3 posts tagged “water”

Today, I decided that I wanted to make the long hike out to the end of the jetty that runs along side Ferry Point where the U.S.S. Hornet is docked in Alameda, CA. 

The first time I discovered the jetty, I made it almost half way before I decided to turn back due to concerns about being able to see after dark with no lights and treacherous, random rock piles that I was navigating on the way out there (see the video below).

For my second trip out, I was determined to get all the way to the end and I even found the secret entrance to the jetty parking lot that I had missed the last time I went.

We've had a brief break in the typical winter storms that have been hitting us in the Bay Area back to back lately and I thought today would be a good day to do this as the forecast calls for rain off and on into next week with a possibility of snow as low as 2000 feet.

So, I got out there and despite it being pretty late in the afternoon, I was able to press on through the Dance Dance Revolution step combinations necessary to avoid wrenching my ankles and feet in some precarious slots between the large, jagged and assorted rock types that are piled up to create this artificial breakwater jetty (again see the video below).

There are several cement markers along the piled rocks that make up the jetty.  All of these marker spots look like some kind of wooden structure used to reside on top of them before they burned down.  There's also a kind of circular metal hole in the middle and possibly some kind of light or lantern of some sort at some point in the past. These holes are now filled with salty seawater and bits and pieces of bird food fodder; chunks and shards of mussels and crab carcasses that have been discarded after the meat was removed and eaten by a seagull or some other seabird.

This crapshoot of obtuse and unusually shaped rocks continues for almost a mile and I started thinking I might fall into a slot and how would anyone find me if I twisted or broke my ankle and get a little worried.  Just then, my neighbor calls me on my cell phone and I return to civilization briefly to tell my her that her sister will have to be added to my list of filtered MAC addresses before I can give her a password to our WPA2 network so that she can get free WiFi.  Knowing that I can receive calls on my cell phone makes me feel better about the trek, although, with my luck, I'd fall, get my ankle stuck and the cell phone would shoot out of my jacket pocket and into the water simultaneously and I'd be stuck there with no phone and nary a pot to piss in.

Eventually, I reach the end of the line and realize that the jetty has an uncrossable gap in it that leads off in a North-Westerly direction and lots of birds are sitting on the rocks out there across this divide laughing at me because I can't come and play where they are hanging out.  There's an official looking red and white striped box just a bit taller than me with a door on it situated right in the middle of the mile long rock-laden path that I've just come down.

I turn to my left and I see another red and white striped box with a door on it just like the one that is where I'm currently standing at almost the very end of the jetty section that juts out into the bay towards San Mateo.  The red and white striped box near me is obviously made of metal and inside the hinged but broken-locked door, there's what appears to be charred coal or the carbon remains of something that was burned inside of it. I presume the other one has similar crap in it and don't bother going out to the farthest point on the jetty for fear of losing my balance and falling into the water.

I'm a little winded now after the long, tedious journey.  I'm feeling a bit uneasy about my solo trek, the late hour of the day and the chance that I could get stuck out here.  A huge bay wave, similar to the one in the movie The Day After Tomorrow that swallows downtown Manhattan, although highly unlikely, could potentially come in behind me as I akwardly dance my way across the rocks back to the safety of the shore.

When I get home, I grab the always informative and now undersea-capable version of Google Earth and use the Ruler window to determine where I was and how far the journey out to the end of the jetty is in miles.  Turns out it's only about 1.03 miles to the end where I went to.  If I had a dingy, I could paddle across that gap and get to where all the bird crap is for a really rare photo opportunity but why would I want to risk life and limb just for a stupid photo that I could take from a ferry or a small boat in the bay some time in the future?

Anyway, my feet were sore and decided that as a reward I have sushi from the newly remodeled and recently re-opened Kai's sushi restaurant in Alameda.

Kai's isn't as hi-falutin' and yummy as Kamakura, also in Alameda, but the price of admission is cheap just like the price of my hike today. Next time I do this hike, I won't forget my camera so that I can take some pictures to add to this post of the red and white striped boxes.

The photos and video here are from the first trip out when I didn't get all the way to the end and it was much sunnier.

The first time I flew in a plane over water that I can remember, the flight's landing gear wouldn't go down automatically so the pilots had to manually crank down the wheels.  Unfortunately, on this particular plane, and I'm not sure if this is the case on more modern airplanes, there was no way to guarantee that the gear was locked down.  So, we had to fly by the tower for a visual inspection of the gear and and then we all braced in the crash/kiss your ass goodbye position as we landed.  The good news was, the gear was just fine.

We had fire trucks and fire support personnel following us down the runway even though nothing of any consequence occurred.  The one thing the flight attendant said just before our descent to possible doom that produced an unpleasant groan from the gallery on board was, "... and we'll see you in paradise" because we were headed into Oahu but lots of people didn't think that was all too funny.  There's another paradise to be seen in by way of a fiery explosive plane crash death that we were all hoping wasn't how the flight would end.  I guess it just wasn't our time to go.

On Memorial Day this past Monday, I took a walk along the path at Lake Chabot.  I only got about one and a half miles into the walk path before I decided that I should probably turn around and head back as it was getting late in the evening.  I want to go back there soon to see if I can make the whole trip on foot.  I think it might be seven and a half miles all the way around the path.

 It was a gorgeous day on Monday and lots of people were having a picnic, grilling various kinds of meats, playing volleyball or riding their bikes and there were lots of boats out on the water once I got out on the path.  The Lake Chabot Marina offers boats for rent and if you have your own boat, there's a private boat launch as well.  I don't think a boat you bring yourself can be that large though.  There's no access for bigger boats in the marina unfortunately; at least not that I could see in the marina area.  There may be a larger boat launch somewhere else on the , just not in the marina.  I'm not sure how deep the lake is either.

Here's some of the photos from my adventure out on the lake...