Strawberry Canyon Fire Trail, Presidio of San Francisco, San Francisco Cable Car Museum, Museum of the Eye, Musée Mécanique, San Francisco Botanical Garden, Japanese Tea Garden
I had enough of Los Angeles, and after a few uninteresting days of not doing much, I got on a plane to San Francisco, for the last part of my adventure in California. After checking in to the hostel and having a little look around, I went over to the local information center in order to figure out what my options were if I wanted to do some hiking in nature and get away from the city for a little bit. It was suggested to me to go to Berkeley, where next to the university I could find a few hiking trails with nice views. I then looked it up online to look for specific trails.
When the morning came, I did just that. It took a while, but eventually I made it to Berkeley. After a bit of a boring walk through the city I made it to what was marked on Google as the Strawberry Canyon Lower Fire Trail. There was a small parking lot there, along with a small sign, but not much other than that.
I started walking down the dirt path and almost immediately had to slow down my pace (which wasn’t particularly quick to begin with). Due to the rain, parts of the trail were muddy and required me to choose carefully where to step. For the most part I could just go on the edge of the path, which was a bit drier, but that wasn’t always an option. One muddy patch after the other, I slowly made my way along the trail until eventually I was on a dry enough land.
I started to relax and move a bit faster, wondering what I’ll get to see. I was in the middle of a forest, with trees on both sides, walking along a twisty road. While there wasn’t much of a view, the frequent change in direction had some interest, and the trees provided partial protection from the freezing wind. If nothing else, it was a nice walk in the forest, and a needed break from the urban environment.
It took about twenty minutes before I got to the end of the “Lower Trail” and the beginning of the “Upper Trail”. To me it looked like one trail that just kept going, but the map had a different idea. For a few minutes I walked up an incline before the path level again. And just when I thought I could put it behind me, I came across another muddy section. Navigating around it carefully, I kept walking until finally, after going around a corner, I got to see some views of the nature and the nearby city. It wasn’t much, and the trees obstructed a lot of it, but it made me a bit hopeful.
Along the way I passed a few other hikers, but it was quiet for the most part. While there were some clear patches free of trees, and the view was nice, it was not special by any means. And then I got to the end, quite a bit sooner than I expected, and I looked at the maps to see if I could find out why. I did the trail in nearly half the time that was suggested online, and I can only assume I either took a shortcut at some point, or that I had to keep going to another trail.
At that point the rain started again, and along with the wind it was quite unpleasant. Still, I was not satisfied with the hike so far, so after getting a bit confused and getting off at the wrong bus stop, I made my way to Claremont Canyon with the goal of doing another hike in the area. However, at the beginning of the trail I saw a sign warning me about rattlesnakes, and next to it a sign about mountain lions. At that point I decided to just go back to San Francisco and call a premature end for the day.
By the time I got back to San Francisco, instead of going back to the hostel I decided to have one more stop, at the Presidio. The wind was even stronger than it was in Berkeley, but I didn’t want to let it stop me. I got off at the bus stop and started walking around until I saw a sign for a coastal trail. It seemed short, but I had no clear plan, so I just followed it.
The dirt path was fairly easy to navigate and didn’t require much effort. The tricky part was the stairs. Covered in mud, they were slippery and I nearly tripped at some point.
To my side, I had a clear view of the coast and the nearby areas. I might have stayed to look at it for longer on a good day, but the weather prompted me to keep moving.
As I made my way along the trail I also had a view of the iconic Golden Gate bridge, and I was heading toward it. At the last section of the trail, the rain started to fall again. I took out my umbrella, which turned out to be a mistake. The wind was so strong that I had to use both my hands to make sure it wouldn’t fly away, and it got ruined in the process. Hoping to fix the umbrella another day, I closed it and hurriedly made my way to the bus stop. It took me about half an hour to realize I’m going in the wrong direction, get off at the nearest stop, and get on the right bus that would take me back to the hostel. It wasn’t a great day, but I still enjoyed being back in nature, even if just for a little bit.
When there was a break from the rain I went to the Cable Car Museum. The main floor has a look of the mechanism that makes the whole thing work, along with quite a few items on display, including cable car models, and a surprising amount of signs full of information regarding the history of this mode of public transportation. Other than learning about history, I also learned about the mechanism itself (although I didn’t fully understand it), reading signs and looking at some diagrams. There was also a section about the earthquake and fire of 1906, which destroyed a lot of San Francisco and with it many of the cable cars. At the very end there was a video display, which as far as I could understand summed up the entire museum. Before I left, I went downstairs to take a look at the lower viewing gallery, where I could learn a bit more about different aspects of the cable car system. Even though the place wasn’t big, it was packed with information, and I spent quite some time there even without reading everything. It did remind me of the museum in Wellington, New Zealand, and it was a bit interesting to compare the two.
Next on the list was Museum of the Eye, which felt less like a museum and more like an interactive display in a research center. It was a fairly small area, with a few different sections. The first part was general information about the eye, its different parts and how they all work. Then there was a section about optical illusions, and some explanation I didn’t fully understand about why the eye sees things in the way that it does, and that makes the illusions work. A relatively big section was dedicated to the history of eye diseases and treatments, and how it changed over the years. At the very end was a VR experience, which was interesting to watch although it felt the video could’ve been displayed on a regular screen instead.
From there I moved on to Musée Mécanique, another museum which wasn’t quite a museum. While initially I thought I’d be learning about the history of video games, I realized my mistake the moment I walked in. The building was less of a museum in my mind, and more of an old arcade hall, full of game stations and mechanical displays, with many of them being fifty years old or even older than that. At a few spots there were some signs, either dedicated to a specific machine, or to the general arcade history, but ultimately there weren’t many of them. It didn’t take long to go through them all, as interesting as they were, and since I didn’t want to play anything I quickly left the building.
In the morning, when the rain and the wind both stopped, I took advantage of the free early admission to San Francisco Botanical Garden. While I did see a map near the entrance, I decided to ignore it and just explore the area without looking for anything in particular.
There were different sections to the garden, for plants and trees from different parts of the world, although I wasn’t completely clear on where one part ended and another began. I walked around the garden, which felt more like a park to me, looking around without any specific purpose. While it was a nice walk, it felt lacking. While there were plants and flowers in different colors (as well as different shapes and sizes), they were spread around quite a bit, and green was very dominant.
When I was done with the botanical garden, I went across the road toward the Japanese Tea Garden, which at that time of the day was also free to enter. Immediately, there was a lot more color. All around the garden there was a constant contrast between the green trees, the colorful plants, and the stone sculptures. Then there was also the bright orange pagoda that could be seen from almost any point in the garden.
As I walked around the garden, I felt a bit happier and more at ease then I was in the botanical garden. To my eyes, it was a prettier sight that was worth a visit all on its own, perhaps even outside of the free hour. Although it was big, and didn’t take me long to go all around it, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. This style of garden, understandably, is something I didn’t see in quite a while, and I was glad to have that experience.