Trekkers Hold Quintessential Trails Day Celebration

Most of us let National Trails Day slip by without notice, but about a dozen members of the El Cerrito Trail Trekkers held the ultimate celebration Saturday. Thanks to their morning of work, El Cerrito has 88 feet of new trail.

Following up on two earlier sessions of broom removal, the crew began work on a section of the at the corner of Blake and Navellier streets, working their way up the hill to begin a trail that eventually will crest the hill and then head south to connect to an opening on Potrero Avenue. The group has many work sessions ahead before the project is completed. But when done the trail, the group’s first project, will provide an important connection in El Cerrito’s fractured collection of trails and make it possible to hike all the way to Moeser from the Blake/Navellier entry point, according to Trekker Dave Weinstein.

Jenny Hammer, who is coordinating the project, said the trail is 30 inches wide and switches back to prevent erosion, as well as making it easier to scale. An earlier trail through the same area followed a line of telephone poles straight up the hill. That trail disappeared over the years and the telephone poles are long gone as well.

The location was famous once as Motorcycle Climb Hill, site of motorcycle-racing competitions up its steep slope in the 1920s. Thousands of spectators from a wide area came to watch. A description and historical photos of the contests can be found on this El Cerrito-based blog.

According to the website of the American Hiking Society, “National Trails Day is a celebration of trails that evolved from the report of President Ronald Reagan's President's Commission on Americans Outdoors. In 1987, the report recommended that all Americans be able to go out their front doors and within fifteen minutes, be on trails that wind through their cities or towns and bring them back without retracing steps.“

The site adds that, “Trails do not just magically appear for our enjoyment; it takes many hours of planning, labor, and negotiating to develop them.“