With so much of our lives co-opted by virtual spaces and online “engagement,” I’m spending more and more time on my bike.
San Francisco is a great place for it: there are long, flat, lazy rollers and beach cruises; sweaty hill climbs up to glorious vistas followed by breathless, swooping downhills; meandering dérives through the city’s many, diverse neighborhoods; and gnarly singletrack rompers in the parks and open-space preserves. This town’s got it all.
Being on a bike has been central to my emotional, mental, and physical health for my entire adult life. In my first three years in San Francisco, I rode the “Sunset Express” through Golden Gate Park to Ocean Beach every day, rain or shine, fog or blue sky, just to be there when the sun hit the horizon.
I commuted up and down Market Street from the Sunset and the Western Addition, joined Critical Mass in a carnival of community and social change that ultimately brought bike culture and rights to hundreds of cities around the world, and in my rock’n’roll decades, I never had to wait for a 2 a.m. Muni Owl bus after a late show at venues such as Bottom of the Hill, Bimbos, and the Kilowatt. With music still ringing in my head, I wound my way home through empty streets, absolutely free, feeling the temperatures change from neighborhood to neighborhood and the scent of night-blooming jasmine sweeping over me.
In the depths of the pandemic, bike riding again became a vehicle for preserving health and sanity. I could keep those pre-diabetic A1C numbers in check, and escape to open spaces with no one else around before cabin fever got the best of me.
From the constraints of these conditions, I have strung together a set of my old commuter and pleasure-riding routes for a San Francisco circumnavigation that has reacquainted me with the wide confines of a city I’ve come to call my own.
Ride with me. Let’s go!
Choose your own park adventure
This is a big ride, so a little planning helps. Bring your pump, patch kit, a layer or two (of course), sunblock, extra water, and food. If you can, carry it all in a pannier or on a rack; fanny packs and backpacks are fine, but it’s better to roll through the breeze with nothing weighing you down.
You can start wherever you live, and just head to the nearest bike-friendly shoreline byway. Living in the Sunset, I like to start at the top of Golden Gate Park and roll down to Ocean Beach along JFK Promenade, now home to the magnificent Doggie Diner heads that make the park a veritable Easter Island of weird cultural subversion. No need to hammer the pedals as you roll over sprawling murals on the street, and past outdoor pianists tickling the ivories in front of the Conservatory of Flowers.
Past the Rose Garden, take the spur road on the left up to Stow Lake; I like to get in two laps there, just to get the blood up, and take in the sunlight on the water. From there, roll back to JFK.
Heading west, after you roll under Crossover Drive, you have three options: Mingle with the traffic on JFK past the Buffalo Paddock; peel off on the bike path on the south side of Hellman Hollow, which brings you to the Polo Field and the Bercut equestrian area; or hang a left on Transverse Drive and a quick right on Overlook Drive to roll car-free down to Middle Drive West, MLK Drive, and finally Ocean Beach.
On the weekend, the Great Highway is closed to cars, and it’s a lovely, long, family-friendly roll south past dunes and ocean vistas. During the week, take the multi-use path just east of the highway to avoid traffic.
At the south end of the Great Highway, take a left on Sloat Boulevard past the SF Zoo all the way to 20th Avenue, a steady but not steep grade with traffic that might require your self-assertion and some brisk pedaling.
At 20th Ave., go right. Before you reach Stonestown, hang a left on Ocean Avenue for one of the city’s least heralded and totally wonderful neighborhood commercial stretches. It starts once you cross 19th Avenue — it’s never a bad idea to grab a banh mi at Dinosaurs near Junipero Serra — and continues as you parallel the K Ingleside Muni all the way to City College.
Watch out for twitchy drivers, a spaghetti tangle of Muni tracks, and potholes, which is worst at Balboa Park Station.
Once you’re past that mess, and still on Ocean, you’ll cross Alemany. Take a right on the slanted start of Persia Street, cross Mission Street and head uphill. At Pacita’s Salvadoran Bakery on your right get some cookie-style pastries that are perfect for dunking, and gear up for one of the biggest ascents of this ride, as Persia turns into Mansell Street and climbs up, up, up, into and through McLaren Park.
McLaren is a gem of a park, SF’s second largest, and you could spend days roaming its different nooks, crannies, and corners.
This time, we’re just passing through. Be sure to switch over to Mansell Promenade on the left as you approach the crest of the hill, and then coast all the way past John F. Shelley Drive on the left, a playground and tennis courts, and some freakin’ spectacular views on your right as you approach University Avenue and the park’s northeastern border. Cross Mansell — there’s good signage and street engineering for this — and get up to the picnic area at the top of the sweep of serpentine grasslands overlooking Visitacion Valley, San Bruno Mountain, and the post-industrial shoreline.
Get off your bike, pull out that banh mi or whatever lunch you’ve packed, and enjoy the gorgeous view.
Back on the bike, head east on Mansell and get ready for the steep plunge past Phillip and Sala Burton High School on your left.
At the bottom of the steep slope, take a right on San Bruno Avenue. (This next section requires a little extra navigation.) As you ride up over the mild hill, Route 101 will be on the left. Stay left on San Bruno as it winds and drops sharply down to Bayshore Boulevard. Cross the Muni tracks, take a left on Bayshore, and head uphill past Tunnel Avenue and Bayside Cafe on your right. Stay right as you approach the big intersection and cross the overpass above 101; with some pedestrian interface on your right, you’ll come to a crosswalk at the 101 off-ramp, which feeds directly into the top of Third Street, and the next big leg of your ride.
North on Third
This stretch of the ride takes you through an amazing, polyglot stretch of the city’s eastern shoreline. Third Street runs through the heart of San Francisco’s largest Black neighborhood, over old drawbridges and waterways, past vestiges of shipping and industry, and SF’s only growing neighborhood, Mission Bay. It’s almost entirely flat, and I like to hit it pretty hard and maintain a high pace all the way to Crissy Field.
That said, take it slow at the Levon Hagop Nishkian Bridge, a janky metal grid over Islais Creek — which runs down the distant slopes of Twin Peaks, disappears into the sewer system at the bottom of Glen Canyon, and resurfaces here for a final bit of sunlight.
One block later, take a right on Marin Street, then an immediate left onto the mellower Illinois Street, which takes you past layers of San Francisco history. The former Cyclone Warehouse at Marin was once home to a dizzying variety of underground-art spaces and venues; Midway SF frequently has outdoor dance parties as you roll past; the blocks-long American Can Factory was the Central Waterfront’s industrial anchor; and the surreal vista of the new Crane Cove Park commemorates SF’s shipbuilding legacy.
Crane Cove is lovely, but also a bit odd — a family-friendly park with a little beach and lawns, cheek-by-jowl with decommissioned industrial cranes, and crumbling ramps where newly christened boats once slid into the bay.
Ride some loops on the ramp and take it all in, then get back to the tour.
Hug the shoreline for more port views, then get over to Third to cross the Lefty O’Doul drawbridge. Keep the ballpark on your right, wave hello to the statue of the Say Hey Kid, and take a right on King. You’re about to merge onto the Embarcadero, which has a dedicated bike lane all the way out from here past the Ferry Building clear to Fisherman’s Wharf.
As you approach the Wharf, and if you don’t like riding on cobblestones and paralleling train tracks (I don’t), follow the city’s bike route onto North Point Street to Columbus Avenue, then north to Beach Street, where Irish coffees at the Buena Vista are an option. (But not too many! We’ve still got miles to go).
Presidio pedal pushers
To start the final leg of this journey, take the back route through Fort Mason by following Beach past the Maritime Museum, turn right toward the Aquatic Park Pier (a marvelous comma of a structure that’s sadly closed and crumbling into the Bay), and take a left for a quick but steep pedal up to epic views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin Headlands. (There’s a public restroom here too, if those Irish coffees are kicking in.)
Down the other side, you can ride out Marina Green to Crissy Field and the Presidio. There’s usually a headwind, but you can keep that pace! For an extra kick, tool out to Fort Point before hauling back to Crissy Field Avenue, closed to cars as it climbs above the old airplane hangars (now a climbing gym, swimming pool, and more). Follow the bike path under the Golden Gate Bridge, up past the visitor’s center, and on to Lincoln Boulevard proper, which, once you crest it, is a great roller that takes you past gorgeous views (it’s hard to keep your eyes on the road) to Baker Beach, then up into the Seacliff neighborhood.
Ready for the other big climb of the ride? As you emerge from the Presidio at 25th Avenue past Baker Beach, take El Camino del Mar all the way up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor for a victory lap around the fountain.
Head down south from here through Lincoln Park and its golf course to Clement Street, take an immediate right up the hill (your last notable climb) and let it carry you down to Lands End. Add a loop around Sutro Heights Park if you’re in the mood, otherwise swoop down Point Lobos past the Cliff House and you’re back on Ocean Beach. Golden Gate Park’s windmills are just ahead — fitting symbols for the completion of a classic civic circumnavigation.
