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◆ Introduction ◆

The East Bay

Imagine a landscape of oak-studded hills, grassy ridges, rocky peaks, forested valleys, and salt-marsh shoreline. Picture this landscape in a region blessed with a mild climate, where ocean breezes temper summer’s heat and a winter freeze makes the evening news. Parts of this area have been protected from development and preserved for future generations, with more than 1000 miles of trails for hiking, bicycling, walking, jogging, and horseback riding. Often this kind of outdoor recreation paradise is only found tucked away in remote corners of national parks or set aside in wilderness areas, inaccessible to many of us. But all of these things can be found in the East Bay, within easy reach of millions of people.

The East Bay, which extends from San Francisco Bay to the edge of the Central Valley, and from Carquinez Strait and Suisun Bay to the foothills of Mt. Hamilton, is made up of two counties, Alameda and Contra Costa, a 1700-square-mile area that is home to some 2.5 million people. Most of the open space within the two-county area is administered by four public agencies which together control roughly 172,000 acres, or about 275 square miles: East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD), East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), Mt. Diablo State Park, and the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. (Appendix 3 contains a listing of the various federal, state, and local agencies that administer East Bay parklands.)

The East Bay contains one large city, Oakland, and a number of smaller ones, including Berkeley, Concord, Fremont, and Hayward. Interstate highways, along with Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Alameda–Contra Costa Transit (AC Transit) link population centers in the two-county area. The region is a world-renowned center of learning, culture, and the arts, and is enriched by a diverse and growing population.

Hikers enjoy an autumn stroll on the Canyon View Trail in Sunol Wilderness.

Climate

The East Bay has one of the best climates in the United States for year-round outdoor recreation: it is rarely too hot or too cold to go hiking somewhere here. When summer’s heat and humidity drive residents of other parts of the country to seek air conditioning or the beach, we can enjoy a stroll through cool, fog-shrouded groves of coast redwoods. And when the northern half of the United States is locked for months on end in winter’s icy grip, we can often go outdoors with nothing more than a sweater and a windbreaker, taking advantage of clear skies to climb a peak and gaze at the snow-capped Sierra.

Instead of four seasons, the Bay Area has two: dry, lasting from May through October, and wet, generally from November through April. (Residents of San Francisco have a third season, fog, during the summer months, prompting Mark Twain’s famous statement that the coldest winter he ever spent was the summer he spent in San Francisco.) Time of year can have a dramatic effect on trail conditions and the character of a particular hike. You can broil on some routes during the summer, and find others nearly impassable because of mud in the winter. Most of the trips in this book are enjoyable during spring and fall. Check Appendix 1 for the best summer and winter trips.

At the start of the dry season, the hills are green and decorated with blooming trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. But without rain, the hills gradually turn from green to brown, seasonal creeks dry up, and water levels in lakes and reservoirs fall. Skies are blue, but as spring gives way to summer, ocean breezes from the west and thermal low pressure over the Central Valley propel ocean fog over the western hills and through the Golden Gate into San Francisco Bay, where it often lingers for days on end, sometimes climbing up and spilling over the Berkeley Hills.

With the coming of fall, wind patterns shift and the fog is pushed out to sea. This is a time of extreme fire danger, with plenty of dry fuel and warm, dry winds. It is also a time of intense beauty in the East Bay, when the leaves of bigleaf maple, western sycamore, poison oak, and California wild grape take on autumnal hues, and the grasses that blanket the hills are golden brown. As high pressure over the Eastern Pacific weakens, the way is clear for storms to move in from the Gulf of Alaska or the sub-tropics. When the rains finally arrive, the East Bay undergoes a magical transformation, turning from brown to green almost overnight. Creeks fill and swell, often overflowing their banks and spilling onto the trail. Even as the calendar says winter, our early blooming manzanitas announce the coming of spring with clusters of white or pink flowers.

In addition to being influenced by time of year, conditions vary depending on where you are in relation to San Francisco Bay. The wind here generally blows from west to east, bringing cool, moist air inland from the Pacific Ocean. Starting with the Oakland and Berkeley hills and going east, each successive set of hills presents a further barrier to this marine air, making nearby valleys progressively hotter and drier in summer. So while Tilden Park in the Berkeley Hills might be comfortable in July, Mt. Diablo, farther east, would be unpleasantly hot. But the waters of the Bay also have a stabilizing effect on temperature, keeping areas near its shore cool in summer and relatively warm in winter. As you move east, away from the Bay, this effect lessens and temperature extremes increase. So in January, you might find it warmer in Berkeley than in, say, Concord.

Although our climate—average conditions over the course of a year—is mild, our weather—daily atmospheric conditions—can be exciting. Wind is perhaps the most unpredictable condition, sometimes blowing ferociously on an otherwise perfect day, at other times disappearing as you make a slight change in elevation or orientation. Strong winds can turn a pleasant hike into an ordeal, and can even be hazardous, knocking down trees and power lines. But wind can be a bonus too, bringing relief on a hot day or clearing the air after a winter storm. You can use a weather radio, available at Radio Shack, outdoor stores, and other outlets, to receive broadcasts from the National Weather Service. You can also find up-to-the minute weather information on the Weather Channel or on the Internet at www.weather.com.

California poppies, among the East Bays most common wildflowers, bloom from February through November.

Geology

The geology of the Bay Area is a complex story, written in stone, with a plot line constantly changing and an ending yet to be determined. The principal actors in this drama are the major fault lines, fractures in the earth’s crust, that run along the east and west sides of San Francisco Bay. It is the release of tension along these fault lines that we feel as an earthquake, a natural phenomenon both awe-inspiring and terrifying. Anyone who experienced the 1989 Loma Prieta quake felt in a mere 15 seconds some of the power of the geological forces that have been at work in the Bay Area for millions of years.

California’s most famous fault, the San Andreas, runs from the Gulf of California, near the Salton Sea, northwest to Cape Mendocino and the Pacific Ocean. In the Bay Area, the fault goes through San Mateo and Marin counties, passing San Francisco just outside the Golden Gate. Two major faults associated with the San Andreas—the Hayward and Calaveras faults—cross the East Bay from southeast to northwest. The Hayward fault starts in the southern Santa Clara Valley and passes through the hills of Oakland and Berkeley. The Calaveras fault, farther east, follows a stretch of Interstate 680, passing near Pleasanton and San Ramon.

San Francisco Bay, actually the flooded mouth of the Sacramento–San Joaquin river system, lies in a basin between the San Andreas and Hayward faults. Over the past several hundred thousand years, changes in sea level caused by waxing and waning ice ages filled and drained this basin many times, the most recent being about 5000 years ago, when water trapped in great sheets of ice that covered parts of North America was released into the oceans, raising sea level by hundreds of feet.

Rising astride the Hayward and Calaveras faults, and a network of smaller faults which crisscross our area, are the hills of the East Bay, part of the Coast Ranges of northern California. The Coast Ranges—a complex system of ridges and valleys that stretches from Arcata to near Santa Barbara, and inland to the edge of the Central Valley—were formed millions of years ago, as the floor of the Pacific Ocean was dragged under the western edge of North American continent. This process scraped material from the ocean floor and piled it higher and higher on the continent’s edge, in what is now California. The East Bay hills, built mostly from sedimentary rock and some basalt lava, were uplifted, folded, and eroded into their present shape by geological activity that began three to five million years ago and continues today.

Lizard Rock, Coyote Hills Regional Park, makes a fine photo vantage point.

Two parks of interest to geology buffs are Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, in the Oakland Hills, and Mt. Diablo State Park. Sibley Preserve contains an extinct volcano, Round Top (1763’), which, along with three others nearby on private property, erupted around 10 million years ago, spewing lava, rock fragments, and ash. There is a self-guiding tour into the volcanic area, and an excellent brochure available at a small visitor center. (See the route description for “Round Top Loop.”) Mt. Diablo (3849’), the highest point in the East Bay, resembles a volcano but was actually formed when a large, rocky mass pushed up through layers of sedimentary rock and soil, sometime between one and two million years ago, twisting the layers and in places turning them upside down. You can see interesting rock formations at Rock City, on South Gate Road about 1 mile past the entrance kiosk.

Plant Communities

California has a rich diversity of plant life. Some species, like coast redwoods, date back to the dinosaurs, whereas others have evolved within the past several thousand years. Roughly 30 percent of the state’s native plants grow nowhere else. These endemics, as they are called, include many types of manzanita (Arctostaphylos) and monkeyflower (Mimulus). Botanists divide the plant kingdom into several major groups: flowering plants, conifers, ferns and their allies, mosses, and algae. A plant community consists of species growing together in a distinct habitat. Here are the principal plant communities you will encounter along the trail. (The common names for plants in this book are mostly from Plants of the San Francisco Bay Region, by Eugene N. Kozloff and Linda H. Beidleman.)

Oak Woodland

No tree symbolizes the East Bay better than the oak, a sturdy, long-lived tree whose leaf makes a fitting symbol for the East Bay Regional Park District, and whose name echoes in cities throughout California. Oak woodlands are found generally at low elevations on gentle slopes; foothill woodlands, where trees such as California buckeye and gray pine accompany oaks, occupy steeper or higher ground. If the trees have considerable room between them, making the terrain seem park-like, the area is called a savanna. Park visitors with an interest in plant identification will soon learn to recognize the six common East Bay oaks—three deciduous and three evergreen or “live”: valley, blue, and black, and coast live, canyon live, and interior live. Oaks are islands of life: they produce acorns that are eaten by animals and birds (and until recently, by Native Americans), and provide both shade and shelter in a sea of grass. More than 100 species of birds are associated with oak woodlands in California.

Mixed Evergreen Forest

Mixed-evergreen forests contain oaks and other species, usually California bay and madrone, and perhaps California buckeye and bigleaf maple as well, in a habitat that is cooler and wetter than the one occupied by oak and foothill woodlands. The understory often contains shrubs such as toyon, blue elderberry, hazelnut, buckbrush, snowberry, thimbleberry, oceanspray, and poison oak. Carpeting the forest floor may be an assortment of wildflowers, including milk maids, fairy bells, hound’s tongue, and western heart’s-ease.

Oaks, such as this one in Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, symbolize the East Bay.

Riparian Woodland

Riparian, or streamside, woodlands often contain large, deciduous trees such as western sycamore, bigleaf maple, Fremont cottonwood, and white alder. Growing with them will be willows and perhaps California bay, California buckeye, hazelnut, and blue elderberry. Other streamside plants include snowberry, creek dogwood, vine honeysuckle, and California wild grape. This type of habitat provides the best display of fall colors in the East Bay.

Redwood Forest

At one time coast redwoods blanketed the Pacific coast from central California to southern Oregon. These giants are the world’s tallest trees and are among the fastest growing. Commercially valuable, they were heavily logged, especially in the Santa Cruz Mountains. All of the East Bay’s virgin redwoods are gone, most having been logged between 1840 and 1860. A few pockets of second-growth redwoods still exist in Redwood and Anthony Chabot regional parks, and in the City of Oakland’s Joaquin Miller Park. Tall redwoods, with their extensive system of needle-covered branches, shade out most other species. Often western sword ferns are the only plants able to grow beneath these towering giants. Near streams in a redwood forest, where some light penetrates from above, look for evergreen huckleberry, thimbleberry, and hazelnut.

Chaparral

This community is made up of hardy plants that thrive in poor soils under hot, dry conditions. Chaparral is very susceptible to fire, but some of its members, such as various species of manzanita, survive devastating blazes by sprouting new growth from ground-level burls. Although chaparral foliage is mostly drab, the flowers of many species are beautiful, with some blooming as early as December. The word chaparral comes from a Spanish term for dwarf or scrub oak, but in the East Bay it is chamise, various manzanitas, and various species of ceanothus that dominate the community. Other chaparral plants include mountain mahogany, bush poppy, toyon, and chaparral pea.

Main Marsh, in Coyote Hills Regional Park, offers opportunities for photography and nature study.

Grasslands

Where we see green, rolling hills in East Bay parklands, the botanist sees “disturbed” areas of nonnative plants and weeds which show the effects of civilization—farming, grazing, road building, and burning. Before humans intervened to alter the landscape, the grassland community in the East Bay contained mostly native bunchgrasses and a wide variety of wildflowers, and supported large grazing animals such as tule elk and pronghorn. Today those grazers are gone, replaced by cattle, and most of the grasses we see here, including wild oats, Italian rye, and fescue, are aliens from Europe and the Middle East. Also noticeable are invasive nonnative thistles that often border the trail or dominate an entire hillside. In spring the East Bay’s grasslands are beautifully decorated with bright wildflowers, some of the most common being California buttercup, California poppy, red maids, and shooting stars.

Coastal Scrub

Among the plants that make up coastal scrub, also called soft chaparral, are coyote brush and poison oak, found almost everywhere, along with California sagebrush, coffee berry, bush monkeyflower, black sage, and yerba santa.

Salt Marshes

Around the edge of San Francisco Bay you will find salt marshes—wetlands exposed to tidal flooding but protected from the high winds and waves found along ocean beaches. Three of the most characteristic salt marsh plants are cord grass, which grows in the lowest marsh zone and gets a twice-daily soaking from the tide; pickleweed, a middle zone plant which can tolerate some salt water; and salt grass, an upper zone resident, out of reach of all but the year’s highest tides.

When the first Europeans arrived here in 1769, San Francisco Bay contained more than 300 square miles of marsh; today only about 20% of the original marshland remains, the rest having been diked, drained, or filled for salt production, agriculture, housing, or industrial development. Efforts are underway by governmental and conservation organizations to protect the Bay’s marshlands by controlling industrial and residential development in sensitive areas. Some former marshlands along the East Bay shoreline previously lost to diking have been restored by breaching dikes and allowing Bay waters to flow unhindered once more.

Animals

Mammals

Other than squirrels, rabbits, and the occasional deer, you probably will not see many mammals on your hikes in the East Bay. Most of the mammals here, such as skunk, raccoon, gray fox, bobcat, coyote, and mountain lion, are shy and active mostly at night, after the parks close. Cottontail rabbits are present in the grasslands, where they sit tight to avoid the notice of predators, bounding away at the last minute. California ground squirrels live in large colonies, and you will often see them standing by their burrows or running furtively through the grass. Black-tailed deer inhabit chaparral, as do gray fox, coyote, and bobcat. If mountain lions are present, deer are their prey of choice. Oak woodlands support deer, rabbits, and western gray squirrels, along with foxes, bobcats, and mountain lions.

Birds

More than 350 species have been recorded in the East Bay, making it one of the best places in California to look for birds. The region is doubly blessed: first, it lies on the Pacific Flyway, a major migratory route; and second, it contains a wide variety of habitats. In a single day, traveling west to east, a dedicated birder could scan a salt marsh for shorebirds in the morning, search a redwood forest for songbirds at lunch time, and spend the afternoon looking for hummingbirds and hawks on the oak-and-pine covered flanks of a mountain. (Bird names in this book follow the American Ornithologists’ Union’s (AOU) checklist:www.aou.org/checklist/index.php3.

Your success in finding birds depends on looking in the right place at the right time. Some birds are present year-round, while others are seasonal visitors. Avid birders often revisit the same spot throughout the year, turning up an impressive list of species. Summer brings dense vegetation that offers birds plenty of places to hide from predators and from you; instead, try your luck in late winter or early spring, when many of the tree and shrub limbs are still bare. Time of day is important—many birds sit tight during the hotter part of the day. The tide determines when shorebirds will be active and within viewing range: rising or falling is best.

Reptiles and Amphibians

Lizards and snakes are the most common reptiles in the East Bay parklands, and it is sometimes starling to have your hiking reverie interrupted by a scurrying sound from right beside the trail. The only harmful snake in our area is the western rattlesnake, and it is rarely encountered. The warning sound of a rattlesnake shaking its rattles is instantly recognizable, even if you have never heard it before. A harmless snake that resembles a rattlesnake is the gopher snake, California’s largest snake. Whereas a rattlesnake has a triangular head, thick body, and rattles at the end of its tail, a gopher snake has a slender head, a slender, shiny body, and a pointed tail. Other common snakes in the East Bay include California kingsnake, yellow-bellied racer, and garter snake. One species, Alameda whipsnake, is federally listed as a threatened species.

Common lizards of the East Bay parks include western fence lizard, alligator lizard, and western skink. Lizards often sit motionless on a tree trunk or rock, then dart quickly away as you approach. An animal resembling a lizard but that is actually an amphibian is the California newt, which spends the summer buried under the forest floor, then emerges with the first rains and migrates to breed in ponds and streams. Briones Regional Park is the site of one of the largest of these migrations, and in Tilden Regional Park, South Park Dr. is actually closed during migration to protect the newts. Other amphibians you might see or hear include western toad and Pacific tree frog.

The western fence lizard is the East Bay’s most commonly seen reptile.

Human History

The East Bay today is an exciting and vibrant place, where many cultures and communities contribute their history and heritage, where industry and commerce thrive, and where open space has been preserved and protected for all to enjoy. Agriculture still dominates land use in the East Bay, as it did 100 years ago, but land for crops and cattle grazing is steadily being lost to residential and industrial development, much of it densely packed along freeway and highway corridors. The area is an important transportation hub, with major air, rail, and port facilities. It is a world-renowned mecca for learning and research, a lively center of culture and the arts, and a place where the latest trends in politics, lifestyles, and fashion are conceived and then, sometimes, carried to extremes.

Since the mid-19th century, the East Bay has been a place of farms, orchards, dairies, and cattle ranches, supporting a diverse population of laborers from around the globe, including China, Japan, the Philippines, India, Mexico, Hawaii, and Portugal. During the Gold Rush and the years that followed, the East Bay helped feed the rest of California with produce from large farms centered in Alameda County. (One of these, which belonged to George Washington Patterson and his family, can be visited at EBRPD’s Ardenwood Regional Preserve in Fremont.) Alameda County also became known for its wines, and in 1889 one of its winery owners, Charles Wetmore of Cresta Blanca, won a gold medal at the Paris Exposition. Hops and hay grown in the Livermore Valley gained world-wide reputations for quality.

Cattle ranching in the East Bay, which continues today on public lands under a multi-use policy, began in the 1820’s after Mexico overthrew Spanish rule and made California, then called Alta (Upper) California, part of its republic. The Spanish mission system, in place in California since the 1760s, was dismantled in the 1830s, and former mission lands in the East Bay became large Mexican ranchos, supplying cowhides for leather goods and tallow for candles to manufacturing plants in the northeastern United States. The ranchos and the rich lifestyle they supported lasted only until 1846, when war broke out between Mexico and the United States. At the war’s conclusion in 1848, Mexico signed the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and ceded California, which became a state two years later, to its increasingly powerful northern neighbor.

The first Europeans to explore California extensively by land were the Spanish, and in 1769 Gaspar de Portola led an expedition from Baja California to the San Francisco Peninsula. Members of a scouting party from this expedition, under Jose Ortega, were the first Europeans to gaze on San Francisco Bay, whose opening at the Golden Gate had eluded such 16th and 17th century maritime explorers as Juan Rodrigues Cabrillo, Francis Drake, Sebastian Rodrigues Cermeno, and Sebastian Vizcaino. Residents of the Bay’s east shore, the Ohlone Indians, met the Spanish with a combination of hostility and fear, but contact continued over the next few years, as more of the East Bay was explored. Native Americans, who had been here for thousands of years, lived in thatched houses framed with willow wood, depended on hunting and gathering for survival, and organized themselves into various towns and nations. It is estimated that 10,000 native people lived in the Bay Area when the Spanish arrived.

In 1776 the Spanish established their first mission in the Bay Area, Mission San Francisco de Assis (now called Mission Dolores) and built the Presidio of San Francisco. More missions and settlements soon followed, including Mission Santa Clara and Mission San Jose, and the Spanish began converting the Indians to Christianity and moving them onto the missions, where their freedom was curtailed. Resistance to the mission system came from some groups of native people who refused to give up their centuries-old way of life, but their efforts were overcome by Spanish military action, along with European diseases such as measles and small pox. (A cemetery near Mission San Jose holds 4000 Indian dead, the result of a 10-year epidemic. In 1971, descendants of the Ohlone people incorporated as the Ohlone Indian Tribe and received title to the cemetery.)

A reconstructed Coast Miwok village at Coyote Hills Regional park provides educational opportunities for visitors of all ages.

The dismantling of the Spanish mission system in the 1830s did nothing to improve conditions for the remaining native people; instead many of them became serfs and slaves on the new Mexican ranchos. When the cry of “Gold!” echoed from the Sierra foothills in 1848, what had been a trickle of immigration to California from the United States and other countries turned into a flood. During the Gold Rush, newcomers used dubious means to seize many of the ranchos, and then relied on Indians serfs and slaves to work the land. When California entered the Union in 1850, the California legislature initially denied its native people citizenship.

Despite hardship, disease, and efforts to exterminate them, the East Bay’s Indians clung to their cultural and spiritual values, and today Ohlone descendants work to keep alive their history, culture, religion, and language. You can learn more about this fascinating aspect of the East Bay by visiting Coyote Hills Regional Park, where there are displays, information, and interpretive programs about the Ohlone people, some presented by Ohlone descendants themselves.

East Bay Regional Park District

The agency responsible for overseeing most of the open space in the East Bay is the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD), governed by a publicly elected board of directors and headquartered in Oakland. With more than 95,000 acres of land under its jurisdiction, EBRPD administers 65 regional parklands and about 1150 miles of trails, including 29 regional inter-park trails. This extensive network of parks and trails, which has put regional park areas within 15 to 30 minutes of each and every resident of Alameda and Contra Costa County, had its genesis in 1928, when the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) completed its consolidation of local water systems and declared surplus approximately 10,000 acres of former watershed land.

But the true beginning of the regional park system goes back another 60 years or so, to a suggestion by Frederick Law Olmsted, famed designer of New York’s Central Park, that “scenic lanes” be constructed in the Oakland and Berkeley Hills. In the years following the Civil War, however, the Bay Area was experiencing rapid growth, and Olmsted’s was an idea whose time had not yet come. After the turn of the century, two prominent city planners, Charles Mulford Robinson and Werner Hegemann, each called for the creation of East Bay parklands, but they too were ignored.

It took the threat of development—EBMUD’s 10,000 acres were up for grabs—to get the ball rolling. Prominent citizens like Robert Sibley, executive manager of the University of California Alumni Association, joined with outdoor groups like the Sierra Club to petition EBMUD to preserve its surplus land and open it to the public for recreation, but the District refused. In 1930, the landscape architecture firm Olmsted Brothers—run by the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted—and Ansel F. Hall of the National Park Service were hired to produce a survey of possible East Bay parks. Their 41-page report was far-sighted: It emphasized preserving easily accessible land for a variety of uses.

The Miwok Trail at Round Valley Regional Preserve traverses oak-studded hillsides where wildflowers bloom.

Supporters of parklands, now banded together in the East Bay Regional Park Association, used the Olmsted-Hall report to again petition EBMUD to open its surplus lands. When the District declined, the East Bay Regional Park Association called for the formation of a regional park district, unprecedented at the time, to include parklands in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. State Assemblyman Frank K. Mott, a former mayor of Oakland, drafted AB 1114, which was passed and signed into law in 1933, to authorizing the establishment in California of regional park districts, a new concept.

The next step, under California law, was to get approval from the voters in nine East Bay cities—Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Emeryville, Oakland, Piedmont, Richmond, and San Leandro—who would have to pay for the new parks. In response, some 14,000 people signed an initiative petition placing a measure on the November 1934 ballot to approve an East Bay Regional Park District, elect its board, and assess property owners five cents per $100, not an inconsiderable sum during the Depression, to pay for it all.

Now the plan hit a roadblock: the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors decided against sanctioning the initiative, causing the cities of El Cerrito and Richmond to withdraw from the proposed district. The Supervisors were responding to concerns of farmers in the mostly rural county who did not see the need for additional taxes to acquire parklands when there was plenty of remaining open space at their doorsteps. The Supervisors were also concerned about taking too much land off the tax rolls, and there was sentiment in the county against creating a new tax-and-spend agency with broad powers. So voters in the remaining seven cities—all in Alameda County—would have to support the initiative on their own. (It was not until 1964 that most of Contra Costa County was annexed to the East Bay Regional Park District, and it was in 1981 that the remaining part of the county joined.)

Although it was approved by a more than two-to-one majority, the East Bay Regional Park District still had no land, and it took more than a year and a half of negotiating with EBMUD to make the first purchase. But on October 18, 1936, opening ceremonies were held to dedicate three new regional parks: Wildcat Canyon (now Tilden Regional Park), Roundtop (now Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve), and Lake Temescal. New Deal agencies—the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the Public Works Administration (PWA)—contributed money and workers to the District for projects that included the construction of parts of Skyline Blvd. and the administration building at Lake Temescal.

Next came the acquisition of Redwood Regional Park in 1939, and after World War II, Grass Valley (now Anthony Chabot Regional Park) in 1952. The 1960s brought a tremendous increase in EBRPD land acquisition under the leadership of William Penn Mott, Jr., including Briones and Coyote Hills regional parks, and Las Trampas and Sunol wildernesses. Mott, a former Oakland Superintendent of Parks, was the District’s general manager from 1962 to 1967, and later went on to become director of California’s Department of Parks and Recreation and then head of the National Park Service. Mott Peak in Briones Regional Park is named in his honor.

Attention turned in the 1970s to the shores of San Francisco Bay, which were losing open space and salt-marsh habitat at an alarming rate. The District responded by acquiring land for Point Pinole, Miller/Knox, Hayward, San Leandro Bay (now Martin Luther King, Jr.), and other regional shorelines. At the same time, inland parks such as Mission Peak, Morgan Territory, and Black Diamond Mines regional preserves were being developed. A system of regional inter-park trails, including the East Bay Skyline National Recreation Trail, was conceived at this time; many of the trails are in place now, with more to be developed in the years to come.

The twenty-first century will undoubtedly see a steady increase in the East Bay’s population, along with an increased demand for accessible outdoor recreation. Future District plans call for continued parkland acquisition and the improvement of existing park facilities. Other priorities include working to complete the planning of Eastshore State Park, creation of an environmental education camp for students at Arroyo Del Valle, and the continued development of programs to increase public awareness of the regional parks system.

Comfort, Safety, and Etiquette

Most of the trips in this book can be enjoyed with a minimum of preparation and equipment, calling for nothing more than sturdy footwear and plenty of water. Probably the biggest safety concern is driving around the Bay Area. And trail etiquette means simply being considerate of others and picking up after yourself (and your pet). However, the more detailed information that follows may enhance your outdoor experience.

Preparation and Equipment

A little common sense goes a long way when preparing for the outdoors. Be realistic about your level of physical conditioning—there are trips in this book to suit all abilities. None of the routes require anything more complicated than putting one foot in front of the other. Some, however, require you to do this for several hours or more, uphill and down. In addition to terrain, weather conditions such as heat, cold, and wind, can affect individual performance.

Although hiking is a “low-tech” sport, requiring little in the way of equipment, a pair of sturdy, well-fitting boots will increase your enjoyment and help prevent sore feet and mishaps like a fall or a twisted ankle. Today’s boots, many of them made of a combination of leather and synthetic materials, are designed more like running shoes—lightweight, flexible, yet supportive. Some models are lined with Gore-Tex, making them waterproof and breathable. Second only to boots in importance, socks are your next line of defense against sore feet and blisters. Use socks made only of synthetics or wool. Cotton socks retain moisture and will almost certainly give you blisters.

The East Bay climate is, for the most part, benign, so hiking here requires little in the way of specialized clothing. Whatever you wear should be comfortable and offer protection from the sun and hazards such as ticks and poison oak. Lightweight long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, combined with a hat, give the best protection. Avoid cotton: it retains moisture next to your skin and is slow to dry. The biggest challenge is coping with changing conditions. By carrying several layers—a lightweight pile vest and a waterproof/breathable jacket, for example—you can be prepared for sudden changes in the weather, such as wind, fog, and rain. Stashing a pair of lightweight gloves and an insulating headband in your pack is a good idea too.

Other items to take along include plenty of water, snacks, sunglasses, sunscreen, insect repellent, map and compass, flashlight, knife, and basic first-aid supplies. Many hikers use a walking stick, or trekking pole, for stability and comfort. Binoculars, a hand-lens for plant study, and a pad and pencil are also useful. Try leaving your heavy field guides at home and instead make notes and sketches of birds or flowers you wish to identify. Please do not collect plant or flower specimens.

Maps

The East Bay Regional Park District has maps available at its trailheads, by mail, and from its website. A trail map of Mt. Diablo State Park is available at the park’s visitor centers and from the Mt. Diablo Interpretive Association. EBMUD has downloadable maps on its website. A map of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge is available at the refuge visitor center. Walnut Creek Open Space & Trails Division has a downloadable map of Lime Ridge Open Space on its website.

There are two Olmsted maps for the East Bay, available at REI stores. The Northern Section map covers Tilden, Wildcat Canyon, and Briones regional parks, and EBMUD lands around San Pablo, Briones, and Lafayette reservoirs. The Central Section map covers Redwood and Anthony Chabot regional parks, Las Trampas Wilderness, Sibley and Huckleberry regional preserves, and EBMUD lands in the Upper San Leandro reservoir watershed.

Getting to the trailhead requires some navigation too. The California State Automobile Association (CSAA) gives its members free road maps. Most useful for the routes in this book is San Francisco Bay in the California Regional Series. The Thomas Guide’s Metropolitan Bay Area Street Guide and Directory is helpful for driving around the East Bay.

Transit Outdoors is a project of the Bay Area Open Space Council. The following address takes you to a web page devoted to accessing Bay Area parklands by public transit: http://maps.openspacecouncil.org/Outdoors.

Special Hazards

Most of the trails in the East Bay are clearly marked, and anyone with a map and basic map-reading skills will probably not get lost. Still, there are times when you get confused, make a wrong turn, or head off the beaten track to explore and lose your way. If this happens, don’t panic. Backtrack to the last point where you are sure of your position. Use map and compass, if you have them, to establish your position by sighting on identifiable landmarks. Altimeters are very useful if you have a map with elevation lines. A GPS (Global Positioning System) device may also be useful, but only if you have programmed the route in advance. Also, GPS devices vary in their ability to record an accurate position if the view skyward is obstructed.

Poison oak is a common Bay Area plant that comes in three forms—herb, shrub, and vine. Contact with any part of the plant produces an itchy rash in allergic individuals. “Leaflets three, let it be,” is the rule. In fall the shrub’s leaves turn yellow and red, adding color to the woods. In winter, upward-reaching clusters of bare branches identify the plant. Avoid contact with poison oak by staying on the trail and wearing protective clothing. Wash anything that touches poison oak—clothing, pets—in soap and water.

Poison oak is a common trailside plant: Leaflets three, let it be!

Ticks cause a variety of illnesses, but in recent years most attention has been focused on Lyme disease, which is produced by bacteria carried in our area by western black-legged ticks. These tiny insects are almost invisible, and often the victim doesn’t know he or she has been bitten. Sometimes a “bull’s-eye” rash appears, and the victim has flu-like symptoms. The best prevention against tick bites is to wear protective clothing, with pant legs tucked into socks and shirt tucked into pants, and stay on the trail. You can also treat clothing with a spray containing Permethrin, available at outdoor stores. When you return from your trip, shake out and brush all clothing, boots, packs, etc., before bringing them indoors. Shower immediately after hiking and check your body for ticks.

If you find an attached tick, remove it at once with small tweezers by grasping the tick’s head as close to your skin as possible and using a gentle, rotational motion to pull it out. Be careful not to squeeze the tick’s body, as that might cause it to inject bacteria into you. Wash the bite area and apply antiseptic; call your doctor. Latest research indicates that a single dose of doxycycline 200 mg, given within 72 hours of a tick bite, is effective in preventing Lyme disease.

Another animal of concern in the East Bay is the western rattlesnake. Despite their fearsome reputation, rattlesnakes are shy creatures, preferring flight over fight, and they attack only when provoked, either intentionally or accidentally. If you do hear a rattling sound, stand still until you have located the snake, and then back slowly away. Protective clothing and boot material may absorb venom if the snake succeeds in biting. Prevention includes staying on the trail, wearing high-top boots and long pants, and not putting hands or feet anywhere beyond your vision. If you are bitten, seek medical attention as quickly and effortlessly as possible, to avoid spreading the venom.

Mountain lions, though present in the East Bay, are rarely seen. However, sightings have been reported even from parks close to urban areas. These nocturnal hunters feed mostly on deer. If you do encounter a mountain lion, experts advise standing your ground, making loud noises, waving your arms to appear larger, and fighting back if attacked. Above all, never run. Report all mountain lion sightings to park personnel.

Trail Etiquette

The trails of the East Bay are shared by hikers, bicyclists, equestrians, joggers, dog-walkers, parents pushing strollers, and, where paved, in-line skaters. In many parks, cows use them too. Bicyclists can generally ride on all dirt roads that are open for hiking, but are not allowed on single-track trails, with a few exceptions. (Bicycles are not allowed on EBMUD lands.) Most trails open to hiking, including single-track trails, are also open to horses, although some are for hiking only. Hikers who see or hear horseback riders approaching should give them the right of way by stepping off the trail, remaining quiet, and waiting for them to pass. Bicyclists should slow down and call out when approaching people, and dismount when near horses. Whenever possible, if a route described in this guide has a segment closed to bicycles, alternate trails are suggested.

The common injunction to “leave only foot prints, take only photographs” is a good one to follow. Nothing you leave behind improves the environment, and it is easy to pack out your trash (and other people’s too, if you see some on the trail and have room in your pack). Similarly, everything you take, such as plants or wildflowers, detracts from nature’s beauty and other people’s enjoyment of the parks. The practice of cutting switchbacks causes erosion and damage to the trails, and gains you little in terms of time or effort saved.

Leashed dogs are welcome at many East Bay parks. See Appendix 1 for trips that don’t allow dogs.

East Bay parklands are at high risk for fire, especially in the fall when grasses that carpet the hills have dried out and summer’s cooling blanket of fog has retreated off shore. Although lightning-caused wild fires are part of the natural cycle and play an important role in maintaining the health of certain ecosystems, fires caused by human carelessness should be prevented. Each jurisdiction has its own rules about when and where fires are permitted; if you plan to have a barbecue or camp fire, obey the rules and use extreme caution. If you must smoke, do so only when stopped and never while walking. Pack out your butts. Smoking is prohibited in Mt. Diablo State Park and on EBMUD lands.

Each jurisdiction has its own rules about dogs. Where permitted at all, dogs must be leashed when in developed areas such as parking lots and picnic sites, and under voice command at all other times. Dogs frighten and chase wildlife; they may also frighten people who do not want to be approached by an unfamiliar animal. Carry plastic bags to clean up after your dog, and dispose of the waste in a garbage can. For a list of trails on which dogs are prohibited, see Appendix 1.

Cattle graze in many of the East Bay parklands. As you hike in parks where cattle graze, you will pass through many gates designed to keep them in or out of certain areas. Close all gates as instructed by signs; leave others in the position you found them.

Using This Book

The trips in this book are organized in eight chapters, with each chapter covering a specific area of the East Bay. Chapter 1, Bayside, includes trips along the shores of San Francisco and San Pablo bays. From there, the chapters (and trips) proceed roughly west to east and north to south, ending with the Livermore area. Thus the book reflects geography, and parklands that are neighbors will be found on neighboring pages. (Appendix 1 is a selection of highly recommended trips.)

Information about length, time, and difficulty, along with a summary of the trip and its highlights, is presented at the start of each route description. Also here is information about fees, trail use, and the facilities available. Driving directions are given from the closest major roadway or roadways, and include the location of the trailhead in relation to where you park your car. Car-shuttle trips have travel directions to both trailheads. Remember to check park hours, usually posted at the entrance, and make sure you can return before the parking-area gates close.

The following is an explanation of the terms used at the start of each route description.

Length: An estimate of the total mileage of the trip, exactly as described. Mileages for out-and-back trips include both the outbound and return legs.

Time: An estimate of the time it takes an average hiker to complete the trip, including stops along the way.

Rating: A subjective evaluation based on distance, total elevation gain/loss, and terrain. Here is an explanation of the four categories:

Easy. Short trips with little or no elevation gain.

Moderate. Trips of several hours or more, with some ups and downs but no significant elevation changes.

Difficult. Extended trips with significant elevation changes.

Very Difficult. The longest, most rigorous trips in this book.

Regulations: The agency or agencies having jurisdiction over the route as described, along with information about fees and trail use. A listing of agencies, along with the abbreviations used in this book, is in Appendix 3.

Within each route description, the steepness, or grade, of various sections is indicated by the terms gentle, moderate, and steep. For uphill travel, a gentle grade is one that can be walked without much effort by someone who is reasonably fit. A moderate grade may cause you to slow your pace somewhat, but should not interrupt the flow of the hike. A steep grade involves a slow, steady pace, much huffing and puffing, and perhaps rest stops. For downhill travel, a gentle grade means easy walking, while moderate and steep descents require an increasing amount of caution, especially over rough terrain such as loose dirt or gravel.

Most of the trips in this book are loops or semi-loops (a loop with a significant out-and-back section.) The rest of the trips fall into two categories: out-and-back and point-to-point. Trips which are point-to-point, such as the Ohlone Wilderness Regional Trail, segments of the East Bay Skyline National Recreation Trail, and the Ramage Peak hike, involve a car shuttle; this is noted and explained in the Directions section of the route description. The few out-and-back routes either have no loop possibility, or none that is worth pursuing.

Alameda-Contra Costa Transit (AC Transit) runs buses to some of the parklands in the East Bay; these buses often connect to Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) stations. If you plan to use public transit, it is best to check current AC Transit (www.actransit.org) and BART (www.bart.gov) schedules for routes, days of operation, and frequency of trains and buses. The Bay Area Travelers Information System phone number is (510) 817-1717.