Alameda Creek Trail - Nov. 9, '11

Walking Distance: 2.2 miles
Walking Time: 1 hr., 15 min. (4:02 - 5:17 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Parked near Beard Staging Area, Fremont, CA - East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD)

I returned to a segment of Alameda Creek Regional Trail that was closed last month. Happily, it was open today. Thank you to the Alameda Public Works Department who let me know it was open again.

From the Beard Staging Area (end of Beard Road), I walked West on (the south side of) Alameda Creek Trail, under Highway 880 underpass, almost as far as the Alvarado overpass -- where fence had marked closed point previously. I turned around and walked back the same way.

The sun was setting, making it difficult to capture photos that weren't dark and blurry. But, can you recognize this gray blur (bottom right) on the rocks? No, it's not the squirrel. It was one or two gray foxes -- perhaps hunting for ground squirrels. The gray foxes I've seen on my Bay Trail walk have been at dusk, in the south-east portion of the San Francisco Bay. I'm sure they also live elsewhere; but I haven't seen any of their Peninsula or North Bay fox cousins (yet).

Wildlife Sightings:
3 fuzzy caterpillars; 2 crows; 1 black and white cat in creek bed/grass (domestic?); 8 starlings; 2 robins; 8 little brown jobs (LBJs)/finches; 27 Canada geese; 7 sea gulls; 1 hawk/falcon; 2 gray foxes

Alameda Creek Trail - Oct. 16, '11

Walking Distance: .25 mi. + 3.2 mi.
Walking Time: 10 min. + 1 hr., 37 min. (9:26 - 11:03 a.m.)
Start and End Point: Public parking lots 1.) Beard Staging Area; 2.) Parking lot off Eastin (off Union City Blvd., near intersection w/ Lowry); Fremont, CA

This morning I continued my walk along Alameda Creek Regional Trail (shown as two purple lines on the Bay Trail map -- extending east from the Bay), after a brief false start.

I first parked at the Beard Staging Area (parking lot), at the end of Beard Road; and, after walking up to the trail, I almost immediately ran into a fence and a trail closed sign. A trail/levee repair project was apparently running a few days late.  So, I drove further west and re-parked to a location closer to Coyote Hills Regional Park, close to where the official Bay Trail portion (marked with red lines on map) of the Alameda Creek trail is located. This way I could skip over this closed segment, and walk back toward Beard from west to east.

From the East Bay Regional Parks District parking lot (marked with a "P" on map) off Eastin/Union City Boulevard, I walked toward, and then onto, Union City Boulevard (double yellow lines on map), crossing an overpass to the south side of Alameda Creek Trail, and walked east along this paved (asphalt) segment - until I ran into a closed trail sign and fence, marking the west end of this closure. Despite having to turn around, and missing a walk along this short segment, it was still a very nice morning for a walk, punctuated by the honking of low flying Canada geese and the sounds of other birds.


Wildlife Sightings:
3 lizards; 11 pigeons; 9 ducks; 2 great blue herons; 20 white butterflies; 4 fuzzy caterpillars; 1 belted kingfisher; 12 little brown jobs, 2 finches; 33 Canada geese; 3 snowy egrets; 1 dragonfly; 3 blue jays; 2 crows; 3 mockingbirds; 1 turkey vulture; 26 blackbirds/red-winged blackbirds; 1 hawk/kestrel/falcon; 1 true falcon; 17 tiny unidentified brownish shorebirds (UBBs) (sounded a little like killdeers flying off?); 1 lady bug