1.
Contra Costa County, California
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Contra Costa County is a county in the state of California in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,049,025, the name is Spanish for opposite coast, referring to its position on the other side of the bay from San Francisco. Contra Costa County is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–Hayward, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area and it occupies the northern portion of the East Bay region and is primarily suburban. In the northern part of the county, significant coal and sand deposits were formed in even earlier geologic eras, other areas of the county have ridges exposing ancient but intact seashells, embedded in sandstone layers alternating with limestone. Layers of volcanic ash ejected from geologically recent but now extinct volcanoes, compacted and now tilted by compressive forces, may be seen at the site of some road excavations. This county is an agglomeration of several distinct geologic terranes, as is most of the greater San Francisco Bay Area, younger deposits at middle altitudes include pillow lavas, the product of undersea volcanic eruptions. There is an extensive but little recorded human history pre-European settlement in this area, the earliest definitively established occupation by modern man appears to have occurred six to ten thousand years ago. However, there may have been human presence far earlier, at least as far as non–settling populations are concerned, extensive trading from tribe to tribe transferred exotic materials such as obsidian throughout the region from far distant Californian tribes. Unlike the nomadic Native American of the Great Plains it appears that these tribes did not incorporate warfare into their culture but were generally cooperative. Within these cultures the concept of individual or collective land ownership was nonexistent, early European settlers in the region, however, did not record much about the culture of the natives. Most of what is known comes from preserved contemporaneous and excavated artifacts. Although there were no missions established within this county, Spanish influence here was direct and extensive, in 1821 Mexico gained independence from Spain. Mission lands extended throughout the Bay Area, including portions of Contra Costa County, between 1836 and 1846, during the era when California was a province of independent Mexico, the following 15 land grants were made in Contra Costa County. Rough surveying was based on a map, or diseño, measured by streams, shorelines, and/or horseman who marked it with rope, lands outside rancho grants were designated el sobrante, as in surplus or excess, and considered common lands. The law required the construction of a house within a year, fences were not required and were forbidden where they might interfere with roads or trails. Locally a large family required roughly 2000 head of cattle and two leagues of land to live comfortably. Foreign entrepreneurs came to the area to provide goods that Mexico couldn’t, Rancho Canada de los Vaqueros was granted to Francisco Alviso, Antonio Higuera, and Manuel Miranda. Two ranchos, both called Rancho San Ramon, were granted by the Mexican government in the San Ramon Valley, in 1833, Bartolome Pacheco and Mariano Castro shared the two square league Rancho San Ramon
2.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
3.
Walnut Creek, California
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Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located 16 miles east of the city of Oakland in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its active downtown neighborhood features hundred-year-old buildings and extensive high-end retail establishments, restaurants, as of 2014, the citys total estimated population is 67,673. Diablo, and the Tactan at Danville and Walnut Creek, on San Ramon Creek, todays Walnut Creek is located amidst the earlier site of four Mexican land grants. One of these land grants – measuring 18,000 acres – belonged to Juana Sanchez de Pacheco, Ygnacio Sibrian, one of the grandsons, created the first roofed home in the valley in about 1850. The grant was called Rancho Arroyo de Las Nueces y Bolbones, named after the principal waterway, the Arroyo de las Nueces was named for the occurrence in the valley of the native species of walnut tree, the California Walnut. With the coming of American settlers following the Mexican-American War, a settlement called The Corners emerged, named because it was the place where roads from Pacheco. The site of this first American settlement is today at the intersection of Mt. Diablo Boulevard. The first town settler was William Slusher, who built a dwelling on the bank of Walnut Creek, in the year 1855, Milo Hough of Lafayette built the hotel named Walnut Creek House in the corners. A blacksmith shop and a store soon joined the hotel, two decades later, the community changed its name from The Corners to Walnut Creek. In December 1862 a United States Post Office was established, the downtown street patterns laid out in 1871–1872 by pioneer Homer Shuey on a portion of one of his familys large cattle ranches are still present today. Walnut Creek began to grow with the arrival of Southern Pacific Railroad service in 1891, on October 21,1914, the town and the surrounding area of 500 acres ), were incorporated as the 8th city in Contra Costa County. A branch line of the Southern Pacific railroad ran through Walnut Creek until the late 1970s, the East Bay Regional Park Districts Iron Horse Trail, used by walkers, runners and bikers, runs over what were portions of that branch line. The mainline of the Sacramento Northern Railway passed through Walnut Creek, today, the Pittsburg/Bay Point – SFO Line line of the Bay Area Rapid Transit serves Walnut Creek with a station adjacent to Highway 680. Walnut Creek is located at 37°54′23″N 122°03′54″W, portions lie in both the San Ramon Valley and the Ygnacio Valley below the western slopes of Mount Diablo. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 19.8 sq mi,0.06 percent of which is water. Walnut Creek owns more open space per capita than any community in the state of California. In 1974, Walnut Creek voters approved a $6.7 million bond measure that allowed the city to purchase 1,800 acres of undeveloped hillsides, ridge lines, and park sites. Walnut Creek owns parts of Lime Ridge Open Space, Shell Ridge Open Space, Acalanes Ridge Open Space, the East Bay Regional Park District operates Diablo Foothills Regional Park and Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area, both in Walnut Creek
4.
Pleasant Hill, California
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Pleasant Hill is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 33,152 at the 2010 census, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.1 square miles. Pleasant Hill has a landscape with some valleys and rolling hills. In undisturbed wilderness, oak woodlands and mixed woods can be found and it is located in the central East San Francisco Bay. Winter daytime temperatures tend to be in the fifties and sixties, on very rare occasions, the temperatures can reach the one hundred degree range during extreme heat waves. Freezing in winter is rare, but it does happen, summer fog is occasional but winter fog is very common. This area began to be developed more in the 1920s, as agricultural land was subdivided for housing. Monument Boulevard was named after the Soldiers Memorial Monument to commemorate soldiers of the Great War and it was erected on December 11,1927. The monument depicts one black and three white soldiers and it is 45 feet tall, constructed of formed concrete, and weighs 150 tons. In 1954 the monument was moved to its current site at Boyd Road, developed largely in the years following World War II, this area did not have a post office until 1948. On February 21,1967, Century 21 Theaters opened an 895-seat dome theater between Monument Boulevard and Hookston Road, visible from the freeway after it was constructed, the futuristic dome-topped cinema became an iconic landmark for the newly incorporated city. The theater was designed by prolific Bay Area architect Vincent G. Raney and it had a distinctive 50-foot-high domed ceiling and oversized curved screen. The theater was built to showcase the Cinerama widescreen process developed in the 1950s. The screen was later updated to standard flat-screen, in 1973, four additional single-screen auditoriums were added to the front of the building. Renamed as Century 5 Theatres, it continued to be known familiarly as the Dome, the city hall of Pleasant Hill, completed in the late 20th century, has won several awards for architectural design. For most of its history, Pleasant Hill did not have a true downtown or Main Street, in 1991, the city began planning the redevelopment of the area around the intersection of Monument and Contra Costa boulevards. In July 2000, Downtown Pleasant Hill finally opened, the privately owned and operated outdoor shopping center was designed to resemble a typical small Main Street. Starting in 2003, CinéArts operated the former Century 5 Theatres, screening primarily independent, due to changes in viewing habits, as many people screened movies at home, business continued to decline
5.
Briones Reservoir
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Briones Reservoir is an open cut terminal water storage reservoir located in western Contra Costa County, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. It is owned and operated by the East Bay Municipal Utility District, the reservoir is in the Briones Hills, on the west side of Briones Regional Park and northeast of Orinda. It is impounded by Briones Dam, a dam completed in 1964. The reservoir is the largest of EBMUD’s five East Bay terminal reservoirs, with a capacity of 60,510 acre·ft. The Briones Reservoir has two sources for its water, one local and one imported and its watershed of 22 km² includes the Bear Creek drainage. Bear Creek formerly flowed down the valley, which the reservoir partially submerges, the major water source into the Briones Reservoir is imported from the Briones Diversion Works near Orinda. It is delivered through the Briones Aqueduct, a 7-foot, 6-inch steel pipe and this is water imported from EDMUD’s biggest water source, the Mokelumne River in the San Joaquin Valley. Water then leaves Briones Reservoir and flows to the part of the valley. From there, the water is distributed by a plant in Kensington. Because the water in the reservoir is mainly for human potable water uses, fishing, swimming, and wading are not allowed. Two trails, the Bear Creek Trail and the Oursan Trail, the trailhead is at the Bear Creek Staging Area, which is within Briones Regional Park. A Trail Use Permit issued by EBMUD is required for all hikers, no mountain biking is permitted on the trail. Dogs are allowed on the Oursan Trail segment only, and must be leashed, Briones Reservoir and Briones Hills area List of dams and reservoirs in California List of lakes in the San Francisco Bay Area EBMUD—East Bay Municipal Utility District website EBMUD Trail Map. Archived from the original on 2013-03-03, EBMUD Trail Use Permit — online purchasing website
6.
Sacramento River
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The Sacramento River is the principal river of Northern California in the United States, and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for 400 miles before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, the Sacramento and its wide natural floodplain were once abundant in fish and other aquatic creatures, notably one of the southernmost large runs of chinook salmon in North America. For about 12,000 years, humans have depended on the vast natural resources of the watershed, the river has provided a route for trade and travel since ancient times. Hundreds of tribes sharing regional customs and traditions inhabited the Sacramento Valley, the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga named the river Rio de los Sacramentos in 1808, later shortened and anglicized into Sacramento. In the 19th century gold was discovered on a tributary of the Sacramento River, starting the California Gold Rush, overland trails such as the California Trail and Siskiyou Trail guided hundreds of thousands of people to the gold fields. By the late part of the mining had ceased to be a major part of the economy. Many populous communities were established along the Sacramento River, including the capital of Sacramento. Intensive agriculture and mining contributed to pollution in the Sacramento River, since the 1950s the watershed has been intensely developed for water supply and the generation of hydroelectric power. Today, large dams impound the river and almost all of its major tributaries, the Sacramento is used heavily for irrigation and serves much of Central and Southern California through the canals of giant state and federal water projects. The Sacramento River originates in the mountains and plateaus of far northern California as three major waterways that flow into Shasta Lake, the Upper Sacramento River, McCloud River and Pit River. The Upper Sacramento begins near Mount Shasta, at the confluence of North, Middle and it flows east into a small reservoir, Lake Siskiyou, before turning south. The river flows through a canyon for about 60 miles, past Dunsmuir and Castella, the Pit River, by far the largest of the three, begins in Modoc County in the northeastern corner of California. Draining a vast and remote volcanic highlands area, it flows southwest for nearly 300 miles before emptying into Shasta Lake near Montgomery Creek, Goose Lake, straddling the Oregon–California border, occasionally overflows into the Pit River during wet years, although this has not happened since 1881. The Goose Lake watershed is the part of the Sacramento River basin extending into another state. Unlike most California rivers, the Pit and the McCloud Rivers are predominantly spring-fed, ensuring a large, at the lower end of Shasta Lake is Shasta Dam, which impounds the Sacramento River for flood control, irrigation and hydropower generation. Before the construction of Shasta Dam the McCloud River emptied into the Pit River, the Pit River Bridge, which carries Interstate 5 and the Union Pacific Railroad over the reservoir, is structurally the highest double-decked bridge in the United States. The Upper Sacramento River canyon also provides the route for I-5, below Shasta Dam the Sacramento River enters the foothills region of the northern Sacramento Valley. It flows through Keswick Dam, where it receives about 1,200,000 acre feet of water per year diverted from the Trinity River and it then swings east through Redding, the largest city of the Shasta Cascade region, and turns southeast, entering Tehama County
7.
Mountain biking
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Mountain biking is the sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability, Mountain biking can generally be broken down into multiple categories, cross country, trail riding, all mountain, downhill, freeride and dirt jumping. However, the majority of mountain biking falls into the categories of Trail and this individual sport requires endurance, core strength and balance, bike handling skills, and self-reliance. Advanced riders pursue both steep technical descents and high incline climbs, in the case of freeriding, downhilling, and dirt jumping, aerial manoeuvres are performed off both natural features and specially constructed jumps and ramps. Mountain biking can be performed almost anywhere from a yard to a gravel road. There are aspects of mountain biking that are similar to trail running than regular bicycling. Because riders are often far from civilization, there is an ethic of self-reliance in the sport. Riders learn to repair their broken bikes or flat tires to avoid being stranded miles from help, club rides and other forms of group rides are common, especially on longer treks. A combination sport named mountain bike orienteering adds the skill of map navigation to mountain biking, one of the first examples of bicycles modified specifically for off-road use is the expedition of Buffalo Soldiers from Missoula, Montana to Yellowstone in August 1896. The Swiss military had its first bike regiment in 1891, bicycles were ridden off-road by road racing cyclists who used cyclo-cross as a means of keeping fit during the winter. Cyclo-cross eventually became a sport in its own right in the 1940s, the Rough Stuff Fellowship was established in 1955 by off-road cyclists in the United Kingdom. In Oregon, one Chemeketan club member, D. Gwynn and he named it a mountain bicycle for its intended place of use. This may be the first use of that name, in England in 1968, Geoff Apps, a motorbike trials rider, began experimenting with off-road bicycle designs. By 1979 he had developed a custom built lightweight bicycle which was suited to the wet. They were designed around 2 inch x 650b Nokian snow tyres though a 700x47c version was also produced and these were sold under the Cleland Cycles brand until late 1984. Bikes based on the Cleland design were sold by English Cycles. There were several groups of riders in different areas of the U. S. A. who can make valid claims to playing a part in the birth of the sport. Riders in Crested Butte, Colorado and Cupertino, California tinkered with bikes, at the time, there were no mountain bikes
8.
History of San Jose, California
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For thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers, the area now known as San Jose was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone Native Americans. Don Pedro Fages, the governor at Monterey, passed through the area on his 1770 and 1772 expeditions to explore the East Bay. Late in 1775, Juan Bautista de Anza led the first overland expedition to bring colonists from New Spain to California and he left the colonists at Monterey in 1776, and explored north with a small group. Anza returned to Mexico City before any of the settlements were actually founded, el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe was founded by José Joaquín Moraga on November 29,1777, the first pueblo-town not associated with a mission or a military post in upper Las Californias. The town was founded by the colonists led to California by Anza, as a community to provide food for the presidios of San Francisco. In 1778, the pueblo had a population of 68, in the ensuing years a number of Mexican Rancho Land Grants Land Grants were confirmed within the lands now considered San Jose. During the Bear Flag Revolt, Captain Thomas Fallon led a force from Santa Cruz. Fallon would later become the mayor of San Jose. Its unclear whether or not Fallon ordered all townspeople of Spanish/Mexican origin out of San Jose, during the California Gold Rush period, the New Almaden Quicksilver Mines just south of the city were the largest mercury mines in North America. Mining operations began in 1847 at what was the first operating mine in the province, the importance of the mercury industry at the time explains why the local newspaper is named the Mercury News. On March 27,1850, San Jose became the first incorporated city in the U. S. state of California, the first mayor was Josiah Belden. It also served as the states first capital with the first and second sessions of the California Legislature, known as the Legislature of a Thousand Drinks, from 1858 to 1861, San Jose was a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail stage line. In 1881, because of a campaign by editor J. J. It didnt provide sufficient illumination, and by 1884 was used only for ceremonial purposes and it collapsed during the great gale of 1915. In 1989, an informal Court of Historical Inquiry looked into the issue of whether the Eiffel Tower was an infringement of the Electric Light Tower. Before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Winchester Mystery House reached a height of 7 stories, many visitors to the house claim to have felt the presence of ghosts, while others claim there is no detectable presence. In 1909, Dr. Charles Herrold began experimental broadcasts in downtown San Jose. His station was licensed in 1921 as KQW, then moved to San Francisco
9.
Del Valle Regional Park
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Del Valle Regional Park is a park of the East Bay Regional Park District in unincorporated Alameda County, California, south of the city of Livermore. The park is 4,316 acres big, the park largely surrounds Lake Del Valle, an artificial reservoir made from the damming of Arroyo Valle, a small river. The lake provides a source of recreation for visitors including swimming, fishing, there are lifeguards present at designated swimming areas. The park also offers 28 miles of hiking, horseback, and bicycle trails, there are many prominent and locally famous cliffjumping locations around the lake including The Rock, The Swallow Bay Cliff, and The Pillars. All can be accessed through various trails surrounding the park, the park can be approached from Mines or Arroyo Road, where the parking meter is often broken. Del Valle Park at the EBRPD website
10.
Lake Chabot Regional Park
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Lake Chabot Regional Park is a regional park located in the southern Berkeley Hills in Alameda County, California. It is part of the East Bay Regional Parks system, Lake Chabot is a reservoir located in the park. The dam and reservoirs water are part of the East Bay Municipal Utility District water system, official Lake Chabot Regional Park website EBMUD official website
11.
Middle Harbor Shoreline Park
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Middle Harbor Shoreline Park is located on San Francisco Bay and the Port of Oakland entrance channel, west of downtown Oakland, California It is operated by the East Bay Regional Parks District. The park is primarily on land that was the site of the Oakland Naval Supply Depot. The Naval Supply Depot closed in 1998 and the property was transferred to the Port of Oakland, the interlocking tower from the railroads pier has been moved and partially restored as a small commemorative museum. The land was redeveloped for the park from 2002 to 2004, redevelopment of the land included restoration of beaches and creation of a lagoon. The mast of the USS Oakland is displayed at the entrance of the park, East Bay Regional Parks District, official Middle Harbor Shoreline Park website Map, 37°48′21″N 122°19′27″W
12.
Tilden Regional Park
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Tilden Regional Park, also known as Tilden Park or Tilden /ˈtɪldən/, is a 2, 079-acre regional park in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. It is between the Berkeley Hills and San Pablo Ridge, the park is managed by the East Bay Regional Park District, created from the first land the District purchased in 1936. Tilden Regional Park was named in honor of Charles Lee Tilden, Tilden Park is largely located within unincorporated areas of Contra Costa County, while parts of the park are within the cities of Oakland and Berkeley. Its steep valleys and dense stands of timber offer a rare wilderness experience so close to the city and its high ridges and peaks give wide views over the San Francisco Bay and inland across other preserved land to Mount Diablo. The eastern limit of the park is approximately at the crest of the San Pablo Ridge, the western boundary nearly follows the crest of the Berkeley Hills. Parts of the land had previously been cleared for agricultural use. In many places, exotic trees such as eucalyptus have been planted, there are also some relatively recently planted stands of giant sequoia. However, current conservation efforts are aimed at restoring native vegetation as much as possible, the East Bay Regional Parks District uses grazing as a means of vegetation reduction, with a herd of goats grazing each summer in Tilden. AC Transit bus line 67 from the Berkeley BART station runs into the park on weekends, the bus line stops at the Tilden Nature Area/Little Farm, Lone Oak Road, Lake Anza/Merry-Go-Round, and the Brazilian Room/Botanic Garden before returning to Berkeley. Prior to being a park, the lands that are now Tilden Park were ancestral lands of Ohlone Indians. Spanish explorers and Mexican ranchos drove the Ohlone off the land as ranching became the dominant activity in Wildcat Canyon, american ranchers of the late 1800s and early 1900s included the Curran family ranch and the Sweet Briar Dairy. The eucalyptus plantations within the park were planted around 1910 by Frank C, havens Eucalyptus, Mahogany, & Land Company. The first parkland was purchased by the East Bay Regional Park District from the East Bay Municipal Utility District on June 4,1936, the 2,162 acres purchased included land for Tilden Park, Lake Temescal and Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. Upper Wildcat Canyon was officially named Charles Lee Tilden Regional Park on July 16,1936. At the June 4,1936 board meeting of East Bay Regional Park District, the meeting that authorized the land purchase. In doing so, they met their matching fund obligation in order to qualify for $1 million in relief funds for park development. From 1935 to 1941 a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, Camp Wildcat Canyon was located in what is now the Tilden Nature Area, the CCC crews built much of the parks earlier infrastructure and features including roads, trails, bridges, picnic areas, and golf course. Works Progress Administration crews built the Lake Anza dam and stone buildings including restrooms, the original Lake Anza beach house, the aesthetic of the park today is directly derived from the original work performed by the CCC and WPA
