The San Francisco Bay Trail is an incredibly ambitious public works project which hopes to create a multi-use trail that will encompass the entire Bay Area from San Jose in the South, up through Marin County, around the Delta to Vallejo in the North, and then back down along the East Bay. After completion, the trail would be roughly 450 miles in length. I hope to still be living here and to eventually complete a full tour of the trail after it is finished. There is even discussion of organizing a cycling race after the completion of the project, like the Tour de France, although certainly not one that spectular an event.
The presence of the Bay is a powerful, yet subtle aspect of life here in this part of Northern California. Its geographic presence gives rise to the very name of the area, but there is tendency to take it for granted. It is one of those instances in which you don’t notice the Bay in a conscious way, like we may not notice the sky as deeply, but would be very affected by its disappearance. I imagine that’s what New Yorkers felt with the loss of the World Trade Center, but on a more massive scale. San Francisco Bay is to Northern California what Lake Michigan is to Chicago. Without Lake Michigan, Chicago would be a bigger St. Louis. Without the Bay, we would either be Sacramento or a half-assed Los Angeles.
I’ve been using part of the trail almost everyday since I moved here. My normal running route is along the Stevens Creek Trail, since its trailhead is close to where I live. It eventually wends its way down to the Bay in the form of a wildlife salt marsh and connects to other trails that lead to Palo Alto and up the peninsula.
