The weather was amazing, so we decided to walk from our house to the trail head. This seemed like a wonderful idea on the way there, but not so much on the way back!
Here's the start of the trail.
You'll note it is only 3/4 of a mile to the top, but because it is ALL uphill and we walked a mile or so to the trail, it felt like FOREVER.
The views of the surrounding hills and the lake were beautiful. I can't believe this is in the town where we live. You wouldn't know it from just driving through. We also met lots of other pups on our walk. It seems that this trail is very popular with dog owners!
And because it was such a sparkly day, we could see all the surrounding cities easily, including SF and Oakland. (Sorry for the bad second picture! It really looked a lot better in person. I just wanted to prove that we could in fact see SF!)
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| I swear all those big building in the background are in SF. :-) |
Once at the top we entered the grove of trees - each tree commemorating the life of a child in Alameda County who was a victim of violence.
There is also an actual memorial, with plaques listing the names of each of these children. It is really sad to see all of the children whose lives have been cut short by violence. They were of all ages, from infants to teenagers.
The way back was so much easier! Everyone, including Rusty, was tired, so we leisurely made our way back home. There was one split second where I thought of calling my parents to pick us up because I was lazy to finish the walk back, but then I figured the exercise was good for me.
We plan on inviting some friends who have dog children to walk this trail in the spring and bring a picnic lunch to have at the top.
The Hubs and I often forget that the Lake Chabot area is one that people drive from outside the area to explore. We live so close and have never even made it around the lake! We'll definitely be taking advantage of this area this spring, as it is so nice to feel like you are getting away but still are so close to home!
Anyone else have a wide range of activities near their home that they don't fully take advantage of?
How fun! We're always looking for new hikes so it's great to see your adventures. We recently participated in the East Bay Trails Challenge 2010 (where you basically complete 26 miles of various hikes of your choice around the EB and you get a T Shirt...it's really not that exciting---the exciting part is that you get access to a big PDF of various detailed hikes in the East Bay which is cool because we found a lot of new trails that way)
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Sounds like it's right up your alley (and a fun challenge---we never added up our miles until we participated, so that was cool!)...it was a great way to get us out of Berkeley and to other nearby cities to hike :)
(also, it's free, so there's really no reason not to sign up to get the packet of hikes...and the shirt if you so wish :) )
ReplyDeleteI love San Francisco! What a beautiful view you have! I love taking walks and wish my husband would go on walks with me. Although, we don't have anything pretty to look at here in Dixon!
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