Reminder: Stevens Creek Trail Celebration
Today is the dedication of the Moffett Blvd Overcrossing (pictured) and the El Camino Real to Sleeper Ave extension.
Tim Oey of Sunnyvale writes about extending the trail into to Sunnyvale in a blog post this week and has drawn a Google Map to represent his understanding of the possibilities. Friends of Stevens Creek Trail have a trail status page and mailing lists to keep folks informed of changes as well.
i know from the Stevens and Permanente Creek Water Council that trail grades can be controversial. While my understanding is that for Mountain View residents, issues of “crime” — more specifically encampments of homeless along the creek — have decreased with the trail, there is also the environmental impact of routing a well used corridor for bicycle commuting and wheeled recreation along the wildlife corridor. The whirr of speeding bikes and the vrumm-vrumm-vrumm of roller bladers can be a constant companion on the existing trail. Personally, though, i found the creek first through commuting and then, in my frequent observations, i became concerned for its health. While not every commuter is going to become concerned for the health of the riparian ecosystem, the trail makes it visible and allows local residents to connect with the original arteries of the region.
I love the vision of the Stevens Creek corridor supporting a trail that connects the Bay trail to the Ridge trail, that connects the open spaces in the Santa Cruz mountains to the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge around the south bay.
Today, a little celebration of that vision coming closer.
View Stevens Creek Trail + Possibilities in a larger map
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Tags: Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge, El Camino Real, Google Map, Moffett Blvd Overcrossing, Moffett Overcrossing, mountain view, Permanente Creek Water Council, Sleeper Ave, stevens creek, Stevens Creek Trail, Sunnyvale, Tim Oey, View Stevens Creek Trail Possibilities
June 13th, 2009 at 9:01 am
I totally agree with you that bringing people to the creeks educates them to care for the creeks. Hiding creeks does them no favors.
September 27th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Hi,
I added your link to the silicon valley trails site. Its based off of free PBwiki so its not as nice looking as yours but I think you will like the site
http://siliconvalleytrails.pbworks.com/FrontPage
BTW, professionally at work we develop and run a suite of airborne imaging spectrometers for detailed NASA environmental and atmospheric research from a variety of aircraft. You might have an interest in some of the data, lots available most of data is public domain but format, not your typical GIS but same format the satellite guys use. http://asapdata.arc.nasa.gov