The Piedmont Recreation Department's Walking on Wednesdays walking group added an
element to its walks last week on September 26th that provided new enjoyment for the group.
Charlene Louie had provided the group with her copy of "Secret Stairs - East Bay" by Charles Fleming. This interesting guide book provides walking tours that include hidden stairways and neighborhoods paths all around the East. Bay with four of them including Piedmont streets and stairs. The group focused on one of the walks and the area between Dracena Park and Grand Avenue, and found stairways that were previously unknown to most of the group.
Those included passages between Ramona Avenue and Park Way, Artuna and Park Way, and
a very hidden one between Lorita and Monticello Avenue that Stuart Schneck discovered.
Additionally, the group stopped for a photo on the path-way and stairs between Ricardo and York Avenues.
The group enjoyed having first time walkers Emma Sangil and K-9 Olive participate in this walk.
The group has an informal objective of eventually walking every street in Piedmont and, as they explored, they walked many new streets for the group that included: Cambridge, Lower Grand, Holly Place, Aroyo, Ricardo, York, Artuna, and El Cerrito Avenues.
As is not uncommon for the group, they encountered friends and neighbors along the way. As
the walkers passed the home of Gareth Fong, neighbor Charlene Louie pointed out a partially visible mural of a Yosemite Park scene on wall in the Fong's backyard. By chance, Gareth
was coming out of his house and stopped to tell the group the story behind the mural, which was
painted in the early 2000's by Flo Simon, a German artist. The Fongs had memorable trips to
the park and wanted their young twin sons to have a visual reminder of the experiences.
The mural is another hidden Piedmont secret.