The East Bay Barefoot Hikers met in Redwood Park on Sunday 11th, August.
Nine people took part including myself, Tim and his son Christopher (7), and the twins Jonathan and Hilary (5), Maggie, Fred, Jaya and Hap.
Debra and her son Eric (12) meant to attend but somehow missed us. They left a note on my car at the trailhead.
We met at 9:00am at the Skyline Gate staging area and headed off at about 9:20am. The weather was warm but not too hot. Hap teaches "Feldenkreis" (sp?) which is a sort of body awareness and alignment discipline. He was very interested in our barefoot hikers perspective on that and noted the "aligning" effect of walking along barefoot.
The upper trails were soft and dusty. We stopped for early lunch near the archery range and then headed into the shady part of forest just as the day was getting a lot warmer.
Jaya is from India and related spending 99% of the time barefoot during childhood. This apart from having to wear shoes to the "western style" private secondary school she attended. "As soon as I got home ... they were off" she said.
We zig-zagged our way back to the original trailhead taking maximum advantage of the shadiest forest trails. Stopped to take a look at the Angora Goats that have been installed in the park in some fenced-off areas (to clear undergrowth ?).
-- Mike Berrow