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San Francisco (Palace of Fine Arts)
San Francisco (Golden Gate Bridge)
San Francisco (Golden Gate Bridge)
San Francisco (Golden Gate Bridge)
San Francisco (Golden Gate Bridge)
San Francisco (Crissy Fields)
For this day, I had planned to hike over Golden Gate bridge. This first took me past the Palace of Fine Arts, then along the shore past the Presidio Military Reservation and finally over the bridge. This was impressive, and slightly frightening, considering the height of the bridge and my aversion to such heights. At the beginning, there's still a high guard-rail, but later on it is only waist-high.
The overlook on the Bay side of the bridge was closed, so I crossed under the bridge and hiked up to the first overlook in the Marin Headlands. I took some photos and rested for a while - I had done the entire hike so far under a warm mid-day sun, and was starting to feel the effects.
[Later research shows that I walked about 5 miles at this point.]
I rested for a while and then walked back down the road to where it met highway 101, and stood at a bus stop for a while, waiting for a bus to take me back to San Francisco. Seeing how I hadn't really planned this far, I'm not sure I waited at the right place, or long enough - the bus I thought I could take never came, and the ones that drove past never stopped...
I decided that waiting any longer was futile - especially since at least one police officer had been alarmed enough by my sitting/standing close to the bridge to stop and ask me what I was up to. After explaining the situation, and not really getting any helpful answer on bus schedules out of him, I thought I might as well just walk back over the bridge. I soon grew more and more weary of the hiking. It was still comparatively easy while hiking on the bridge, with a clear and present destination in sight (the end of the bridge); but of course after crossing the bay I still had to get back to my motel. I dragged my sorry self past Chrissy Field, through the Presidio, and finally made it back to my room sometime mid-afternoon, and only got out again for a burger dinner later in the evening.
Accommodation: Econo Lodge (San Francisco, CA): $60
Short summary written September 2nd 2003, revised December 23rd 2004 and May 21st 2005.