~ Dave Schultz, Board Member ~
On May 3, 23 ski club members and guests from San Jose to Sacramento gathered in San Francisco to begin perhaps the most famous of the stairway walks in the city. Based on parts of stairway walks in Ada Bakalinksy’s guidebook, we took in some of the best sights from the Telegraph Hill and North Beach neighborhoods. Total length of the hike was only around 4.5 miles, but it was nearly all up and down (I’m guessing an elevation gain/loss of between 1500-2000 feet).
Led by the intrepid Hoyt Nelson, we started at Levi Strauss Plaza. This plaza was a surprise treat for me, since I had never been there before. I always knew that the headquarters for Levi Strauss & Co was in the Bay Area, but it didn’t sink in until I was standing in the plaza that this is the headquarters. (Levi Strauss got its start in San Francisco in 1853 when Strauss sold canvas overalls to gold miners.)
As you can see in the photos below, it’s a beautiful square with inlaid brick and stone, an impressive fountain, and even more impressive foliage in the park that they’ve built there. You can also see our first destination for the hike – Hoyt Tower. Er, uh, sorry … I mean Coit Tower.
Before climbing the Greenwich Stairs towards the tower, we had to admire the quirky architecture of the base of the stairs. As you can see, the non-linear construction gave the base a theme park appearance, letting us know that a fun time was about to start.
We started the lon
g walk up, and soon reached the Montgomery St overlook. There sits an old SF landmark called the Julius Castle. The building dates back to 1922 and indeed looks
like a miniature castle. For a long time, it was a restaurant, but then fell into disrepair. It was repurchased in 2012, refurbished, and is now a functioning restaurant again.
Fr
om the parking lot near the Julius Castle, we got our first good views of the eastern SF Bay. Looking down at the piers, it seemed like we were in Costa Rica rather than California. Anyone want to take a cruise?
Although the day started cloudy, we had a feeling that the clouds would burn off. Nature didn’t disappoint us and before long we had a gorgeous sunny day.
Turning upwards, we finished ascending the 284-foot hill (approx 400 stairs from the start) to the base of Coit Tower. Probably the highlight of the day’s hike for most of us, the art-deco style tower offers commanding of the city, even from the base.
We didn’t have time to ascend the tower since the wait to go to the top is pretty long, but we did have time to step inside the foyer and view the famous murals. The murals depict SF life during the Great Depression. They were recently restored (the official re-opening was in May 2014) and the colors are as vibrant as ever.
Gathering at the back of the tower we continued winding our way around Telegraph Hill, in and out of streets, until we reached Lombard Street – the “crookedest street in the world”. With plenty of tourists in tow, we ascended up the street to Hyde Street.
Ever vigilant to keep t
ogether as a group, we prowled through the North Beach neighborhood, stopping at times to admire the fine architecture of many old homes and their graceful gardens. However, there are new apartment buildings as well, and one of them had a really cool fountain, reminding us that modern art can be found in San Francisco in unexpected places.
Hoyt planned the route so that we had a chance to visit the San Francisco Art Museum. Built on a hill, with some very angular buildings, the museum afforded us an opportunity to view plenty of art works and climb yet more stairs (the museum is on many levels). As an added bonus, there were excellent views of Alcatraz and the intervening neighborhoods from the decks and roofs of the buildings.
Traversing the stairs on this hike, we were constantly reminded of the beauty and attention put into the gardens on either side of the stairs. Even on the longest stairs, every foot of garden was manicured in some way. The creative power of the people who live in the houses along the stairways is always impressive.
Montgomery Street was steep (ribs in the sidewalk are a big hint) and gave us one of the best workouts on the hike, but the views of downtown, especially the Transamerica Pyramid were worth the effort.
As we dropped down into the Vallejo Street neighborhood, we went through northChinatown and then the Columbus Ave Italian section. We had been walking for about 2 & 1/2 hours without stopping for food, so you can imagine what was leading us as smells from adozen restaurants wafted by.
Finally, we succumbed to our hunger and stopped in at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant where all sorts of dim-sum style stuffed buns were being served. It was a lucky find, since from mixed meat & veggies to desert buns, everything was excellent and very inexpensive. Sorry for not remembering the name of this place, but I have a feeling that finding it again would be a challenge anyway.
At the top of the Filbert Stairs is a small overlook where we got the BIG view of eastern SF. From Treasure Island to the financial district – we took it all in under a cloudless sky.
We finished our hike by descending the Filbert Stairs past homes that get so much exposure to hiking tourists that we had to keep our noise level down. But it was hard not to be jolly knowing that we were going down the steep 400 stairs rather than up. And as always, it was tough not to comment about all the amazing foliage that has been planted by the homeowners.
Back at Levi Square, the Sacramento and South Bay groups bid a fond farewell to each other, then headed home. As we drove past the many sights we saw from above, we smiled at having done another hike unique to the City By The Bay. Hope to see you at the next one!
