The weather has been uncharacteristically temperamental this May. It's been hot and dry, then cold-ish and wet from one day to the next. Sunday was a particularly crazy day in the Tri-Valley because it started off raining, and then cleared up but was very windy. I took advantage of the weird weather and ventured out for a weekend hike with my young daughter. The park we visited in Pleasanton, Gold Creek Open Space, was almost entirely empty. Social-distancing win! Click "read more" to read about the park and the trail.
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As a treat to myself this weekend (ahead of Mother's Day), I decided to take a nice hike on a loop that winds in between Morgan Territory and Mount Diablo State Park. I loved this 8-mile route, and plan to do a variation of it again next spring! Click "read more" to see my loop and more photos.
I have been looking over some of my archives from years past lately, and I've been thinking a lot about Lake Berryessa. This place was very special to me during my time in grad school, but I haven't been back in a long time. Read more to hear about some of the highlights from the past.
After tailoring my outings to toddler-appropriate trips to open space parks midweek for the past few weeks, I was really missing a real hike. So I explored a park here in the Tri-Valley that I had yet to explore, Augustin Bernal Park in Pleasanton. I went early in the morning on Sunday to beat any crowd. It was quite a roller coaster of emotions!
I've mostly been hiking midweek during the portion of the day that I have parenting duty with my toddler. I'm a bit anxious about hiking on the weekend, and it's nice for her to get out of the house safely with me for some social-distancing-appropriate activities. But because she is a bit big for the carrier and a bit small for real hiking, our outings have been on the short and easy side. We made a wonderful little trip to Bishop Ranch Regional Park in nearby San Ramon. It was perfect for us!
It's been harder to go out hiking since the shelter-in-place orders came down. I can't go for a long hike at all during the week because I am both working from home and taking care of my toddler daughter. And during the weekend, I am reluctant to go out because the parks were packed the first couple weekends of the quarantine: I want both to avoid the folks who are irresponsible and to keep the crowds down so that government agencies don't close ALL of the parks in the area. So mostly, I have been taking very short trips with my daughter to open space parks mid-week. On Monday, we explored Tassajara Creek Regional Park for the first time.
Every time I go for a hike now, I assume that it may very well be the last time for a long time that I will be able to visit a particular park. Indeed, I came home to the news that the California State Park system has closed all of its parks to vehicular traffic. So I do my best to be very much in the present and to savor every detail. It helps me to focus on my hike, to calm my anxiety in this very nerve-wracking time of global pandemic, and to notice the flowers and the birds with even greater clarity.
This trip to Brushy Peak Regional Park was all the more enjoyable for that mentality. I saw so many flowers and heard so many birds. I even saw a coyote! On Wednesday afternoon, my daughter and I made a wonderful little trip to a beloved park local to us in Livermore: Delle Valle Regional Park. It was a golden afternoon after a morning of rain, and we had the park almost entirely to ourselves. We had a marvelous time, but when we got home I saw an email from the EBRPD announcing that it was closing several of its parks (including Del Valle) because folks last weekend were not responsible about social distancing. Although it really saddens my heart to lose access to this amazing place, I understand why the Park District made this call. I hope that this sends the message loud and clear to everyone in the state: enjoy your parks safely or we will all lose this privilege at a time when we desperately need it!
Although some high-use parks are starting to close to prevent the spread of COVID-19, there are plenty of less-used parks that are still open. The state park system is especially affected in the Northern California counties of Marin, San Mateo, and Sonoma Counties, but that is a dynamic list. Point Reyes had to turn people away from Chimney Rock this weekend because there were too many people trying to go and it was not compatible with social distancing. But there are still LOTS of parks that are not too crowded.
I went--for the first time--to Castle Rock and Diablo Foothills Parks, which are part of the East Bay Regional Park District. Although there were other folks on the trial, I still had plenty of solitude along some of the trails deeper into the interior of Diablo Foothills. There were some cattle guards (so bring your hand sanitizer), but the wide fire roads of the park were great for hiking while maintaining 6 feet of distance. And it was so gorgeous! I loved this hike, and I can't wait to come back to both of these two parks. This winter has been so dry, but we actually got a nice little front of showers this weekend. I actually really like hiking in the rain if it's not too heavy of a downpour and the trails aren't too muddy. The greens really pop in a rain, and my family subscribes to the mantra, "more muddy, more fun." So I decided to hit the trails this weekend even in the rain to explore Briones Regional Park from the Bear Creek Staging Area.
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