Bonnie Preston led an outing on a Salt Marsh Safari boat tour through the Alviso Slough to explore the natural history of the South San Francisco Bay on Wednesday, August 16th. This free program is sponsored by the Santa Clara Park and Recreation District and is an educational boat tour where we learned about the natural history of the South San Francisco Bay and how the landscape has changed over time.

Gary and Terry Holmquist led a hike at Coyote Hills Regional Park in Newark on Saturday, August 12th . The hike headed out from the visitors center along the bay to a view point at Red Hill overlooking the park.  Total distance was seven miles with all returning to the visitors center for lunch.

Ramon and Marianna Reza led a hike on the Cogswell Marsh Trail on Wednesday, August 9th.  The flat gravel trail begin and ended at the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center and was 3.6 miles long round trip. It skirted along a freshwater marsh a haven for migrating birds reaching the SF Bay.  The SF and Oakland skylines could be seen across the water.

Wate and Johanna Bakker lead an urban hike in San Francisco on Saturday, August 5th . The hike started at the Embarcadero and then climbed up the steps to the Coit tower and from there they strolled to Chinatown for lunch. Afterward a return to the waterfront.

Johanna Bakker led a hike thru the redwoods at Montalvo in Saratoga and ended up at the lookout for a view of the valley. There were several artistic displays in the park that were created by local artists.

Bird nest in back

Lunch is served

Bird house display

A perfect end to a hike

The Mount Madonna Hikers went on Saturday, July 29th on a 8 mile hike on various trails with 1000 ft elevation gain through the Redwoods led by Nancy Rumple. There was also visit to the white fallow deer herd in the park.

Sy Gelman led a hike on the Los Alamitos Trail Wednesday, July 26th.  Following the Los Alamitos creek and starting at Almaden Lake Park the trail was primarily flat and mostly a paved trail. 

What a group!

Rich Bainbridge and Wendy Ledamun led a hike along the Bay Bridge Bicycle/Pedestrian Path that runs along the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to the newly opened Vista Point on Yerba Buena Island on Saturday, July 22nd.  The Vista Point offered sweeping views of the East Span of the Bay Bridge, San Francisco Bay and Oakland.  The group took the free shuttle to the Avenue of the Palms on Treasure Island. Lunch was at the Aracely Cafe

Approach to Treasure Island

Beautiful foot/bike path

Problems solved

Alcatraz

I told you it was easy

Outpost in the wilderness

Good food & conversation

We made it to the beach

The look toward Oakland

The Goat Hill Girls brought their unique bluegrass sound to The Hiking Club’s Summer BBQ on Thursday, July 20th at the Gazebo. Bluegrass has new grass, traditional grass, psycho grass, gospel grass and even gangsta grass as sub genres of this uniquely American music. Most bluegrass songs are about the mountain areas of the East Coast, so The Goat Hill Girls are doing their part by representing California in the Bluegrass song world.  The Goat Hill Girls featured plenty of traditional bluegrass, vintage country, old timely, Irish and some fun novelty tunes.

Gary and Terry Holmquist led a hike along West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz on Wednesday, July 19th . The hike started at the Wharf and proceed approximately two miles past the light house before retracing their steps.