The Contra Costa Canal 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 cccanal
The Contra Costa Canal: Aspects of the Water Supply
As you drive around the Golden State of California, every once in a while you come across a long straight ribbon of water flowing determinedly from Point A to Point B, sometimes uphill. The general idea of all this powered water movement is to get the water out of the Sacramento River. On a Federal level, the process is called Reclamation. Way back before the Great War, the Bureau of Reclamation built the first leg of this canal here in Contra Costa county, California, to reclaim the dry countryside and turn it into farms.
The canal was finished sometime in the Fifties. Contra Costa county has grown up around the canal, following the curves of the waterway with clusters of cul-de-sacs. The canal is a truncated loop, a U-shaped concrete ditch, with water flowing downhill from the hills above Concord, swooping around through Walnut Creek, and going back the way it came into Martinez. Surprisingly long portions of this loop are uninterrupted by road crossings. From one end of the unclosed loop to the other is about twelve miles.
The pumps are manned nowadays by the Conta Costa Water District. The skating path along the waterway is officially an East Bay Regional Park District Regional Trail; it doubles as an access road for the Water District's pickup trucks, mostly at night. When the Water District needs to work on part of the Canal, a section of trail will get fenced off.
How to Get There by Car from Interstate 680:
From Interstate 680 north, take the "Treat Boulevard -- Geary Road exit. Take a left at the bottom of the offramp to go west on Geary Road. Go about a mile on Geary, and turn right on Pleasant Hill Road. A half mile later, Pleasant Hill Road curves right, then at an odd sort of intersection where Pleasant Hill Road veers left again, you continue straight onto Oak Park Boulevard. The trail crosses Oak Park Boulevard just after the capacious parking lots of the Onstage Theater.
From Interstate 680 south, take the "Main Street -- Geary Road" exit and turn left onto Main Street in Walnut Creek. A block later, turn right onto Geary Road. Go right on Pleasant Hill Road, follow it around the bend a mile later, then go straight on Oak Park Boulevard when Pleasant Hill Road veers left again. Park anywhere. The trail crosses Oak Park Boulevard just east of Oak Creek Court.
The next time you are in the neighborhood, exit Interstate 680 at Geary Road -- Treat Boulevard and take Treat Boulevard east. Turn right on Oak Grove Road (no relation) and stop at Graymont. The trail crosses Oak Grove Road between Graymont and Peachwillow Lane.
On another trip to the Contra Costa Canal Trail, start at the other end of it. Take Interstate 680 to Willow Pass Road exit, and go east on Willow Pass. Turn right on Sixth Street, then left on Alameda Avenue. At the bend in the road, park anywhere. You can't miss it.
What It's Like:
If you parked near Oak Park Boulevard and Oak Park Lane in Pleasant Hill and started skating north, the skating trail is intersected by very few streets. Of the few streets that do intersect it, both Boyd Road and Gregory "Lane" require patience to cross. At Taylor Boulevard you have to take a detour to the crosswalk. At Las Juntas Park, the path becomes so steep that beginning skaters may consider turning around. The section between Taylor and Chilpancingo Parkway is beautiful, as it rolls up and down by the end of the Contra Costa Country Club and by Diablo Valley College's Center for the Performing Arts.
Another Outing:
If you started this trail in the middle, where the canal crosses Oak Grove Road, go west from Oak Grove Road, and have a relaxing roll toward Bancroft Avenue and beyond. It is astonishing that so much quiet open space exists in the midst of such a built up area. To the right of the crossing at Bancroft is Bancroft Shopping Center, home of the Copper Kettle restaurant.
All the way at the upriver section of the Canal the landscape seems even more rural. If you skate far enough south from Clayton Road you will be running along the border of Lime Ridge Open Space, a grassland that the voters decided should always look just about the way you see it now.
Places to Eat:
The Contra Costa Canal trail crosses Bancroft Avenue just a few hundred feet south of the corner of the Bancroft Shopping Center. The Copper Kettle Restaurant has an outdoor seating area, suitable for feeding a group of hungry skaters. Open early and late.
Public Transportation:
The trail is a block or two south of the Pleasant Hill BART station, on Oak Road.
Ratings:
Path Surface = ***
Public Transit Access = Almost *****
Surroundings = *
Level of Difficulty = EASY
Overall Rating = **
Length = 12 miles
Other trails to check out in the neighborhood:
Iron Horse Trail. Someday the Iron Horse Trail will intersect the Contra Costa Canal Trail, just three blocks south of the Pleasant Hill BART station.
Ygnacio Canal Trail. Ygnacio Valley Road crosses Oak Grove Road three blocks south of the Contra Costa Canal trail. From the intersection of Ygnacio Valley and Oak Grove, head east on Ygnacio Valley; just where the road curves left and starts to climb into the hills, look for a parking/staging area on the right. It isn't marked. The Ygnacio Canal Trail is hiding just to the right of the highway. Skate east on that trail, and see some dazzling overlooks from high above the treetops of Concord. It actually goes through a custom tunnel to get under Ygnacio Valley Road. When you get to a T-intersection and a sign "5 MPH", you might want to stop and turn back, because it is indeed steep. If you do skate down it, you merge with a newly paved portion of the Contra Costa Canal Trail.
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