The San Francisco Bay Trail project was started in the 1980s to build a "ring around the Bay." The project has been compared to the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail in that it connects the communities along the way.  But the Bay Trail is unique because it circles a body of water and does so in a major metropolitan area.

Some 310 miles of the San Francisco Bay Trail have been completed as of this summer, and it turns out that Richmond is the city with the most miles of trail so far: 30. It makes sense if you think that Richmond is the city with the longest shoreline in the Bay Area. The city has also been lucky enough to have a group of volunteers who in the late 1990s created the Trails for Richmond Action Committee with the goal to finish the Bay Trail in that city.  They have 11 miles left to go.

Our video takes you on a journey along several sections of the Bay Trail in Richmond. We start out bird-watching at Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline, then ride to the wetlands north of Pt. Isabel Regional Shoreline, and end up at the newest section of the Bay Trail, which circles a former landfill off the Richmond Parkway.

In our video, we wanted to somehow recreate the experience of watching the scenery change as you move along the Bay Trail.  So we asked Bay Trail project manager Laura Thompson to ride her bicycle as we interviewed her, and we came up with our own low-tech "dolly" so that we could film her as we rode alongside.  Check out the photos:

Want to recreate our journey? Find the locations on this map:

View Journey of the San Francisco Bay Trail in a larger map

Doug Nomura in action on the Bay Trail.

Something about San José photographer Doug Nomura’s pictures of birds in flight, or attempting to get off the ground to fly, grabs you.  I think it’s the sheer energy and effort that the photos convey.

It’s especially timely to be broadcasting our profile of Nomura as the Your Photos on QUEST 2-minute segment on our Oct. 13 television episode, since the Bay Area is inundated with migratory birds starting in October.  The Bay Area is on the Pacific Flyway, a major north-south route of travel for migratory birds in the Americas, extending from Alaska to Patagonia.  As a result, close to 700,000 ducks are usually counted in the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta during October, said John Takekawa, research wildlife biologist with the US Geological Service. Raptors like hawks and falcons also stop over in the Bay Area in fall and winter.

Doug Nomura looks forward to the beginning of the migration in October because it multiplies his opportunities to photograph birds in flight.  He stalks his subjects along the Bay Trail, a shoreline trail that will eventually hug the entire circumference of the San Francisco Bay.  When the Bay Trail is complete, it will be 500 miles long.  Currently, the public can enjoy almost 300 miles of paths.  Nomura, whose day job is as a computer network security specialist, is an avid fan.  “This allows me to turn the cell phone off and go out there for a couple of hours,” he said.  “It’s some of the best therapy one can give oneself and it doesn’t cost anything.  I’d like my photographs to inspire people to visit the Bay Trail to look at the wildlife and appreciate what we have in our backyard.”

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