Wetlands View, Napa - Bay Trail - Aug. 19, 2010

Walking Distance: 2.5 miles
Walking Time: Time: 1 hr., 35 min. (1:25 - 3:00 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Wetlands View, Napa River and Bay Trail, City of American Canyon, Parking Lot, American Canyon, CA

Part of the fun of walking a large trail like the Bay Trail is that there are additions and changes constantly underway. Today's walk took place on a wonderful new stretch of trail that extended (from a parking lot at the end of Eucalyptus) out to the Napa River.

The new trail was located in the gray area on the map shown at right; and it was not yet in existence when this Bay Trail map was created. My understanding is, in the future, new segments of trail (also not shown) will join other segments further north.

This new area was beautiful. After walking along rural highways and grapevines (as beautiful as they can be) for the past few months, I was delighted to walk near the water again. And there was a great deal of wildlife to see on this walk.

In addition to areas of water (ponds, Napa River - Bay),  interesting sights included: lots of large birds, including some white pelicans, hawks, and vultures; some large agave (century) plants in bloom (pictured at right); and a boat that had apparently worked its way loose of its moorings and washed ashore (also pictured, right). We also saw a colorful lizard (with some blue coloring) on a tree (bottom right).

I had too many photos from this walk to post here, which is usually a nice problem to have.

Thank you to Margaret and Albert for joining me on today's walk, and to Johnny and Tony who gave us some additional helpful information on the new trail as we walked in.

Wildlife Sightings:
7 butterflies (5 white, 2 yellow and black); 5 snowy egrets; 3 hawks; 6 turkey vultures; 3 lizards; 36 red-winged blackbirds; 24 little brown jobs (LBJs); 1 ground squirrel; 9 dragonflies; 2 great egrets; 6 swallows; 2 killdeer; 4 unidentified brownish shorebirds (UBBs); 2 white pelicans; 15 ducks; 20+ sheep (in distance - "mowing" grass). 

Imola, Freeway Dr., Napa - July 14, 2010

Walking Distance: 3.7 miles
Walking Time: 1 hr., 49 min. (5:41 - 7:30 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Parking lot, shopping center at Imola and Jefferson, Napa, CA

This evening I walked from the end of Old Sonoma Road to Freeway Drive (frontage road), and then Imola (aka 121 on this map) across the Maxwell Bridge over the Napa River. When I reached Gasser Drive, I turned around and walked over the bridge and back toward my car. After walking on rural roads and freeways, past pastures and vineyards, this past month, it was great to see some real water again. The Maxwell Bridge is quite massive and yielded a good view of the river and surrounding areas, including a bit of trail by the river I remember walking before.

Most of the birds and wildlife I spotted on this walk were closer
to the river, but there were still interesting things to see during the
rest of the walk. For example, I passed a bakery with nice, sweet smelling white roses (and a statue of a saint). And even a freeway underpass can be interesting occasionally for taking photos. Thankfully, about mid-way during this walk there were some stores where I could purchase some things to eat and drink. It was "only" 90 degrees, but it felt hot.

Wildlife Sightings:
1 white butterfly; 1 rusty screw; 5 little brown jobs (LBJs); 2 ducks flying over Napa River; 2 swallows; 1 dove; 5 Canada geese; and 1 pigeon.

Napa River Trail - JFK Memorial Park - June 17, 2010

Walking Distance: 3.6 miles (estimate)
Walking Time: 2 hrs., 7 min. total
1.) 1 hr., 31 min. (3:22 - 4:53 p.m.)
2.) 36 min. (5:00 - 5:36 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Two different parking spots (1 north end, 1 south end) of Parking lot, JFK Memorial Park, Napa, CA

On the trail at last, after taking a few minutes to find where we were going. This trail appears to end in the middle of this stretch of trail. If you're walking from north to south, be persistent and you'll find it continues south of the boat launching area. Thank you to Margaret and Albert for joining me on this walk. We had a few lizards dart away from us into the dry grass on the edge of the trail; most of the other wildlife consisted of birds, particularly red-winged blackbirds and swallows.

There were some interesting, picture-worthy clouds today. And there was enough open space by the park and river to capture some interesting cloud pictures. We passed a remote-controlled plane flying area; and a ball field. It was interesting to see a BMX biking/racing area at the southern end of this trail by the golf course. While the BMX course was closed when we walked by, the dirt hills and other features were visible through the wire fence.

We also passed a tree (shown) by the river that was loaded down with more pine cones than any other tree I remember seeing before.  Although it's hard to see the cones in this tiny picture. Maybe it was just the species of tree.

Albert (dog pictured at right) was a great bay trail walker.

Wildlife Sightings:
13 little brown jobs (LBJs); 22 red-winged blackbirds; 8 pigeons; 49 swallows; 15 white butterflies; 4 crows; 3 ducks; 2 mockingbirds; 3 lizards

Downtown Napa, Napa River - June 17, 2010

Walking Distance: 1.9 miles
Walking Time: 1 hr., 1 min. (2:00 - 3:01 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Parking Garage, downtown Napa, CA

Thank you to Margaret and Albert for joining me today. Despite
some confusion about recent changes in the downtown Napa River landscape, and a question about whether those changes were reflected in the Bay Trail map, it was interesting to see the new buildings and new concrete pathway along the Napa River. 

After having a light lunch (at the Sweetie Pie Bakery on Main Street), we walked north along the river, under the 3rd Street bridge (I think); however, we were apparently going too far north to intersect with the Bay Trail on our maps.

So, we walked back (south) to the parking garage (near Main St. and 5th St.) and drove south on Highway 121 (past the Maxwell Bridge) a mile or so to Streblow Road and JFK Memorial Park, to walk a longer stretch of trail that followed the Napa River. (See next entry for June 17, 2010.)



Fortunately, even with the construction along the river this past year, the duck population down by the river banks seemed pretty healthy, with an impressive number of ducklings as well.

Wildlife Sightings:
40 swallows; 59 ducks (including 10 ducklings); 2 crows; and 1 sea gull.