Creek Crossing at Plaza Less Risky – Thanks to Boy Scouts' Stairs

In the past, if you tried your luck using a popular crossing spot on Cerrito Creek next to El Cerrito Plaza, you were taking your safety – and dryness – into your own hands. 

The makeshift path leading down to the creek from the Plaza was a slippery slope. It was being used for what some folks call the "Stannage ford," a kind of wilderness shortcut to the Plaza from Stannage Avenue in Albany. (Cerrito Creek is the border between Albany and El Cerrito.)

But now, thanks to a project by Boy Scout Troop 24 led by Eagle candidate Zach Saunders of Berkeley, you can step with greater safely, and more expeditiously, down to the creek from the Plaza. 

There are two sets of wide steps set firmly into the slope – one set of eight steps leading from the Plaza parking lot in front of Trader Joe's down to the creekside path, and the other set of 10 steps leading from the path down to the creek.

The project, done last month, was sponsored by Friends of Five Creeks.

"The original Eagle project was just to build steps from the creek to the path –this was the dangerous part," said Susan Schwartz of Friends of Five Creeks. "Zach is a great kid and, since they had time, took the initiative to finish all the way to the parking lot."

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