Mill Valley to Sausalito 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 sausalit
Mill Valley to Sausalito Multi-Use Pathway: Rails to Trails in Sausalito
The Rails to Trails Conservancy is a non-profit organization that recycles the roadbed of redundant or defunct railroads into skating - hiking - biking trails. The results are a mixed bag; sometimes the reason the railroad company abandoned the line is also a good reason not to want to skate there (if the way is too hemmed in by houses and grade crossings, for example). This one, the Mill Valley - Sausalito Multiuse Pathway, succeeds anachronistically. You couldn't, nowadays, just pave a path through a marsh and pave it over for the humans. But by repaving the old railroad here, Rails to Trails has provided the unique opportunity to skate right along with the shorebirds.
The part of the trail through the marsh is well over a mile and a half, and great for beginners. From beginning to end, the trail is about two and a half miles.
How to Get There by Car from Highway 101:
From Highway 101 southbound, take the Tiburon -- E. Blithedale -- 131 exit, stay to the right on the offramp, and turn right onto East Blithedale, following the sign "Mill Valley Next Exit".
From Highway 101 northbound, take the Tiburon -- Mill Valley exit, and turn left at the top of the offramp.
You will know you are on the right road when you see the "Nuclear Weapon Free Zone" sign. Stay to the left and cross the intersection of Lomita Drive (the first stop light), then hang a U-turn at Camino Alto (the second stop light.) The skating trail is just on the other side of the one story office building on your right.
What It's Like:
Except for the three or four wooden bridges, this is all smooth asphalt. In some places the asphalt is a little more evaporated than in others, but not badly. Start skating south where the trail heads across the marsh, near the corner of Roque Moraes Drive and East Blithedale (Roque Moraes is the continuation of Lomita.) After a long stretch, you come to the sign "Bay Front Park". Watch out for the wooden bridge near the traffic circle at the park entrance.
Check out the interesting short trail going off to the left near the traffic circle. In fact, several places along this Multiuse Pathway you will see trails that veer off (all to the right, except for this one) and each one of them is worth a look. The one that winds around the condos just up ahead on your right curves a long way along the (public) shoreline.
The first mile of this trail is especially pleasant, because there is no traffic nearby. Where the trail starts to run up against Shoreline Highway, you notice the noise a bit. Thankfully, the path cuts diagonally and quietly back across the marshland for another half mile until the trail goes under an immense freeway overpass. From this point on, you are skating next to the road, accompanied by noise.
On the other side of the underpass there is a stop sign. The trail continues on, but take a minute here to turn left into the parking lot and head toward the big gray buildings labelled "Shoreline Office Center." Behind the office complex is a public shore, more suitable for walking than skating, but if you go around the back of Building A (the one with the "Leasing" sign on it) you can skate to a particularly scenic panorama of the marshes and shoreline of Richardson Bay.
Returning to the stop sign, the trail continues past the houseboats of Sausalito, and then becomes somewhat of a glorified sidewalk along Bridgeway. You might think about turning around here. This is the Silicon Valley of Sausalito (software companies, mostly,) but there are a fair number of artists. Check out the IBC artists complex, a huge humpbacked building down by the shore, open to the public in early December.
Along this stretch, you can see the vestigial railroad over on your left going south. This whole area, the not-so-touristy part of Sausalito, with street names like Gate Five Road, and its converted humpbacked building, was a heavy duty maritime industrial complex that turned out Liberty ships and Victory ships during the Great War. Go over to Fort Mason and gaze up from the waterline to the bow of the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, and then eyeball her from stem to stern. Now go over to Sausalito, down by Marinship Way, and try to imagine that immense vessel being forged from pipes and plates of steel and then launched right over there by that fuel dock. Seems like a dream.
Every one of those ships got a proper sendoff, a launching ceremony complete with bigwigs and a bottle of champagne.
Places to Eat:
There are several places to get a bite to eat at the southern end of the trail along Bridgeway Boulevard in Sausalito, including a supermarket over by the Post Office at Harbor Drive with a solid deli counter.
Cafe Renoir is behind Building A of the Shoreline Office Center at 100 Shoreline Highway. When you skate south from the freeway overpass, go up the driveway at the stop sign, take a left, and look over to the right of the flagpole. There is a wide wooden walk around the building, and over there in the corner where the outdoor tables are set up, facing Richardson Bay, is the Cafe. No doubt you remember "The Boating Party" by Auguste Renoir. When you sit on the patio of the cafe, you're there. Lends a whole new meaning to the word picturesque. The good news is that it's open early in the morning. The bad news is that it's closed on weekends. It's a white table cloth establishment that also always has a few very fresh sandwiches ready to go. Cafe Renoir -- 415-332-8668.
Public Transportation:
Golden Gate Transit's #10 bus stops at the north end of the trail. You can catch the 10 bus at the Tiburon Ferry; the Sausalito Ferry; in San Francisco at the Transbay Terminal; along Howard Street and Folsom Street between First and Seventh Streets; or along Van Ness Avenue, or Lombard Street.
Ratings:
Path Surface = ***
Public Transit Access = ****
Surroundings = ***
Level of Difficulty = EASY
Overall Rating = **
Length = Two and a half miles one way
Other trails to check out in the neighborhood:
Larkspur Landing
Corte Madera Creek Trail
10/10/96
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