Locomotoring

I bet it happens to you often enough that you see something for years, but you don’t really see it. The Don Edwards San Francisco National Wildlife Refuge protects the bay marshes, it has a number of trails and locations including Bair Island and Alviso. The trail we have been seeing for two decades is the Ravenswood Point by Dumbarton Bridge near Menlo Park. We finally walked this 3.3 mile trail. It was a morning hike, the sky was clear, the winds were low and the Bay tranquil. The sound from Dumbarton Bridge carries as there are no trees to absorb the sound. The noise isn’t enough to distract, but this trail isn’t a quiet spot. The noise doesn’t seem to distract the birds. By the time you get to the north most point of the trail, the cars sound more like ocean waves. We found someone fishing there. The trail is wide, well maintained, flat and easy to walk on. There were footprints of birds, humans, dogs, bikes and vehicles.

Although unmarked on maps, there is parking on the north side of the bridge closer to where the trail starts (and where the power station is). To complete the loop, one has to walk about a mile on the road next to the power station. At the trail entrance, there was a sign saying that trail is closed during waterfowl hunting season (Oct – Jan) but we took our chances as there were no trail closure advisory in the website. There was a large crew on the west side of the trail engaged in cleaning activities.