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Me
San Leandro Marsh
Coyote Point
Beach
Coyote Hills
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 The
San Francisco Bay Trail is a proposed
400-mile
network of trails around the shores of San Francisco Bay. The Bay Trail
runs through the 9 counties that surround the Bay. Over 240 miles of
the
trail have been completed. (See here for Bay Trail General
Facts.) The trails run along the bayshore, salt ponds,
creeks and sloughs, and marshes. The trails are ideal for biking,
walking,
jogging, nature-watching, and other activities. The trails are mostly
flat, so are suitable for people of all physical abilities. The trail
surfaces
range
from gravel roads, dirt levees, to paved landscaped paths. The paved
paths
are suitable for roller skates, baby strollers, and wheelchairs.
The
environments
range
from enormous lonely salt ponds, to popular developed parks, to narrow
paths near busy streets and commercial areas. Wildlife abounds,
particularly
waterfowl. These are excellent places for bird-watching. Ducks, geese,
herons, egrets, pelicans, gulls, marsh hawks, cormorants, and
shorebirds abound in these areas. Two endangered
species make their homes in the pickleweed marshes along the Bay: the
clapper
rail and the salt marsh harvest mouse.
Near the airports, the Bay
Trail
is an ideal area for watching manmade birds land and take off.
Access
to the Bay also makes the shorelines along the Bay Trail popular places
for water sports such as fishing, swimming, and wind surfing. There are
many public parks and recreational facilties along the trail, as well
as
homes, businesses, hotels, restaurants, and stores. The trail can be
used for
travelling
to recreational spots, going to shop or eat, or even commuting to work.
These activities will become even more possible once the entire Bay
Trail
is complete. With the recent public purchase of the
Cargill salt ponds in the South Bay, even more trails are possible.
I've been biking around the
southern Bay Trails. I've taken pictures
of the scenery and made notes on the routes. My goal is to cover the
Bay
Trail from San Francisco International Airport, down the Peninsula,
around
the South Bay, and up the East Bay to Oakland International Airport.
Some
the links below are old ones from my Bay
Area Biking pages. Other pages have been developed for ABAG's
official
Bay Trail web site as "guided
photo tours," with pictures and trail descriptions.
My hope is that
these tours will result in increased awareness, appreciation, and
support
for the Bay Trail. Hopefully, as the Bay Trail brings more people in
contact with the Bay, it will result in more support for preserving and
restoring the Bay itself and its natural resources. Public and private
support is needed to complete the Bay Trail.
Once it is complete and unbroken, it will be one of the nations's truly
great trail systems and will be a treasure for the Bay Area for years
to come.
Here are the Bay Trail
pages I've
developed or am working on, starting from the Peninsula, looping down
through the South Bay, and up the East Bay:
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