Hikers will no longer have to obtain a permit to trek one of the Bay Area’s most spectacular wilderness trails.
On Wednesday, the East Bay Regional Park District announced that it had eliminated the permit required to hike and overnight camp along the 30-mile Ohlone Wilderness Trail, which weaves through the grassy, oak-studded hills of Alameda County. The permit, which cost $4 by mail and $2 on site, “was never a positive revenue stream due to processing fees and postage,” according to a Wednesday statement from the park district.
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Permit sales “will end immediately” and visitors can hike the trail without carrying one, according to the statement. The change was made as a way of “improving access and recognizing hiking and walking trails as core park district resources.”
The beautiful nature trail snakes through historic ranchlands between Lake Del Valle in Livermore and Mission Peak in Fremont, offering a lengthy and challenging point-to-point thru-hike that is rare in the urban Bay Area…