Trestle Glen - Dec. 18, 2012

Walking Distance: 1.4 mi.
Walking Time: 27 min. (4:13 - 4:40 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Blackie's Pasture overflow (packed dirt) parking lot, Tiburon, CA

This afternoon's walk segment, on a beautiful, clear, December day, was a continuation of a previous walk, after a brief break in between.

It's a subject few people talk about (except distance hikers perhaps). Restrooms are an important part of long-distance walking. A big thank you to those who provide and maintain facilities in parks and public spaces. Without this service, bikers and hikers would have to ride or drive miles into town and back. And, today, I wouldn't have had time to walk the last part of Trestle Glen (that connects Tiburon Blvd. with Paradise Drive), if there hadn't been facilities near Blackie's Pasture.

Now, on to the walk...

After admiring a new piece of headgear (a red Boston University ball cap) on the statue of Blackie* (a horse), I followed the asphalt trail toward the intersection of Tiburon Blvd. and Trestle Glen.

After crossing Tiburon Blvd., I hiked up Trestle Glen (the first solid, dark green line is considered part of the official developed Bay Trail, with wider setbacks for pedestrians and cyclists), as far as a white road marker, where I'd left off earlier this afternoon.

I then turned around and walked back down to Blackie's Pasture parking lot to my car, just as the light was fading and the shadows were lengthening. I enjoyed seeing two deer, very close to the spot where I'd spotted a pair of deer on my first walk around the Bay Trail a few years ago. I couldn't help but wonder if these were the same deer.

Wildlife Sightings:
1 green tennis ball; 6 turkey vultures; 2 deer on hill (where I saw a pair a few years ago); 2 robins; 2 little brown jobs (LBJs)

*Mysterious hats, scarves, bandanas and other gifts of clothing tend to show up on Blackie, a beloved local horse who left this world several years back.

Paradise Drive - Dec. 18, 2012

Walking Distance: 2.4 mi.
Walking Time: 1 hr., 1 min. (3:05 - 4:06 p.m.)
Start and End Point: dirt pull-out area, near 4220 Paradise Drive, Tiburon, CA

This afternoon I continued walking on Paradise Drive and Trestle Glen on the Tiburon peninsula. Paradise Drive, a winding road with narrow setbacks, is not part of the developed SF Bay Trail, and as such is shown as a dotted, dark green line on the latest Bay Trail map set). Paradise Drive offers scenic views on the Bay side (on the north side, often between trees) and wooded hills on the Tiburon peninsula (southwest side).

I followed a stretch of Paradise Drive and enjoyed intermittent glimpses of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, homes below by the water (Paradise Cay) and the Tiburon Yacht Club, as well as a few ships gliding by on the Bay.

I concluded this walk by turning onto Trestle Glen (like Paradise Drive, a road marked as an undeveloped trail segment, shown as a dotted, dark green line on the 2012 - 2013 Bay Trail Map set). Trestle Glen connects Paradise Drive and Tiburon Boulevard on the Tiburon peninsula. Some stretches of the road have better setbacks than others.

There were small treasures (in yards) that were close to the road, such as the small lion statue shown. And, there might be glimpses of the occasional deer amongst trees, or between yards; although there were none today.

Robins and Statistics
Happily, I saw several sparrows and smaller birds (sorry, I've lumped these together and called them little brown jobs) by the road's edge, foraging about for seeds and insects in the green shoots of grass that thrive in the few winter months here.

I saw five robins (mostly high up in trees) -- more than I remember seeing for many years. One can hope they're making a comeback after being affected by the pesticide DDT (which weakened bird eggshells and led to bird die-offs) back in the 1960s. During my first walk around the Bay Trail (2009-2011) I spotted 30 robins over 1,000 miles of walking.

So, these five robins this afternoon represent a relatively large percentage of that previous total. (As of today, I've covered about 1/3 of the Bay Trail on my second trip around the Bay, and have spotted 10 robins total so far. About the same, but they're concentrated in certain habitats, so that doesn't tell the whole story. One park with an inviting lawn and some interesting worms might attract a cluster of robins, whereas a long stretch of shoreline might not.

Wildlife Sightings:
9 little brown jobs (LBJs); 1 old tennis ball; 5 robins

Tiburon - Trestle Glen - Jan. 28, 2010

Walking Distance: 2.7 miles
Walking Time: 1 hr., 18 min. (12:31 - 1:49 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Street parking along Greenwood Beach Road, Tiburon, CA

In this second segment today, I walked to Blackie's Pasture area, and around the park area. Eventually I took the fork of the Bay Trail going up Trestle Glen (double yellow lines indicate surface road/street), and saw some deer munching grass by the side of the road.

There were also several robins (I hadn't seen a large group like this for years) going after clusters of red pyracantha berries growing close to the road. As a child I remember huge numbers of birds (before DDT and development killed most of them off) descending on these berries, getting "drunk" and bumping into windows. Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so no robin pictures.

Note: There was not much of a shoulder on Tiburon Blvd. - Trestle Glen roads, so watch traffic carefully if you walk on this road. 

Wildlife Sightings:
37 little brown jobs (LBJs)/songbirds, 7+ robins, 6 crows, 2 Canada geese, 31 sea gulls, 20 unidentified brownish shorebirds, 19 pigeons, 1 great egret, 1 snowy egret, 2 ducks, and 3 deer