East Bay Trails: Hiking Trails in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties

East Bay Regional Parks is by far the best value in both of these counties. I will gladly support them with an annual donation for which I get their annual parking pass and some other goodies.As it turns out, CA. State Parks have chosen to price them self out of the business requiring a thousand dollar donation in return for an annual parking pass, hard for a senior like me living on SSI to come up with that kind of money and I don't patronize these parks (beautiful as they are) much any more. I organize and lead hikes for the "East Bay Boomers,Take a Hike" group every Monday and Mount Diablo used to be one of my favorite destinations. With a membership of around 35 hikers and weekly participation roughly 25% State Parks are only hurting them self's by not being affordable to us. I also organize and lead weekly bird watch walks on Wednesdays for Lamorinda Seniors, (Lafayette, Morga, Orinda) a group with 60 or more persons and the participation here is about 33% or more.Our hike this Monday will be on the Bay Trail in San Leandro, south towards Hayward and on to the Hayward Reg Shoreline, we are planning a 6 -7 mile hike. Our Wednesday bird watch will take place at Garin Reg. Park also in Hayward.For "Boomers Take a Hike and Lamorinda Seniors Bird watch, I am; Ben

There isn't a lot in this book that cannot be found from the internet, or from doing your own research into various east bay trails or parks. For instance, all the East Bay Regional Parks covered in this book can be found at the EBRPD website. Every EBRPD trail map can be downloaded from the website (the trail maps are more detailed than the ones in this book), and all the pertinent cultural and geographical information can be read at their website.However, the point of this book is that all that research has been done for you. You can pick up this book and get good ideas for simple hikes and much of the pertinent information without having to spend time doing all that work yourself. If this book were $50, then maybe I'd think twice, but for under $20, I have used this book many times to get general ideas of areas/parks/trails to hike. I usually supplement this book with a better trail map, but having information about much of the east bay in one concise book is very nice.PROS:-simple guide, with breakdown of distance, approximate time, and a decent trail map-nice range of east bay trails/parks covered-good descriptions of the hikes, with more than just factual "data" type information.-takes the hard work out of reseraching various EBRPD parks or other east bay parks and planning out routes, etc.CONS:-trail maps are just ok. No distances are given on the maps, and lacks a lot of detail.-no elevation profiles. In today's age of GPS and topo software out there, I almost expect books nowadays to have elevation profiles, or at least the amount of elevation gain.-more of a "general idea" guide than a specific trail guide/map.

it's so much easier to figure out your own hiking trails with the help of a book like this. it outlines where to go, how long it will take, the terrain problems, if any, etc. wouldn't hike without this guide--easier to get your own group together with this book.

I'm really enjoying this book. I've been hiking in the east bay for long enough that I was in something of a rut and this book is really breaking me out of it. It has good coverage of the area, with one or two good trails per park instead of concentrating in any given area. The hikes are mostly loops, and the distances and difficulty measurements are more realistic than some of these books where the author seems to be trying to show how tough they are. The trail descriptions are actually interesting and there are nice maps, again unlike most hiking books.

I recently moved to the east bay and looked longingly at the surrounding hills. This book opened my horizons to how and where to get outdoors.

It seems like Wilderness Press cannot disappoint me. Every book of theirs I read is worth the time and the purchase!

I really like this book and have found some great trails from it, but the one major downside to this book, in my opinion, is that it does not tell you the elevation differences for the trails. When I'm picking out a new trail, I like to consider both the mileage AND the elevation because it makes a big difference, big enough for me to not buy this book (I borrow it from the library on occasion). Other than that, this book is good.

I like it. Clear descriptions. A few pages per trail. Not too long, not too short. Gives you lots of options for various types of trails. Like the maps and the layout. Highly recommended.