on the Ridge Trail, from Black Mountain in the South Bay to Mt. Burdell and Sonoma Mountain, and to the ridges of Calistoga and Napa Counties. What a walk we're having!

Hiking with the song of the meadowlark on Hiddenbrooke Trail

Want more photos? Please click here!

Photos of the whole trip so far: click here!

Up and Down the Ridges of Sonoma and Napa Counties

a view in Hood Mountain Regional Park

It's been a whole year since we hiked on the Bay Area Ridge Trail! How wonderful that we are back on this marvelous trail, this time for an extended visit.

We spent five days hiking and camping along the trail in June. Since it is a fair ways from our homes in Santa Cruz, we wanted to pack in some miles. The general topography of the North Bay as it relates to the San Francisco Bay is such that the trail goes up and down north/south running ridges, which means lots of elevation gains and losses for us hikers. AND it was hot: summer temps of high 80's to 100 degrees every day on our late-June trip. 

We camped at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and Bothe-Napa Valley State Park in between our day hikes.  On our first day out, we crossed paths with Karen Buchanan, the tour and education manager for Jack London State Historic Park, and who was on a lunchtime hike herself. In addition to providing us with lots of on-the-spot information about Jack and Charmian London, she told us about the long-term plan of hike-in campgrounds spaced all along the trail, each one a day's walk from the next. We thoroughly enjoyed the peaceful sites we had in the state parks, and the showers were just what we needed after so many miles in extremely warm temperatures.

Sugarloaf's park manager John Roney shared with us that maybe the missing links in the trail can be completed now that the demographic of the land owners is changing. Ranches are being sold to folks who buy the land to retire on or go to recreate on. Having a trail on their property now can mean that their land is connected to a much bigger piece of wild land. Ranchers tended to be reluctant to have strangers walking through. An uninterrupted trek around the Bay would be fabulous!

Here are the maps of the trails in the parks with their links:

• 10 miles in the North Sonoma Mountain Regional Park into Jack London State Park, a newly completed section of trail in a new park near Penngrove, with Amy and Enrique joining us.

Donna starting up Sonoma Mountain

• 10 miles in Annadel State Park, including the section not completed yet in Howarth Park near Santa Rosa, with friend Larry joining us.

an old property line in Annadel

pileated woodpecker

manzanita and oak, Annadel

• 14 miles in Hood Mountain Regional Park near Kenwood (2500 ft. elevation gain) and Sugarloaf Ridge State Park (1550 feet elevation gain, for a total of 4050 feet that day!)

                                  

view of Mt. St. Helena from Bald Mountain

top of Bald Mountain

• 9 miles in Calistoga, on the Oat Hill Mine Road, with Lorna joining us.

Feather found on Oat Hill Mine Road

• 6 miles in Bothe-Napa Valley State Park with Lorna, near Calistoga, then 5.4 miles in Moore Creek Park near Napa.

Spicebush, blooming abundantly in Bothe-Napa Valley State Park

a shady trail in Bothe-Napa Valley State Park

the secret swimming hole in Moore Creek on a very hot day

More photos from this fantastic five-day feast are here.

Three Days in May, 2014

Blooming Buckeye!

On May 3, 4, and 5, we walked for about 35 miles through the beautiful rolling hills of Marin and Sonoma Counties.  We used the following maps:

Indian Tree Open Space Preserve

Mount Burdell Open Space Preserve

Helen Putnam Regional Park to Petaluma

Jack London State Historic Park

Millie, David, Adrian, Richard, Amy, and Julia joined Donna and me for all or part of Leg 11 of our round-the-bay walk.  We spent our first two nights in Fairfax with Millie, and we stayed in a hotel in Petaluma our third night.  This leg was especially social, to boot -- we played music with Donna's family one night, had dinner with Julia's aunt another night, and stopped in to visit Donna's sister-in-law as we walked through Petaluma on our third day.

But first, the turkey eggshell.  We found this as we walked up into the hills above Novato on our first morning.  Further down this page you will also see Donna's hand holding something else we found.

View of the San Francisco Bay from the ridges above Novato

Heading up towards Little Mountain Open Space Preserve

Birders on the flanks of Burdell

still ascending...

Lunchtime on Mount Burdell, elevation 1558', overlooking the Petaluma River

Mount Burdell is an anomaly in this region of ancient, sedimentary ocean floor.  The mountain is a 12-million-year-old volcanic intrusion punching through the sediment, and andesite is quarried near the summit.  Andesite is a light-grey volcanic rock named for the Andes.  Here is a link for more information about the geology of this region.

Olompali State Historic Park

The name "olompali" comes from the Miwok language and may be translated as "southern village" or "southern people." The Coast Miwok inhabited at least one site within the area of the present-day park continuously from as early as 6,000 BC, until the early 1850s. 

Olompali contains "kitchen rock," a large boulder used as a mortar in which early people ground acorns and seeds into a fine flour for food preparation. Many women would gather near such grinding rocks to prepare food and socialize. 

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=465

Worker's house at the Burdell Ranch

Camilo Ynitia [a Coast Miwok chief who received a Spanish land grant in 1843] built an adobe using in part bricks from the earlier adobe on this site constructed by his father and the Spanish exploring party of 1775-6.  Camilo’s adobe was so strongly constructed that it was incorporated in 1870 into Dr. Galen and Mrs. Mary Black Burdell’s two story home.  This ranch house was encased in 1915 by their son James Burdell with his 26 room mansion, which survived until 1969 when fire destroyed all but the walls of Ynitia’s adobe. 

(Read more about this story here at this link.  It's got pathos, vengeance, and heartache.)

You can see the 1915 house below, from a 1940 photo. 

http://heritage.sonomalibrary.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15763coll2/id/20640

(Here is a link to a photo of the mansion today.)

Petaluma bird house

Petaluma countryside

Petaluma tick

Vineyard at Jack London's model farm

(more information here)

You can see more photos of this thoroughly delightful 3-day jaunt here!

Spring Green in the North Bay

Lucas Valley Open Space Preserve

Day 11 on the trail: http://www.ridgetrail.org/index.php/loma-alta-to-lucas-valley


In this drought year, we've had many hikes on winter days where we could clearly see the San Francisco Bay. Our last hike on March 16 was one such day. We started at the top of White's Hill in Fairfax and immediately climbed to the top of Loma Alta, one the highest points in Marin County.  This 1592' summit descends into four distinct watersheds: Miller Creek to the northeast, Corte Madera Creek to the southeast, Lagunitas Creek to the southwest, and Nicasio Creek to the northwest.

Katharina, David, Donna and Millie on top of Loma Alta, elevation 1592'

The clouds created beautiful waving patterns through the blue and the grass was probably the greenest it will ever be this winter. 

Lucas Valley keyhole to view of Mt Diablo

The views through the velvet hills down to the bay were stunning. The uphill climbs were stunning too!  Below, we are heading up to Big Rock Ridge, elevation 1895', the second-highest point in Marin County (Mt. Tam is 2572').  Mountain lions and golden eagles are common in this quiet region of Marin.

The poppies have announced the arrival of Spring!

Lucas Valley Open Space Preserve

We ate chocolate at the top, then turned around and backtracked down the switchbacks. When the trail is finished, it will continue north to the next finished section in Indian Tree Open Space Preserve in Novato.

San Francisco Bay from Big Rock Ridge, elevation 1895'

Donna and David look out to the northeast from Big Rock Ridge

More pictures from this gorgeous day are here.