REDWOOD NEEDLES Presented by the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter Newsletter, The REDWOOD NEEDLES Return to Article Menu Redwood Needles April 1999   Two men, 400 miles, five weeks on the Bay Area Ridge Trail By Carol Vellutini, Outings Chair, Redwood Chapter and Sonoma Group Two men will embark on a five week trek, hiking a 400 mile loop through nine counties that follow along the ridge tops encircling San Francisco Bay. 216 miles of thier trek will be on established trail and, where links have not yet been established, the route will be followed as closely as possible. The walk is expected to raise more than $50,000 for developing the trail. The hikers are Dinesh Desai, a retired money manager from Los Altos and Bob Cowell, former Alameda Assistant Fire Chief. In additon to committing his feet to the project, he put his money where his mouth is by issuing a financial challenge of up to $25,000 in matching funds to benefit the trail. They will leave the presidio on May 15th. The full schedule is as follows: May 15-19, Marin County; May 20-24, Sonoma County (We will have Dinesh in Santa Rosa. All are invited to join him. We are in planning stages now. Call closer to the date for info Carol 546-6308 or Howard 542-6124); May 25-26 Napa County; May 27-30 Solano County; May 31-June 1 Contra Costa County; June 2-5 Alameda County; June 6-14 Santa Clara County; June 15-18 San Mateo County; June 19-20 San Francisco County. Sierra Club is invited Sunday June 20 from 3-6 p.m. at the Golden Gate Club, San Francisco Presido for a Welcome Back Event. This will be "THE" trail event of the year. Sonoma County is seriously lacking a regional trail system. This event will draw media attention to that fact.   Return to Article Menu Last updated on 3/02/99 Comments or suggestions? Drop us a line at heyneedles@aol.com