Bridge to Bridge gone awry (and ending with a rye)

(The following article will appear in the 27 June issue of the Piedmont Post.)

You’d have a hard time finding a dusty trail in San Francisco anywhere outside of Golden Gate Park, but the city across the Bay is a fertile and diverse concrete jungle. It even has the title of “most walkable city” in the United States according to Walkscore.com.

This week, the Dusty Trail crew took the BART into San Francisco with good intentions to walk from the Bay Bridge to and across the Golden Gate Bridge along the San Francisco Bay Trail. The urban hike began with a slow saunter down Spear Street from the Embarcadero BART station to Pier 26 at Harrison and Embarcadero. One can’t truly appreciate the monolithic qualities and even the brutalistic beauty of the Bay Bridge by driving on it. A view from below, looking up at the belly of the bridge, is not to be missed, and the lines of the bridge form an intriguing and photogenic linear perspective converging on Yerba Buena Island.

Walking along the Embarcadero, past “Cupid’s Span” (symbolizing where Tony Bennett “left his heart), past the imposing Embarcadero Center buildings and the idiosyncratic Hyatt Regency, with clanging, cacophonous and tourist-crowded street cars jangling by, and past the standard SF-tourist attractions, it takes a great deal of perseverance - more than we could muster - to continue on the Bay Trail much farther than Pier 35. Bay Street offers a utilitarian alternative to the tourist crowds along Jefferson Street, but consider turning right on Van Ness to stroll along the periphery of Port Mason and through the languid park beside it.

With the Golden Gate Bridge now visible, we had to admit defeat at the unwitting hands of the tourist throngs and began walking inland along Laguna Street and then one block east onto Octavia, which soon begins a calf-straining climb up to Lafayette Park. Back on Laguna, we tramped through Japantown and Central North, and then up Haight Street into Hayes Valley. Ali Baba’s Cave (531 Haight) serves possibly the best, biggest (long as your arm), and most reasonably priced falafel wrap you’re likely to find this side of Beirut. Refreshing adult beverages can be had three doors farther down Haight at Toronado, which has a great selection of local brews.

Turning left at the junction of Steiner and Haight, you can traipse through Duboce Park and probably find a cute pup to pet before turning onto Noe Street (across from the Muni stop). Cross Market Street in front of Café Flore to head down 16th Street and into the heart of the Mission district. You could just board BART the 16th Street and Mission station, but the perfect ending to this 8.5 mile urban peripatetic peregrination is a cocktail at Elixir, one of the oldest continually running saloons in San Fran and one of Food and Wine magazine’s Top 100 bars. Elixir’s talented and knowledgeable bartenders are true cocktail artisans, and the Sazerac rye cocktail comes with an especially high recommendation.

Bay Bridge to Golden Gate Phenomenal Cocktails

Distance: 8.5 miles

Elevation gain: approximately 300 feet

Difficulty: 2 out of 5

Time commitment: Five to six hours, including stops for food and drinks along the way.

Kid friendly?: No

Dog friendly?: No