In an effort to maintain some semblance of an
exercise regimen, I try to run several times a week along the San Tomas Aquino Creek trail that starts a few blocks from my home and ends 5 miles or so later at the swamps and marshes of the Baylands. The trail is used at nearly
every hour of the day by bicyclists and joggers, by families on weekends and by
office workers at lunchtime, by parents pushing strollers and by high school
cross-country teams. The creek alongside the trail is filled with tall grasses
and ground squirrels, families of brown ducks, and a number of long-necked, white-plumed
birds. But elements of the densely suburban and industrial landscape through which the trail winds also define the scenery: you pass beneath a series of busy roadways, including the
six lanes of the 101 Freeway and the elevated tracks along which commuter trains
periodically shriek; and an inverted shopping cart, backpack, or errant piece of discarded furniture sometimes shows up in the creek among the birds and grasses. All in all, though, the STAC trail
is a pretty fabulous public works project: it promotes healthy living and exercise, family
and neighborhood engagement, and is accessible to everyone at no cost.
About halfway down, the trail passes
alongside what may well be its absolute antithesis: the construction site of the new 49ers stadium.
