A cold weather front was scheduled to sweep across the state starting Friday,
bringing snow and very cold temps to the Sierra. I decided to spend the last
warm day on another bike tour of San Francisco, this one taking in the east
and south
sides of the city and neighboring towns of Brisbane and Daly City, with a
traverse across San Bruno Mtn. Once again, I was visiting a collection of
PB-only summits. San Bruno Mtn was the only one with any real prominence and the
only one found on LoJ.
For a look at all the PB summits visited, see
this PB map
.
Irish Hill
I got off at the Embarcadero BART station to begin my ride on the east side of
the city. There is a fine bike/pedetrian path running along the edge of the
financial and other districts on that side of town. My route took me around
Oracle Park (the new-ish home of the SF Giants), Mission Bay, and more. I made
my first stop in the Dogpatch district for Irish Hill. The topo map shows
nothing here, but there is a small hill maybe 40ft high in this industrial
area. The hill has been nearly quarried out of existence. I climbed through the
brush from the north side, leaving the bike in the parking lot below. It's
weak as a summit goes, but there
are views, even if they aren't very
pretty.
Mount St. Joseph
A few miles to the south in the Silver Terrace neighborhood, the highpoint is
found along Bayview Circle in a somewhat upscale neighborhood. No views.
Candlestick Point State Recreation Area HP
This was the worst of the lot. The Giants' old stadium, Candlestick Park, was
demolished some years ago and is now a brown, empty lot. The state park is in
bad neglect and closed for Covid. Homeless encampments have taken up much of
the space along Hunters Point Expy. The highpoint abuts the old Candlestick
Park grounds, now fenced and forlorn-looking. It was a little embarrassing to
notice a pair of SF's finest watching me climb up to the fenceline in the
vicinity of the green circle on my peakbagger app. Thankfully they sat in
their cruiser and didn't investigate my doings. This HP is a complete joke.
San Bruno Mtn
The real work on the day was the 1,000-foot+ ascent of San Bruno Mtn, another
few miles to the south and just outside the city boundary. I rode south through
Brisbane to the edge of town at Firth Park. An informal trail starts here and
makes its way steeply up the north side of San Bruno Mtn. The going is pretty
rough with encroaching brush and loose footing. I had to push the bike up the
entire distance, a tiring exercise. Once on the ridgeline, there is
a fireroad that doubles as the Ridge Trail with fantastic views looking both
south and north. A sign indicated that it wasn't open to bikes. Oops. Luckily
there was only one other person using the trail today, a woman who was taking
in the views atop East San Bruno. I was happy not to get chastised as we
exchanged greetings. I alternately walked and rode the bike several miles to
the northwest and the highpoint of San Bruno Mtn. The State Park HP
is found somewhere along the paved road leading to the various telecom towers
that crowd the summit. The more interesting highpoint is found above the KCNZ-CD
installation. There were technicians working there, so I went down the road
to the next installation and climbed up the hillside on the
northwest side of the summit. I was up at this same location 10yrs earlier
with my son, but I have no real recollection of it. Views stretch as far as
the haze would allow.
Excelsior Heights
I had a pleasant ride down the paved road and through the north portion of the
park as I returned to the city. Excelsior Heights is a small bump atop which
is built a portion of the Excelsior neighborhood. This one is pretty much a
dud.
University Mound
Another mile or so to the northeast is this last one in the University Mound
neighborhood. You have to look for it on the north side of Bacon St, but there
is a small mound with perhaps 5ft of prominence on the grounds of a convent
behind the Cornerstone Academy. After visiting this last point, I rode my bike
to the Glen Park BART station where I picked up my train back to San Jose. My
total time on the bike ride was a bit less than 4hrs, covering about 22mi.
Good fun.