What's going on with Byxbee parkrun and the new Baylands Nature Preserve parkrun?

As many of you know by now, the Byxbee parkrun, for a while the only parkrun in California, has been paused. In its place, a new parkrun has started about a half mile away - the (wildly wordy) Baylands Nature Preserve parkrun. 

Why was Byxbee parkrun paused?

Byxbee parkrun ran for six years and hosted 250 events. Shortly after it held its first event, the park was told that at some point "soon," work was going to begin on the tidal gate that was crossed as part of the course. After the COVID shutdown, parkrun was told the work was imminent, so for the restart in the summer of 2021, the course was changed to avoid that tidal gate. 

This change meant the course went from a single out-and-back to a double out-and-back. Some liked the change while others were not so thrilled - having a turnaround on a gravel trail is a bit risky since slipping is common and falling on gravel is never fun, so going from having one turnaround to three turnarounds increased that risk significantly. But you got to see everyone multiple times!

And guess what - that work on the tidal gate never started.

This summer, three projects were about to start. None of them directly impacted the Byxbee course, but they all added significant challenges:

• The tidal gate project was FINALLY going to get started. While the current course was not directly impacted by the work, the workers would need to drive on the course, potentially causing issues on event day. (Spoiler alert: As I type this, this work still has not started. Heavy sigh…)
• The Palo Alto Water Treatment Plant, which is next door to Byxbee Park, started a project that took away two lanes and a LOT of parking along Embarcadero Road - the event's primary parking option. This made attending Byxbee parkrun quite challenging - parking was always a bit difficult and required a 10 minute or so walk, and this made that worse, now requiring a 15 minute or so walk.
• The Treatment Plant also started work on a flood prevention levee right next to the event's start/finish area. Again, this did not directly affect the Byxbee parkrun course, but placed a lot of loud construction equipment very close to it, closed an access trail (forcing people to either walk in the street or cross the street to use the sidewalk), and resulted in periodic partial closing of lanes on the road.

I know, this is a lot. It shows the work areas, the two Byxbee parkrun courses, and the parking for the new Baylands Nature Preserve parkrun.

All of this added together made it challenging to try to hold the event at Byxbee Park, and the park rangers, who supply the Byxbee parkrun permit, requested us to move, at least until these projects are completed.

Oh! When is that work going to be completed?

Well, that's a good question. It could be as little as six months for some of the projects (the levee and tidal gate projects are at the whims of the winter storms and tide charts) and maybe up to two years for others. Note that all of these projects are being done by outside agencies - the actual parks are not involved in the work at all, just in dealing with the fallout.

Tell me about the Baylands Nature Preserve parkrun

First, this is casually being referred to as the Baylands parkrun, since Baylands Nature Preserve parkrun is a mouthful. Calling it the BNP parkrun is a little confusing and potentially problematic with other groups using those initials, and BayNaP parkrun is just too weird.

The parking, briefing, and start/finish area.

The overall course.

There are several very good things about the Baylands parkrun, compared to the Byxbee parkrun:

• There is quite a bit of nearby parking. If you get there a bit early, VERY nearby parking. 
• It's a single out-and-back course. Even better, the turnaround is on pavement - no more slipping on gravel as you try to get that new PB.
• You still get to go along the water and see lots of water birds (and birders watching the water birds). 
• You also get to go alongside the runway of Palo Alto Airport - some will like that (kids love it) and some will hate it (it can be a bit noisy), but the weirdness of running across near the end of the runway just as a plane is taking off over your head is kind of cool. 
• There's a golf course after the airport - the event is generally done before the golfers are set loose, but it's kind of fun to pass time looking for errant golf balls laying along the side of the trail.
• By a very small amount, the course is flatter. (But, and I can't stress this enough, is technically downhill from the turnaround - just not much.)

There are also some drawbacks, compared to the Byxbee course:

• The toilet situation isn't as nice - there are two porta-potties, in two different directions, that are each a few minutes walk to get to. (If you know you need a toilet, one thing you can do is, when you first arrive, drive into Byxbee park, use the nicer toilets, then drive over to Baylands.) A bonus nice toilet is available not far from the turnaround - if you get to the halfway point and find you really need a toilet, you can go a bit past the turnaround and find one there.
• The trail is narrower than the Byxbee trails in places, and also some stretches have more tripping hazards than is ideal. You'll notice that the event goes through some trouble to get people spread out very quickly and strongly encourages you go single-file.

The event still starts at 8:00 AM, and getting there a bit early is a great idea, both to get good parking and having time to make a toilet run if needed (although even the "bad" parking is better than the good parking at Byxbee parkrun).

Now that there have been two events on the new course (as I'm writing this), the process is becoming a bit more routine with few tweaks. Feedback has been mostly positive with many preferring this course. 

An open question is what sort of impacts winter storms might have on the event - this area is a bit more prone to flooding durning king tides, especially if they coincide with a big winter storm, than Byxbee Park is. That's an issue to be faced later though. 

In the end, all agree that this new event and course is way better than the other option, which was to not have an event in the area at all.

That's it - move along…

PS: If you've never done it, take the time to wander out on that boardwalk that extends from the Lucy Evans building. It's always accessible, even when the building is closed, and it's fun, in that special way of boardwalks! 

PPS: Over by what I labeled as "Parking 4," there's a boat dock! So yes - this event is accessible by boat! (I think this is officially called the Sail Dock - there's a pier that you use to walk down to the dock. People carry kayaks and such down there. Boating to a parkrun event has got to be pretty epic!)