Berkeley CA: Tilden Park

Wildcat Peak and Bee Bootcamp

Berkeley CA is a showpiece city. Top notch public educational facilities, the Shattuck/Henry gourmet ghetto, Telegraph Avenue’s real-time sociology experiment, glamorous public transit, spinal-geo, and rampant recycling. Berkeley has its western boundary at the Berkeley Marina at San Francisco Bay and it slopes up gently with an increasing first derivative to the very steep continuous ridge in the eastern Berkeley Hills. Tilden Regional Park, first opened in 1938 on land donated by Charles Tilden, remains a real playground, capping the Berkeley Hills and spilling over to the east to San Pablo Ridge.

Just a short roadster climb up Grizzly Peak Road from Wavy Gravy’s classic shingled Berkeley compound and you arrive at Tilden. Free parking. Clean restrooms. Tilden is less accessible between November 1 and April 1 when one of the main park roads closes for the annual “newt migration.”

Today’s Tilden Park assault was Wildcat Peak -- all of 2000 vertical feet above the bay, but a big knob nonetheless. The hike takes you through groves of beautiful fragrant shedding eucalyptus -- hated by the nocalis because the trees are invasive (but what are the people?) A few of the Giant Sequoias (planted to replace a few of the eucalyptus groves) have fallen over, presumably in honor of intelligent design.

Here’s the layout on the way to Wildcat Peak -- relatively easy lumber-up unless you are at the tail end of a fourteen miler. Do watch out for multi-weaponed yellow jackets and avoid the same primary color combinations you might avoid in other east bay situations -- flying vespula gangs love colors.

At the top, you are treated to this view back over to the ridge holding back the million dollar shingled mansions of Berkeley and the bay and the city beyond.

Plus this view to the north to one of Tilden’s two swimmable, fishable lakes -- still partying like its 1938.

This perfect specimen is the ultimate reward at Wildcat’s crest -- older and wiser than all the beards in Berkeley combined.

See you in Nevada!