Day 1: San Carlos to Palo Alto

Sunrise over iconic Redwood City Car Wash

Day 1: San Carlos to Palo Alto

April 10th, 2017

12.04 miles in 6 hours and 56 minutes

Today I started to hike the Bay Trail that circumnavigates the San Francisco Bay.  I hiked from Cordilleras Creek between San Carlos and Redwood City to San Francisquito Creek at the bridge that crosses over from East Palo Alto to Palo Alto.  Bair Island is where I first got close to the bay.  This is a series of federally restored tidal marsh islands separated by sloughs that were at low tide at 7 AM.

Map of Bair Island, part of Don Edwards National Wildlife Preserve

Bair Island at Low Tide

In between these two creeks sits Facebook on its former Sun Microsystems campus, a campus of Google-colored buildings sticking out into the bay where CA 84 starts to cross the Dumbarton Bridge. As I walked by Facebook on this sunny pleasant day, I was grateful I was the one with the privilege to be out walking in the world of nature.  I find it a good remedy for the world social media has plunged us into.

Walking gives me time to think like nothing else.  And this stretch of the bay is the most fraught with memories for me, having raised 3 sons within the 12 miles of this walk.  Today I hiked across the range of the Sequoia Union High School District, a place with many Dangerous Minds.  I got off the Bay Trail at the bridge over the San Francisquito Creek, where I will start tomorrow morning.

Accounting:

• Starbucks Decaf Coffee                                  2.95
• Starbucks Decaf Iced Americano                          3.95
• Frozen Chocolate and Ice Cream on a Stick               3.00
• SamTrans Bus down University to Caltrain                2.25
• Caltrain Zone 3 to 2                                    5.75
• Uber Eats delivery at night                           (15.75)

    Balance                                                 2.75

Kombucha of The Day -- fermented TJ Strawberry Lemonade

Voice Notes:

First sight on this hike is the AA meeting filling up at 10 to 7

In Sunday school I learned that when life gives you an opportunity you would be wise to take it.

Tide is going out at 7:21 at Bair Island.

This being the first day of this bay circumnavigation I was able to walk out my front door to start the hike.

Writers are people who don't want to bore their friends and family with everything they have to say.

The Cargill salt ponds always felt industrial not natural and somehow brings on images of a server farm.

I did not revisit the places where I actually walked on Seaport. But now I am revisiting the walk from Starbucks to Accom Inc. In the shadow of Facebook nowadays.

Skipjack tuna egg basil and lettuce salad flavored with a little balsamic

Strawberry lemonade kombucha at the end of the day

I crossed into Palo Alto only at the very end over the San Francisquito Creek to look at the new municipal golf course done in natural style