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BAYTRAIL
July 14, 2011
Rev: April 22, 2025
Riding the Bay Trail at 7pm on a cool
summer evening, the sun hanging low,
glistening against water that is often on
both sides of the trail...
A straight line of elevated clay soil, no
wider than twice the width of the road, no
higher than a few feet over the waters of a
very high tide.
The trail seems to follow the edge of a now
unused salt evaporation pond-- which used to
be part of the commercial activity down at
the very south end of the bay.
The trail swings wide around the far side
of the old Moffett Field.
In the distance, gigantic dirigible hangers, and
a supersonic wind-tunnel with a row of three
silvery, spherical pressure tanks on the side;
straight out of an old Star Trek matte painting.
A "Casablanca" vintage 4-engine prop plane circles
around the area, continually swooping low over
Moffett field-- presumably an equipment test run of
some sort.
Tall brown grasses go right up to the
shore of broken rock.
I wonder if this area is too shallow to
launch a windsurfer... there are many
barely submerged "sandbars" (or things
like them) just off shore.
Boats of any sort are rarely seen this far south
in the shallow end of the bay.
Riding toward the Stevens Creek Trail, one has a
choice of approaching on the north or south bank,
with a few bridges connecting the two.
I take a guess on the south bank, which turns out to be
wrong: it's a mile-long cul de sac that dead ends
against the highway, with fences on all sides.
I would've been better off on the north bank, where
the trail continues swooping down under the highway.
I go over the fence and scramble down
the side of the creek bed.
There's water flowing at the bottom, but in *one*
place it's flowing rapidly through a constricted
channel which is tight enough for me to step across
without any trouble, even carrying a bike.
The fence around the trail on the far side is rather high,
and somewhat shakey... I move along it and find a place
where there's a ledge I can stand on-- it's an awkward
climb but I manage to to drop my bike down on the other
side, then finish climbing over myself.
I end up covered with dust and cobwebs from the fence,
which does not get climbed very often...
As always, there's a certain pride in doing
things a strange way and getting away with it.
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