2017 Goal: Climb Every Hill in San Francisco

In 2014, I made my it my new year's resolution to hike every trail in San Francisco. After exploring the city's trails and blogging about it, my experience turned into a book deal with Mountaineers Books for Urban Trails San Francisco. I spent most of 2015 and the first half of 2016 writing, editing, and finalizing my book, which finally came out on November 15, 2016. Since that time, I've been able to take some time off. After all that work, it's also been fun to do book some book talks and to see my book in stores.

View of the Golden Gate Bridge from Buena Vista Park

But now, a few months after publication, I feel myself itching for another goal or quest to keep me occupied for 2017. I wanted my goal to be a challenge, but also achievable. And I wanted it to be a way to learn more about San Francisco. Finally, after about a month and a half of 2017, going by I finally came up with an idea: this year, I will climb every hill in San Francisco.

Now climbing every hill in San Francisco may seem like a pretty concrete task, but isn't as easy as it seems because no one can seem to agree on how many hills there are! (This page from SFGazeteer explains the dilemma well.)

My personal goal meant I'd need to create my personal list of hills, so I did this drawing from a few sources:

SF Gate Article: Peak Experience (53 hills)
How Many Hills Are There InSan Francisco? (74 hills)
47 Hills blog (47 hills)
Wikipedia (50 hills)

Using these sites and articles, I came up with my own list. At first, I had 53 hills, and then my boyfriend added a lot more using topographic maps to complement the sources listed above. While this feels exhaustive now, I realize this list may change, and I may add some new hills to/take out some others from this list.

As with my 2014 goal, my plan is to blog about this quest as I complete it. I post photos, history, and key stats about each hill.

While I'm a little behind in my quest—not starting this until late February—I luckily have a good head start—I've already climbed 36 hills. I'll write about the hills I've been to—and hopefully visit the remaining ones before January 1, 2018. Do you want to join me in my quest? If so, copy my list in Google Spreadsheets, empty my "Been There?" column, and start using this as a checklist to track your progress. All right, who else is in?

View from Bayview Hill

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