DISTANCE: 3.49km / 2.17 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 263m / 862 ft.
TIME TAKEN: 1:43
SUMMIT: Hawk Hill: 280m / 920’
GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL RECREATION AREA
MARIN COUNTY, CA
SOUNDTRACK: Hightower: Wizard Hawk
PHOTO ALBUM
MAP
Hawk Hill is one of the famous, classic viewing points of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco, seen in a million postcards and amateur photographs alike. I would have no photographs of the Golden Gate, amateur or otherwise today, nor any view whatsoever, but I would go to the top just the same.
With hiking in the Bay Area, or even the rest of northern California, at a standstill, due to rampant wildfires and smoke filled air, I guess I was mostly staying indoors, after painfully cancelling a trip to Tower Peak and Yosemite. No job, no rock and roll stuff, and now, no hikes. Boo hoo. But Fern and Greg had campsites booked already, months in advance, and goddamn if they weren’t gonna use them. And this was no ordinary campsite, it was site number one at Kirby Cove, arguably the best campsite in the whole Bay Area. So Amber brought Andre from San Jose, grabbed me from Oakland, and we were off to the shores of Marin County. We had the whole Deathgrave Band assembled, plus one. After the crew was mustered, and some lunch was had up, we all decided to go for a walk, up the trails that led out of the west side of the campground. There was a crew of “influencers” walking on a tightrope that had been suspended across a deep ravine. Everyone besides me and Greg bailed on the hike almost immediately, because the trail was steep, and they weren’t wearing proper shoes, or something.
Greg and I followed an unofficial trail up along the bluffs, through the trees, and up a ridge toward the road, getting into the fog layer almost immediately, and never leaving it. We crossed the road, went through an old military tunnel, and then up trails on the other side to the top of Hawk Hill. That, sight of the most famous view, and I saw nothing but fog. We climbed upon some weird, old structure, and heard a strange hum in the air, probably from the wind vibrating the old missile bunker structure somehow. Greg was fascinated by the frequency, of course, being a master sound engineer. Having exhausted the possibilities of the fog-bound Hawk Hill rather quickly, we retraced our steps back down and rejoined the others at the camp, where we participated in the earthly delights of dinner, drink, and music, and the forlorn cries of the foghorns on the bay.
...Continued: The next day, Slacker Hill!
FURTHER READING
•Bay Area Hiker: Hiking and birdwatching
•Weekend Sherpa: A Sunset on Hawk
•Hawk Hill on SUMMITPOST and PEAKBAGGER
No comments:
Post a Comment