November 17, 2019 - San Francisco

Title: November 17, 2019 - San Francisco
Hike Info : Description :  Background : Extra Photo's 

Trail head:Cow Hollow Inn

Hike Info:

Type: City

Trail: Marina

Destination: Palace of Fine Arts, Ghirardelli

Distance:  3.96 miles ¹

Start Time: 10:31

End Time:    1:16

Travel Time:  2:45 (1.44 mph)

Moving Time:  1:36 (2.47 mph)

Elevation Rise:  221'

Descent: 211‘

Maximum Elevation: 119'

GPS Tracks

 ¹We walked from the Cow Hollow Inn till almost to the Palace of Fine Art before the GPS started recording travel information.

Description:

A good night’s sleep and a breakfast this morning of granola. A bit lazy getting started, but neither are we in a big rush. We check out of Cow Hollow Inn. We can leave our car here until 2pm, so we will go for a walk. The only thing which we found a bit disturbing about the hotel was the City was doing construction on Lombard, even on Sunday. They were making a bit of a racket.

We walked through the Cow Hollow district of San San Francisco. This was an area where cows were grazed and produce grew for the soldiers at the Presidio a long time back. As such, it is not so much of a touristy spot. So you get a good flavor of a quiet San Francisco.

But where we are headed for is the Palace of Fine Arts. Friday when we picked up Andrea’s packet for her run, the Palace was all lite up-definitely an oooh and aaaah moment. Last night we were too tired to wander down here after seeing Andrea and Lawrence off.

While yesterday was foggy, today is bright and glorious. While the lights made an impression in the dark, the sunlight brings out its natural beauty. The columns and arches make for a bit of ancient Greece in the City. The pond in front of it adds a bit of serenity. Signs along the way say that the archetiect for the Palace, Maybeck, would not let the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915 drawn a swamp, but reconfigured it to allow the beauty of the Palace to be enhanced by it. He did a great job with it. We wandered around it, definitely did not rush through.

Then off to view the Bay. When we got to the beach to the south of Crissy Field, a young woman was trying to do a selfie, but asked if I could help her out with it. Yes. I think she was satisfied. Then it was our turn to gawk at the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Today was a day of contrast with yesterday. Fog to clear and sunshine leads to so much Wow!

We then walked along the Marina towards Ft Mason. Many people were out and about, running, walking and bicycling. An everyday festival in the City. We debated about getting ice cream from a van parked at Ft Mason, but decided to go on. Unusual sculptures are in the park above the area. One with boulders in a tree.

Then off to Ghirardelli. Now the big question is, what kind of sundae will we share? Crissy Field of course. We have come to the conclusion that the cookies in the sundae is not really special. The ice cream seemed much better years ago. But the chocolate syrup has not degraded.

After finishing off the sundae, we head back to the hotel to pick up the car. We leave San Francisco via the Bay Bridge. As we pass through Oakland, we wave bye to Andrea and Lawrence-doubt they saw us. We get back home to Fresno around 5:00pm. A good trip.

Background

Trip Advisor Review: Cow Hollow Inn. Do not let the name fool you. Located close to the Marina District, the Cow Hollow area of San Francisco is a (mostly) quiet area, away from the bustle of other parts of San Francisco. It is about a mile walk from the Presido, Ghirardelli Square and other points of interest. The hotel is on Lombard St. The staff was friendly and the premises clean. There is free on-site parking, which in The City is a real plus. The room was large enough for four adults not to feel like they were bumping into each other all the time. The only two drawbacks were no on-site breakfast and there was a lot of street noise. On the later, road work was being done on Lombard St. Once that gets cleared up, the noise should go down. In the meantime, staff suggested that a good option is to request their superior or deluxe rooms.

Extra Photo's

November 16, 2019 – Tennessee Valley and Andrea’s 50K Run

Title: November 16, 2019 – Tennessee Valley and Andrea’s 50K Run
Hike Info : Description :  Extra Photo's 

Trail head:  Tennessee Valley Trailhead

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking

Trail: Tennessee Valley Trail

Destination: Tennessee Beach

Distance: 3.41 miles ¹

Start Time: 10:45

End Time:    12:23

Travel Time:  1:38 (2.09 mph)

Moving Time:  1:21 (2.52 mph)

Elevation Rise:  566'

Descent: 338‘

Maximum Elevation: 246'

GPS Tracks

 ¹Because if the overcast sky-fog, the GPS took about ⅓ of a mile to sync.

Description:

Today we are going to try to sandwich in a hike between rooting for Andrea on her 50k run, that is 31 miles. We stayed the night in San Francisco in the Marina District. The hotel is the Cow Hollow Inn. it is a bit nicer than our usual haunts but I think this is what things go for in San Francisco.

Andrea got up before 5. A while after she left, she realized she forgot her hydration drink, so I gathered it up and took it downstairs for her. Then fell asleep.

Lawrence and Sherri hiking

I am the last to get up, not the last to wakeup. We have a granola breakfast, made our sandwiches and are off to CrissyField. We were told last night that it was OK to park in the Sports Basements parking lot, but that was not true. We end up parking about a third of a mile away-which we should not complain about. Then it is find where to pick up our shuttle pass and wait for the shuttle.

The length of time we wait for the shuttle is about right. Somebody said we had waited over an hour for it. But when we got to the drop off point, it became evident that taking the shuttle was well worth it. Parking stretched on both sides of the road to Tennessee Valley Trailhead for over a mile. I do not know if this is normal or not, just glad someone else is driving.

Ocean and Rock

Lawrence, Sherri and I decide that since we have 3+ hours of waiting for Andrea, we would take a 4 mile walk to Tennessee Beach. On the map it does not look hard. The trail is a dirt road. Many of the runners pass us by and we applaud them.

Obviously, since we are going down to the beach, we are on a downward trend, generally gentle that is. The word generally hides a bit of terrain. I am feeling a great deal of empathy for the runners. When the road goes up, it goes up sharply. Talking to Andrea later and some other people the whole area is like that. steep uphills, making this a very challenging course.

But for us, the couple of steep uphills are more of a break from a steady downhill. The road leads us through a nice valley-probably prettier in the Spring, still pleasant enough now. Berry plants-don’t ask me what kind, line the road, with other brush here and there. But the hills are mostly dried grasses. We see a lagoon close to the beach.

Lawrence, Sherri and Gary

Tennessee Beach is not a beach where you would be sun bathing or swimming at, at least not today. While the surf is not rough, there are signs which indicate that there are rip tides present. As far as sun bathing, the sand is nice, but we are missing a requirement of sun bathing-the sun. But it is a beautiful area just to stop and gaze. There are cliffs on both sides of the beach which gives an impression of coming out of cavern-even though the Tennessee Valley is pretty open.

A group is to the south of us, next to a cliff. A group of young females come along and we exchange taking photo’s for each other. We spent about 20 minutes there-me resting somewhat. Then it is back up the road to the trail head.

Tennessee Valley

Lawrence and Sherri Snake hunting

About a third of a mile up, we decide to take the lower trail up the Valley. This is a single track trail, rather than a road. Pleasant to walk along, rather than a road. As we walk along, with me being in front, I stop. There is a small snake on the trail. It disappears in the grass beside the trail. Fortunately, it appears to be something like a racer, than something which rattles. Shortly afterwards, a second snake appears, but only I saw it. We travel on. I look back, and Lawrence and Sherri stopped to look at something else-another snake. 

 

From here on forward, we rejoin the road and make our way to the trail head. Runners from both the marathon and 50K courses were passing us in both directions. Also there are some orange runner’s bibs now appearing on the track-we found out that they are 50 milers.

Andrea Coming Into the Tennessee Valley Trail Head Aid Station

Watermelon and Goodies

There we stop at the trail head at a picnic table. Two wives of a couple 50 milers are at a picnic bench and we join them. We have an hour to wait for Andrea to come up. So we have lunch and talk with the ladies. Andrea sent a text saying she was about 10-15 minutes behind her schedule-not bad considering the terrain she has had to traverse. I go down the road about 50 yards to meet her. After waiting a few minutes Andrea comes up and she gets cheered into the aid area.

There Lawrence and Sherri feed her watermelon and energy foods and drinks. After five minutes, she is ready to go again. We see her off and she charges up a hill. Looks like she will be finishing strong for the next 8-9 miles. We get packed up and race to catch a shuttle-the shuttle just started when we reached it, but it became aware of us and stopped.

Andrea Recharged to Charge Up the Hill

A pleasant ride back to San Francisco, across the Golden Gate. The fog looks like it is starting to come in. When we get back to Crissy Fields. Here we wait for Andrea, about an hour. But that fog is coming in and the temperature drops. We start getting covered and warm. I get a bonus point when I realize that in most other long distance races, there is foil warmers for the runners. But I do not see any around. I realize in my standard hiking bag, I have an emergency blanket. So I get it out and give it to Sherri. Lawrence and I walk up the way to meet Andrea. Lawrence stops and I go up about a quarter mile.

Crissy Field

Final Leg of 50K Run

Andrea and her Medal

Andrea comes into view behind some walkers and sees me. After 30+ miles, she still has energy enough to wave and smile. She flashes by me the way to the finish line. When I get back to her, she is smiling and enjoying that she has finished the difficult 50K. After getting a bit rested, it is time to get some restorative fluids. So off we go to the beer garden. We spent about an hour there, at a table with a guy from Palo Alto named Tom. Enjoyable time. Andrea goes off and gets a burrito.

We wait for Andrea, then go off to try to find her. She is by the burrito truck. A runner has passed out and first aid has just arrived when we saw her. Sounded like he suffered from low blood sugar. When Andrea finally got her burrito, the runner was recovering and fluids were being added to him.

After this, we go back to the hotel. Andrea gets a shower and we go out for pizza at Amici’s. Then Lawrence and Andrea go back to their place. Sherri and I spend some time just relaxing before going to sleep-a long day.

Extra Photo's

Fog rolling into Tennessee Valley

Sherri and Lawrence Hiking

Lawrence and Gary

Lagoon and Ocean

Sherri and Lawrence gazing at the ocean

Lawrence the Ocean Guy

Close to the Trail Head

Places: CA-Crissy Field

Crissy Field-3' (San Francisco North) (37.8041667,  -122.4597222)
Legal: T__S, R__E, Sec__

Description : Trips : References : Pictures 


Description:


From GNIS:

• Built in 1921
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Trips:

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References:

• Wikipedia
• Golden Gate Parks Conservancy
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Pictures:

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