Irrelevance Glorified

I took two hikes at the beginning of May, and since I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures during the hikes, I’ll just combine them into one post.

On May 1st, I joined a group of people hiking Skyline Ridge, one of the state parks on top of the ridge of hills just south of Palo Alto and Los Altos. I had visited Russian Ridge previously, and Skyline Ridge is right next door. Skyline Ridge is much like Russian Ridge, except that the views of South Bay aren’t as nice, and the archeological artifacts are more prevalent. Overall, the trail was a C. Afterwards, we joined up with another group of hikers who were on Russian Ridge for a nice little picnic.

The week after, I joined in on an urban hike, a trail dubbed “Reverse Bay to Beakers”. Bay to Breakers is an annual 12k race in San Francisco that goes from downtown San Francisco to the Pacific Ocean, at the west edge of Golden Gate Park. We were taking a route that was more conducive to lunchtime eating, though, so we did it in reverse. There were a lot of people involved in this hike, which means that we had to go out in teams.

We were told to proceed to the destination, Gaylords at the Embarcadero Center, by whatever methods we saw fit. Once there, we would compare notes and relate any adventures we had. Previous incarnations of this hike had people participating in outdoor weddings and other amazing events. So, there was a bit of pressure to both get to the destination quickly and have adventures. In the end…we didn’t have any adventures. But I took some pictures anyway.

Flickr sets here and here.

Slideshows below
Pictures after the jump.

 

 

I knew the shadows would make this picture look weird, but there was this strange rock formation near one of the ponds halfway through our hike. The weather had eaten away enough of this rock that it looked like it would make a decent waterslide in a downpour.

 

I think this is sandstone or something. Anyways, the Native Americans who lived in this area before the yuppies arrived carved out these hollows in the rock, and used them as mortars to crush acorns in. Acorns were a food staple for their culture, and they used the acorn flour to make their bread and meal.

 

On the second half of the loop, the trail took us to the Santa Cruz side of the ridge, where the view was a little nicer. You might be able to see the ocean out there.

 

After this hike, we joined forces with a group hiking the nearby Russian Ridge and had a bit of a potluck picnic. The guy in the Oregon hat is the best kind of hiker — the type that brings beer to an afterhike party.

 

While the turnout for the hike wasn’t all that great, the turnout for the picnic was overall pretty good. I used this occasion as an excuse to use the GorillaPod to wedge my camera up in a tree and take a timed photo. Now you can play a game of Where’s Ranjeet?

 

I think this is the most comprehensive iconography-based "Do Not Do" sign I have ever seen.

 

The hiking rendezvous point was this mill. No Quixote’s around, as far as I can tell.

 

If I hadn’t given it away with the previous video, you probably wouldn’t be able to figure out which is the real windmill. Such is the quality of my impersonation.

 

Since there were a lot of people going on this hike, we set out in groups of ~ 10. These were my companions for the next few hours.

 

We stopped for a bathroom break, and we found out that the little hut that housed the bathrooms also housed this Model Yacht Club. These people were serious about their boats.

 

The attention to detail was pretty impressive. But I did see a lot duct tape as well.

 

Along our path through Golden Gate Park, we walked along this healthy little stream, which had a few waterfalls along this path. We never really figured out where all this water came from.

 

The waterfall in the previous photo flowed in between these flagstones along the path. In between the rocks, there were a few instances of these large foamy deposits. I found them fascinating. I imagine the proteins and plant matter in the water is acting like a surfactant, allowing airy foams to develop at particularly turbulent points in the flow. They pulsated with the flow of water, making them seem alive. Very creepy.

 

In my opinion, the only reason to do something like this in Golden Gate Park is to get people to look at you. I mean, this doesn’t quite seem like an activity where you get a bunch of people together (even spontaneously) to do something as a group. It’s just a guy spinning in a big hoop.

 

After a while, our path took us into more residential/commercial areas of the city. Here are the famous "Six Sisters". I think there are other nicknames for this row of houses, but they pretty much all insinuate that these houses are females that are associated either through blood or some other professional linkage. You may be familiar with them from the closing shots of the "Full House" intro. I can’t believe I used to watch that show.

 

I don’t remember where this mural was, exactly, but it’s size and dense style attracted me to it.

 

This large plaza lies in front of the San Francisco City Hall (home of the fifth largest dome in the world). I don’t know what type of trees these are, but they are planted in a grid pattern that’s perfect for weaving through, which I am sure was the intention.

 

The info poster on this sculpture wasn’t very descriptive, so I have to resort to the internet to get the necessary information on this piece of art. It is unimaginatively titled "Three Heads Six Arms". I like to imagine that it plummeted from the sky, Mir-style, and they just put up the fence to keep people from getting space germs.

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