Blog Archives

Footbridge and Nursery

9/27/2017

A pleasant stroll thru the Presidio’s Fort Scott neighborhood.

Several short flights of old sone steps near the tennis courts, this one with 24 steps: 1

Interesting old buildings: 2 thru 11

The old stone footbridge and steps up to a street: 12, 13

Don another stairway (20 steps) To a shady section of forest: 14, 15

Out of the short forested section onto a favorite old trail that leads to the Presidio Nursery. Roots and holes on part of the trail and another gorgeous forested section just up from the trail: 16 thru 20

I’ve loved this trail for years. Can see it from the bus window as it heads south on Presidio Parkway, the nursery and Fort Scott neighborhood buildings below.

The bridge to the nursery: 21 thru 24

Old tile walkway: 25

The nursery and its stairway. This one (30 steps) replaced an older one several years ago: 26 thru 30

Back to the second bridge bus stop, Golden Gate Overlook’s main stairway: 31

1 24 steps for this part down to tennis courts

4 The "Log Cabin" can be rented for events (wedding receptions, etc.)

12 Stone footbridge

13 Up to a street and residential area

14 20 steps down to a shady forest

16 Peaceful old trail

31 Maon Golden Gate Overlook steps

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SHP Southside

9/26/2017

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I've always liked the south side of Sutro Heights Park most because it’s “wilder” than the north side, and of course the old log stairway down to Balboa (118 steps). This side of the hill is also called the Balboa Natural Area.

Crossing over to the north side of the park at the crosswalk from the Lands End Lookout and these views: 1, 2, 3

The north stairs (21) to the viewplace:4

Views:5 thru 11

Down the 35 southside garden steps: 12 thru 19

Over to the east for the trail down the duney south side of the park: 20 thru 25

The Balboa stairway and back up again. Every time I hike this there’s different graffiti on the wood walls at the top of the stairs.

Some of the steps are more like obstacles to step over than stairs to walk: 26 thru 49

Back up for a trail out to 48th Ave.: 50, 51

Top, south, dead-end of 48th Ave. There are stairs on 48th, both sides of the street, but they don’t go all the way up: 52

1 Lands End Lookout above

4 21 steps up to the viewplace

5 Former estate of Adolph Sutro

12 35 steps

22 South side near top of stairs

23 Ocean Beach

30 Step over instead of on... ?

41 A trail out to 48th Ave. residences

47 Down to Balboa

48 Going back up

52 Dad-end of 48th Ave. - public steps below do not run thru

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Lyon Down

9/25/2017

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Top of Baker at Broadway, west side (stairs are on the east side): First pic

291 steps for the Lyon Stairmaster, Broadway nearly to Green: 2 thru 26

Downhilling along the Presidio Wall to the Lombard Gate: 27, 28

North side of the park: 29, 30, 31

1 Top of Baker at Broadway

2 Top of Lyon steps

3 291 steps

13 Presidio Forest, top

27 Presidio Wall

28 Presidio Wall down to Lombard Gate

29 Inside the park

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BTB Recount

9/24/2017

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471 steps for the Presidio’s Batteries to Bluffs Trail for a recount. San Francisco’s longest public stairway, now with the storm-damaged footbridge’s steps replaced.

Looks like it lost a couple of steps - the rough spot mentioned last BTB post just looks smoothed out with no new steps added.

East to west: 1 thru 41

Top of the westside stairs at Battery Crosby. 16 steps down from the battery, then winding up to Lincoln: 42 thru 49

Connector Trail partway - but this time out a different way instead of continuing to Immigrant Point Overlook. If you continue to the overlook, there are 208 steps: 50 thru 57

This vast neighborhood has seemingly endless multiunit buildings: 58

Presidio forest out to Lobos Valley Overlook: 59 thru 62

1 Top of the stairs on the east side

8 130 steps to the viewbench

20 Marshall's Beach Trail to right

41 Top of the westside stairs at Battery Crosby

42 Battery Crosby

43 Down from Battery Crosby

44 16 steps

45 Continuing up to Lincoln

46 Baker Beach below

47 Lands End upper left corner

50 Connector to Immigrant Point Overlook and Rob Hill Campground

51 208 steps

52 Batteries to Bluffs Trail to right; Sand Ladder to left

60 Lobos Valley Overlook center, left

62 Looking back at the forest from the overlook area

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Drippy Westridge

9/23/2017

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A vigorous Mount Sutro hike beginning at Seventh Ave. and Warren.

The Forest Knolls neighborhood has several long stairways.

Uphill a few blocks to the foot of the longest, Oakhurst Lane: 354 streps from Warren to Crestmont (162 up to the wrest dead-end of Oak Park Dr.): 1 thru 22

A short stroll to the left on Crestmont for the unmarked West Ridge Trail. Up to the Historic Trail where there is a marker: 23 thru 30

Historic Trail: 31

This time continuing with the second part of the West Ridge, from the Historic to the summit. Love thIS old log: 32 thru 38

The West Ridge Tail was drippy, foggy, and slightly muddy. Big fat fogdrops. Such a contrast from the rest of my route; the other trails were dry.

Summit: 39

Down the North Ridge Trail: 40, 41

Mystery Trail: 42 thru 47

East Ridge trailhead: 48

North Ridge trailhead at the road: 49

Edgewood Trail: 50

Lower Historic Trail out to Stanyan: 51 thru 57

1 Foot of Oakhurst Lane at Warren

2 354 steps

10 162 steps up to the west dead-end of Oak Park Dr.

11 Continuing up the Oakhurst stairs

22 Top of Oakhurst at Crestmont

23 Unmarked trailhead for West Ridge Trail at Crestmont

24 West Ridge Trail between Crestmont and Historic Trail

31 Historic Trail

32 Continuing up take second part of the West Ridge

39 Summit benches

40 Starting down the North Ridge Trail

42 Mystery Trail

48 East Ridge trailhead

49 North Ridge trailhead

50 Edgewood Trail

51 Lower Historic Trail

55 Out at Stanyan

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MRB Replacements

9/22/2017

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Lands End’s Mile Rock Beach stairway now has some replacement steps. These are the middle ones, east to west, where it turns to pass under the tree.

Instead of the 262 previous staircount, got 259 this time for this park’s longest stairway.

Coastal Trail: 1 thru 4

Starting down from the Coastal Trail: 5, 6

The middle steps where the replacements are: 7 thru 15

Lower steps: 16 thru 19

The rocky beach and trails above: 20 thru 29

Up to the labyrinth: 30 thru 37

Heading back, the trail dead-ended, but there was access to the trail above: a few well-defined footholds and a sturdy embedded bar to help myself up. Sitting at the top of this.
Upper viewplace and trails: 38 thru 50

Connector steps (89) to the less traveled El Camino del Mar Trail: 51

Out to the upper parking lot overlook. 59 steps between the upper and lower overlooks: 52 thru 56

1 Coastal Trail

5 Down from the Coastal Trail

7 Replacement steps

8 259 steps

16 Steps to right

52 View from El Camino del Mar Trail

56 59 steps between two overlooks

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Berry Bushes

9/21/2017

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Back to the (now two) Paul Goode field area in the Presidio on a no-rain day for more exploration of this neighborhood's new look.

Planned to take the old trail I used before all the fences blocked the route a couple years ago.

Starting off from Lovers Lane and west a short distance. Part of the old trail has been somewhat altered: 1 thru 6

Upon reaching the old familiar part, the trees remembered were still there and so were the blackberry bushes. The narrow trail next to the bushes has been widened and a walkway added below.

10 new steps down and a few more to the new restrooms. There’s a new parking lot and some picnic tables. Another short stairway is on the east side.

Over to the east ziggy-trail for El Polin but instead of descending this time, around the west field and back again as the walkway isn’t trhru.

The makeover: 7 thru 35

The main trail now curves down from West Pacific Ave. at the south edge of the park just east of Julius Kahn Park.

Back to Lovers Lane: 36 thru 43

12 Bathrooms and picnic tables

14 New steps and new parking lot between fields

16 The old blackberry bushes and other plants are still here, right

21 Inspiration Point Overlook in distance. Trail to El Polin Spring center

26 Top of El Polin Spring's ramp-trail, left

36 Old trees still here

38 Lovers Lane

41 Presidio wall, center

42 Lovers Lane trailhead at Pacific & Presidio Blvd.

43 Presidio Blvd. "Gate," at Pacific, center

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Fencing Gone

9/21/2017

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How many remember the Presidio's old Paul Goode playing field, the building with stall-type public restrooms, old-style bleachers? (And some prolific blackberry bushes across from the latter that I used to look forward to foraging in each season).

For a couple of years there were sections of chainlink fencing around all this on the park's south side just east of Julius Kahn ParK and the El Polin ramp-trail. Just north of the Presidio wall and West Pacific Ave.

Made my day to finally find all the fences gone. Was able to hike thru the forested area west of Lovers Lane without detouring due to construction.

Got caught in the rain, however, and some pix didn’t turn out well, so this post is just a preview as returned the next day when it wasn’t raining.

Now there are two playing fields, new bleachers and a row of attractive single-occupancy bathrooms. And they were unlocked — unlike the ones at Rob Hill Campground.

Like the design and colors of the fields, the new walkways (partway around the fields), and the new bleachers. Good job! A residential neighborhood is here and a beautiful forested area nearby. El Polin Spring is below on the west side.

Google Maps, at this writing, has not yet updated this area since before the project was started, so if you look up “Paul Goode” you can compare the way it used to look with the way it is now.

Moving west thru the forest from Lovers Lane: 1 thru 6

This neighborhood’s new look: 7 thru 20

Back to Lovers Lane for the Presidio Blvd. Gate out of the park at Pacific: 21 thru 27