This time, we did it from east to west, from Candlestick Point to Lands’ End, and for a few of us, bonus steps, for a total of 31,000, to Beach Chalet, for an ice cold V.F.W. blonde ale. Not bad for a Saturday.
Last year, we hike west to east.
Always good to mix it up.
16 miles, give or take.
2,000 feet elevation gain.
If this sounds too easy, one member of our crew hiked with a 10-pound weight in his backpack. I suggested bringing ankle weights next time, for an added challenge.
15 hikers, including one who joined us for lunch (see below) and continued to Lands’ End.
Lunch at Gordo’s Taqueria, a San Francisco classic, on Ninth and Lincoln, at the edge of Golden Gate Park. I predicted lunch at noon, after an 8:00am start. We arrived ten minutes early.
This was my second wellness hike, with the first, the Dipsea Trail, from Stinson Beach to Muir Woods, last month. Sure, wellness is a buzz word, but it is particularly salient in and to the legal profession. Of course, wellness cannot be achieved with a monthly hike, but hiking can comprise an integral part of a comprehensive wellness program. The next one, in July, will be Windy Hill Open Space Preserve, in Portola Valley.
The best way to experience a city is to walk, or hike, it. San Francisco is no exception. To me, a near-native San Francisco, the Crosstown Trail represents the real San Francisco, alive, vibrant, changing, but immutable, all at once, a hike in 1979 (when I arrived) and 2024 that would have looked and felt much the same, minus the crater at Candlestick Point that used to Candlestick Park, home to the San Francisco 49ers.
Enjoy, and comments welcomed.
The Peninsula Hiking Club 