Circle the Bay: Day 27: Alameda Creek to Coyote Hills

Day 27: Alameda Creek to Coyote Hills
(Union City to Fremont)

Circle The Bay Part 3

November 4th 2018

11.9 miles in 2 hrs 0 mins

(Total: 297.7 miles in 68 hrs 27 mins)

Finally got back on the bike to finish off this year's clock-wise bay trek. It's been almost 4 months since my last day on the trail. Seems I was waiting until I got that bicycle cartop carrier so my wife could join me on this ride. It ended at Coyote Hills Regional Park, a ridge of natural hills at the edge of the bay, unique in that they are not the kind created by dumping garbage.

The hills seem to be the other end of the San Bruno Mountain and Coyote Point ridges on the other side of the bay. They were used for ceremonial purposes by the natives. The miles of wetland between the hills and the open water were converted into salt evaporation ponds. Now these ponds have been somewhat restored with natural water and left to the birds. Thousands of birds, especially little hard-to-identify shorebirds that were loving the mudflats that seem at the moment safe from invasive cordgrass.

We watched them endlessly scurry on the mud searching for food, and periodically jump into the air as a flock and fly to new flats to look for more food. Except there were so many of these flocks there were sometimes mid-air "collisions" of these murmurations.

We "ended" at the parking lot for the park, but still had to bike back to our car. Next time I'm gonna take a Lyft back.