Bay Farm Island, Alameda From Richard Katz's
Skating Unrinked book, published in paperback by HarperCollinsWest in 1994. Or was it '95? If you are not reading this on a screen, stop reading and head to www.Amazon.com. Thanx. Richard Katz = katz@frogojt.com. email
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Chapter bayfarm.txt
Bay Farm Island: All the Way 'Round Harbor Bay
When you arrive at Bay Farm Island, you will probably find a few skaters tooling around by the industrial condos along Harbor Bay Parkway. Perhaps the businesslike appearance of the tiltups in the neighborhood inspires the determined gymnastic back and forth skatercising you often see down by South Loop Road and in the parking lot across from the Ferry dock.
Take a brisk excursion all the way around the island, a loop of about six miles excellent for beginners and virtuosos alike. There are stunning views of San Francisco Bay half the way around and only one traffic crossing.
How to Get There by Car from Interstate 80:
Exit Interstate 80 at Hegenberger Road in Oakland: Southbound, it's Hegenberger Road West = the first right from the offramp; Northbound, the exit is onto Edes Avenue, then left onto Hegenberger. Follow all the signs for Metropolitan Oakland International Airport
Just after the Hilton Hotel on Hegenberger, take a right on Doolittle Drive. Follow Doolittle for a few miles (note the interesting park on your right and the very interesting North Field airport facilities on your left, including a museum,) then take a left on an imposing boulevard called Harbor Bay Parkway and drive another few miles. The road seems to peter out, but have faith and motor on following the sign "Ferry" and later "Harbor Bay Maritime." Eventually you will arrive at a capacious parking lot. This is it.
On your next trip to Bay
Farm Island, you might want to take that ferry ride. It's great. Goes right to Pier 39 in the City, for example.
What It's Like:
The path begins at the Ferry dock, takes you northwest half a mile or so, then curves northeast for another mile Shoreline Park. The path varies from excellent to old to wet; when the condo owners run their sprinklers early in the day, the pavement can get slippery, especially for in-lines. Just after the Bay Farm Island Recreation Center, you will see a drawbridge (which works.) Skate under that bridge. Continue on the other side of the bridge. Here there's some great pavement, all the way around the bend to the Bill Osborne Model Airplane Field, where for ten bucks (skaters welcome) you and your family can fly a noisy gas-powered model plane and emulate a takeoff from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. (This little exercise takes on a whole new aura of verisimilitude when a single engine airplane takes off from the adjoining North Field of Oakland International and wags its wings to you as it thunders mightily by.)
Skate across Doolittle Drive, at the crosswalk near the sign "Oakland City Limit". Follow the sign "Harbor Bay Business Park" toward the Alameda Municipal Golf Course. The trail is the serviceable asphalt path along Harbor Bay Parkway that you saw if you arrived by car.
To your left you'll see an aspect of aviation most of us never get to know. Instead of the 747's and DC10's roosting over by the passenger terminal, over here just past the fence across the street from the trail there are several biplanes that belong to the Aerial Advertising Company (you wouldn't believe how they pick those banners up), and some truly remarkable airplane wrecks.
A bit further down the path, there is a "teleport".
At this point, somewhere along the Champs d'Elysees-like Harbor Bay Parkway where South Loop Road loops into North Loop Road, this skating path crosses over into the surreal. Perhaps not the Surreal according to Andre Breton's manifesto or Salvador Dali's paintings, but close. #1201 Harbor Bay Parkway, for example, is the home of American President Systems, an ocean shipping company that has its entrance on a fountain with no water. In front of #1220 there's a huge sculpture fountain that manages to appear both spectacular and mundane at the same time. The water is dyed, and there are no birds. The front entrance is "Locked At All Times", and as you skate around the fountain, you can look up at the mirored glass to see what you would look like skating in front of funhouse mirrors. #1401 is square blocks of buildings made of square building blocks; even the glass is square. After you check out #1401, go back to #1220 and skate all the way to the back of the parking lot behind the building. Through the fence, you will see a lovely duckpond, with nary a straight line in sight; living things have such pleasing shapes.
By the way, that stench in the air as you roll back out to the pathway is the chemicals in the fountain.
The Business Park isn't quite completed yet, so after you cross back over to the south side of the street at North Loop Road West, you see some very interesting sand dunes and palm trees. (And strangely, some gang graffiti.) On weekends, the ***** pavement of the Parkway is pretty much deserted. If you want a place for the kids to really rip, try this out.
The last mile or so of this trail is along the south half of Shoreline Park. It is just a gem. Take your time.
Places to Eat:
Along this marvelously uninterrupted path around Bay Farm Island, the only place to grab a bite is at the white tablecloths of the restaurant at the Bay Farm Recreation Center.
If you don't mind a bit of a detour, just before the little jog in the trail where you dip under the drawbridge, you can skate all the way across the Rec Center parking lot and go a long way west along the sidewalks of Island Drive. Eventually you will come to a shopping center with pizza and other comestibles at street level. If you look around behind the buildings, you will discover an interesting thing about this island: It's honeycombed with canals. They're fun to skate around, as long as you don't try to go too fast.
Public Transportation:
The AC Transit 49 bus runs to the Ferry Dock, including weekends. You can reach it from Fruitvale BART. The Harbor Bay Ferry operates every day.
Ratings:
Path Surface = *** (some **)
Public Transit Access = ****
Surroundings = **
Level of Difficulty = EASY
Overall Rating = ***
Length = A loop of about six miles
Other trails to check out in the neighborhood:
Alameda's Shoreline Drive. With perseverance, you can skate from Bay Farm Island to Alameda across the Otis Drive -- Doolittle Drive drawbridge, without negotiating any traffic. (Note that CalTrans, the bridge operators, have a policy of no skates on the bridge, so to do this you need to bring along some moccasins.) Just head across the parking lot of the Bay Farm Rec Center, and turn left to the bridge. On the other side of the bridge, take a left at the light into a blacktop cul-de-sac. Go toward the shore at the sign "Public Access -- Scenic Walk" and the sign "Public Shore". Take a right on the concrete path by the shore, then fork right at the second set of benches, just before the swimming pool. Hang a left on Bayview, and you have made it to the beginning of the Alameda shoreline trail, with no crosstraffic.
Note from the Author: Haven't put in links to the other chapters yet.
From Richard Katz's Skating Unrinked book, published in paperback by HarperCollinsWest in 1994. Or was it '95? If you are not reading this on a screen, stop reading and head to www.Amazon.com. Thanx. Richard Katz = katz@frogojt.com. email
Back to Richard Katz's Homepage
If you want to go back to the Table of Contents of Skating Unrinked, Back to TOC