Urban Exploration: Sutro Forest Hike

On Saturday night, after a gorgeous day spent museum hopping with my mom (we hit the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the DeYoung, lunched in the sculpture garden and then went up to the Legion of Honor to catch The Cult of Beauty exhibit), I decided I needed to get out and see more of the hidden parts of my city. When I was in law school, I walked everywhere and that was how I learned to get around San Francisco. Experiencing the city as a pedestrian gives you a much more comprehensive view than driving or taking the bus. The year I spent walking and taking a little extra time to get my bearings in each neighborhood was priceless. I knew the city pretty well before actually living here, but now I can give you directions to and from pretty much anywhere in these 49 square miles. And as someone who has no natural sense of direction, I have made my own landmarks to keep everything straight. My cardinal directions are Pine Street, Bush Street, Franklin Street and Gough Street, all one-way thoroughfares. Pine and Bush are east-west (Pine goes to the Pacific (west) and Bush goes to the Bay (east). Franklin and Gough are north-south and I am totally embarrassed to admit this, but here are my mnemonics: Franklin goes to the fancy Marina (north) and Gough leads to the Mission...ghetto (south). I'm the worst and this is a terribly long parenthetical.). Despite the mastery of self-navigating, in the last few years, I have done absolutely no urban exploring.

Years ago, someone gave me a pack of City Walks cards which my roommate at the time and I promptly completed in a series of Saturday Adventures. The walks were geared more towards visitors rather than locals, so they really didn't get us off the beaten path. So I turned to the Google and found San Francisco City Guides Walking Tours, free guided tours through some of the more obscure points of interest 'round these parts along with the usuals. Figuring I'd use their walks as a starting point, I checked out offerings in our own neighborhood and discovered that the area around Sutro Tower and UCSF is public open space. Duh. After consulting a couple linked trail maps and finding the trailhead closest to us, I told a half-asleep Lane that we were going on an urban hike the next day.

The summer weather held (and is still holding -- where is the fog?) and we set out for the trailhead at 17th and Stanyan around one o'clock. We made the perilous crossing of Haight Street during the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair and found refuge in the shady and quiet sidewalks of Cole Valley. We chose the Historic Trail for maximum great views and we also got great views of some really nice patios and balconies occupied by the kind of people who can afford to own really nice things. There were plenty of cutbacks, so the incline wasn't terrible and the trails were pretty well maintained, though at some spots I was a little afraid of being poked by encroaching sting weed. We crossed over to the Summit Trail and had a snack of Cabot cheddar, picante salame and a fresh baguette. When we got to the summit, Lane said "Isn't there supposed to be a tower up here?" It was looming right behind him, so I just pointed and he was all "Oh." He doesn't get out much.

After our snack, we went back down the other end of the Summit Trail and connected to the Fairy Gates Trail (wut) where we encountered a giant murder of crows chatting and eating berries. We then got back on the Historic Trail, returning the way we came and made our way back to the Haight, each block becoming more rowdy and the smell of BBQ smoke and fried things growing stronger. It took us ten minutes to go one block through all the sweaty foot traffic, so we grabbed a funnel cake and a sausage and returned home. Our neighbor, obviously a genius, was just returning from a sojourn to the fair with a full plate of BBQ to enjoy in the quiet and safe confines of his own apartment. The hike was fantastic and I can't wait to do it again once the fog is back.

A note on museums: My parents are FAMSF members and if my mom didn't treat me to her extra free admission every other weekend, we would be too. It's totally worth it and art makes you feel good.

Sutro Forest Hiking Information