Brentwood Press - Index

Brentwood Press - WelcomeMagazine_08.09 - Index

PARKS
Creek trail paves way to painless play
Its birthplace is the springs of Mt.
Diablo and the rivulets of Morgan
Territory. From that headwater it spills
east, brushes Round Valley, cuts north and
bisects Brentwood, moseys through Oakley
and wades into the San Joaquin at Big
Break. It’s the silver thread woven prominently
through the fabric of East County
recreation: Marsh Creek.
Nine of that 25-mile meander, from
Concord Avenue in Brentwood through
Oakley’s Big Break, is a road to hiking
heaven paved with the best of intentions.
When winter rains turn dirt to mud, East
County walkers, cyclists, dog owners and
baby carriage pushers appreciate the firm
footing of the Marsh Creek Trail.
Care to take a stroll?
If you’re a trekker with time for only a
short trip, you can hop on and off Marsh
Creek Trail at numerous points along its
journey through East County: in Oakley,
Delta Road, East Cypress Road, and Fetzer
and Jordan lanes; in Brentwood, the Tech
Center on Sand Creek Road, Central
Boulevard, Creekside Park and Concord
Avenue. Have time and calories to spend?
You can treat yourself to 18 miles of
round-trip scenery.
A tricky segment of the trail occurs in
Brentwood, where Brentwood Boulevard
(Highway 4) crosses Sunset Road. Northbound,
you’ll come to a bridge spanning
Marsh Creek and a sidewalk leading one
block straight to Sunset. After a hop across
Highway 4 at the stoplight, head east for
the bridge over Marsh Creek and you’re
back in business.
From there, the creek widens and
glides gently down toward the Delta. Flat
green water becomes choppy white water
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as riffles (strips of subsurface rocks spanning
the creek like toll booths) unmask
the current’s speed. Carp, black bass and
snowy egrets patrol the shallows. If you
think those thatched domes on the water
would make good muskrat condos, well …
they do.
About a mile north of Sunset you
skirt a big-bouldered cascade of the purified
outfall of Brentwood’s water treatment
plant, providing freshly aerated water for
the creatures downstream. Soon you come
to Oakley orchard country, especially
fragrant in spring, and then fields of scrub
where the long ears of jackrabbits bound
behind the bramble.
See the Antioch Bridge ahead on your
left? Sense the cooling effect of the San
Joaquin River? You’re homing in on Big
Break Lagoon. You hang a left and cross a
bridge, where Marsh Creek Trail becomes
Big Break Regional Trail. Reed beds and
marsh grasses begin to crowd the landscape.
Mallard ducks and Canada geese
sweep low over forests of cattails. This is
a popular hangout for red-winged blackbirds.
And then the music begins. A single
birdcall is joined by another. From countless
hidden places in the dense foliage the
symphony, at once chaotic and harmonious,
shifts from one soloist and ensemble
to the next as you follow the trail westward.
It’s a magical promenade.
For such a flat place, the view here
is panoramic. As your gaze sweeps from
west to south you see the earth rise from
sea level nearly 4,000 feet to the Diablo
peaks, then fall in ripples of chaparral
brown and forest green through Morgan
Territory, Round Valley and the hills of
A placid Marsh Creek mirrors the
colors of sky and autumn branches
as it flows through Brentwood just
north of Balfour Road.
Los Vaqueros. Finally, far to the southeast,
the wrinkling of the land comes to an end
as the Altamont Pass glides down to the
Central Valley.
Soon you reach the rest area, providing
picnic tables, a map station, restroom
and information about the Big Break habitat.
If you find the bobbing impertinence
of western fence lizards amusing, this is a
good spot to cool your heels.
The trail continues west for a mile,
past more marshlands on your right and a
water reclamation site on your left. Amid
bulrushes and foxtail barley, your stroll
ends at Fetzer and Jordan lanes in Oakley.
The Marsh Creek Trail is operated by
the East Bay Regional Park District and nurtured
by Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed.
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62 Welcome! The Magazine of East County 2008-2009