Day 4: Milpitas to Newark

Day 4: Milpitas to Newark

April 13th, 2017

13.15 miles in 6 hours 25 minutes

The green hills of Fremont are an impressive background to this part of the Bay Trail, mostly preserved as open space.  I got off the VTA Light Rail in Milpitas where it crosses 880 and took an Uber back to the trail at Dixon Landing and Fremont Blvd.

Green hills of Fremont behind Tesla

A lot of the trail was on sidewalks through Fremont today, and my feet could tell the difference.  After a while if there was a choice between an unfinished dirt trail on one side of the road and a concrete surface, I'd opt for the dirt.  At one point I explored the Warm Springs Trail of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, but after a mile of walking out into the bay I found the way blocked by a sign (for wildlife purposes).  From now I on I will trust the Bay Trail map when it comes to incomplete parts of the trail.

Canadian Geese getting off the Bay Trail

Canadian geese have a lot of attitude on the trail, slow to move out of the way, complaining all the time that you are making them fly a few yards to land in water instead of being able to stand in the middle of the trail.

And the generic wild rabbit can be seen quite often.  Once I was walking the trail behind a rabbit who was hopping down the edge of a wetland on the other side of a fence.  At first they didn't run away, just kept ahead of me a few paces, making sure I never got to close.  When they finally reached an uncrossable ditch on that side of the fence, they turned around and bolted past me at full rabbit speed.  Impressive thing to see.

I posted this to Instagram to make some fun of some other surprising animals that live in the bay, wording it in the style of an informative sign at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.  I hope they didn't take offense.

At the end of the day in Newark I happened upon a bus stop that took me to Union City BART where I got on the Dumbarton Bridge Express to the Palo Alto Caltrain.  Then to save myself walking home from the Redwood City Caltrain I took the Samtrans ECR (El Camino Real) bus, a great way to whisk down the street back home.

Day 4:  Milpitas to Newark

Accounting: 

    Starting Balance                                       23.41

• Circle-K Decaf Coffee.                                  2.00
• Caltrain Zone 2 to 3                                    5.75
• VTA Mt. View to I-880 Station                           2.00
• Uber Pool plus Tip                                     10.36
• ACA Transit Bus 200 + Dumbarton Express                 5.00
• Samtrans ECR                                            2.25
• Uber Eats Deliveries (2)                              (12.93)

    Balance                                                33.48

Kombucha of the Day -- Cherry Grape with Tonic

Voice Notes:

In marriage you can spend too much time making sure your partner is happy and too little time worrying about your own happiness.

Started walking at 7:26 AM after writing a blog post which took a Caltrain ride and VTA ride and an Uber ride and then sitting on a base of a power pole for 10 minutes.

Buy: chafing stick, black running boxers, and a new pair of cross training hiking shoes this weekend.

Finally I can tell the difference between walking on a trail versus walking on hard pavement. 

These restored marshlands around the bay are only connected by conduits under trails but I guess that is enough since they would've only been connected by small sloughs otherwise. 

I get it. The San Francisco Bay is an enormous wetland resource fairly unique on the West Coast.

Sister-in-law said she liked my humor. I think that's probably because it's Minnesotan. 

I've seen huge flocks of seagulls and terns and all those small little white flying things (maybe those are terns too). Just like you see pictures before the 1900s, before all the hunting and habitat destruction and DDT.

Was some thought given to the natural lay of the land mimicking it when they designed the landfill hills? Because Milpitas' landfill hill does sort of echo the Don Edwards hills which I don't think are landfill, will find out.

The further I get away from the freeway, closer to water, in nature, the better I feel without effort.

The horde of gnats flying over my head has finally disappeared because I don't know why, wind?

Now I can see the wisdom of a bell tower if you're building a university in the Bay Area that you want to make famous. I can see the Hoover Tower from Fremont easily. As long as one of those landfill hills isn't in the way.

Stopped in the second Marriott that's conveniently next to the Bay Trail. When I go inside a civilized place I feel different, more lazy, wanting peace and serenity.

To see the nature in a cultivated roadside or industrial park planting you have to look at the individual.

Perhaps after the successful tech transfer in my last two startups they each had to let me go to make it their own discovery.

Mulch on clay is much better for walking then a concrete sidewalk.

It looks to be like there would be a lot of demand for Japanese naturally inspired landscaping.