October 4, 2024 - Go to Fresno

 

Title: October 4, 2024 - Go to Fresno

Hike Info : Description :  Extra Photo's : 

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking :  Car 

Trail head: Cow Hollow Inn

Trail: Route 7 of the Stairway Walks in San Francisco by Mary Burk 

Destination: Loop 

Distance:  2.43/0.24/0.65 miles ¹

Start Time: 9:50

End Time:  11:34

Travel Time: 1:44  (1.40 mph)

Moving Time: 1:30   (1.62 mph)

Elevation Rise: 619/48/20 '

Descent: 418/10/177‘

Maximum Elevation:357 '

GPS Tracks

Car Mileage:  185 miles
Drive Time:  3 hours, 20 minutes

 ¹Once again, I did not turn on the GPS until we were a quarter mile into our walk. Towards the end of our walk, the GPS ran out of battery. 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 when the GPS lost power back to the hotel. The bb and cc are computed from Google Earth.

Description:

Casebolt Farmhouse

I did not sleep well last night. About 3:30 I woke up and did not get back to sleep until almost 6. Once back asleep I slept to 8. Even Sherri was awake then. We got packed up as last night was the last night in San Francisco. We are going home today. For breakfast we go down to Noah’s Bagels, around the corner. Both of us thought that the Farmhouse sounded good-it was. After eating, we are ready to check out of the hotel, but leave the car in their garage for a couple of hours.

What do we want to do? At first we were going to do parts of routes 6 and 8 in Stairway Walks in San Francisco by Mary Burk . But I noticed that route 7 is just up the hill from us. Up is the operative word. We head up the hill to start the route at Green and Pierce. This is just the start of the UP. We headed up Pierce to Broadway. Across the street is an old building called the Casebolt Historic Farmhouse.

Filmore St Steps

Once we reach Broadway we head across it to Fillmore. We now have our first stairway which we descend. It is pretty steep, but one step at a time gets us down to Vallejo. Here we have a choice: go down the next block of steps and avoid the tree trimmers or go east on Vallejo and meet up the stairs on Webster. We chicken out and do the latter.

Italian Consulate

When we get to Webster, we have steps going up. They seem a bit steep, but we make it up.Webster, while not leveling out, gets less of an incline. There is the Italian consulate in a pretty impressive building. There was also an interesting sign at a store about selling some interesting beer. So we got a can for Steven. While Sherri is making the purchase, I get a lesson in how Muni drivers connect the buses to the electrical lines. Then continued on our way.

Muni Hooking Up

At Clay, our route declines slightly until we reach Alta Plaza. The stairs here remind me of some pictures I have seen of either Aztec or Mayan pyramids. From the top, we can look south to Sutro Towers and much of the city. It also allows us to catch our breath. We make use of the bathroom at the playground. I also get some goodwill points by using some of my water for a thirsty dog.

It is time for the return leg. We head north on Scott to Broadway. Then go half of a block to Normandie Terrace. Here we see the second consulate of our trip. This time it is the Norwegian one-even though the map shows it in a different place. These stairs are easy on the body and nerves. The stairs brought me onto Vallejo.

Not far from there, we return back up the hill on Divisadero to Broadway. The hills are starting to get to us. This should be the last of our climbs on our trip. But the Baker St stairs show that going down can be as hard on the body, if not even more than on the mind. We look down these steps and note how steep they are, with no rail to hold onto. But we made it down, slowly.

 

 

Sherri and Alta Plaza

We could have gone over to the Lyon Street stairs for one more set of stairs, even if it is a rerun. But I think we have had enough stairways to satisfy our stairway fix. We continue on down Baker until Greenwich. Then down Greenwich until Steiner. Once we cross Lombard, we are back at Cow Hollow Inn. No need to check out since we have already done that.

Sherri coming down Baker St

About noon, we climb into the car, get situated and head down Lombard/101. We think we are going through Gilroy, but the GPS takes us back over the Bay Bridge. Oh well, at least there is no toll this way. We know where we are going. It is a bit slow going over Altamont Pass. Once onto I-5, we make good time, until going down Maze Blvd. Highway 99 is a bit slow as well. There is a need to stop at a rest stop in Turlock. Then it is a straight shot back to Fresno and home.

Good to be home. We went out for dinner. Then start the cleanup process. Wonder where our next adventure will be.

Extra Photo's

Sherri coming down the Baker St Stairs

Normandie Terrace Stairs

From from the top of Webster Street Stairs

Webster Street Stairs

View from Alta Plaza