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Community Corner

Nature By Flashlight: Walking Cerrito Creek and Albany Hill at Dusk

A walk led by Susan Schwartz of Friends of Five Creeks offers equal doses of nature stewardship and history.

A stroller and an office chair rested defiantly in the middle of Cerrito Creek.

"Here's an office chair, if anyone wants it," offered Susan Schwartz, who was leading a Friends of Five Creeks walk along the creek and up the steep trails of Albany Hill.

The walk, for which participants were asked to bring flashlights and sturdy shoes, was one of three hosted in Albany to let the public know about a plan to improve walking and biking routes around the city. A public workshop on these improvements will be held at 4 p.m. on Sept. 14 at the Albany Community Center.

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The potential for enjoying nature in an urban setting was somewhat marred by pieces of litter, empty Pabst Blue Ribbon cases and shopping carts abandoned in nearby Creekside Park, with its small playground and colorful murals painted by Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. 

Tuesday night, the park looked like it had recently been used by teenagers desperate for a party and a sneak puff of bubble kush, though perhaps it's good to remember that Cerrito Creek and the surrounding marsh once were filled with worse: garbage, slaughterhouses, dynamite rubble and other equally pleasant organic compounds.

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Starting from San Pablo Avenue, Schwartz and five others walked down to the park. She noted suggested improvements, including a bicycle bridge on the south side of the trail on Adams Street, and a bridge further ahead connecting the more urban Creekside Park in El Cerrito to the wilder park in Albany.

Schwartz later explained that bridges are for safety in addition to convenience. She described how a man once slid into the creek on the Albany side during a storm.

"He was in about to his waist, the creek was high, and there was no way across," she said. It took half an hour to reach him. "So after that, I became very serious about getting that bridge."

The group crossed a wooden plank to the base of Albany Hill, which Schwartz referred to as "the big piece of nature in the middle of the city." The visitors made the climb through a dense thicket of oak, monkeyflower, hazelnut and poison oak.

Poison oak bursts from the trail's edges and seemingly swallows the lower half of the hill whole, threatening anyone hiking in shorts and a T-shirt with a bit of itching the next morning. Clearing the poison oak, along with building the bridges and cleaning up Creekside Park, is part of an "infinite list of Eagle Scout projects," Schwartz said.

Another problem Schwartz pointed out were "switchback cutoffs," likely carved out in the past two months. She said she'd like to have them fixed "as quickly as possible."

When you build a trail up a steep hill, it needs to veer left and right to keep the climb more gradual. It can be tempting to some to head straight down, which is referred to as cutting the switchback.

"When you do that, and there's a lot of rain, you can easily get a canyon. And this will wash out the existing trail, sometimes wash out the hill," she said.

The large grove of eucalyptus at the top of Albany Hill beckoned the visitors onward. Schwartz said the trees were planted originally to muffle the blasts from the area's dynamite factory. The trees are imposing, and the view, with the Bay on one side, and Albany, El Cerrito and the Berkeley Hills, is especially impressive. 

The group paused for a break at the large clearing on top of the hill. A young mother watched her daughter play on a nearby rope swing.

Gerlind of Marina Bay, who's gone on three or four walks with Schwartz, said she found out about the hikes at the Albany Senior Center.

"I always liked nature, even as a little kid. I was happiest outdoors," said Gerlind, who was born in Germany and has lived in Albany for seven years. "I wish more people would love nature, and not sit in front of the television, or computers, or race with their cars down the street."

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