West Shore Trail at Lake Chabot

Lake Chabot Regional Park is part of the complex of parks that forms a greenbelt from the Berkeley hills to Castro Valley. It's on the southern end of this greenbelt, near San Leandro and Castro Valley, and it abuts Anthony Chabot Regional Park. The park has a marina (where you can either rent a boat or sign up for a one-hour excursion on the tour boat, the Chabot Queen) and a Cafe/Grill. I had heard good things about the grill, but they were closed today. The park is also a midway point for a paved trail along the shore of the lake that goes about half way around. This is perfect for anyone who is bringing their young kids for a walk in the stroller!

My daughter likes to push her doll in her toy stroller, and this helps her to walk further than she would if she were just out of the stroller. I let her pick our route to start off, and she randomly chose the West Shore Trail. Eventually she got tired, and we transitioned her to the non-toy stroller. This trail appears to have more hilly sections than the East Shore Trail; parts of the trail were exposed and kind of hot, but other parts were deeply shared by laurel trees, and it was so pleasant in the shade!

We walked to Coot's Landing where she explored the wooden pier for fishermen, and just had fun running around. It's important to note that as inviting as the lake is, it is not safe to swim in it. There have been high levels of toxins detected in the lake, from the blue-green algae called cyanobacteria. I don't quite understand how it's safe to eat fish caught in the lake when it's not safe to make skin contact with the water, but apparently that is the case. We saw loads of people fishing, both from the shoreline and from boats.

We continued past Coot's Landing a little ways, to the one-mile marker. There we saw a deer and a little waterfall. This seemed like a good place to turn around, because it was getting on along time for lunch. I look forward to the day when she can hike a little longer and a little faster, but I think she's doing pretty well for only two years old!

I am already anticipating a return visit to this park. First, I would like to do the one-hour tour on the Chabot Queen. The information on their website is not very good, so I had to call today to find out more, and the man with whom I spoke told me that the Chabot Queen goes out on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays in the summer at the following times: 1:00, 2:30, and 4:00. Other than that, you have to make a reservation a week in advance so that they can coordinate with the boat captain's schedule. Although this might be a hard schedule to manage with a toddler's nap time, I would really like to try it. I think that this sounds like it would be a lot of fun!

In the meantime, I would like to come back here with my daughter to do the East Shore Trail, and one day when I can hike on my own, I would like to do the longer, more rugged hike all the way around the perimeter of the lake. There is an excellent write-up of that hike here, at one of my favorite websites. That seems like it would be an excellent one to do in the spring. Even in July, we saw wildflowers, so I imagine that this place must be a great place for flowers in the peak season.