Lake Chabot Regional Park 2015-10-19

With more than 20 miles of hiking trails that goes around the Chabot lake and long history, Lake Chabot Regional Park is an excellent destination spot for hiking with your dog. A $2 dog fee is required to use the park, paid parking is available inside the main entrance (17600 Lake Chabot Rd, Castro Valley), you may also find free road side parking by the entrance. This east bay park also connects seamlessly with Anthony Chabot regional park that is much larger. 

The ranger advised me to keep Apollo off the lake which, unfortunately, has a high toxic level of green-blue algae right now. I decided not to get close to the waters at all even though several beaches were accessible along our 9+ mile walk around the lake.

West Shore trail

We started our clockwise look by the West Shore trail. The nearly 2 mile long trail is a paved, blacktop trail that is open to bikers and hikers. This trail takes you to the historic dam that was built in the mid-1800s. Other than few occasional gentle grades, this is essentially a flat, easy and busy trail that offers great views of the lake and Live Oak island on the right.

Bass Cove trail

Crossing the dam, we continued by Bass Cove trail. This starts off as a wide service road and stays that way for more than a mile. The last 1/2 mile after the Goldenrod trail junction is a narrower dirt track right by the lake and Bass Cove. 

Columbine trail

The next 2+ miles is by Columbine trail. A single track dirt trail, this segment involves climbing gradually about 400 ft. through heavily wooded forest that only offers an occasional glimpse of the lake. Columbine trail provides a nice change of scene and lots of shade through the forest before it connects to Honker Bay trail.

Honker Bay trail

We turned right on Honker Bay trail, a wide fire road dirt trail. More open, this trail takes you to the lake level pretty rapidly as you give up all the gains from Columbine trail. Much as Apollo would have liked to have a go at the water, I had to keep him off due to the toxic algae warning.

A short 1/4 mile segment in Cameron Loop trail connected us to the East Shore trail. But not before a walk by a narrow and interesting hanging bridge. 

East Shore trail

The home stretch by East Shore trail is more than 1.5 miles long and offers a similar experience as the W Shore trail in the beginning. This is also a paved black top trail that hikers share with bikers. 

At 9.7 miles, this is one of the longest walk I've done with Apollo. The loop that we did, West Shore trail -> Bass Cove trail -> Columbine trail -> Honker Bay trail -> Cameron Loop trail -> East Shore trail, has mile markers along the way. 

If you want to do a shorter walk, I'd recommend an out & back by either East or West Shore trail to the extent you are comfortable with. The West takes you to a historic dam, the East to the interesting hanging bridge.

More pictures from our hike.
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