I’m newly obsessed with charting a 49-mile “San Francisco Scenic Ride” (inspired by the 49 Mile Scenic Drive). But how to keep nods to the original’s key landmarks, add in undervisited parts of the city and some not-possible-by-car offroad paths, make it an exactly 49-mile loop (constraints channel creativity), yet not get stuck stitching it together with too many traffic-heavy or stop-and-go connecting roads?
I sketched out six different ideas with feedback from some friends– but bike maps and browsing Google Street View only get you so far, and who wants to be inside on a beautiful day? Yesterday was the first scouting ride:
After starting off with some houseboats, an under-highway basketball court, and riding up Potrero Hill for no reason other than to ride back down the crookedest street in San Francisco, three of us cruised along some dirt paths in Bayview (yet again):
Winding up and down through McLaren Park (second largest in the city):
Cutting through the Sunnydale housing projects (with the friendliest strangers of the whole trip, chatting with us about bikes and how to best get to Guadalupe Canyon Parkway), we rode to the top of San Bruno Mountain (there’s a paved road all the way up, closed to cars), for 360 degree fog-free views of the city, Bay, Ocean, and Colma:
Daly City had much less to offer, scenery-wise, but did have this gem J knew about, from the “last notable American duel”:
After Lake Merced and the skeet-shooting range, massive sand drifts that swallowed an entire parking lot on Great Highway, and the ocean, a lunch break at Kingdom of Dumpling (they even brought us out chairs so we could sit outside and watch our bikes!)
Bird’s the word.
More scenic lookouts. The view from Twin Peaks:
After a twisty descent into the Haight, the panhandle, an unlabeled music festival in Golden Gate Park, and another bit of Ocean Beach, the ride turned uphill past the Cliff House. It’s much less hairy now with a separated bike lane, instead of being wedged against a cliff by cars around blind turns:
Twisting up and up on Lincoln, past the Legion of Honor, above Lands End, along a reverse-Butterlap route:
…and then buckling down to zoom along Chrissie Field (terrible new public art), Fort Mason (band with giant fake afros covering “Thrift Shop”), North Beach, and home.
49 miles, and quite hilly: about 4000’ of elevation gain. Some of them very scenic. Others good exercise but a slog. Some traffic lights and trucks.
This was a fun and very satisfying way to spend a day, but the route has a lot of room for improvement, especially in the first 15-20 miles. To be revised…