SF Bay Trail, Redwood Shores 2016-02-15

It may be winter, but the last several days had been feeling like warm spring days. I decided to do a dawn hike by the Bay in a segment that Apollo had not gone to and be able to see the sunrise. Redwood Shores provided the perfect setting for us. I had covered this on Day 6 of my SF Bay Walkabout last year. 

I had parked by Mariner Park, at Redwood Shores Pkwy / Bridge Pkwy intersection off Hwy 101. We were at the park about half hour before the sunrise. The Bay Trail runs right behind the park, following Steinberger Slough all the way to Radio Point. On the other side of the trail is a residential community, pretty much all the way. 

The first half hour of our walk was in early morning light. The trail runs in a north easterly direction, which meant dawn was breaking on our right. Well before the sun came out, the sky had an orange hue in the east. As the sun continued to come up, the dark orange hue was progressively becoming bright yellowing orange in color.

The gravel & dirt trail runs about two miles before coming to a dog park on the left. Just as we reached the spot, the sun had also emerged from behind the mountains on the east side of the bay. And the temperatures popped couple of degrees just like that!

Apollo had his customary break at the dog park, making new friends and playing chase with the three dogs in the park bright and early. We continued ahead by the dirt trail, but the trail is closed little ahead as the area is considered a sensitive habitat. 

We walked back, took Radio Rd that borders the dog park and a water treatment plant. At the end of Radio Rd, we connected back to the paved, blacktop Bay trail. Staying close to the bay, the trail leads to a large observation deck. The high rise segment of San Mateo bridge was visible clearly, as was the Bird Island (a closed environmentally sensitive preserve) from the deck.

With an intent to cover the entire Redwood Shores peninsula, we stayed in the Bay trail. For a while, the trail runs parallel to Seabrook Ct before it turns south. In the marshland on the right, I spotted a beautiful black-crowned night heron and a great egret. 

As the trail curved around, I stayed by the artificial lagoon and turned right on Shearwater Pkwy connecting back to the bay trail after the elementary school. You can choose to stay right by the bay instead of doing what I did. But then, I wouldn't have gotten to see yet another beautiful great egret in the lagoon waters.

The trail starts running by Belmont slough on the right leaving the bay behind. At Bridge Pkwy, continue the hike by a rugged dirt trail running through slough for a short while before connecting back to the paved trail. Ahead, you can see the iconic buildings of Oracle Corp. 

To wrap up our walk, we left the bay trail when Bridge Pkwy turns left. And used the sidewalk to walk across to Mariner Park passing by the public library first, a unique foot bridge on Bridge Pkwy and Mistral Restaurant, a favorite among tech companies in this area. 

The sidewalk on the left (against the traffic) is shaded and nice, something that was welcome to us even though it was barely 9 am on a winter morning! And Apollo was glad to roll around the wet and lush green grass in Mariner Park to cool off a tad.

We covered the entire Redwood Shores peninsula in our leisurely 6.5 mile dawn hike. I also managed to cover sections that I missed during my previous solo walk here on day 6 of the SF Bay Walkabout. 

More pictures from our hike.
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