Crittenden Lane trailhead memorial

Crittenden Lane trailhead memorial

Trailhead news from 2020

Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail (www.stevenscreektrail.org) in cooperation with the City of Mountain View CA proposed a project for a landscaping and habitat enhancement on the Stevens Creek Trail at the Crittenden Lane Trailhead. This trailhead is near where Jos Claerbout often took his lunch walks from WebTV (15-20 minute walk from the Toessel Tree).

The project includes landscaping approximately 3000 square feet of the levee area on which the trail is situated. It provides trailhead amenities including a drinking fountain, a bench, and it provides a visually attractive site planted with native trees and shrubs and some large, smooth, gray boulders. A commemorative plaque in honor of Jos has been set into the side of one of the boulders. The new water fountain appears here behind the flowers. The bench is out of sight behind the cameraman. The plantings are just getting started.

A visit to the site shows it to be delightful. The trail being on top of a berm has a view to the horizon in most directions. Many people pass by here. It is a place where a water fountain and bench are most welcome.

To enable the proposal to be carried out, friends and family made a suitable financial contribution while The Friends of Stevens Creek Trail donated organizational skills and labor.

Commemorative Plaque

We had hoped to include some whimsical statuary or art. Because of the remoteness of the site and the possibility of vandalism, the whimsy is confined to the bronze plaque.

When Dad saw the site he was struck by the similarity of the families biking along the path, and duck families in the creek. Jos's friend Lisa Lee was able to link both themes in a graphic which we used both on the plaque and on a tee shirt (below). You might notice that one of the little duckies is wearing a toessel.

Tee shirt

We made a batch of tee shirts to commemorate the occasion. We gave the tee shirts to all who made a notable contribution to preserving memories of Jos. We have a few shirts left.

The back of the shirt has the graphic design of Lisa Lee with words of Jos adapted from memories of Joel Black. Joel recalled that Jos had had an ordinary day which Jos recounted to Joel as a wonderful day, a day filled with adventures.

The front of the tee shirt has some words of Jos, "Are we going to have fun today?" He used these words on his friends in the morning when he arrived at work [Paul] [Heather] [Rosemary].



How to find it

The dedication

visiting seniors led by Diane's friend, Ed.