Day 1: Bair Island to Coyote Point

Day 1:  Bair Island to Coyote Point
(San Carlos to Burlingame)

Circle The Bay Part 3
April 17th 2018

20.5 miles in 4 hrs 15 mins
(Total:  20.5 miles in 4 hrs 15 mins)

I biked down to the Bay and started my third circumnavigation of it on Wednesday.  The first was an series of Uber rides I gave one day that took me first to the airport, then to Sonoma, then Berkeley, then San Jose, then almost home in Redwood City.  The second was a 374 mile counter-clockwise hiking trek last year that took me 30 days to finish.  The third I'm doing on a bike.

Bair Island and a Trek Bike

The moment I got to the start I got that buzz on my phone that let me know my wholesale lot of swimsuits had been delivered back home.  I realized at that moment I had leveled-up.  Now I was traveling blogger with merchandise to hawk!  And the joke was on me, because I had invested in replica Baywatch swimsuits that I sell through Amazon Fulfillment centers.  Bay watch?  Something I've learned to to do.

As I biked north, following the shoreline around Redwood Shores and Foster City, I got to appreciate how convenient this biking thing was.  And since I'm temporarily sidelined from running (roll your ankle and don't let it rest enough and your tendons have a way of fighting back), the bike felt like a wheelchair, although more like an uncomfortable barstool chair.

But for me it is the perfect to review my trek of a year ago.  And after a year of percolation, I find I've grown new and interesting insights into the bayfront and how it could evolve in the future.

Take Down Powerlines that Disturb the Bay

Power Lines From San Jose to San Francisco

The trail that wraps Redwood Shores crosses twice under this pair of high-voltage transmission lines that transect the bay from San Jose to San Francisco.  As I've said before, these towers are the single biggest aesthetic blotch on the San Francisco Bay, and they kept me from visually appreciating the Bay for a long time.  

Removing these towers could be part of an ecologically friendly transformation to the bay shore communities of Redwood Shores and its neighbor Foster City.  Which they have to get to soon, because the planet is warming and the sea-level is going to rise.

I directed a tweet at Elon Musk's The Boring Company, in hopes he might catalyze a change that would put these power lines under the bay shore in a new BART tunnel from Millbrae to San Jose.   He should be receptive to the idea, given he lost a VP of Engineering to these towers.

I have to give another shout-out to the The Boring Company. When I traversed the US from San Francisco Bay to Hinton Bay to Chesapeake Bay last September, I wrote a paen to the Interstate Freeway System and how it is a true democratizing presence in our lives that ties everyone in the USA together.  I noted the egalitarian bar had been raised pretty high by these freeways, and hoped hypertubes would support this American ideal of unrestrained travel available to all.  In their public pronouncements since then they have done it one better, declaring human-powered travelers would be a bigger priority than fossil-fuel powered travelers.  Keep on digging!

Redwood Shores Lagoon is Supposed to Be A Deep Water Port

And in other old news, I discovered (on a faded placard) the long straight lagoon that is at the center of Redwood Shores was dredged by the federal government at the turn of last century to create a deep water port!  Can you imagine tall ships docking a block from Oracle?  They wouldn't have to keep the sailboat that won the America's Cup on San Francisco Bay propped up like a statue in the middle of a reflective pond.

And what defeated the federal government in their attempt to create this port?  The power lines.  Yes, those power lines.  The tall ships couldn't make it under them, so they abandoned the project.  Maybe Larry Ellison, the billionaire behind Oracle and the American entry to the America's Cup, could be allied with Elon Musk in finishing this project.  Or maybe these are things that should get done without the help of billionaires.  Isn't that the way the USA is supposed to work?

The Redwood Shores Deep Water Port

Where the Power Lines Cross the Entrance to the Port of Redwood Shores

New Bridge between Redwood Shores and Foster City

As an Uber driver, especially delivering for Uber Eats during the dinner rush, I've become acutely aware that an extra lane of traffic is needed on or next to northbound 101 as it crosses from Redwood Shores to Foster City.  The two lane exit for Foster City is always backed up that time of day, and it propagates congestion back onto the freeway, where we all sit wasting time and fuel.  

And the urban planners of last century made provisions for this.   Edgewater Boulevard in Foster City ends on a wide preserved swath of green space that points directly to Island Drive in Redwood Shores.  I think the Bay and these two Bay Shore communities would be better served by having a roadway that links the two of them

Proposed Location of New Bridge Between Foster City and Redwood Shores

There must be a few people who live in Redwood Shores and work for Visa in Foster City that would appreciate this.  I'm sure there will be NIMBY's on both sides of the bridge, but roads and bridges are always built for the greater good, and a lot more people will be convenienced by this bridge (either directly or indirectly) than inconvenienced, and more efficient trips is better for the Bay's environment.

View Towards Island Drive in Redwood Shores from the terminus of Edgewood Boulevard in Foster City

Open Space at the end of Edgewood Boulevard in Foster City

The Flight Path of The San Mateo Bridge

My final musing for this day is on the impressive span of the San Mateo Bridge that arches over the bay (tall enough for those ships on their way to the existing deep water Port of Redwood City).

In the 1930's this bridge was opened without this arch, and relied on a lift bridge in the middle to allow ships to navigate further south in the Bay.  But now when you drive across it, you get lifted up in the air like you're piloting a plane over the Bay.  Now if that "plane"  was autonomous and entirely electric I could view this bridge as the amazing ride it is.  Almost as amazing if it was a freeway in the sky.

Coyote Point

I wrapped up the day at Coyote Point, where I sat and mused on the eroded mountain range that makes up the terrain of the San Francisco Bay.  Interesting to note that Coyote Point is geologically connected with the Coyote Hills on the other side of the Bay.  They are both local mountain tops that have kept their heads above water.  And from this vantage point you can see the sweep of the backbone of the Peninsula connecting with San Bruno Mt. and then the hills of San Francisco and Marin, on up to Mt. Tamalpais.  It's all a beautiful wave of slowly moving rock.

View Toward Twin Peaks from Coyote Point

Homemade Kombucha of The Day

Pineapple Watermelon Kombucha

Voice Notes

I’m a slow learner of things, preferring to find a visceral connection to a subject before I can really become drawn into it.

And example of this is how I got into computers by slavishly copying and recopying notes for my processor design computer class.

To be able to see the bay as a process unifies my cloistered fascination with computers with my newly found or newly extended fascination with nature.

The Bay looks so beautiful and green in the spring.