Cal Riding & Hiking Trl, Pleasant Hill

If I might borrow a bit from Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade,” apartments to the right of me! Apartments to the left of me! That’s right it’s just about all apartments on this interestingly named artery. They are nicely modeled (though a bit too monochromatic and manicured to really appeal to our sense of the beautiful or quaint) and few of them open out onto this busy road. Chilpancingo is made for speedsters diving down from Martinez on their way to work or spilling out from the feeder streets. It is a nice and wide road with a tree-lined meridian that allows it to earn the name Parkway.

The two features that break from this description bookend Chilpancingo. Just before Chilpancingo enters Martinez you will find a trail head that is excellent for jogging or biking (as well as the edge of the Contra Costa Golf Course). On the east end, Chilpancingo terminates at Contra Costa Blvd. On the north corner there is great strip mall dominated by the triumvirate of Toys-r-Us, Target and Barnes and Noble. On the south, you have a MacDonalds and K-Mart. If you cross Contra Costa Blvd., Chilpancingo turns into Concord Blvd. where you find onramps for the 680 freeway.

In case you are curious, Chilpancingo (the name, not the parkway) is a city in the Mexican state of Guerrero where in 1813, Mexico declared its independence. Thus, the historic reference of the street name.