Blog Archives

Billy Down

2/28/2018

Billy Goat Hill is a small park at the west dead-end of 30th St. in upper Noe Valley. It’s just below Walter Haas Park.

Top entrance is off Beacon, a block or so from the top of the Harry stairway (239 streps). It has 81 steps and a zigzag dirt trail.

Starting from the top end of Diamond down from Diamond Heights Blvd. with a right on Beacon: 1 thru 5

There’s a new park sign since my last visit. Top to bottom: 6 thru 35

1 Diamond Heights Blvd.

2 Top of Diamond St. below

3 Beacon St.

4 30th St. below

8 Bernal Hill in distance

10 Looking north

13 81 steps

35 Billy;s foot at 30rh near Laidley

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Above the Baths

2/26/2018

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Down 126 steps from the lower parking lot overlook at Land’s End: 1 thru 10

The cavetop viewplace: 11 thru 27

142 steps for the Sutro Baths Upper Trail/Coastal Trail: 28 thru 48

To the lower Coastal Trail overlook: 49, 50

59 upper parking lot overlook steps: 51 thru 55

Upper parking lot overlook. From here, head east on the El Camino del Mar Trail: 56

1 Down from the overlook near Land's End Lookout

2 126 steps

11 Trail above the baths to the cavetop

28 These are the older steps. More were added in 2009.

45 142 steps

51 Lower to upper overlooks

56 Upper parking lot overlook

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Connector Route Part 2

2/26/2018

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Continued from the previous post …Twin Peaks Park over to Mount Sutro,

Twin Peaks view-area: 1 thru 9

Crossing to he westside recently widened trail next to the guardrail on Twin Peaks Blvd.: 10, 11, 12

Down the connector trail alongside the reservoir to Marview in the Midtown Terrace neighborhood: 13, 14

Bypassing the Tower trail, on Palo Alto’s sidewaylk to La Avanzada: 15, 16

La Avanzad down to Clarendon: 17, 18. The new trail into Sutro Forest can be clearly seen from across Clarendon.

Crossing over Clarendon and up into the Aldea neighborhood this time. The newer Clarendon trail is, however, highly recommended.

Medical Center Way, the road that curves round with trails below and above: 19 thru 38

A shortcut down to the parking lot: 39

Downhilling to the permits-only UCSF parking lot to descend the 136 stairs behind the medical buildings for the bus stop on Parnassus: 40 thru 50

1 View area

10 There is now a trail on the other side of the guardrail

12 Turn Left here

15 To vehicle dead-end of Palo Alto

17 La Avanzada

18 Sutro Forest's new Clarendon Trail from across Clarendon

28 Crosswalk to the North Ridge Trail

37 Crosswalk for the Historic Trail

38 Looking back

39 A shortcut alongside a building

40 Top of the north stairway

51 Behind the medical buildings

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Connector Route

2/25/2018

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Part 1- Starting from Portola Dr. at the south end of Twin Peaks Blvd.

Rec/Park is considering improving the connector route between Twin Peaks Park and Mount Sutro’s Clarendon trail.

They feel they should have an alternate route round the reservoir instead of using the Sutro Tower trail due to possible liability as the latter area is privately owned.

We’ll see what happens. This time I didn’t use either, but just used the sidewalk to cross over to La Avanzada from Palo Alto’s dead-end for vehicles.

First over to Portola Dr. and up the trail on the right side of Twin Peaks Blvd. for the first section: 1 thru 11

Second block up features the new stairway: 12 thru 25

Third block up the southside is still a curving trail with only four older wood steps at the top just before the guardrail: 26 thru 35

Nearby, to the west, is the south Noe peak stairway.

East side of Twin Peaks Blvd. that’s now closed to motor vehicles and super-popular with skateboarders: 36 thru 52

The south Eureka peak stairway can be seen ahead as you curve around to the viewplace.

Stopping here. Next post is Part 2, starting with my arrival at Twin Peaks’ main view area, continuing to the westside recently widened trail, then down the Marview connector trail (Midtown Terrace) and over to Mount Sutro.

1 Up ahead is the trail that starts up from Portola Dr.

2 South end of Twi Peaks Blvd. with trail to right

3 Apparently they close off the Blvd. at night

9 Crosswalk up ahead to start the second section

12 Midcrest Way to left

24 Short trail to top of Midcrest Way

26 Starting up the third section

31 Left, top, for the Noe peak stairway

35 Trail just hiked

36 Curving round to the east side, now traffic-free

39 Guardrail meets the low wall

44 Eureka peak's south stairway ahead

45 Stairs down to Crestline and top of Vista Lane stairway

47 The Eureka peak steps are a recent replacement

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NFS

2/24/2018

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Remember a certain Presidio neighborhood, North Fort Scott, from long ago. It had a stairway to another street and a view to the north, between residences, of the bridge.

Could not find any old pix of the way this used to look and wondered why I didn’t take any back then.

In 2016 revisited the neighborhood briefly and took a few pix. The top street, Armistead Road, looked different, not as green; too bare. There was green construction fencing on the south side and erosion control straw wattles.

Googled Armistead after this most recent (Feb. 2018) visit and read that a row of residences had been demolished because of the Presidio Parkway/Doyle Dr. expansion.

This, then, is why the top of the hill looks so bare now and why there’s so little green up here as compared to how I remembered it years ago. Hopefully they’ll plant trees to help block the traffic noise.

From Armistead at the top of the hill could now see the highway this most recent trip. There was still green fencing in the area.

This year again started up from Lincoln on the east side, directly across from Crissy Field Overlook, and followed Hoffman out to where it comes out at the bridge area.

There is still no crosswalk to get from the sidewalk at the front of the houses on Lincoln over to the bridge area. They could use one here. Cars, MUNI buses, huge tour buses turning everywhere = danger to pedestrians.

First for this hike, the Battery East Trail and its stairway (153 steps): 1 thru 14

Andrews Road to Crissy Field Overlook, a long-loved trail between two vehicle streets: 15, 16, 17

From Lincoln up Lendrum to Armistead and residences up here: 18 thru 24

The first street off Lincoln is Hoffmam, where the stairway is (52 steps). The stairs ascend to Lendrum and can easily be seen from Hoffman. Descending to Hoffman, the stairs start between residences and are more difficult to see: 25 thru 32

Hoffman includes garages on the south side that belong to the homes on Lincoln: 33 thru 42

1 Picnic area. Low overhead tunnel to right

3 Battery East Trail

7 153 steps

12 Left to Fort Point, right to Crissy Field

13 Back up again

15 On Andrews Road now, a view of the stairsI just ascended

16 Andrews Road is a trail between two vehicle streets

17 Crissy Field below, heading towards the Overlook

18 Uphill from Crissy Field Overlook into the Norm Fort Scott neighborhood

25 This is the old stairway remembered from years ago

26 52 steps

35 Hpffman St.

36 Circling back to the bridge area

42 Front of the homes on Lincoln

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Mount Blossom

2/24/2018

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This hike earlier in February started at Mount Sutro Forest’s Stanyan trailhead.

The forest was full of plum blossoms. Something like this should definitely be seen in person as mere photos don't do it justice.

Stanyan trailhead and into the forest on the lower Historic Trail up to the road: 1 thru 29

North Ridge Trailhead: 30

Curvy Medical Center Way: 31, 32

Descending again for the Edgewood Trail out to Edgewood Ave.: 33 thru 54

North on Edgewood Avenue: 55 thru 62

Farnsworth Lane’s 149 steps down to Willard: 63 thru 76