El Cerrito Trail Trekkers

The El Cerrito Trail Trekkers formed in order to build, maintain, publicize and use the little known urban trails of El Cerrito, California. You can support us by  joining or donating, or you can keep up with our progress by getting on our email list.  Read more about us here. Follow us on Twitter @ECTrailTrekkers or Facebook .

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Thanks to everyone who came out for July 4th

It was a blast meeting a lot of new people as well as catching up with old friends. For those of you who asked about our signage plan, you can learn more here.

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Save the Date

Sunday, May 15

The 3rd annual Hillside Festival

More information here.

Please help maintain and improve the Hillside Natural Area. The Hillside Festival is a free event, open to all and designed to showcase the natural and cultural beauties if El Cerrito’s Hillside. Trail Trekkers is dedicated to helping the city maintain this wonderful area, to improve its natural habitat, to remove dangerous overgrowth to prevents fires, and to improve access. Please donate here to this effort. All funds help improve and maintain the Hillside Natural Area. Donations are tax deductible, as provided by law.

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Sunday, January 10, 2 to 4 p.m.

The El Cerrito Trail Trekkers Annual Free Public Meeting

 

The Garden Room of the El Cerrito Community Center

7007 Moeser Lane

We hope you will join us as we bask in the glow of our accomplishments, elect officers and plan for the coming year. This is a great chance to meet members, neighbors and other interested & interesting people. Free light refreshments. In addition we will have a lecture by Lisa Owens-Viani from Raptors are the Solution (RATS) (http://www.raptorsarethesolution.org/)

Let Raptors Do Their Job!

Any paid member may vote for officers or seek a position on our board. Membership is $15 for individuals and $20 for households and membership forms will be available at the meeting.

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Music for Madera, the final reckoning!

Turnout in September may have been low, but when the counting was done Music for Madera still raised over $3200 for Madera fire prevention and habitat restoration! Thanks to everyone: attendees, donors, musicians and volunteers. If you couldn’t be there you missed a great show, but we have pictures to remember it by.

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On Sunday, September 20, you are invited to help support habitat restoration in our local open spaces at

Music for Madera

Open Space

Last year, your friends and neighbors gathered at the Community Center to support open space and help the city purchase the Madera property. Thanks to many generous contributions that campaign succeeded and Madera is now part of the Hillside Natural Area. But years of neglect has left the land in need of lots of work in order to restore it to something closer to its natural condition. So this year we are going to do it again. So come one and all to the 2nd annual Music for Madera Open Space.

The fun takes place Sunday, Sept. 20, from 1 to 7 p.m. in the courtyard of the El Cerrito community center, 7007 Moeser Lane. Music ranges from folk and Flamenco to dance from Zimbabwe, jazz and psychedelic funk.

Donation is $15 – for a good cause. Members of Trekkers pay only $10. You can join at the door. Membership is only $15, or $20 for a family. Kids can attend for free. They’ll also be an auction and food available for purchase.

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Thank You El Cerrito for making the Hillside Festival a success!

 

More pictures here.

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El Cerrito Trail Trekkers presents :

The 2nd Annual Hillside Festival

There will be events throughout the 100-plus acre Hillside Natural Area: Nature Hikes, Pop-Up Bike Park sponsored by the El Cerrito High Mountain Bike Team, Wildflower Walks, Historical Tours, Garden Giveaways, and much more.

The festival marks the city’s recent acquisition of the Madera Open Space with a celebration at noon, at Schmidt Lane.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 17, 2015.

Free! Gathering, Schmidt Lane, EC Recycling Center. More information here.

Co-sponsored by El Cerrito Trail Trekkers and the city’s Environmental Quality Committee and Parks and Recreation Commission and Tree Committee.

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Earth Day is Saturday, April 18

El Cerrito’s official celebration of Earth Day is this Saturday, April 18. The El Cerrito Trail Trekkers will be working to reopen the Terrace Cutoff branch of the Stockton-King trail. We’d love it if you could join us. We’ll be meeting at 10 am at the trailhead between 894 and 900 Shevlin at the top of Stockton Ave. The plan is to start at the bottom of the cutoff trail and work towards Terrace cutting weeds and blackberry vines and trimming some small, low hanging branches that currently partially obstruct the trail. The city will supply some tools (but by all means feel free to bring your own favorites) and we’ll have water, but long sleeves, hats and gloves are recommended. We may be able to supply a limited number of gloves. Work is from 10 to noon, and afterwards you are invited to a volunteer appreciation lunch at the community center on Moeser. Come meet your neighbors and help make El Cerrito just a little more walkable.

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Madera Open Space Joins the Hillside Natural Area

At the March 17 City Council meeting the city and the Trust for Public Land came to agreement to waive the Trust’s Professional Services Fee. This removed the final obstacle to the completion of the city’s purchase of the Madera property. The final transfer should happen within days of the meeting

The open space campaign surpassed its goal of $100,000 and, combined with a $250,000 National Park Service Land & Water Grant and the Trust for Public Land’s waiving of their fee, the campaign raise approximately  75% of the total cost of the land. This ensures that more money is left in the city’s share of Measure WW bond money for much needed park maintenance around the city.

We would like to thank everyone who contributed their time and money to achieve this goal. A list of the donors is here.

If you haven’t been to the Madera property lately, why not join us for our hike on March 28? We’ll climb Motorcycle Hill, cross Potrero and enter the Madera property before returning to our starting place at Blake and Navellier. This 2 hour hike leaves from the bottom of Motorcycle Hill at 11 am. We Hope you’ll join us.

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— Hiking the High Route —

The El Cerrito Trail Trekkers Annual Public Meeting

On January 11 the El Cerrito Trail Trekkers held their annual meeting. The current board was reelected with Dave Weinstein as president, Jenny Hammer as vice-president, Pam Austin as treasurer, Mark Miner as secretary and Tom Gehling and Maryann Pomegranate  as at large members

This coming Sunday, January 11, the El Cerrito Trail Trekkers will be having our annual public meeting to elect officers and plan for the coming year. Meet your fellow Trekkers, enjoy refreshments, and hear an illustrated talk by Brendan Moriarty of the Trust For Public Land. Brendan took a break from his efforts to help us buy the Madera Open Space this summer to get married. For their honeymoon the newlyweds hiked for three weeks along the Sierra High Route. All of it was off trail, roughly paralleling the Pacific Crest Trail. Brendan will also discuss the role and goals of Trust for Public Lands and its special and ongoing relationship with El Cerrito.

The meeting is open to all, but you must be a paid up member to vote.

2 PM in the Garden Room at the El Cerrito Community Center, 7007 Moeser Lane (at Ashbury), El Cerrito, CA 94530

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The Madera campaign nears its goal We made our goal!

But we aren’t there yet. Learn about the latest developments here.

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Friends of Five Creeks  leader and Trail Trekker  inspiration  Susan Schwartz was recently featured in the San Jose Mercury News. Read about her here.

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On Sunday, October 12 we held

Music for Madera

Pictures are here.

The informational page is here.

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The Trekkers and Motorcycle Hill in Bay Nature Magazine

The Motorcycle Hill Trail is featured on page 16 of the current issue of  Bay Nature magazine. And on their website is an article about the Trekkers. We hope you’ll take a look at them both, and then maybe go checkout Motorcycle Hill for yourself. And a big thanks to everyone at Bay Nature for the featuring us, and the wonderful trails of El Cerrito.

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Your name could be here! UPDATED!

[TJ Gehling]

The El Cerrito Trail Trekkers thank everyone who has already donated to the El Cerrito Open Space Campaign. Just this week a sign was placed on the northern side of Moeser Lane, across and just uphill from the intersection with Galvin Dr.  The sign is now next to the tennis courts on the south side of Moeser,  just west of Avis Dr,/Navellier St. This sign will include the name of everyone who has donated $500 or more. All the donors are listed here. The sign also shows where we are in the fundraising effort. And the short answer to that is not far enough. If you want to see this land added to the city park system, and at the same time make sure that there are funds available for all city parks in the future, then a contribution would be a great way to show it. Information about the campaign is here.

[Jenny Hammer]

[Jenny Hammer]

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The First Annual Hillside Festival

 

Madera Students with Jim McKissock [Dave Weinstein]

The first ever Hillside Festival in El Cerrito was held May 17th. It featured hikes, native plant tours, a temporary pop-up bike park demonstration, historical talks and tours, habitat restoration demonstrations, free garden club plants, kids events and more, in a 90-acre wildness area in the middle of the city. Some pictures are here. The original event page is here.

This free event was sponsored by the city’s Environmental Quality Committee, Tree Committee and Park and Rec Commission,and took place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday May 17, 2014 in the Hillside Natural Area.

Groups taking part included the El Cerrito Trail Trekkers, the El Cerrito Mountain Bike Team, Friends of Five Creeks, the California Native Plant Society, the El Cerrito Environmental Quality Committee, the El Cerrito Historical Society, the Community Garden Network, folks from Madera Elementary School, and Berkeley historian and author Richard Schwartz.

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Bay Trail News

There is a lot going on on the Bay Trail in Richmond. On Saturday, April 19, there is a grand reopening of Point Molate Beach Park. This comes just as the East Bay Regional Park District has announced that Chevron is donating an easement for a trail extension from the Richmond – San Rafael Bridge to Point Molate beach. There are articles about it on the SFGate Blog and in the Contra Costa Times.

And on April 22  there is a Ground Breaking for  the Breuner Marsh Restoraton & Bay Trail Project at Point Pinole. There is more information on the TRAC calendar of events.

Trail Trekkers interested in the Bay Trail should also check out this recent article about Bruce Beyaert in the Contra Costa Times. Bruce is the chairman of TRAC – Trails for Richmond Action Committee, and has been instrumental in the creation of the San Francisco Bay Trail in Richmond. Richmond has more coastline and more completed trail than any other city in the Bay Area. They have recently completed an important segment linking Point Potrero and Brickyard Cove, meaning you can now get from the Red Oak Victory to Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline without having to climb a hill.

The trail to Brickyard Cove [Photo by TJ Gehling]

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Earth Hour – March 29 –  8:30 to 9:30 PM

A small group of citizens from El Cerrito met on Motorcycle Hill tonight to commemorate Earth Hour, an annual event aimed at getting people to turn out there lights for one hour as a symbol of their commitment to the planet. Globally, Earth Hour is organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund). Locally, tonight’s gathering was organized by Friends of Five Creeks, the El Cerrito Environmental Quality Committee, and the Trekkers.

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El Cerrito Community Tree Planting Event 

A line of trees along Fast Food Way (#48)

A group of  civic-minded volunteers gathered on Avila St. to make the city just a little better. City arborist Stephen Prée and the members of the El Cerrito Tree Committee organized this event, which planted almost 30 trees on Avila, El Dorado St., and Carlson Blvd. These trees were planted to beautify our community, reduce run-off from storms, and help clean the air. They also add property value to adjacent homes. Although the trees are in the ground, they still need a lot of attention. They’ll need watering for the next couple of years while their roots developed the capacity to handle the job. If you can spare the time, perhaps as little as a couple of hours a month, your help would be welcomed. Contact the Tree Commitee  for more information.

Attendees included Mayor Janet Abelson (center) and Supervisor John Gioia (6th from the right)

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New! You can see a bigger version of our map on the “Resources” bulletin board at the El Cerrito library. There is also a trail list on the “Things to do” board.

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Want to take a hike? We’ve got directions for you. Descriptions of some of our older hikes are here. So far, we have two of Dave Weinstein’s past hikes: Storybook Homes and Sausalito. Check them out.

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El Cerrito Trails are featured in the February Contra Costa Marketplace. The article, by Trail Trekker President Dave Weinstein, runs on pages 50 to 52.

El Cerrito trails and in particularly the El Cerrito Open Space (Madera)  have been featured in recent articles in El Cerrito Patch and in the Contra Costa Times here and here.

 

 

© 2014 El Cerrito Trail Trekkers Contact