Gary-Summer: October 3, 2024 - Golden Gate Park

Thursday, October 3, 2024

October 3, 2024 - Golden Gate Park

Title: October 3, 2024 - Golden Gate Park

Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking : Bus

Trail head: Cow Hollow Inn

Trail: Sutro Heights Park, Highway 1, Wandering in Golden Gate Park, Lakes Trail

Destination: Lands End, California Academy of Science

Distance: 6.64/0.16/1.16 miles ¹

Start Time: 10:53

End Time: 5:01

Travel Time: 6:08 (1.08 mph)

Moving Time: 3:14 (2.05 mph)

Elevation Rise: 738/51/82 '

Descent: 595/8/101‘

Maximum Elevation: 294'

GPS Tracks

¹I started the GPS about halfway up the hill on the stairs up Sutro Heights. Also I shut off the GPS when we were traveling on the bus. I did not have the GPS from Ghirardelli Square to our hotel at Cow Hollow Inn. All of the mileage and elevations are in the format of aaa/bb/cc where aaa is taken from the GPS, bb is from the hotel to when I turned on the GPS and cc is from Ghirardelli back to the hotel. The bb and cc are computed from Google Earth.

Description:

Stairway to Sutro's mansion

Both Sherri and I stirred around 7. I went out for about 15 minutes to mail some cards. When I got back, we got ready to go out for breakfast. I passed by a place called the Home Plate which looked interesting. So we went down and ate there. Sherri had a Simple Breakfast Sando which was a ham&egg sandwich on sourdough bread-she said it was pretty good, maybe not as good as yesterday's. I had organic buckwheat pancakes with Nutella topping. Since it was organic, it had to be healthy, right? It was OK, but not as fabulous as I hoped for. Not saying it was bad or anything,just maybe did not meet high expectations.

We went back to the room and got ready for our trip. Today, we will take the Muni to our starting place. Route 28 stops about a block from us and we hop on. It takes us all the way to Golden Gate Park at Park and Fulton Streets. We must be getting old as two people offered their seats to us. That is courtesy. The 5R bus comes along about 15 minutes later and takes us to LaPlaya and Cabrillo Streets. This is the end of the ride for us. We have Clipper Cards, one for each of us. On the first bus, it took my day pass, but it charged Sherri $3.00. On 5R, it still used my day pass, but it now used Sherri’s day pass. I need to figure out the rhyme and reason of this system.

Stairway down to Sutro Baths

We walk to the end of the street and are faced with a decision: go up Highway One or climb the stairs at the end of the road. It is early and we have energy, so up the stairs we go, after all we love stairs, don’t we? There is lots of sand between the steps. Mary Burk says that this area, the Richmond, in early San Francisco life was called the sand waste. I can believe it. We climbed up to where Sutro had his mansion and conservatory. It certainly was a grand view. Also we are glad for the levelness of the area. There are several sets of stairs in the area and we decided to forego the experience of climbing them.

This brings us to the Lands End Lookout. This the Visitor Center masquerading as a souvenir story. We look around, but keep our money. We then descend down to the Sutro Baths area. Sherri prefers the long path down while I am in the stairs mastering mode and wait for her at the bottom. We see a few things in the ruins of the baths, including an area which must have been magnificent in its day. You remember what I said a couple of days ago about the futility of memorials? I think I will expand this to man’s works. All of our works will decay and fall to ruin, without upkeep. Eventually ruin will come. Am I sounding pessimistic about humans?

We decided rather than continue along the Lands End area and go north, we will go to Golden Gate Park. We ascend the path Sherri came down. This brings us to the closed up Cliff House. There is a long decline, not in our route, but in the Cliff House which used to be a place to be.. Sherri is going much slower than I am down this. I am reminded of the James Taylor song, Traffic Jam where is talks about it Hurts my motor to go so slow. If I keep at Sherri’s pace, I think I will feel discomfort, so I go at my own comfortable pace and wait for Sherri at the bottom.

Great Highway and the Beach

Dutch Windmill

There is another half of a mile walk next to the beach to get to Golden Gate Park. Sherri and I concentrate on two different things. She makes up a story about a dog which is straying far from its master. I spot a pink bikini top laying on the sand and wonder what the story is behind it. Fortunately, we get to Golden Gate Park before either story goes too far.

When we enter the park, we want to go to the Queen Wilhelmina Garden area with its windmill to have lunch. A renovation is going on and there was not a place to sit in the shade. So we continued on, going past the archery range and the golf course before we saw a bench in the shade.

Out comes our peanut butter and Nutella sandwich providing energy for us to continue on. I am aiming for the Chain of Lakes trail to take us through the middle of the Park. It is nice walking on it. When we get to the polo grounds, which used to be Kezar Stadium, we see that there is a lot of activity there. The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival is being prepared for. We see a security guard and talk with him for a few minutes. He gives us the rundown. We are safe to go into the area and continue on our way.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass stage

We pass by the polo grounds and find the Chain of Lakes Trail. Our pace picks up.Wdy do we have this energy? Maybe the flatness of the trail. On the other hand, the path is fenced in with temporary chain link fences. We can see over the fence that various areas are preparing for the festival. When we are on JFK Drive, we pass through the fence which will control entry. Then pass under Highway One.

Thomas Starr King's Statue

We walk down it until we get to the Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. There are several statues. Most of these I recognize:: General Pershing and Thomas Starr King to name a few. This gets us to our second goal: the California Academy of Science.

We enter without difficulty. One thing Sherri wants to see is the Planetarium. We get our reservations and wait for the 3:30 showing of Spark: The Universe in Us. I must have been tired and the seats were too comfortable. I fell asleep during it. Sherri said that I did some light snoring. We will need to come back for it another time.

By this time, it is after 4. This is enough of the Academy. I had mentioned that Peasant Pies on Irving is close by. We ate there several years ago and enjoyed it. So off we start walking, about ¾ of a mile to Irving St. We each ordered a pie: Sherri a beef pie and I a chicken pie. Both are good.This May have been the cheapest meal we have eaten on the entire trip.

The peasants and their pies

We decided two things: first to return via the Muni and second, that we were hearing a sundae at Ghirardelli calling us. So we walk over to 19th Street, about .6 miles and wait for bus 28. This gives us 45 minutes of resting on the bus until we get to Ghirardelli.

There we ordered a mint-chocolate sundae. Both of us felt like we deserved it. We also devoured it without mercy. Sherri also got a small cup of hot chocolate which she thoroughly enjoyed. I did note on my Facebook post that maybe somebody should do a statistical analysis of what percentage of our posts contains sundaes. A friend said in rely, Don’t look at the count! Just enjoy the deliciousness of the ice cream!

Ghirardelli Mint Sundae

Evidently the rest from the bus ride and the carbs from the sundae put enough energy in us to walk the half an hour back to the Cow Hollow Inn. When we got there, I asked two questions: how long can we leave the car parked tomorrow? Until 2pm. And does Cow Hollow have a discount for frequent guests? No. (We are thinking of coming back to the City for the Legion of Honor’s Mary Cassatt exhibition.)

We get back to the room and relax. Not crash like yesterday, but relax. But by 10pm, it is time to go to bed.