San Francisco Peak Experience

We really enjoy Terraloco navigation races in the Bay Area, lots of fun exploring parts of town we've never seen.  Rex does a raffle after every race and I recently won a free map.  There were plenty of choices for previous race maps, so I picked the biggest baddest looking one - the Peak Experience 3 hour/6 hour rogaine from 2013.

I used the map as a training day recently, taking BART into San Francisco and starting from the Embarcadero stop.  I made a slight detour to Pier 39 (no sea lions, bummer) and the thought of Boudin SF for breakfast but I wasn't excited about their breakfast menu (not the same as other locations) so that ended up being a waste of time.  No worries, I've got plenty more stops planned.

This was not a race pace kind of day, that's for sure.  I wasn't limited to 6 hours, just limited in daylight.

Time to start climbing.  Obviously Coit Tower must be a part of any hilly run in San Francisco:

Chris Columbus at Coit Tower:

View of my next hill - as I realized that many times I'll be able to see the next/previous locations from the top of the current one:

On Russian Hill (named back in Gold Rush days), looking back at Coit Tower.  Surprisingly, I lost sight of Coit Tower early on and couldn't pick it out from later hilltops.

A sight to get used to...

One of the easier climbs, over to Nob Hill:

And down the other side, on my way to Philz for coffee (love Philz coffee!) and a delicious pumpkin chocolate chip loaf that was probably not the best choice (way too much sugar) but it sure tasted good.  I wouldn't be hungry again for quite some time after that.

Hayes Hill has great views of the Painted Ladies and a bunch of tourists taking in the scene (and the lighting would be a lot better later in the day compared to morning sunlight):

I can sort of see my next destination to the north:

All the while I'm watching Sutro Tower and thinking about having to climb up there in a few hours...

Fun "creek" landscaping at Lone Mountain:

The checkpoint question related to the plaque on the bell tower, but construction prevented easy access to it - a few things have changed at the 22 checkpoint locations since 2013, but at least this one seems temporary:

Wonderful wolf statue at the library on Ignatius Heights:

Another "of course you have to go there" location - Strawberry Hill in Golden Gate Park, with the lovely lagoon around it:

An excellent path going up:

Dr Seussian plants:

Going back through the park I heard piano music - the botanic gardens had 12 pianos in various locations with artists playing sets throughout the day.  How wonderful!  Dad would have loved this.

Buena Vista Park was totally worth the climb up, popping out at a quiet patch of grass where people came to find a serene place to hang out in the middle of the city.  Lovely.

On the way down I caught a glimpse of the next hill across the way - such a stark difference, it made me laugh:

Hey!!  It's the Bay Area Ridge Trail, I did not expect to see BART signs through San Francisco.  Of course, it makes sense that they routed that trail over some of the same peaks I was exploring today.

Looking back at the hidden calm in the trees of Buena Vista Park:

Are we still in the city?  Seems more like a desert.

Oh right, there's the city:

Down the other side, I think I found Castro Street:

Small detour for lunch, only a slight improvement (healthy-wise) over breakfast:

Better keep burning calories... good thing I have lots of climbing still to go.  This one is called Mount Olympus, pretty funny:

I'm not certain but I might have snapped a picture of one of the final peaks of the day (Bernal Hill):

These BART signs through the city just tickle me - I really need to look up the BART path through here:

An accidental picture I took while trying to fish the camera out of the front pocket of my vest...

This way for the Bay Area Ridge Trail  -->

The Mount Sutro tower looms ever larger - and closer - but first, a climb up to the bare knob in the left half of this picture:

Well that wasn't so bad.  It's nice climbing these things in pieces.  View from Tank Hill back to Mount Olympus:

Golden Gate Park is visible if you know where to look, plus that might be Mount Tam in the distance (not part of this particular challenge):

The top of Mount Sutro was a bit anticlimactic.  No tower (it's actually on a hump between here and Twin Peaks), no view, but at least it was a nice climb up to 900 feet of elevation:

Spotted another BART sign, I'm sure this isn't super interesting to anyone but me:

And finally - the Sutro Tower!  Not a checkpoint peak, but a most definite landmark and worthy of a selfie:

Over to the popular set of Twin Peaks, of which there are 3, so I guess one is a younger brother.  It was quite windy, hang onto your hats.  I didn't mind the wind, it helped keep me cool.  I just needed to be careful with the large map sail I was carrying and try to remember to unfold it to look at the checkpoint question BEFORE I climbed high enough for things to get breezy.

Fun trail across from one peak to the next:

Getting a good workout on stairs today:

The less popular south peak, with Mount Davidson in the background:

And a glance over to Sunset Heights.  I was quite happy not to be racing or under a 6-hour constraint where I'd have to run fast and decide whether to visit the far checkpoints.

I think this was the last BART sign of the day for me:

Heh:

A beautiful entrance to the next set of stairs:

I never ceases to amaze me the kinds of views some people have from their windows in San Francisco.  I'm going to guess it costs a lot to live in Sunset Heights.

Looking at the highpoint of the day, Mount Davidson (925 ft) and my next destination:

Photo for Kip - he likes finding (and crossing) pedestrian overpasses:

After a small maze of narrow trails, I located the top of Mount Davidson.  Apparently there's a giant cross up here, quite visible once you arrive, but the tall trees growing around it keep the shape from being obvious at a distance.  Nice place to sit for a minute.

The other end of the ridge opens up to a view, and it is becoming clear that despite all the hills I'm going up and down today, there are still many others!

A bit of a trek to the next one, some extra unintended climbing, crossing I-280.  I looked over to see a large pedestrian bridge parallel to the street I was on, hey I would have loved to take that instead!  It was then that I noticed the highway pedestrian bridges manually added onto the map.  Except that one wasn't marked.  It should be, it's pretty cool.

A quick stop at a market for a drink, then it was on up to the next peak.  Visitacion Knob took a bit of actual navigation to locate, and although it's not an obvious spot I think I was in the right place:

Heading east, finding this amazing bike/walking path that encompasses the whole half of the divided street (Mansell St), very nice:

Another long-ish trek which made another market stop seem reasonable.  I found some salted almonds at the Valero and they were just what I wanted at the time.  The lady at the checkout was super friendly too.

Going up Bay View Hill, I think I expected something totally different like some of the developed bayside parks I'd previously found to the south of here.  Nope, just an old road climbing into the trees:

A nice view to the north from the road ringing the top:

I found the actual peak, with a tiny overgrown trail leading upwards.  I had been humming "Save Me, San Francisco" on the way up the road, so when I ran into poison oak encroachment it was obviously time for the line "I've been high, I've been low, I've been yes, and I've been oh hell no!"

(I've been rock 'n roll and disco, Won't you save me San Francisco?)

Patrick is going all over the place, in and out of the city and round in circles, and I'd hate to try to retrace his steps in this video but it's fun to watch:



Cool, now I can play that song in my brain some more today.  Love it.  Thank you Train!

So anyway, I took a picture of the top but didn't actually go all the way up there.  I suppose I don't get credit for it; I'm OK with that:

I believe that's my next destination in the distance - these last few are spread out quite a bit.  I was aiming for ~1 hour between each of them, which should get me to the Trader Joe's near the end of the circuit before they close.  That, after all, was the real goal of the day.

Bayshore Boulevard along the 101 worked out better than expected (good sidewalk) and soon I was back to steep streets and then a trail up to Bernal Hill (with Mount Sutro in the background):

A lovely place to sit and admire the city:

I bopped down the other side and made a quick visit to the southern end of the Mission District.  One more Philz visit, this time for a much-easier-to-digest croissant along with an iced version of the decaf.  Yum.

Now that I knew what I was looking for, I aimed for pedestrian bridges to get over the 101 and back:

It's amazing how much a street can climb in such a short distance, this time up to Potrero Hill:

And back down and over the 101:

It's fun watching cars zoom underneath:

Hey, it's Bernal Hill again:

Running past the original start/finish of the 2013 race (because it seems like I should include it as part of the course):

The real destination of the day - I also had a tuna wrap but the chocolate baton makes a better photo.  Thank you TJ's!

There was one more little climb at the end (Rincon Hill) but I think I prefer to finish this report with the above photo.

Fun day full of hills and good food!  I definitely took my time, no record setting run here.  Thank you Rex for offering this map so I could explore such a neat race course 5 years later!

Mount Shasta climb

Big training weekend!  As we continue to prepare for Mount Rainier later this summer, we figured we should attempt one of the bigger California mountains.  Mount Shasta looked pretty big when we saw it last year from Lassen Peak.  We can now confirm that yes, it is large.  And snowy.  Impressive from any distance.

Our friend Jason flew out to climb with us, and we were joined by my friend Leslie from a recent MAA climb.  We have another friend named Leslie coming to climb Mount Rainier with us, so that created a bit of humorous confusion, but eventually we got it sorted out.

The weather for our climb was fabulous, way better than a couple months ago when Leslie and I were supposed to climb Shasta but got diverted for a storm that aimed directly at the mountain.  Happily we were able to climb Round Top instead, and that's where we met.  We were excited to team up for another climbing/training day.

Good morning, Mount Shasta!

Finalizing large packs full of camping and climbing gear at the trailhead:

And a selfie for good measure:

The walk up to Horse Camp was quick and easy.  We took a little break, enjoying the atmosphere around the hut and working on our altitude adaptation.

Excellent water fountain on site:

The news of the day was about rescues - two men in their 70's had been lost overnight but were now located.  SAR was still busy, though, with some kind of ankle injury.  We watched a helicopter fly over a few times.

John talking with someone about the Avalanche Gulch route and the multitude of tents expected up at Helen Lake.

We, however, were headed for Hidden Valley and the West Face route.  Much less populated.  The path in that direction was a bit rocky but we were constantly distracted by the incredible scenery all around us:

Coming over the last little ridge, Shastina (on the left) and the West Face route (on the right) in full view, grand and gorgeous:

I was just telling Leslie how I keep bringing John to places where there is snow in the summer, and I managed to catch a look of "disgust" from him at the first snow crossing along the trail:

Yes, John, more snow!

The good news was that the snow has been melting, enough that we were able to camp on dirt that night.  We found a great spot on soft sand and spent some time looking up at our route.

Everything I had read sounded straightforward, but we watched people descending across to a different snowfield, and then we heard about the guy with the ankle problem.  Turns out he had taken a slide that morning, not badly hurt but he wasn't able to walk out.  So the ongoing rescue was actually on our side of the mountain.

We queried climbers as they came back through camp and discussed route options.  We named the shapes of the dirt fields so we could talk about them more easily - the dragon, knuckles, fingers (not the same hand as the knuckles), Christmas tree, and the sideways menorah.  No one else would have a clue what we were talking about, but at least we could communicate within the team about the route.

The helicopter was back - actually I think it was a different one, maybe from the National Guard.  The pilot seemed adept at flying into the valley, hovering to drop a rescue guy, circling around to land a ways away, and then going back to the rescue zone to pick up the injured climber.  Fascinating to watch.

That was quite something to see.

OK, we should do something productive now.  We got out our climbing gear and headed over to a small slope to practice self-arrest, team arrest, and walking as a roped team.  I would have liked to take pictures, but didn't feel like risking the camera to a pile of snow that could get into any pocket while sliding down in various feet-first and head-first configurations.  It was good practice, and sparked good conversations about when to climb roped vs. unroped and to talk about different situations.

The main purpose of the weekend was training, so this was great.  I'll take as much on-the-mountain training as I can get.  Plus it was an excellent next step in John's physical training.  We've been climbing with weighted packs for several months and he's doing great.  Time for something bigger.

Getting ready for food and then to sleep for a few hours:

It was pleasantly not too cold (above freezing) when we got up and geared up, that was nice.  We set off around 1 am, John leading the way up the valley to find some snow to walk on.  We had a wonderful bright moon, just not enough for the camera to do anything with.

The lower snow was soft enough for easy steps and ice axe plunges, simple climbing up the snowfield to the right of the West Face route.  We opted for the less-direct path around the bottom steep section of West Face.

Eventually we had to cut back across, up to the dirt ridge to cross over to West Face proper.  The snow was harder and not as easy to cut steps into.  Jason walked ahead of me, kicking more room into the steps that John was making. 

John climbed up to the rocks and tossed a rope down to belay me up the last steep bit.  While that was going on, Jason was adjusting a crampon when he lost it from his grip.  We were happy to see that it didn't slide very far, and once I got on the rope I was able to scamper over and retrieve it.  Turns out I'm a lot more confident when I have a rope backing me up.  Good for training.

We reached the rocks and found some good wind protection.  I got out the camera when I realized the sky was starting to lighten up and become colorful:

Then we noticed the shadow of the mountain - way across to the west of us.  The silhouette of Mount Shasta, so amazing!  We sat in awe and stared at the lines of darkness and light across the landscape and into the sky:

This was truly the highlight of the trip:

OK, getting chilly, time to get back to work.  The slope on the West Face snowfield was at an easier angle and good practice for using crampons on the hard pack.  We zigzagged upward, eventually coming to terms with just how long and tall this climb is.  And you can see all of it at once (the top of the slope isn't the top of the mountain, but it is over 13,000 feet).  The altimeter was helpful to get a sense that we were actually making progress.

Eventually it got steeper and we roped up to practice climbing in that manner.  Jason was dealing with a nagging cough and John was slowly approaching the limits of his training, plus several of us were feeling minor effects from the altitude, so we would climb and then take a break, climb and rest:

Then it was my turn to have a minor issue.  My ankles got really tired of the sideways slope and walking in one direction without turning.  Jason, who was leading the way, was happy to zigzag more frequently, but we had been saying all morning that none of us needed to summit.  We were all very satisfied with this being a training day and we'd gotten a lot out of it already.  It didn't take much for me to say, hey, that's probably high enough, and everyone seemed perfectly fine with that.

So at just above 12,000' we took our highest elevation break and prepared to descend.  Leslie wanted to try going down the rocky scree field on the side of the snowfield, and I wanted to try going down the snow (I've dealt with plenty of scree to know what that's like).  John stayed on rope with me and I found descending to be pretty easy and fast.  Jason stayed with Leslie and we all made our way down.

John can sleep just about anywhere:

Sunshine finally!  Enjoying another day of excellent scenery:

A selfie for good measure - what a fun team to climb with!

We took a few minutes to set up a running belay so we could see how that would work.  Leslie had done this at a previous MAA climb and led the way with the demonstration.  That was super useful and we had some good discussion around it.  Thanks Leslie!

A bit of glissading practice, or maybe Jason's just sitting down to take a break:

Big snowfield:

Enjoying the morning sunshine!

Turning around early proved to be an excellent decision because we had a lot left to do that day.  Descend to camp (with some soft snow to wade through near the bottom), break down and pack the tents while swatting annoying flies, filter water, hike back in the now-quite-warm day, take another break at Horse Camp, and finally walk back to the parking lot.

Next time we'll hopefully have the option to spend a second night on the mountain and hike out in the morning, that seems like it would be more pleasant.

Thank you Mount Shasta, that was a lovely weekend!