The Bay Trail – Ride #22 – Map 22 – Pickleweed Park – Corte Madera Marsh

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This was my twenty-second bike ride on my quest to travel 350 miles of the San Francisco Bay Trail – those miles completed so far of the total of 500 miles planned, this time following the west side of the Bay along the shore of the City of San Rafael south toward Corte Madera, following Map 22. 

On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend 2022, when states in the Southwest were bracing for record heat and energy grid operators begged users to conserve every watt possible, I took a chance that cool winds might blow along the shores of the Bay.  First, I drove up to Pickleweed Park in San Rafael, situated next to San Rafael Creek and the San Rafael Tidelands.  The creek flows past Tiscornia Marsh and into the San Rafael Bay, along the western edge of the San Francisco Bay.

Strong cool breezes prevailed the entire day – cool enough to offset the hot sun, but not so cold as to need a jacket.  It was the perfect escape from South Bay San Jose heat.

Before following the Bay Trail south along the shoreline, I rode a short distance west along San Rafael Creek past the Marin Yacht Club and then turned back.  The San Rafael Tidelands and shoreline are on the edge of San Rafael Bay.  From here one can look east across this narrow portion of the San Francisco Bay to the Marin Islands National Wildlife Refuge and Point San Pablo on the east shore of the Bay.  As the crow flies, one should be able to see Point Pinole Regional Shoreline from here (Ride #12), but Point San Pablo blocks the view.

Local birds – rails, ducks (especially the females), bitterns and sparrows – have feathers that are striped or streaked, providing perfect camouflage as they blend into surrounding grasses when they remain completely still.  Plovers and sandpipers have coloring known as “countershading.”  Their backs have a dark color where sunlight shines the brightest; their underparts are light where light is the weakest.  This, combined with their feather color, causes the birds to appear flat, even-toned, and inconspicuous.  Then there’s the killdeer, whose markings are what’s known as a disruptive pattern.  The color pattern of its feathers is broken by spots and bands so that the bird’s body seems unidentifiable, blending into its background of mottled soil or sand.

From Pickleweed Park, the Bay Trail goes south 2.4 miles through Jean and John Starkweather Shoreline Park, part of the City of San Rafael. 

There are great views of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge all along this portion of the Bay Trail.  Along the east side of the trail, I passed two large ponds created for gated communities with large homes lining the far shores and Mount Tamalpais rising in the distance behind them.  A passer-by told me flocks of egrets and other wildlife frequent those waters.

Had I ridden through this part of the John and Jean Starkweather Shoreline Park at low tide, I might have seen shell mounds along the edge of the shoreline, part of the Living Shorelines Project, begun in 2012 by San Francisco State University, U.C. Davis and other organizations and sponsored by the California Coastal Conservancy on subtidal land owned by the Nature Conservancy.  The shell mounds were created from hundreds of net bags stuffed with Pacific oyster half shells.  The mounds are now covered by native Olympia oysters and mix with large underwater eelgrass meadows.  Both the native oysters and the eelgrass are considered key foundation species for aquatic environments, proving habitat that other species can then use.

Oyster reefs can reduce incoming wave energy.  Eelgrass meadow roots stabilize the sediment and provide habitat for fish and wildlife, including native sea hares, which are a kind of mollusk related to sea slugs that can grow up to 16 inches long.  Why the name? Because the sea hares have two tentacles protruding from the top of their heads that look like “bunny ears.”  These “ears” are actually rhinophores, which detect chemicals in the water.

Although I couldn’t see it from the San Rafael (north) side of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, all the while I was riding this trail, I was nearing San Quentin prison, which sits at the west end of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.  Just north of the prison area is a long fishing pier extending into the Bay and open to the public.  Mudflats on the east side of the trail offered good pickings for black-necked stilts.  Beyond the east end of the Richmond Bridge, a layer of fog obscured much of the East Bay.

San Quentin prison is a California State prison for men, the oldest in California, opened in 1854.  It is the only State prison with a death row where executions were performed until 2006.  It occupies 275 acres of the 432 acres of Point San Quentin.  The point is named after a Coast Miwok warrior named Quentín who was taken prisoner at that place while fighting under Chief Marin.  As of July 2022, San Quentin Prison was incarcerating 3,239 occupants.

Both singers Johnny Cash and B.B. King performed at San Quentin.

Johnny Cash first performed there in 1958 with Merle Haggard (incarcerated there at the time), which inspired Haggard to later pursue a career in music.  In 1969, Cash played another live concert for the prison inmates. The concert was released as an album, “At San Quentin,” and as a television documentary, “Johnny Cash in San Quentin.” Performed at the concert, Cash’s song “A Boy Named Sue” won him the 1970 Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.

In 1991, B. B. King’s album, “Live at San Quentin” won a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album.

Once I reached the fishing pier, I returned along the trail back up to Pickleweed Park.  I loaded up my bike and drove south to Larkspur on the way to the Corte Madera Marsh. 

My first idea was to park near Remillard Park on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and follow the path along Corte Madera Creek into Larkspur.  However, there are only a few parking spots there limited to two hours.

I drove further along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and parked at the Larkspur Ferry parking lot, which was free on Saturday.  Be sure to follow the Bay Overlook spur that loops through the ferry parking lot and affords unique views of the Corte Madera Creek before leading to the ferry terminal.

The waters of Corte Madera Creek drain down from the Mount Tamalpais watershed, flow past the Ferry Terminal on the north side and the Corte Madera Marsh Ecological Reserve on the south side before emptying into the Bay.

The definition of an estuary is where salt water from the ocean meets fresh water from rivers and streams.  The San Francisco Estuary, which includes the San Francisco Bay, is the largest estuary on the west coast of North America.  Corte Madera Creek is one of many fresh water streams that flow into San Francisco Bay.  The longfin smelt migrates from the Bay into Corte Madera Creek to lay its eggs.  Steelhead trout travel up such freshwater streams to spawn.  Those that spend their whole lives in streams are called rainbow trout.  The North American green sturgeon frequents this area.  It has bony plates, called scutes, running along its back and resembles a dinosaur.  Early Spanish explorers noted in their journals catching these fish, which they encountered for the first time.

From Corte Madera Creek, one can look east to see the San Quentin prison.  Or one can look northwest, where many homes with docks – some with yachts parked there — sit along the far shore of the creek.

A ferry backed out of the docking area while I was riding on the Bay Overlook Spur along the creek.  The kayakers had paddled out of the area where the ferry turned around before it headed towards San Francisco.    

The Larkspur/Corte Madera area near the Ferry Terminal is filled with a maze of highways, overpasses and pedestrian/bike paths.  Four different dedicated biking/walking paths converge near the terminal. 

A new crossing over Corte Madera Creek, planned as part of the Transportation Authority of Marin’s North-South Greenway Gap Closure project, was not yet completed, so on this day I continued west from the ferry parking lot and took the boardwalk to my left which passed under Highway 101. 

At the junction of the boardwalk, a second path takes a circular turn south, then back north over Sir Francis Drake Boulevard onto the Cal Park Hill Pathway, which appears to extend north into San Rafael.  This path is not part of the Bay Trail.  I rode along this route a short distance to get a better view where that portion of the trail went.  Where the path made its circle, it provided a view of an old railroad bridge crossing Corte Madera Creek with the center section lifted permanently to allow boats to pass through.

After a little exploration, I rode back down the ramp to the street, then hung a U-turn to follow the wooden boardwalk that passed under another pedestrian/bikeway plus two different sections of the Highway 101 freeway.

The wooden boardwalk going under 101 follows the Corte Madera Creek west towards Kentfield and San Anselmo.  Houses with docked boats line the creek on either side.  Rowing teams practice in this area.  I rode west along the creek towards Kentfield for a while. 

Mount Tamalpais watches over this part of the Bay.  Its peak, over 2570 feet, rises up above every view looking west.  The mountain’s name comes from the Coast Miwok word for “west hill.”

Since this path was leading me away from the Bay Trail, I turned back.

Just before the Marin Rowing Association building, the Bay Trail turns north a short way before it loops back south and follows Highway 101 on the west side.  Just as I turned north, a snowy egret (the egret with the yellow feet) flew across the creek, its outspread wings reflecting in the water.

Being a short person can have its challenges.  The dedicated path flanking Highway 101 has very high fences to keep folks safe.  To get the shot of the path looking south, I had to stand up on my bike pedals, hold onto the metal rail with my left hand to keep my balance, and then aim and shoot my camera with the right hand.  I fired off one shot and called it good.

The path curves upwards in elevation to cross over Corte Madera Creek, then descends to continue flat, paralleling the path of 101.  At Lucky Drive, the path went up a spiral ramp to an overpass which took me over 101 to the east side.  Looking back behind me, I had a clear view of 101 past a tall, arched metal stand holding a bell marking the route of the Spanish missionaries in the early 1800’s. 

There are many bike routes in this area with good signage.  Some routes lead back north to downtown Larkspur; others continue south to Corte Madera, Mill Valley, and Tiburon.

Once on the east side of 101 and after following the Redwood Highway south a bit where there is a gap in the Bay Trail, I found a dirt trail leading towards the Bay through the Corte Madera Marsh Ecological Reserve.  The trail passes through the tidal marsh and past expanses of pickleweed.  Tidal marshes provide flood protection by soaking up high tides, thereby protecting adjacent communities.  They provide water filtration by trapping runoff containing pollutants and sediment and break down the pollutants into less harmful substances. 

Tidal marshes are home to the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse endangered salt marsh harvest mouse, the California Ridgway’s Rail, and the American avocet.  The salt marsh harvest mouse is about 3 inches long and eats pickleweed.  Fun facts:  This mouse can drink salt water and can swim for 2 hours during high tide events.  The Ridgway’s Rail is one of the largest rails, from 13 to 19 inches long.  Formerly called the California clapper rail, its name comes from its territorial call that sound like a “clapper.”

First the trail was narrow and dirt; later it was gravel and wide enough for service vehicles to drive through, with access to much of the marsh areas restricted by cyclone fences on either side of the road.  Beyond expanses of dry summer grasses, S-curved sloughs and the marsh to the north, local hillsides could be seen, dotted with homes and bordered by roads and freeways. 

As I continued further along the Bay Trail, it narrowed and became dirt again, no longer passable by vehicles.  According to a map posted along the narrower trail, I had been following the “perimeter path” open to the public along the edges of the Corte Madera Marsh.  The interior of the Corte Madera Marsh – the majority of the reserve – was closed to the public to protect sensitive habitat. 

I realized I wasn’t that far – as the crow flies – from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal when I saw a ferry arriving on the far side of the marsh.  San Quentin and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge were visible across the marsh.  I watched the ferry pass the prison and meet an oncoming ferry as they approached each other on this side of the bridge.  The Bay Trail appeared to head straight towards San Quentin, with the ferry churning up Corte Madera Creek on my left, but the trail ended at a point of land at the edge of the marsh, with Bay waters ahead.

Returning from the point, I rode towards Mount Tamalpais, which seemed not so far away.  The trail turned left and south until it came to a residential area.  I didn’t go as far as Muzzi Marsh, which is separated from Corte Madera Marsh by a narrow waterway coming in from the Bay.  I turned back north and passed a pond on the right where I stopped for a late lunch.  Leaves of nearby trees were turning color, fluttering in the wind, whispering that fall would be here soon.  This part of the trail was paved, with the 4-lane Redwood Highway on the left and a slough and the edge of Shorebird Marsh on the right.  Shorebird Marsh borders the east edge of Corte Madera Marsh.

There is a third dedicated trail along the east side of 101, which goes north over Corte Madera Creek and back to Sir Francis Drake Boulevard.  Rather than using the overpass to cross back over 101, I took a chance that I would reach this trail if I continued straight north, and I did.  Freeway signs to my left told cars how to get to 101 North or the Richmond Bridge.  The bike trail was paved, two lanes, with a yellow dotted line painted down the middle.  A metal railing on the right side kept pedestrians and bikes from going into the Corte Madera Creek, with occasional viewing areas extending out from the lanes of bike traffic for those who want to stop, look, photograph.

As the bike path approached the creek, I got a good view of the complex intersection of walkways leading in several directions from Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, three of which I’d ridden on earlier in the day.  This route gave me a good view of the railroad bridge with its gate lifted, the waters of the creek heading out towards the Bay with San Quentin in the distance.

A little further up, I had a clear view of the wooden bikeway I had ridden earlier which had gone under the pedestrian corridor I was currently following. 

From here, it was an easy ride east back to the Larkspur Ferry parking area to get my car and begin my drive home.  With stops and starts, I rode 5 hours this day, covering 10.2 miles, 4.6 of which were return miles.  My odometer had reached 300 miles.  Each ride continued to be unique and unexpectedly different from the ride before, regardless of the close proximity of different sections of the Bay Trail.

                                                                                                   ~     ~     ~

Funding and sponsor organizations and contributing partners:

California State Coastal Conservancy; California Institute of Man in Nature; Marin Audubon Society; Multicultural Center of Marin; California Ocean Protection Council; San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority Measure AA; Living Shorelines Project; San Francisco State University; U.C. Davis; the Nature Conservancy; Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District.

Information sources:

S.F. Bay Trail website, Map 22; interpretive exhibits (information boards) along the Bay Trail; Audubon Field Guides; Monterey Bay Aquarium; Discover Wildlife Animal Facts, Wikipedia San Quentin.