Bay Bridge Trail – Shellmound

First time here and started at Shellmound St/​IKEA. First leg of the trip has a plethora of stink! But once we passed the first mile, it was an enjoyable ride. The ride is a steady climb the entire way but enjoyable since we stopped to take in the views and pictures. It was great to see the old bridge being taken apart, view of the City & steady flow of traffic. It’s just as noisy as when you’re in the car with the windows down. Planning to do this again.

This particular trails starts at the ikea Way. It’s the street right off ikea. It’s a clear path to follow. Best parking tip would be the Emery Bay Parking lot which is the parking garage for the mall and the AMC theater.
The only clear designated area here is for cyclist. If you’re walking you mainly share the trail with them. I would design this trail differently as: Each designated space for both. It’s big enough.
There’s one last porta potty before you start the actual two miles or so of the trail. Before that from the ikea way entrance it’s another close to two miles give or take. Also thats your first chance to use the bathroom.
It’s breath taking. Always is when you can enjoy a bridge on foot. It’s a different experience. More profound. I’m very appreciative of the design with this consideration in mind.
The tower that holds the cables together is mighty looking. It stands tall and is a very photogenic subject for all. I must’ve taken an infinite amount of photos today!
Lastly this path is lined with wild flowers and greens. As well as mostly buildings that was there way before this path ever existed. So the old and new to me merged quiet well here.
Easy walk overall. It’s a total of about close to ten miles from start to finish. Layer up as the gust of wind from the bay can swiftly change the temperature.
Enjoy the view of the old bridge next to the new one. It’s pretty historic losing that old behemoth. I do welcome the new span and eagerly await the completion of the trail to the Yerba Buena Island.
I know to me the end came so quickly. I was still so eager to walk some more but alas! Every good path must come to an abrupt end at least here.

I try to vary my hikes. Urban, beach, forest, preserve. What could be more unusual than a Bay Bridge walk? So we went on the website and found that we could park at the lot at Maritime and Burma to access the trail. Sure enough, the large lot had ample parking and we found the trail entrance right away. Because is was wonderfully labelled something like «BAY BRIDGE TRAIL ENTRANCE HERE.» So we started our journey. Here’s the thing: you walk for about a mile before you even get to the bridge. Bummer. But once you get on the bridge, it’s pretty good. Rough on the feet, though, oy. Both of us are experienced hikers in good shoes and after 2.5 hrs round trip, we were both hurting. It’s also, as you might imagine, relatively loud once you get next to traffic, so convo can be a little curtailed.
Currently, the trail stops just past the tower, before Treasure Island.

Every two weeks or so, my honey and I both have a Friday off together. I have coined these days our «FriDATEs.»
This past Friday was one of those days and we decided to do the Bay Bridge Trail in the morning. We started at the trail entrance across the street from IKEA. There isn’t any designated parking, so instead of tempting fate and parking at IKEA, we opted to just pay for parking in the garage for the Emeryville shopping/​restaurant area. It ended up costing us $ 4 for the 3 hours we were walking. Totally reasonable.
Granted this was a Friday and I know a lot of people were are work but I was still pleasantly surprised that we had the trail almost entirely to ourselves. We passed a handful of other walkers as well as a few bicyclists but the majority of the people who we saw were working (CHP officers doing their rounds on bicycles and landscape workers).
It is a bit strange to venture under and along the freeway but the trail is spaced nicely from the cars, and they have put in some nice landscaping, so I felt safely separated from the traffic. There are also separate pedestrian and cycling lanes on the bridge.
I highly recommend checking out this trail while the old bridge is still intact. It was neat to walk right between old and new. It will also be neat when the old bridge is gone and the trail is extended to the island.
This trail will remain on the list for future FriDATEs, as well as a possibility for sharing with friends visiting from out of town.

Note that from Ikea, it’s 2.5 mile walk to just get to the bridge. Nothing to look at, noisy and no water. Once on the bridge, that’s pretty awesome. When you finish the bridge walk… another depressing 2.5 mile walk back to the trail start near Ikea. If this is your first trip, be sure to bring water! At least one the size of a 32oz Nalgene water bottle per person. It’s a long ass walk and smaller kids will get tired and there isn’t many places to stop. Unless they do something about that ugly 2.5 mile stretch, I’ll avoid walking it again. Next time I’ll be on a bike.

For the first time pedestrians and cyclists will have the chance to travel across the San Francisco-​Oakland Bay Bridge’s East Span, on a 15.5– foot-​wide bike/​pedestrian path that will extend the 2.2 miles to Yerba Buena Island.