Product Code Database
Mission Peak is a mountain peak located east of Fremont, California. It is the northern summit on a ridge that includes Mount Allison and Monument Peak. Mission Peak has symbolic importance, and is depicted on the logo of the City of Fremont. It is located in Mission Peak Regional Preserve, a regional park operated by the East Bay Regional Park District.
An ascent up Mission Peak is at least a six-mile-long round trip, and tends to take two to five hours for hikers and one to one-and-a-half hours for bicyclists and runners. Dehydration and heat exhaustion are common because of the lack of shade. Guidelines recommend carrying two liters of water per person, extra water for dogs, and sun protection. Signs and barbed wire prohibit off-trail shortcuts to slow down erosion. Food, water bottles, and supplies are kept from being sold at the park.
Mission Peak is located directly on the Peak Trail, a trail which approaches Mission Peak from the northwest and the southeast . Each ascent of Mission Peak eventually travels over a stretch of the Peak Trail before reaching the summit. Trails reach Mission Peak from four staging areas: Stanford Avenue, Ohlone College, Sunol Regional Wilderness, and Ed R. Levin County Park.
Depending on weather conditions, Bay Area peaks including Mount Diablo, Mount Hamilton, and Mount Tamalpais can be seen. Furthermore, the peak provides good views of Oakland, San Jose, San Francisco, Fremont, Union City, and Newark. On very clear days, the Sierra Nevada range are visible 100 miles (160 km) to the east.
Mission Peak connects to a network of regional trails and contains part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, which is under construction and has gaps to the north of Mission Peak. The Eagle Spring Backpack campsite is just east of the summit.
The sculptor's purpose was to promote environmental awareness. The sticks on the pole represent each pillar of environmental recycling. Sealed inside the steel tube are a crystal with traditional cultural uses, an Ohlone people charmstone replica, a bottle of 1990 zinfandel wine whose yeast overshoot represents world population trends, and five time capsules with articles and photographs. The time capsules were intended to be opened in a century or more, after 2090, and focus on rainforest preservation, AIDS, and homelessness. They offer images from popular culture of Bart Simpson, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Gary Larson's Far Side cartoons.
The cultural meaning of monuments often change, and the use of this artifact has evolved over a quarter century. Though designed in 1988 as an "interpretive post", with sight tubes pointing to other Bay Area landmarks and cities, the "peeker" function has since been rendered archaic and its environmental message is not widely known.
The marker now functions as a standalone cultural Cultural icon, and draws thousands of weekly sightseers and tourists that make it the most photographed artifact in southern Alameda County and the top tourist attraction in Fremont. Snapchat has a geofilter image of the pole representing Fremont.
The pole has become a contested cultural symbol. In 2014, iconoclastic local residents, the Recreation Department of the City of Fremont and the Stewardship Division of EBRPD discussed razing the landmark to dissuade sightseers.
On the morning of Saturday, September 2, 2023, the pole was sawed off by vandals and tossed down the mountainside. The East Bay Regional Park District retrieved the pole and park district crews repaired and welded the pole back in place on October 4, 2023.
In 2015 they discussed further restrictions including a per person daily use (entry) fee, parking permits to restrict public street parking while favoring local residents,
parking fees to reduce parking congestion, a dog fee to reduce visits by dog owners and demolition of the iconic summit pole. EBRPD proposed a larger parking lot at the Stanford entrance in 2012; and, as of 2015, completion was expected in 2018.
The city temporarily restricted visitor parking on streets near the Stanford Avenue trail-head in late 2016. Residential permits are required on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays in front of houses, near open fields, and near empty lots. One hundred spaces on Weibel Dr are restricted, not fronting houses. The restrictions are temporary, slated to expire on July 7, 2020.
The temporary restriction of park operating hours and street parking, and the parking expansion have generated controversy. The number of visitors dropped significantly prior to 2017, and park activists linked the drop to the parking restrictions and to the cutback of park hours. Standard operating hours were 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and the temporary operating hours are slated to expire in July 2020. More than 1,500 parking tickets were issued in the first year, and the city collected over $100,000 in fines.
In 2016, the park district approved plans to construct 300 new parking spaces near the main entrance. However, residents filed suit against the parking expansion on environmental grounds, after petitioning to restrict parking on public streets. The same law firm filed the 2016 action which closed the Regional Park at Vargas Plateau for nearly a year. The lawsuit, principally aimed at keeping park visitors out of the local residential neighborhood, was settled in late 2018. The settlement removed legal obstacles that had stood in the way of the expansion, which was originally estimated to cost $6.5 million in 2016. The park district had raised about $1.5 million for the parking lot as of 2018.
The Wings of Rogallo Northern California Hang Gliding Association Inc. has been licensed by the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) to administer hang gliding and paragliding at Mission Peak since 1983.
Hikers can observe takeoffs from the launch point above sea level, marked by a large wind sock. Landings occur adjacent to the main hiking trail about one quarter mile (400 m) from the Stanford Avenue entrance, near the proposed site of a parking lot expected in late 2018.
On September 6, 1971, Dave Kilbourne, one of the founders of the Wings of Rogallo, hiked atop Mission Ridge and launched a flex wing hang glider unaided. The flight lasted more than an hour, and he became the first person in the world to do so.
The grasslands have native and nonnative plants brought by cows, though native wildflowers grow in the spring. The cattle have a feisty reputation. Black-tailed deer are abundant. Pronghorn and tule elk were extirpated in the late 19th century. Tule elk were reintroduced to Alameda County, and now visit occasionally. Predators include bobcats, coyotes, gray foxes, and very rarely seen mountain lions. Small mammals include the black-tailed jackrabbit, the western gray squirrel, and California ground squirrels.
Visitors should beware that northern Pacific rattlesnakes are very common.
Southern Alameda County has a high density of nesting , seen often, along with , , red-shouldered hawks, , and sharp-shinned hawks. They nest in on the slopes of steep valleys, where no trails enter.
Light snow falls most winters, and melts quickly. Heavy snow falls once or twice a decade, such as in March 2006 (see picture in the Hiking and bicycling section). On December 7, 2009, the snow level dropped to and snow remained for three days.
The landslide threatened new housing, and local development regulations were changed to address the geotechnical hazards.
Some sources have incorrectly labeled Mission Peak as an extinct volcano, because of the sharp point of the peak. However, the mountain is a product of natural uplift and erosion, not of volcanic origin. This range is being compressed and uplifted due to the proximity of the Hayward Fault to the west and the Calaveras Fault to the east.
|
|
