The San Francisco Bay Trail

First post of the year. So many options.

The Bay Trail is 500 miles long, passing through 47 cities, 9 counties, and more than 130 parks. Our Camino de Santiago, but without religious overtones. Usually, I start in Coyote Point Recreation Area, a few miles south of San Francisco International Airport. Pay the $6 parking fee. Find a spot. Start exploring. Try plogging (unfamiliar with the term, scroll to the picture below). Venture south past a small beach and ascend a small hill under a canopy of cypress, eucalyptus, and pine. Mount Diablo is to the east. Seal Point Park and the San Mateo Bridge are to the south. San Bruno Mountain, San Francisco, and Mount Tamalpais are to the north. The coastal hills are to the west, green now, after torrential downpours the previous day, New Year’s eve. After the Rain, if you are an Etta James fan.

Coyote Point was an island, owned by Cayetano Arenas, to whom Rancho San Mateo had been given by Governor Pio Pico in 1846 to repay a debt. In the late 1800’s, the land comprising Coyote Point was sold, and the surrounding salt marsh was filled, and made into a dairy pasture. Today, we have 670 acres of green space.

Unfortunately, many, if not most, of the trails in San Mateo County are not dog friendly. Usually, this is not an issue, given reasonably good options in Windy Hill, Pulgas Ridge, Montara Mountain, and Sweeney Ridge. However, these are not paved, and after nearly 3 inches of rain in the past 24 hours, a super muddy trail was the last thing I wanted to deal with for my pup (or myself). The Bay Trail was the clear, if not the only, solution.

Head north from Coyote Point along the Bay Trail and you pass the new Meta campus and Burlingame hotel row, before reaching SFO. 10,000 steps in total, and a competent almond milk cappuccino from Equator Coffee, on the Meta campus, on the way back. Not a bad way to spend the first day of the year.

New Year’s resolutions are fickle. After a month (or two), or possibly earlier, people stop going to the gym, reading a book a month, trying to become more patient or a better person, etc. It’s almost inevitable. Some make resolutions not to make any (more) resolutions. I have given this some thought (obviously) and would like to propose one: 50 hikes in 2023. These can be long or short. Urban, suburban, in forests, along ridges, along the coast, inland, flat, steep, new ones, old ones, it doesn’t matter. Rest assured, I will summarize only some of them. I can write quite a bit, but not that much (or that often). So, with that said, one down, and 49 to go.

Comments welcomed.