This is Mission Peak, and actually a ref shot I got to take myself when I visited a few years ago to scope out for myself these mysterious East Bay Walls. Ok, maybe it’s a bit of a composite. This old oak tree though, how old do you figure an oak has to be to die and then sprout up from the same space like this one did? There’s a bunch of old trees up there, very interesting place. There’s even the ruins of an old walled city with a big gate and everything. One of the most interesting things were these stone lookout towers, each one in sight of the other, lord of the rings style. We’d see one and hike to it, take a look at the stones, some of which appeared to have been mortared. All pre-Spanish. No one knows who did it and the local indian tribe said the walls were there when they got there, at least that’s what the park plaque said at the time. The East Bay Walls proper aren’t exactly walls either, they’re some form of boundary markers, as far as I can tell. (though I’ve heard that there are large coiled snake shapes in some places like Point Reyes) The ones you can see from mission peak aren’t more than a foot or so tall, so it definitely didn’t impede the movement of game or corral any animals. They were however, super accurately surveyed and stretched for literally miles of very difficult terrain. Whatever survey team pulled it off was incredible. It is a mystery.

What is not a mystery though is that there is not enough parking to accommodate the large amount of on-break computer programmers who want to run up and down the trail. The residents vigorously oppose any attempts to expand the parking lot, and also relentlessly impound improperly parked vehicles. It’s a bit of a swanky neighborhood too, with some very nice houses and I’m sure the constant traffic and noise is not fun. The park has compromised by discouraging people to go to the main trail and instead get them to go to some other trail where you can park at a local community college. So that’s a thing to think about if you go. It’s definitely worth a trip.



and what trouble is Xander getting into today? wonder no more