New Shorttail Gulch Trail at Bodega Bay
among new trails this hiking season
May 27, 2004
By GEORGE LAUER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Not everybody agrees on how it got its name, but most everyone who's walked it agrees
Shorttail Gulch Trail in Bodega Bay is a welcome addition to the North Bay web of
coastal access paths.
In the works for more than 30 years, the little trail on the southern edge of the
Bodega Harbour subdivision opened earlier this month and provides access to previously
hard-to-reach Shorttail Gulch Beach.
It's the newest, but not the only new, outdoor attraction for the spring and summer
hiking season in Sonoma County. Sneak previews of a new park near Windsor, a park
extension in Cloverdale and new trails on Hood Mountain are all on tap this spring
and summer. A couple of urban options still in their infancy -- the Sonoma Overlook
Trail in Sonoma and the Santa Rosa Creek Greenway -- offer new perspectives.
And several outdoor groups -- LandPaths, Coastwalk, Sierra Club and Audubon Society
-- plan a full schedule of outings this spring and summer, some of them aimed at previously
underexplored areas.
Shorttail Gulch Trail is a good place to start if you're looking for new experiences.
Not only is the trail itself appealing, but it takes you to a part of the coastline
that offers new beach-walking and rock-hopping opportunities.
Shorttail takes off from Osprey Drive at the southern edge of Bodega Harbour, winds
down into Shorttail Gulch and, half a mile and 200 steps later, deposits you in soft
sand at the bottom of a picturesque "V" formed by sharply rising hills.
"It's the first new coastal access trail in our area since the 1980s," says Sonoma
County Regional Parks' Joe Case, who headed up the efforts to get Shorttail built.
Shorttail connects with Pinnacle Gulch Trail to form a 2-mile loop through the Bodega
Harbour subdivision. Regional Park officials ask Shorttail hikers to park in the Pinnacle
Gulch parking lot ($4 fee) on Mockingbird, then walk Mockingbird to Osprey to reach
Shorttail trailhead.
Depending on which story you adopt, the trail and gulch get their name because ranchers
used to cut lambs' tails in the area, or ranchers raised short-tailed sheep in the
area, or because of the preponderance of short-tailed wildlife in the area -- badgers,
jackrabbits, deer.
"There's probably some truth in all those stories," Case said.
Rabbit and deer are certainly plentiful. No fewer than a dozen jackrabbits and three
deer shared the trail with hikers on a weekday walk earlier this month. No badgers,
though; they're nocturnal. Since Shorttail Gulch Trail (like all Regional Park trails)
is open sunrise to sunset, you're not likely to see badgers there. Legally.
The easement for the trail was dedicated to the county in the early 1970s as part
of the Bodega Harbour subdivision. Lack of funds prevented it from being built until
2002, when the California State Coastal Conservancy donated $80,000 it had received
from Proposition 40 funds.
|
