Blog

Most of our hikes are in nature or at least out of doors. But thanks to a law in the City requiring large downtown commercial developments to include open space that is open to the public, a fine hike can be enjoyed by walking from lobby to lobby and from rooftop terrace to “sun terrace.”

Dave Weinstein led such a “Popos” tour on February 15, in alliance with the Albany senior Center and Friends of Five Creeks.

We didn’t quite get to every rooftop or hidden garden we had aimed for, but it was fun nonetheless. It’s great how some of these mysterious gardens are hidden away. City law requires that office towers display signs announcing that these spaces exist. But you have to look carefully to spot them.

Trail Trekkers will be working with Friends of Five Creeks on this valuable effort to restore native habitat in the Hillside. Please join us.

Saturday, July 20: Help reduce fire danger in the El Cerrito Hillside Natural Area, 10am – 12:30pm

Join Friends of Five Creeks in El Cerrito’s beautiful Hillside Natural Area, to continue a years-long effort of removing invasive, fire-prone French broom, in order to reduce fire danger and promote biodiversity.

From the entrance at the south end of Regency Court (across from 1520 Regency), the group will walk to the area’s welcoming central meadows between oak groves, talking about history and nature. Work is not heavy unless you want it to be, but part of the fire-road walk is reasonably steep. Poison oak is always a possibility, kids should be middle-school aged or older, and all should wear long pants, long sleeves, socks, and closed-toed shoes with good traction. Bring sun protection and a re-usable water bottle. We supply gloves, snacks, tools, and good company.

Our most recent work party, the Madera Open Space broom pull, proved a great success despite its timing – just after the fiercest rains we’ve seen in a while, and with downpours and hail forecasted for that day.

Still, 11 people showed up on Saturday February 16 for this event, spearheaded by the city’s Environmental Quality Committee’s Green Teams and organized by Howdy Goudey. Trekkers co-sponsored.

Broom, a bully of an invasive plant that has in the past decades taken over acres and acres of the Hillside Natural Area, is threatening to reclaim the Madera-Julian Trail, which connects Madera Open Space to the Julian Steps and thus to Motorcycle Hill.

This is a crucial and historic trail in the Hillside Natural Area. It is – so far – the only direct link via trail between the southern and northern areas of the Hillside Area.

As always, the various Trail Trekkers who worked our information booth at the city’s annual July 4 festival spread the word about our mission and events to hundreds of people on Wednesday.

We got 71 signups and many more people stopped by. We also gave away 50 trail maps, asking for small donations. We will soon have a more complete map, one listing all the trails.

I particularly enjoy this festival because it is such a good way to meet people from all walks of life who live in El Cerrito or nearby. Many young families stopped by the booth to ask about the trails. Some are using them regularly. Others, even some people who have lived in the city for years, said they are not familiar with the trails of the Hillside.

World One organizer Corey Mason did a great job with the musical programming, as he always does. I only caught one band, being too busy on the Trekker and EC Historical Society tables. But it was a good one, Sharon Gilchrist and Friends, featuring El Cerrito resident Chad Manning on fiddle. Chad’s son Jason made a guest appearance!

Just to show members of El Cerrito Trail Trekkers how much we appreciate them — and to encourage more to join — we threw a members appreciation party in late February.

About 50 people rsvp’d and 42 attended. Mary Barkey supplied wonderful, homemade, vegetarian pizza. Not one slice remained at the end of the night. Pam Austin, our treasurer, brought roasted vegetables. Mais Jafari brought treats of Jordanian cuisine. Others contributed food and drinks as well.

Oh yes, Mary’s lemon cake and cookies.

The entire Trekkers board was there — Pam, our treasurer and VP, Mollie Hazen, our communications director, and Mark Miner, secretary and web master and chief trail builder.

We met people new to us, and some who were new to Trekkers. We believe many people at the party will remain involved with our dynamic group, which needs more people for increased dynamism!

It’s amazing how much work three dedicated volunteers can do in just over two hours. On Saturday morning Terrace Cutoff Trail was impassable. By early afternoon it was passable.

Mark Miner, who is Trail Trekkers’ trail building chief, Dave Weinstein, and a new volunteer with us, Mark Carraher, who is active with the Boy Scouts, removed many cubic yards of dead live oak limbs that had been blocking this trail and posing a fire hazard.

This was the first of Trail Trekkers new once-a-month trail work parties, which occur on the third Saturday of the month. Join us for future parties. They are satisfying!