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.

Our 3 mile neighborhood hike took us to Water Dog Open Space. The park is also known as Hidden Canyon Park. We parked at the Upper Creek Trailhead on Hastings Drive. Our route took us to Finch Trail, Ramber Trail, followed by the Elevator Trail, then Canyon Creek trail back to the trailhead. While the net elevation change could not have been more than 200-300 ft, short stretches of the trail are steep. Rambler skirts the back of San Carlos and Belmont homes and it does feel a little strange walking through someone else back alley. The park appears to be popular with bikers. This park made me feel as if I was elsewhere in California, perhaps because there were no noticeable poison oak.

Another short hike with spectacular view through Laurelwood Park in San Mateo. The park seems to be around Sugarloaf mountain, it is more of a small 400 ft tall hill. Some of the trails are very steep or had very steep sections. We couldn’t find a trail map and used Google maps instead. The total hike was about 2 miles. Starting at the San Juan Canyon fire road, we went up the Gravity trail to Sugarloaf-Spur trail, then all the way to the east point of Sugarloaf peak to gaze at the Bay views, then back to Laurelwood Park trail and down the Saddle trail to Salson trail to San Juan Canyon fire road to complete the loop. We met a few dog walkers but otherwise had the park to ourselves on a weekday.

Eaton Park in San Carlos is a neighborhood miniature open space (~58 acres) and the Eaton Trail is a cute as a button trail with Bay views, tiny stairs, tiny bridges, and benches galore. We clocked about 2 miles and an estimated elevation change of 200 ft. From Loma Road entrance, to Hawk Hill trail to Eaton trail all the way to Brittan Avenue, up back, to 4 Bridges trail to Vista Trail to Canyon View Trail to Eaton trail back to start. It was a weekday and there wasn’t a crowd.