Millbrae - Mar. 3, '12

Walking Distance: 5 miles (estimate)
Walking Time: 2 hrs., 14 min. (8:34 - 10:48 a.m.)
Start and End Point: Public Shore parking spaces (bay side of st.) just north of Burlingame Wastewater Treatment Plant, Burlingame, CA

After parking in a public shore parking space near the trail, I first walked south to the spot where I left off last weekend. After reaching that spot (the City of Burlingame Wastewater Treatment plant), I headed north, passing Bayside Park/Fields (across the street) along the way. I walked to the end of the paved (asphalt) trail (shown as a red line on the Bay Trail map), over a rickety wood "bridge" that was a series of planks laid down on the mud creek bed. This crossing took me to a parking lot, behind some commercial buildings.

I traversed the parking lot, sticking close to the bay, but I didn't get very far before reaching a second creek (north of the Holiday Inn, and Max's restaurant). These little creeks aren't shown on the Bay Trail map.

This area was somewhat passable -- but was shown as a dotted line on the Bay Trail map, indicating that there was not a developed trail currently in place. If you ride your bike through here, I'd stick to (Old) Bayshore Highway all the way through this area.


When I reached this second creek that emptied into the Bay (that wasn't crossable), I walked along the creek back (west) toward (Old) Bayshore Highway (a freeway frontage road). I walked (on a sidewalk) north along Bayshore until I reached the Bay Plaza building, where I was able to turn right and walk through their parking lot to the Bay (Trail).

I continued north, past Fandorin and Benihana restaurants, and crossed a small bridge that was adjacent to the City of Burlingame Shorebird Sanctuary -- which did indeed have a nice selection of ducks, shorebirds, stilts and avocets poking around in the mud, at low tide, looking for food, when I passed by.


There were also a few different hotels that I passed, offering lots of choices for an overnight trip in this area. And I also enjoyed passing an old movie theater (which looked closed).  The design looked like it was from the 1960s, and when it was built it was likely might to look quite modern for the time, with interesting lines and shapes -- i.e., not a tilt-up rectangle. An awning advertised a Caribbean restaurant, but I think that was closed as well. If I passed by here again in another two years this complex might well be gone.


One restaurant that I passed, The Elephant Bar, had a menu that was posted in the back so that it faced the Bay Trail -- very handy for passers-by, who might want to stop for a bite to eat, or something to drink.

I crossed over a second metal bridge, and kept walking, passing through Bayfront Park/parking lot, to the end of the trail -- a small paved loop that ended at the Millbrae Gate.

As the map seemed to indicate a walk up Millbrae Avenue, I turned (west) on Millbrae Ave. (shown as double yellow lines on the map -- indicating it's more of a busy street than a trail; so proceed with caution). I turned around at the Highway 101 interchange, and walked back to Old Bayshore, and then followed the trail back to the car.

On the walk back, I saw four teenagers gawking at a live crab that had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time (too close to passerbys). I hope it made it back to the water.


Wildlife Sightings:
80 tiny unidentified brownish shorebirds (UBBs), 25 small UBBs, 343 medium UBBs, 8 willets; 241 ducks; 1 UFO grebe; 58 sea gulls; 4 crows; 4 snowy egrets, 1 great egret; 7 Western/Clarks grebes; 12 coots; 7 little brown jobs (LBJs); 8 pigeons; 1 dove; 1 black-necked stilt; 96 American avocets; 4 Canada geese; 1 tennis ball; 1 starling; 1 crab

Bayfront Park - Dec. 31, '11

Walking Distance: 3.91 mi.
Walking Time: 2 hrs., 9 min. (9:06 - 11:15 a.m.)
Start and End Point: Public parking area (unpaved) in Bayfront Park, Menlo Park, CA

What a great sunny, crisp morning for a walk on this last day of 2011. And thank you to Laura for joining me on this walk and for providing some great conversation. We walked around the perimeter of Bayfront Park and stopped to talk for a bit, and also walked up the small hill toward the center of the park area.

A few years ago, when I ambled around here (on my first walk around SF Bay), I remember seeing a large number of ground squirrels in Bayfront Park. I also remember reading that these squirrels had been exterminated shortly after that (in a somewhat controversial move). And, consistent with that news -- I saw not one this time. The only small creature that was similar was one small brown mouse who darted out onto the packed dirt trail, briefly in front of us, to look for some food, and then disappeared back into the grass. Good thing for the mouse that there were no birds of prey flying overhead.


After we finished our walk in the park, I continued my walk on a paved (asphalt) bicycle/pedestrian path along Bayfront Expressway/Highway 84 heading east toward the Dumbarton Bridge, and shown as a solid red line on the Bay Trail map. Along the way, I enjoyed seeing the strange, bright colors that accompany areas of accumulated salts -- purples and oranges along with the whites and the blues.

I walked as far as the relatively new Facebook corporate headquarters (old Sun Microsystems campus) at the end of Willow Road and Bayfront Expressway/Highway 84, before turning around and heading back to Bayfront Park where I'd left the car.

Lots of interesting ducks and other birds out this time of year (winter). A few ducks even found good perching spots in the water (on submerged tires).

Wildlife Sightings:
2 killdeer; 1 kite (bird); 51 little brown jobs (LBJs); 24 coots; 15 American avocets; 12 black-necked stilts; 1 mouse; 1 whiffle ball; 1 blackbird; 18 unidentified brownish shorebirds (UBBs); 2 great egrets, 3 snowy egrets; 40 sea gulls; 50 ducks; 6 Canada geese; 2 UFO grebes/divers; 17 pigeons; 7 crows; 1 small cloud of eye-level gnats.

Mill Valley - Jan. 14, 2010

Walking Distance: 2 miles (estimate)
Walking Time: 2 hrs., 7 min. (2:46 - 4:53 p.m. total time)
Start and End Point: near intersection of Miller Ave. and Almonte Blvd., Mill Valley, CA

It was nice to get a bit of sun today, in an otherwise gray weather week.
I followed the Bay Trail along Richardson Bay, where there were lots of
snowy egrets hunting for food in the marsh grass, past the Mill Valley
dog run and skate park, over the wooden bridge and up the hill toward
Tiburon. Nice views of the Bay, new green grass, trees, and Mount Tamalpais. I turned around to walk back before reaching the Highway 101 overpass.

Wildlife Sightings:
27 snowy egrets; 29 crows; 83 ducks; 11 unidentified brownish
shorebirds (inclu. 1 tiny one); 3 black-necked stilts; 25 sea gulls;
4 Canada geese; 3 great egrets; 4 coots; 39 little brown jobs (LBJs);
1 starling; 1 great blue heron; 1 turkey vulture; and 1 whiffleball