Day 10: Berkeley to Richmond Marina Park

The Hill up to Golden Gate Fields 

Day 10:  Berkeley to Richmond Marina Park

April 25th, 2017

7.53 miles in 5 hours 0 minutes

I started this day walking by Golden Gate Fields, the historical home of Secretariat.  It is also the location of the finish line for the Berkeley Half Marathon.  This half marathon is mostly downhill from downtown Berkeley to the Bay, except they sneak in this hill climb at the very end.

Albany lies between Berkeley and Richmond.  It has some of the most amazing cross-bay views I've seen so far, with a perspective on the Marina and Cow Hollow in San Francisco I haven't seen before.  It took me back to the years I lived on those hills and streets.

San Francisco

I forgot my lunch today, and found this great bayside food shack in the middle of the largest dog park I can imagine in Richmond.  In this canine environment their special was a Tempeh Reuben sandwich (made from soy).  I guess they do that so the dogs don't go crazy for the smell of meat?

The "Sit and Stay" cafe in the Point Isabel dog park

This portion of the Bay Trail is much more heavily used than anything I've encountered since San Carlos.  There is heavy use by bicycle gangs, who unfortunately think of it is as their bike road that shouldn't have any pedestrians on it.  So I end up having to walk on the left side of the trail so I can see oncoming bikers and not be hit by bikers overtaking me, just like walking down a two-lane highway.

And I ran across a naturally pleasing yet humanly planted landscape today.  A volunteer was out weeding the non-native grasses from this protected area, and you can see below the beauty of the result.  There should be such a huge demand for this kind of landscaping in the Bay Area, instead of the mathematically determined layout of most industrial park landscaping.  I'm grateful my middle son has opened my eyes to this, drawing on the lessons of Japanese acquascaping and bonzai gardening.

Cultivation of Native Plants Naturally Arranged in Richmond

It takes almost 3 hours to get back home on BART, then Caltrain, then SamTrans.  Tomorrow I'll start driving for Uber on the way to and from the trail.


Accounting: 

    Starting Balance                                       39.63

• SamTrans ECR to Sequoia Station                         2.05
• Starbucks Tall Decaf and Blueberry Scone                4.80
• Caltrain to Millbrae                                    3.75
• BART to North Berkeley                                  5.30
• Uber to Trail                                           3.99
• BART from Richmond *                                    7.85
• Caltrain to Hillsdale                                   3.75
• SamTrans ECR from Hillsdale                             2.05

    Ending Balance                                         73.17

Kombucha of the Day -- Mimosa

Voice Notes:

The bus on El Camino is really very convenient clean and uncrowded. The great thing is none of the new people in town use it.

Why is it when they paint over graffiti they can never match the wall color.

The feeling of contentment when I'm actually in a new place is oddly matched with a feeling of anxiety before I ever show up there.

The new Salesforce tower and the Transamerica pyramid building and the Zeus like TV radio tower near Twin Peaks — they all complement each other from this view from Albany.

Just heard some bikers complain about someone walking in the middle of the bay trail. 

For me it is the debugging of a preliminary implementation of a design that gives me a visceral and competent understanding of what I'm trying to do.

Staring at the Marina across the bay takes me back to the years living on those hills behind it.

I want to move to the city that I lived in in the 90s.

The portion of the bay trail today is the most complete and most used.