April 11th, 2017
12.01 miles in 7 hours and 45 minutes
I started the day by Ubering back to the place in East Palo Alto where the Bay Trail crosses the San Francisquito Creek. I had a solo Uber Pool so I gave the difference to the driver as a tip.
The bayside portion of Palo Alto was drastically altered by man. The mouth of the San Francisquito Creek was moved a mile south to combine with the Mayfield Slough before entering the bay. A golf course and airport were plunked down on the tidal marsh, and a harbor as well which was eventually shut down because of the expense in continually dredging the outlet.
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| Palo Alto Airport |
Today I walked past landfill parks for Palo Alto (Byxbee Park), Mountain View (Shoreline Park), and finally Sunnyvale. The Sunnyvale landfill hill was covered by goats mowing the preternaturally long grass growing on the hill. Standing and facing hundreds of goats gave me a feel for their shared goatness.
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| Goats mowing Sunnyvale's landfill hill |
The most famous of the landfill hills is under the Shoreline Amphitheater. People seated on the lawn for concerts early on learned how to ignite the methane leaking out of the heap with their lighters. Must have been a trippy experience for those DeadHeads.
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| A Long Way From Shoreline |
The most striking vista of the day was seeing Moffett Field from far enough out in the bay (the route below might not show this, because the app auto-pauses even though that feature is disabled). The giant blimp hangers and wind tunnels, sitting on land leased to Google for 99 years. I used to be concerned about that company, given their air base, their international espionage system, and their warm water port, but the election instantly switched me to gratitude they are in California.
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| Moffett Field |
After Moffett Field is Lockheed Martin, the dominant defense contractor in the US, operating with as much secrecy as the government itself.
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| View of Lockheed Martin from the Bay Trail |
Then it was a nice and convenient three block walk to the VTA to start my trip home.
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| Borreaga VTA Stop |
Accounting:
Starting Balance 2.75
- Uber Ride to Start 12.99
- Bagel and Coffee at Shoreline Cafe 8.00
- VTA Light Rail Borreaga to Mt. View 2.00
- Caltrain Mt. View to RWC 5.75
- SamTrans ECR 2.25
- Uber Eats delivery plus free undelivered meal. (60.00)
Balance (26.26)
Kombucha of the Day -- fermented TJ Mango Lemonade
Kombucha of the Day -- fermented TJ Mango Lemonade
Voice Notes:
I've lived here since 1989 and I've never truly appreciated the beauty of the bay. You just have to get away from 101 or 880 and walk near the shore.
Birds are well adapted to living in a tidal marsh area especially ones who can float because they can just fly away when the mud becomes too much.
The bay makes me appreciate space and how it can separate things, allow for views because of the curvature of the earth, separate municipal garbage and sewage facilities from restored wetlands by nothing more than space.
What made America great? The constitution, huddled masses yearning to be free, the appropriation of native lands that were depopulated by smallpox, and the exploitation of African slaves.
Watching Waymo go by it seems to me the Chinese have figured out how to hybridize their own culture with Silicon Valley.
Golf never stuck with me even though I learned how to swing a driver once or twice.
Looking at the airbase I marvel at how technology has changed this place including the radars invented in San Carlos.
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