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The single-track trail along the creek looks quite inviting: just wide enough for hiking, with no fallen limbs or nasty briars sticking out, a canopy overhead. It all seems so natural. But Melvin Johnson knows better. As operations coordinator for … Read more
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Trails are the main way we access most of the Bay Area’s diverse and abundant open space. Despite that, it’s easy to forget that trails have to be planned and built by someone. However, for the East Bay Regional Park District, which has over 1,000 miles of trails, this is a full-time job. At places like the newly-opened Brushy Peak Regional Preserve, trail planners must balance people’s desire for access with the needs of native plants and animals.
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The Cosumnes Preserve near I-5 in the Central Valley is a surprising mosaic of flooded rice fields teeming with birds, breached levees creating new forests, and a river reclaiming a landscape.
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Marin County is already home to many spectacular trails for recreational cyclists, hikers, and walkers, but there’s a new trail in the works for commuters—the kind who prefer spokes and sneakers to cars. Designated as one of four communities nationwide … Read more
The East Bay Regional Park District and other parks agencies own and operate an impressive array of shoreline parks in the East Bay. Visit a different one every week, and you’d still be busy for at least four months. Here’s … Read more
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Nearly 200 years of cattle ranching on the Franklin Ridge has left its mark in human history, altered vegetation, and now, the preservation of a critical open space corridor with sweeping views of the North Bay, Delta, and interior East Bay.
60 Hikes Within 60 Miles, by Jane Huber, Menasha Ridge Press, 2004, 260 pages, $15.95 (www.menasharidge.com). Jane Huber offers a welcome guide to hikes within a 60-mile radius of the Bay Area’s bustling hub. Huber’s engaging writing neatly melds … Read more
Point Reyes: The Complete Guide to the National Seashore & Surrounding Area, by Jessica Lage, Wilderness Press, 2004, 250 pages, $15.95 (www.wildernesspress.com). Although visitors to the Point Reyes National Seashore can enjoy the landscape without any particular knowledge of the … Read more
Tom Stienstra’s Bay Area Recreation, by Tom Stienstra, Foghorn Outdoors, 2004, 498 pages, $19.95 (www.foghorn.com). In introducing his newest guide-book, Tom Stienstra writes, “Like many people, at one time I believed there was no place left to go in … Read more
Top Trails: San Francisco Bay Area, by David Weintraub, Wilderness Press, 2004, 294 pages, $13.95 (www.wildernesspress.com). Bay Area day hikers, take note — and take a look at one of the first releases of Wilderness Press’s newest series of trail … Read more
