4-6-13 Ukraina

Not long after we moved from Oakland to Hayward in 1976, I found out a little about Hayward history, and came across the fascinating story of Agapius Honcharenko. He was a Russian Orthodox Priest in the Ukraine in the mid-nineteenth century who became a revolutionary fighting against the Czar's oppression of the peasants. He was forced to flee into exile and was stalked around the world by the Russian police until he ended up on a remote farm in the Hayward Hills in 1873. He and his wife lived there for more than 40 years while he continued to write in support of the Ukrainian peasants and give church services in a grotto in the rocks near his farm. They called the place Ukraina.

So for 37 years I have known about this story and approximately where his farm was, but never got to see it because it was on private land and its exact location was never made public. Then I found in the Daily Review an announcement of a hike to be led by the Hayward Historical Society to visit the site of the farm. So on a cool Saturday morning with intermittent drizzle, I went up to the new Stonebrae Elementary School and joined about 40 others for a hike. It was a nice, friendly group and I met a couple of old friends that I hadn't seen for a long time. The hike leader gave us a brief history of Honcharenko and we stopped at various points along the way for him to expand on the story.

This trail was just recently opened by the EBRPD, but looking at their website, there is no mention of it, and it doesn't appear on their maps. It is in a part of Garin Regional Park that has been owned by the district for a long time but not open to the public. Since this trail is along the edge of the new Stonebrae development and golf course, I believe that the development had a lot to do with its being opened now. Fortunately, for most of the trail, the development is hidden behind a low hill, so you feel totally out in a natural area.



After an easy hike of a mile or so, we came to the site of the farm. Nothing is left of the home that once stood here; it is just an open field with a stone monument marking the spot. A few yards further down a grassy hill, there is an old pine tree with a fence around it protecting the graves of Honcharenko and his wife, marked with wooden crosses. This spot is right on the edge of a hill that drops steeply to the upper reaches of Dry Creek and there are great views out across the bay.

From there we made a short loop over a low hill and along the edge of the golf course before retracing our path back to the start. It had turned out to be a very interesting day, and in spite of a little drizzle along the way, it was a beautiful hike. I want to go back soon to show the trail to Maureen and Darby.

about 3 mi. - about 200 ft.