MANY MILES OF NEW TRAILS ARE OPENED IN HILLS - Oakland Tribune - 09 Oct 1921, Sun - Page 17

Sun, Oct 9, 1921 – Page 17 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.com

[This article was written before Grizzly Peak Boulevard, Skyline Boulevard and Pinehurst Road were built. It describes trails in those locations that are likely gone, or replaced by the roads. Baldy is the former name of Vollmer Peak, the taller peak behind Grizzly Peak, looking east. The East Bay Water Company is now East Bay Municipal Utility District, or EBMUD. - MF]

MANY MILES OF NEW TRAILS ARE OPENED IN HILLS

Water Company Improvements Lure to Thousands of Hikers. 

Thousands of hikers and picnickers each week take advantage of the trails, constructed and maintained by the East Bay Water Company on its property on the hills in back of Oakland and Berkeley to reach the beauty spots of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, according to reports received by Paul Daniels, engineer in charge of water supply and sanitation of the water company, who is also in command of the ranger and patrol forces in the watersheds.

More than seven miles of new trails have been constructed on the ridges in back of Oakland and Berkeley during the past year, Daniels states, and many miles of old trails have been reopened to bikers.

SANITARY RULES. 

Sanitary regulations laid down by the State Board of Health forbid hikers and picnickers trespassing in the immediate vicinity of the streams which supply the storage reservoirs of the companies providing water for domestic consumption and these rules are strictly enforced by the sanitary patrolmen and deputy health inspectors who are constantly patrolling the watersheds.

The trails on the ridges of the hills, however, are open to the public and many of these paths lead to spots unsurpassable for their scenic beauty in this section of the country. Numerous hiking clubs each week take advantage of the trails to reach designated points of interest in the hill country.

NEW TRAILS OPENED. 

New trails include the path from the Thornhill road to the summit of the old Fish Ranch road and the open trail from the Thornhill road on the Contra Costa county side leading south to East Portal on the Sacramento Short Line. The trail from Grizzly Peak to Shepherd's Canyon has been cleaned out and made accessible, as have been the connecting trails in Wildcat Canyon.

The trails in Wildcat Canyon and in the Upper Redwood Canyon have been placarded with signs directing hikers' attention to the various points of interest and to the connecting trails leading back to the nearest street car lines and roads.

Three miles of old trails constructed many years ago by the tree planting gangs have been reopened recently as have been two miles of additional trails through the Havens estate properties, known, as the Grizzly Peak trail and its branches.

TRAIL TO BALDY. 

Another trail is the one from the Summit of the Fish Ranch road in Contra Costa county to the mountain trail, a distance of one mile. Three-quarters of a mile of trail has also been constructed from the head of Wildcat Canyon around the head of the canyon, to Baldy. Plans are now under way, according to Daniels, to construct trails from Baldy around the ridge between Wildcat Canyon and San Pablo north to a point opposite the new San Pablo dam. Hikers, Daniels says, are welcome on all of these trails, no restrictions being made as long as they stay to the trails, which run along the ridges of the hills. No fires are allowed. Hunting is also prohibited on the properties.

NO FIRES ALLOWED. 

The trails act as fire guards for the watersheds and are of great value to the rangers and sanitary patrolmen in the employ of the company, enabling the rangers to reach all points in the watershed within a short time after a fire is discovered. Their value has been demonstrated many times during the past summer, according to Daniels, whose report shows that practically no damage by fire has been sustained on the watershed lands of the company.

This, he says is due to the vigilance of the fire patrolmen who have extinguished numerous fires started by careless hikers. All of the rangers employed in the watersheds are experts in the art of fighting forest and brush fires.

There are many miles of bridle paths open to the public in the watersheds of the company.