April 23, 2010 at 8:55 am · Filed under Hiking Club
Middle Harbor Shoreline Park
We spent a wonderful morning doing a brisk walk from one end to the other end of the lovely Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, located in the middle of the Port of Oakland. This park is a delightful waterfront area that celebrates the long maritime and Naval history of this harbor basin and also is an ongoing project to restore natural habitats and create a refuge for shorebirds.
The views of San Francisco, the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge are spectacular…and today the conditions were perfect! Seeing the container seaport and cargo ships up-close was great fun. With the help of informational boards, we were able to ID some of the birds we saw. Some were year round residents, some Summer visitors and others were Winter visitors.
It is a stellar birding area (bring binoculars). There are lots of places to sit and observe nature and the seaport, and lots of nice picnic tables and open grassy fields for running around and kite-flying. Lots of easy parking and it’s free! This is a great destination for visiting grandkids
Directions from East Bay: 24 to 980 west, towards Oakland; Exit at 11th/12th St. off ramp; Continue straight and turn right at 7th St.; Continue on 7th past Maritime St. to the stoplight at Middle Harbor Rd.; Proceed through the intersection and take the first right turn into the Middle Harbor Shoreline Park parking lot.
April 12, 2010 at 5:50 am · Filed under Hiking Club
Port Costa Hike
Thanks for leading the great hike today Fran. It was good to see so many of our hikers out today enjoying the sunny weather and view from the hill tops. It was fun to walk into the quaint town of Port Costa after our hike too.
Hikers today were Fran, Aleta, Jane, Claudia, Muff, Rose, Lois, Cheryl, Bobbi, Carrie, Joan, and Sharon.
Photos, taken with Jane’s camera, after I forgot everything essential at home. Fran and Aleta took the group photos so except more photos.
Next week Fran and I will be out of town so except an e-mail from Aleta who will be leading the hike.
Happy Trails to you all and see you in a few weeks.
Don’t forget to check out www.thehikeforhope.com. There will be no hike on April 30th but we will be doing the hike on May 1st to raise money for Hope Hospice in Dublin. We would love to have you join us on our hike or appreciate a pledge of support by becoming an “In Spirit” Hiker.
April 5, 2010 at 10:54 am · Filed under Hiking Club
Hiking on Bear Creek Trail
Today Muff, Aleta, Joan, Rose, Fran, Angelika, and Sharon hiked along Brionne’s reservoir on Bear Creek Trail starting at the Bear Creek Staging Area. We hiked to a point on the trail where there was a bench and lookouts on each side with views of the reservoir, making it appear like there was two separate bodies of water. It was an easy 5 mile hike with a lot of interesting fungi and mushrooms in addition to the spring wildflowers. At a resting spot Angelika treated us to a Swiss chocolate treat. YUM. Thank you! The rain fortunately held off until after our hike was over. Thank you for driving today Aleta.
March 31, 2010 at 10:23 am · Filed under Hiking Club
Hiking San Damiano
We had great weather for the hike that began at San Damiano. We began on the loop trail on the retreat center and from there picked up the ridge trail. Since I hiked this trail 2 weeks before, the center has put out new signs directing people to the ridge trail. So if you want to do this hike on your own it is easy to find the ridge trail. Carrie, Joan, Angelika, Barbara, Lois, Sharon, and Bobbie joined me on the hike. The first mile was straight up but we had clear views on the ridge trail. Photogrape arbor with hikers.
March 31, 2010 at 9:08 am · Filed under Hiking Club
North Side if Mt. Diablo Hike
March 26, 2010
We started at Diablo Ranch and ended at the rock that was near Burma Road, about 700 feet above where we started. It was a beautiful day and the wildflowers are abundant this year, especially the poppies. Aleta took at nice group photo of our hike up the north side of Mt. Diablo.
February 24, 2010 at 4:03 pm · Filed under Hiking Club
Recap of Newcomer Hike to Cataract Falls
February 20, 2010, we had a wonderful hike at Cataract Falls, on the slopes of Mt. Tam. Hikers were new member Sondra M., Shirley A., Rose T., Angelika S., Sharon K., and guest Joan D. (soon to be new member)
The creek has benefited from all the recent rains and the multiple cascades were better than I ever witnessed. They plunged down the fern and moss covered slopes. We hiked 1.6 miles up to Laurel Dell starting along Alpine Lake and then continuing through a dense forest of redwoods,, tan-oaks, maple and ferns. There were both stone and wooden steeps that helped with the 800 ft climb.
Our picnic was in a meadow clearing, alongside the creek. Our hike took a total of 5 hours (including 1/2 hour for lunch). We stopped NUMEROUS times for photos of the falls, all sorts of mushroom and fungi, wildflowers including sorrel, western trillium, hounds tongue, milkmaids, and fetid adders-tongue (scoliopus bigelovii). [How could I forget that name, Joan?]
February 3, 2010 at 5:40 am · Filed under Hiking Club
Hiking Little Yosemite Falls in Sunol
Sharon, Aleta, Shirley, Muff and Angelika joined me for the hike to Little Yosemite Falls in Sunol. As you can see I don’t have a photo of the falls but Sharon took some good ones and I know she will be sending them on.
We stopped at Bosco’s in Sunol for lunch to say ’so long for now’ to Jacky as she leaves for southern California. Bobbi and Celia joined us for lunch. Our group photo was taken at the restaurant’s bar with Bosco behind Muff in the picture. We well all miss Jacky and hope she comes back to the area.
January 12, 2010 at 11:12 am · Filed under Hiking Club
Trekking the Wilds with Friends
On the Friday hike, Sharon, Bobbi, Muff, Lois, Angelika, Shirley, Aleta joined me for a vigorous, we believe 6 mile, hike. It was a foggy day so we could not see across the Strait and during the last mile we actually had light drizzle. It was refreshing to be out hiking, getting our grove back for our weekly exercise and catching up with each other. What a wonderful group of women! Its a privilege to help lead the hikes with Sharon.
November 30, 2009 at 8:28 am · Filed under Hiking Club
Hiking Around Lake Chabot
I hope your Thanksgiving was as nice as mine. We enjoyed our Turkey and the works and afterwards my husband and I took a walk out along Finley Rd. It was a beautiful day for a walk.
Here is the recap for our last hike on Nov. 20th. Five of us, Shirley, Aleta, Fran, Angelika, and Sharon hiked around the far side of Lake Chabot. The skies were dark but the rain held off until the very end of our hike.
We saw a lot of birds along the lake including a blue heron, egrets, and swans. We crossed a bridge and continued around the lake until we got to a small dock. We turned around where the trail starts to climb up into the hills. The skies told us it was time to head back to the cars. We hiked for 2 hours.
November 22, 2009 at 5:20 am · Filed under Hiking Club
Hiking Point Pinole
Nov. 13, we had a beautiful day for a hike at Point Pinole. The hike took us along the shoreline for most of the 5/2 mile hike which we accomplished in 2 hr. 15 minutes. Along the way we stopped to see what remained of a large explosive manufacturing industry that was in the once remote area from 1880-1960. We saw sunken bunkers, a black powder press, and a the foundation of a dynamite packing building.
Most of the area has been restored to beautiful marshes where we saw egrets, herons, and shorebirds including sandpipers. The area is home to several endangered shorebirds. A “birder” pointed out two peregrine falcons to us and let us look through her binoculars at them. We only saw one monarch butterfly so we were too early to see them in mass like we did when we went in 2005. We also saw one hummingbird.
There were quite a few fishermen fishing for striped bass on or near the pier.
Hikers were Angelika S., Aleta S., Muff C., Bobbi J., Judie B, and Sharon K. AFterwards we had sandwiches at Kinders in Hercules.
We spent a wonderful morning doing a brisk walk from one end to the other end of the lovely Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, located in the middle of the Port of Oakland. This park is a delightful waterfront area that celebrates the long maritime and Naval history of this harbor basin and also is an ongoing project to restore natural habitats and create a refuge for shorebirds. 
