Golden Gate Park
Trail Review
Cassie and I parked at the public parking on Sloat Blvd, then rode our bikes on Great Highway to Golden Gate Park, where we explored the park on our bikes.
The Great Highway closed the road to cars, so we had a rather enjoyable ride, instead of dealing with zooming cars. We mostly rode John F Kennedy Dr and Martin Luther King Jr Drive, half of which were closed to cars. Most of the riding was lovely, and the streets that we had to share with cars, it wasn’t so bad as traffic was moving slowly.
There were plenty of other bikers, but due to the wide streets, it did not feel congested.
There was plenty of bike parking, which made exploring on foot easy.
There were public restrooms everywhere, though the lines for women seemed long.
What I Learned
It was about 25 degrees cooler in San Francisco compared to South San Jose. My apartment was about 85 degrees (on the inside; no AC) and to go from that to 70-degree weather in SF was glorious.
What Happened?
13.1 miles, 4 hrs 2 mins, 630 ft of ascent
I had offered to take Cassie for a bike ride around Golden Gate Park a couple of times this year, but we had decided to go with other choices each time. On this day however, Cassie was feeling under the weather, so we decided to take it easy and take a chill bike ride around Golden Gate Park.
My favorite part of the day had to be riding our bikes on roads with no cars on them. It was so nice to just ride the bike without having to worry about being car-doored or being run over by a car. Cassie and I rode side-by-side for once and it was such a nice, stress-free ride.
While exploring Golden Gate Park, we came across various art installations, which were fun to interact with. Our favorite was this huge chime that someone installed under a bridge; it was fun to try and figure out which pipes were what notes and to just hit something to make a sound.
We also came across two musical acts: a stranger playing “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter on a piano in the middle of a closed off street and a band playing “The Stars and Stripes Forever” at the Music Concourse. Both of these coincidental hearings put smiles on our faces.
We hopped off our bikes as we were hoping to get inside the Japanese Tea Garden but the line to get in was super long, so we decided to come back for it another time. We sat for a bit at at the Music Concourse and found ourselves eating some delicious hotdogs. Well, mine was delicious (a hot link) while Cassie’s Tofurky hotdog was good but not great. We did get to try a new topping called “red onion sauce”, which wasn’t made with red onions, which is what we were hoping for, but rather a marinara based sauce with lots of onions. It was okay (taste was fine, but it got the hotdog bun really wet).
After our little snack, we biked over to Blue Heron Lake, where we checked out the Chinese Pavilion. Cassie painted for a bit while I read. When it got too hot and cold (hot in the sun, but cold in the shade), we headed back to Ramona and witnessed Karl the fog reclaiming his coastline.
