Loop around Lake Chabot

Today on a longer solo hike, I made the 9-mile loop around Lake Chabot. This was an extension of the short hike that I took last summer with my young daughter. I am so glad to have finally completed this longer loop, and I have more ideas for another hike when I can make a return visit.

The map here is from one of my all-time favorite websites, redwoodhikes.com. Dave Baselt, who runs the site, has an excellent write-up of the loop here. He also sells the maps that he makes, if you are in the market. I took his recommended route, but started from the marina. I learned that the EBRPD will put up a "FULL" sign when the lot first gets full and then not take the sign down once people start leaving. I parked along Lake Chabot Road but there were actually some spots open.

I took the route in the counterclockwise direction, which I recommend. Leaving about 10:00 AM, I had the shade along the paved East Shore Trail, which was so pleasant. The hardest part of the hike, the steep climb up the unpaved Honker Bay Trail, was not too bad because I had both the sun at my back and the cool breezes coming off the lake to cool me down. At the top of that exposed climb, there was welcome shade from a beautiful eucalyptus forest. Then, the entire route of the Columbine Trail was in the deep shade of oaks and bay laurel. This was my favorite part of the hike. It was the furthest removed from the busy marina and thus the quietest. It's a well graded, single-track trail that gently travels downhill. Bikes are not allowed on this section, but I did see two people breaking the rules so be careful. There is not a ton of room to move over, and there is lots of poison oak. I also saw several folks trying to push strollers here, but the trail really isn't level enough for strollers here.

The shade continued most of the way along Bass Cove Trail with occasional exposed sections. The trail here is a little hilly with some gentle ups and downs. I really liked the trail right where it intersects with the Columbine and Cascade Trails. This is where the Grass Valley Creek comes into the lake when there is water. There was no water in the creek today, which made it easy to navigate this part of the hike; apparently, this area can flood seasonally to the point that this area is sometimes impassable. I bet this is a great place to explore from the West Side Trail in late spring when the creek has water but is not flooded and flowers are blooming.

After crossing over on the dam, I got onto the paved West Side Trail to take that back to the Marina. At this point, the sun had moved enough that I now had shade on the way back too. Although it had gotten hotter, having the shade made for a very pleasant hike back to the parking lot.

In the future, I want to do this longer route or similar version of it, perhaps using the Cascade Trail instead of Jackson Grade to start the return of the loop back towards the marina.

Although this park was very crowded, the vast majority of folks were wearing their masks. There were no large groups of people picnicking when I was there--everyone appeared to be there with either their immediate households or a social bubble. And with the exception of the Columbine Trail, the trails are all wide enough that it is fairly easy to maintain 6 feet of distance. It was definitely a busy park, but almost everyone was being very responsible about the precautions to halt the spread of COVID-19.