Railroad ties and switchbacks on rerouted Wildcat Path.
Berkeley’s team of virtuoso path-builders has completed the rerouting of Wildcat Path, which connects Park Hills with Wildcat Canyon Road in the vicinity of Tilden Regional Park.
“A few years after Wildcat Path was built in 2011, we realized that it would be much preferable to avoid crossing the little seasonal creek,” said Charlie Bowen, path-building lead for Berkeley Path Wanderers Association. “A survey revealed that there was enough space on the north side of the creek to reroute the path to stay on that side of the creek and pass through the small redwood grove at the bottom.”
Wildcat Path starts near the intersection of Woodside, Hillview and Park Hills roads in Berkeley’s Park Hills neighborhood and provides a connector to Wildcat Canyon Road in Tilden Park.
Workers on the project were Steve Glaeser, David Kittams, Diane Resek, Bob Gomez, Francesca Verdier (a BPWA board member), and Rob Strong, who Verdier noted could install 6 steps an hour (regretfully, he has since moved to Santa Barbara).
A family enjoys wandering on the newly rerouted and upgraded Wildcat Path.
Eagle Scout Luke Thilmony organized other scouts to start the Wildcat Path reroute. They built the initial set of steps at the top of the reroute, cleared out the switchbacks at the top of the path, and added wood chips to the surface, making this part of the path much easier and safer to navigate.
“The Path Wanderers are grateful to our volunteers for their time and expertise and to Luke Thilmony for his assistance with this special project,” BPWA president Alina Constantinescu said.
The challenges of path-building
The project presented a unique challenge for the crack team. While scouting for a better route, they discovered a gas pipe aboveground in an area that had seen small landslides in the past. PG&E confirmed that the line was supplying the Brazil Building in nearby Tilden Park.
Bob Gomez uses the new rebar stake puller, which made removing old, rotting steps a snap.
“PG&E was contacted to rebury the pipe, but they moved extremely slowly and, in the meantime, ordered us to prohibit pedestrians from the vicinity of the exposed pipe,” Bowen said. “Eventually, the Brazil Building kitchen was upgraded with new appliances powered by propane, so PG&E finally removed the gas pipe altogether. And finally we could build the new path!”
The rerouting project inspired Glaeser to buy a new rebar stake puller, because he knew the team would be pulling out a lot of steps on the decommissioned part.
“Two volunteers can pull the old rotting steps and then the 5/8" rebar in them in a fraction of the time it took four of us using a pipe wrench,” Glaeser said.
Now that the new steps are in and Wildcat Path is once again passable, the path-building team will complete the installation of side retaining boards to help maintain the path’s integrity.
“The new section is much more accessible than the old one,” said John Ford, BPWA secretary. “There is no intermittent stream crossing and the new section is wider and more evenly graded. It makes for a much more pleasant walk.”
Eagle Scout Luke Thilmony started off the project by rebuilding steps near the top of rerouted section.