The Beer Retard - From the Cliff House to the Marina...the long way

Picked up a book about stairway walks in San Francisco at the library on Friday. It turned out to be a pretty good find--I discovered a lot of interesting areas of the city that I've yet to explore. On Saturday, decadentscholar and I decided to try one of the walks out. It turned out to be a long, but ultimately rewarding, adventure.

The walk we chose was called the Land's End. It starts out near the Cliff House a few blocks down from the last stop on the 38 Geary MUNI line. When we got on the bus downtown it was hot and sunny. Good thing we brought warmer clothing because when we got out near the ocean it was cold and pea soup-foggy. As described in the book, the walk is not that long. It's maybe 2-2.5 miles to Baker Beach and then you're supposed to head back the way you came but on a different trail. That seemed boring, so we decided to keep going all the way up north until we got to the entrance to the Golden Gate bridge. Along the way we went through just about every kind of weather you could imagine and saw some amazing views of the coastline.

We also walked through the swanky neighborhood of Seacliff, where Robin Williams and a lot of other filthy rich people live. Even though we were disgusted by the displays of opulence, the neighborhood was so nice and quiet compared to where we live. Plus it's near the ocean, which is a plus. At Baker Beach, we saw a few nude people and lots of semi-clothed people looking like they were trying to get a tan or something. The only problem there was that the sun wasn't really out and it wasn't even that warm. I guess they were hoping the fog would burn off eventually. There were also some sleazy fucks who were pretending to play soccer but were really trying to ogle the nude sunbathers. There really wasn't much to see.

The coolest and also most brutal part of the hike was the 280 step sand stairs leading up from Baker Beach to the road. I recognized the stairs from watching the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon and remembered how some of the best athletes were struggling to get up the thing. It was punishing on both the legs and the lungs. In the middle of the thing, the sand was so deep that we had to grab onto the ropes and pull ourselves up or we would've slid down aways. Finally getting to the top felt good, but we still had a long way to go. Eventually we made it to the Marina after getting a bit lost near the Golden Gate bridge and having to hook up with the Walk for Breast Cancer to get back on track. We eventually made our way to the dreaded Marina, where we ate a well-deserved meal at Asqew Grill, a yuppie skewer place that turned out to be very tasty and not too expensive. Then it was a long bus ride home and we collapsed, tired and content. I'd say we walked maybe 7-8 miles which isn't bad. I think we'll try another walk next week. Maybe Mt. Davidson or Forest Knolls. There's still a lot of SF I haven't seen.