"Life is like riding a bicycle, to stay balanced you must keep moving."
This post is essentially a sequel to an attempted 20-mile bike ride with my good friend Jimi Hunter was aborted when he got a flat tire and realized he didn’t bring his repair kit. A week later we were ready to experience the whole enchilada. This time we were joined by friend and neighbor Bill Rothenberg who met us at our starting point at Shoreline Lake. As far as the old adage two’s a company, three’s a crowd, we all got along great. As Jimi said, when I asked if it would be okay if Bill joined us: “The more the merrier,” and that it “was."
We made our way from Shoreline Lake, near Google in the heart of Silicon Valley and took the Bay Trails to the Alviso Marina County Park, which was first known to the Ohlone Indians. As Malcolm Margolin wrote in The Ohlone Way, “The Ohlones lived in a world where people were few
and animals were many, where the bow and arrow were the height of technology.” Now the technology has expanded to include electric-assist bikes.
Back in the mid-19th century, Alviso was a bustling seaport until flooding and the rise of railroads replaced shipping driven commerce. Alviso’s identity has shifted to its new role as a managed wetland. The South Bay area provides critical habitat for migratory birds and contributes to the environmental health of the bay.
We explored and took photos of the quiet beauty of the wetlands, wildlife, marshes, elaborate salt ponds of the old marina and historic town of Alviso. Back in the day, the Ohlone people harvested salt for local use and regional trade, small scale salt production on the SF
Bay expanded into one of the largest solar evaporation complexes in the world.
This contributed to the loss of more than 85% or the rich tidal marshes that once surrounded the Bay.
However, salt ponds can be a natural part of the SF Bay. Look closely and you will see wine-colored bodies of water surrounded by piles of salt with vistas that seemingly go on forever.
Twenty-five square miles of former commercial salt ponds in the South Bay, now publically owned are being restored
to a mix of wetland habitats designed to provide homes for a variety of beautiful wildlife. A portion of the salt ponds will be restored to the tidal wetlands for wildlife threatened with extinction, but many will remain as ponds like those seen in the photos.
Once we made it in and around Alviso we decided to have a late lunch at the Lakeside Cafe at Shoreline rather than ride the ten miles back on
a full stomach. We had a blast. Most people our age have memories of riding bikes as a kid. As an adult, you want to get a car.
The electric-assist bikes have been a godsend to getting more and more people back into biking and thanks to Jimi, for showing me another way of enjoying my day, getting healthy exercise and exploring the beauty of nature.
