They (no, not 'They', just 'they') say San Francisco is one of the few American cities you can walk around. I put that to the test today on a grand 15 mile navigation encompassing Haight (+ Memphis Minnies to fuel up), the Presidio and Golden Gate bridge. I can exclusively reveal I am knackered and my feet could stop a zombie at 40 paces.
Like many of the parks in SF, the Presidio used to be a military base before it was turned over to the national park service in 1994. Today it covers something like 75,000 acres of the Northern tip of San Francisco including the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge itself. It's criss crossed with trails and walks and the whole headland is a rich mix of pine and eucalyptus trees which smell superb when the sun breaks through the everpresent fog curling off the Pacific.
In an earlier post, I described a new species of human, mining bins for rubbish. I have now discovered a second branch who inhabit Marshall Beach, the strip of rough coast below the bluffs leading up to the Golden Gate. Foregoing clothing, they desport themselves naked during daylight hours in nests upon the beach, painstakingly constructed from driftwood and other ocean going rubbish that washes up. I nearly stepped on one by accident, mistaking the mound of rock, netting and driftwood as a useful shortcut to another part of the beach. I'm not sure who was more shocked, me or him (for it was a male).
The Golden Gate Bridge itself was huge and quite spooky in the fast moving fog flooding into the bay area. Although it takes about an hour to walk across and back, if you stop and stand still, you also feel how much the thing is moving and vibrating with the 6 lanes of traffic passing by. Adds an extra frisson to the proceedings...
"Standing by the window as the fog rolls in
ReplyDeleteI swear I can hear a far-off music..."
(Soul Shadows/Bill Withers)