Urban Hiker SF

I hike by myself...a lot...especially during COVID. While sometimes I like to just take in the surroundings, many times I like to listen to podcasts. Luckily for us there are a number of great hiking podcasts out there right now. Here are some of my favorites. Some of these have a feminine focus, but that doesn't mean everyone can't enjoy them. G irl Gotta Hike The Girl Gotta hike podcast features "interviews with adventurous women and outdoor entrepreneurs" and is hosted by Melissa "Click" Goodwin. Melissa is an accomplished day- and long-distance hiker who's completed the Appalachian Trail (2011), the John Muir Trail (2016), the Long Trail (2017), Mount Everest Base Camp (2018), and the Hundred-Mile Wilderness (2019). She's a professional photographer, but whenever she can, she leads hikes and backpacking trips in the NYC area, the Catskills, and beyond. You can listen to my episode on the podcast , and I loved the two episodes on forest bathing ...

In mid-March 2020, the coronavirus began spreading rapidly across the United States, and here in San Francisco we were the first city in the country to go into lockdown. We were supposed to stay at home and only go out for the essentials, such as food and exercise, but as per usual I was antsy AF. 🤣 I wanted to follow Mayor Breed's stay at home order, so I decided I would go out, but I would only go as far as my legs would take me (no cars, buses, or Lyfts). After a few walks throughout the Mission, Castro, Glen Park, Diamond Heights, and Potrero Hill, I was reminded of all of the amazing stairways scattered throughout the city. Auspiciously, I had also checked out Stairway Walks in San Francisco from the library. I thought to myself, "What if I could see them all?" I then had the idea to document all of San Francisco's stairways. Over the past five months, I have documented 800 stairways on a map ( https://bit.ly/sfstairmap ), a spreadsheet ( https://bit...

Whether you're a tourist, an SF noob, or an old-timer (like I'm becoming 😱), we all want the same thing: killer photos of the Golden Gate Bridge 🌉. After 13 years in this city (and 8 of them guiding folks around on hiking tours and writing hiking books ), I've identified some special spots for memorable shots. This post covers 10 spots in San Francisco, and soon I'll post on where to take bridge photos in Marin County. Ten San Francisco spots to take great photos of the Golden Gate Bridge Baker Beach Location: Battery Chamberlin Road in the Presidio About: The combo of the bridge, beach, and ocean make Baker Beach a classic choice for Golden Gate Bridge photos. The only issue you can run into here is that it can get crowded on warm days. To ditch the crowds, head north, but if you're shy, don't roam too far as the north end of the beach is known for its nude sunbathers .  Parking: LARGE parking lot (rare for SF!) at the end of Battery Chamberlin Road. Bat...

Lockdown day 1,000,000. Let's face it, it's going to be a long time before any of us go on a vacation with a plane, so I'm trying to get good at being a tourist in my own town. On the Sunday before Memorial Day, I decided to go on a sea lion "hunt" along the Embarcadero. (As a 20+ year vegetarian, I would never go on an actual sea lion hunt—this was a hunt for sea lion sculptures.) Here's a little backstory.... Last weekend, I decided to run home to the Mission from North Beach and explore some hills and stairways along the way. On my way back, I noticed a sea lion statue on the Embarcadero. (I originally thought it was a seal, but I was wrong. Here's the difference .) I am a huge animal lover, so I crossed the street to get a closer look. It reminded me of the "I left my heart in San Francisco" sculptures you can still see around town, so I figured this statue might be part of a series. When I got home from my run, I decided to learn more. On t...

It's been a LONG time since I posted. So long that in fact that since that last post, I have given birth to two babies: one human and one paperback .  Being a mom has been wonderful, but I do feel like I have a lot less time than before. And while some people feel like they have more free time during quarantine, my experience has been quite the opposite! In addition to holding down a job, I was now a house cleaner, nanny, dog walker, and chef. One thing that has not just kept me sane, but also brought me great pleasure during COVID-19 is taking daily walks. During this pandemic, exercise in fresh air was always considered an essential activity, but for a while, the rule was that you were supposed to exercise in your own neighborhoods. Guided by the mantra "If you need a car, it's too far," I started taking off on walks and runs from my home in the Mission District seeing where I would go in any direction in a 2.5-mile radius—which roughly equated to the time I had off...