San Francisco Crosstown and Double Cross Walks

I had a little epiphany recently where I thought to myself, "People from all over the world pay lots of money and fly into San Francisco. We live right here. Maybe we can do a few excursions just like a tourist would and see whether it's any good!" With that, I found the San Francisco Doublecross and the San Francisco Crosstown walks and decided to tackle them over a couple of Saturdays.

Both these walks start at free parking lots in San Francisco (Fort Funston and Candlestick Park), which is important because you're going to be gone all day. Despite San Francisco's reputation, on neither days did our cars get broken into. On the return you're going to have to Uber/Waymo or take public transit back. Since San Francisco public transit sucks, you're probably going to have to Uber or Waymo. Of the two ride hailing services, Waymo actually will refuse to deliver you to either Candlestick Park or Fort Funston, but on the Doublecross it can deliver you to Lake Merced and by pushing the "Pullover" button at a judicious time you can keep the walk back to the parking lot to less than a mile. Of course, the price of these ride hailing services is such that this is far more expensive than any of the other hikes in the Bay Area where you can loop back to the car. On the other hand, you're basically pretending to be a tourist who's paid at least a few hundred dollars for the flight to San Francisco, so you can still pretend to come out ahead.

The nice thing about doing a walk like this in the city is that you pretty much only need to carry a small water bottle and your wallet (or phone with GPay/Apple Pay) and walk. There's plenty of places to buy food, refill your water bottle, and in the case of the Crosstown, there are even many designated restrooms along the way. There are also plenty of distractions, so even if you're a fast walker (we're not), do not expect either of these walks to take less than a day.

Of the two walks, the Double Cross is actually a much better route. It starts at Fort Funston and ends at Pier 29, so you have a tail wind most of the way, which makes it much more comfortable. It also shows off more of the iconic San Francisco neighborhoods, taking you through Stern Grove, Twin Peaks, China Town, Little Italy, and Embarcadero, Coit Tower, and of course the San Francisco Exploratorium. The Crosstown by contrast does take you through the Presidio and Golden Gate Park, but neither feel as iconic. The DoubleCross also shows you the homeless situation in San Francisco while the Crosstown strictly avoids homelessness.

Both routes have about 2000 feet of climbing, and would never take a route around a hill when it can take you directly over it for maximum chance of views. I chose to do both walks in the summer so we would have maximum daylight despite relatively late starts, and also because summer is when hiking in the south bay would be extremely hot while San Francisco is nice and cool, providing a nice break from the summer heat.

Both Candlestick park and Fort Funston close at sunset, so there's a deadline for the hike --- you must return to your car by the time the parks close, so you must finish by around 7:00pm in the summer. Candlestick park is nowhere close to good dining, but Fort Funston is conveniently located near Soul Rice, one of the few good Chinese restaurants you can find easily that never has a wait and serves food quickly. In both cases we finished the walk within about 7 hours of starting (including a half hour or so for lunch), and our kids are 14 and 10, so this should be well within the capability of most non-sedentary adults.

Both walks showed me aspects of San Francisco that I'd never made a point of visiting before, and also provide iconic visits to the city's many varied parks. The best time to do this hike if you're capable of getting up early is in the Spring or Fall, when the views wouldn't be obscured by the heavy fog. Nevertheless, I enjoyed both walks as a respite from the heat as well as an idea of what causes people to travel to visit San Francisco.

July 1: Madulain to Bergun

Despite the rain last night, the morning brought us beautiful sunshine, giving us motivation to ride the Albulapass. It was a shortish ride today, so we got going only at 9:00am, and began by riding to the Vogl at the bottom of the Albulapass to buy bananas.

Riding up the Albula pass from the La Punt side has less climbing (less than 700m) but in exchange the initial switchbacks are at 12% grade. We gained elevation rapidly and the day was warm. We stopped at the trailhead which would have taken us to Madulain for water and snacks and a skiier with summer skis (essentially inline skates with long board) passed us. She must have been an Olympic caliber skier as she rapidly distanced us.

Boen worked really hard and soon we were at Alp Alesch where there was some sort of summer camp program for teenagers. Boen stopped to play with the goats while we waited for Bowen. It being warm, we refilled our water bottles after Bowen joined us and we kept going up the hill. The slope became more gradual once the road finished its series of corners, and the vistas opened up. Grand, wild, and desolate, Albulapass is one of the prettiest passes in the alps. Kids on mountain bikes went up the hill with vim as we waited for Bowen at one of the more photogenic spots. Once he joined us we went quite a bit faster and were soon at the summit where we took photos at the Albula Hospiz.

The descent on this side of Albula is equally stunning, with distant views at the top and then twisty turns and corners as you coast through the famed "Glacier Express" train route which at the summit uses a tunnel so as a cyclist you wouldn't even know there was a train through the mountain at all!

We stopped at a waterfall to hike to it, walking a little bit pass a barn. Even though the forecast was for thunderstorms in the afternoon, we could take our time as it was still early and we had time and the sky still looked completely blue. My real destination, however, was Palpunogasee, a pretty alpine lake that I'd always wanted to hike around but never found the time to do so. As previously mentioned, on a climb it's a hard sell to take time to do an extra hike knowing you have more climbing to do, and the last time I descended in this direction Bowen was cold and didn't want to walk.

The circumnavigation of the lake was as scenic as I had hoped for and we took our time. When we finished, we rolled down to Bergun and Hotel Piz Ela which we had booked the evening before, having found that all the other hotels were full or outrageously expensive. The hotel's reception was empty, but a visit to the restaurant at the back found the owner who was receptive to letting us check in early, park the bikes, and leave our luggage in the room!

Lunch was at the Vogl down the street supplemented by ice cream and chocolate at the bakery across the street. After that, we pondered what to do. I looked at Alltrails and decided that the Railroad Adventure Hike from Preda to Bergun was doable in the time we had left. We walked to the train station in Bergun where the train was uncharacteristically 15 minutes late, and took the train one stop up to Preda, which in other places would have been a nice alpine village with lodging but despite the railroad company's attempt to grow a village there never developed.

Getting off the train station, we found the well signed tail with no problems, and it was indeed an exciting hike, taking 2 hours to do what the train did in 15 minutes. The trail follows the train tracks, but from below and above, and you get remarkable vistas that show off classic pictures of the Glacier Express railroad. Since there's only one track, the frequency of trainspotting on this track is twice the frequency that you expect, since you get one train in each direction per hour. It's even more than that because you see the same train multiple times as the track twists and turns at well below 6% grades in order for the train to make the climb without resorting to a cog railway setup. We saw more than one photographer standing in place waiting to get their perfect shot of the train as it negotiated those corners.

At this point, we were starting to get clouds around us. These escalated to an occasional raindrop here and there, nudging us to quicken our pace, which was not a problem as the hike was mostly downhill. This hike was definitely a highlight of our stay in Bergun and I was glad that we'd finally had a chance to stop there. The hike was also punctuated with signs providing a history of the railway construction as well as interesting facts about the area.

Finally, the trail dumped us out onto the main road which we could take into town. We would find out later that we'd missed the final section of the trail, but no matter. At this point rain became a light drizzle. As we walked into town thunder was heard and it was no longer a drizzle. We dashed to our hotel as we spotted lightning flashes and walked through the hotel door just as the thunderstorm came down! We had made use of every dry minute of the day!

We took showers, did laundry, and had dinner at the hotel restaurant, venturing out only for our after dinner walk. The day had cooled down a lot because of the rain and it was even a little chilly but Bergun was beautiful, justifying our spending the extra time here.

That night, I observed that we'd have to take the train to Munich on Saturday, necessitating that we be in Lindau, Germany on Friday night. It was usually not a good idea to book a hotel this far out, but it was a Friday and Lindau was an impacted destination. We booked the Hotel Das Ludwig near the Lindau train station so we could stay on the island proper for Friday. I did the math and noted that we'd be in Lenzerheide on Wednesday night, somewhere along the route to the Bodensee on Thursday night, probably in Austria as it would be much cheaper than Switzerland. The end of our tour was in sight!

June 29: Pontresina Panaromic Hike

We got up early, ate breakfast, and got onto the bus which looked like a small airport shuttle to the top of Bernina pass. The bus was a few minutes late, but in true Swiss fashion, it sync'd perfectly with the bus that would take us to Muttas Muragl, the funicular railway that would take us to the start of the hike. It was already pretty warm despite the early hour, and the bus delivered us just in time to miss the previous train, which runs every half an hour. That gave us plenty of time to buy tickets, and it turned out that they opened up the funicular less than 15 minutes after we bought tickets so we could get in.

The funicular took us to a beautiful location with a zipline, and swings, and a nice playground. It wasn't very crowded, being early, so we took our time and looked around. Far to the south we could see the St Moritzersee and the Silvaplanarsee, beyond which was Maloja Pass which defined the border between Switzerland and Italy.

Starting the hike, we were impressed by the views of the Bernina Glacier as well, and of cousre the many wildflowers along the trail. Whenever there was a river crossing, there was a nice bridge. The entire trail was well maintained and pretty.

To my surprise, there was even a tunnel on the hike. We knew we would likely miss the 12:00pm anyway, so we took our time, stretching out the walk. When we got to the finish, the location where the ski lift would take us back down, Boen used the bathroom while we sat enjoying the cool breeze.

Back down in Pontresina, all the shops were closed, but we could buy ice cream and there was a bakery with some snacks available, though all at Swiss prices. When the bus came, we boarded it and the afternoon bus had no transfers, taking us all the way back to Livigno.

In Livigno, all the stores were open, so we bought supermarket lunch, dinner to cook, and Xiaoqin replenished her supply of contact lens solution. For grins, I asked how much a Fenix was, since apparently Livigno had its own tax regime, so things should be cheaper. I was disappointed as the sale prices weren't any better than what I could get in the USA.

After lunch, I chatted with the land lady and asked for another pod of laundry detergent so we could do laundry, and then I took the kids to the swimming pool where we had several runs with the water slides. It wasn't as much fun as Mayrhofen and it cost a lot more, but it was a hot day and the pool gave us something to do.

We made dinner and then went to bed early. The forecast was for rain, so our plan was to ride to the tunnel, ride to Zernez and then towards Albulapass. La Punt had expensive lodging, but the village just before that was a lot cheaper. It was also a lot less climbing so the kids wouldn't complain.

June 25: Mayrhofen Panoramaweg

Arturo, Mark and I got out of the apartment at 6:50am, walking to the nearest supermarket. When you visit Europe, you're used to very indifferent customer service. Some service workers even seem to think that customers are a nuisance. This store, despite being part of a chain, was tiny and had the most enthusiastic customer service agent in Europe I'd ever met. We started by buying bread and eggs, and then I spotted Weiss wurst. We bought two packets of 6, reasoning that would be two each. The customer service agent immediately reached back behind her and grabbed the special mustard that goes with Weisswurst proactively!

We then visited the other grocery store for more pedestrian needs. We also bought more sunscreen, having ran out. The kids would forever complain about the icky sunscreen, since they were much more used than our brush on sunblock which we'd successfully used for years.

The kids hadn't had Weisswurst at all on this trip before, and so they chowed down like crazy. Boen ate 3, as did Bowen. "Boen has got to be half weisswurst by now!" remarked Mark. We then got water bottles filled and got ready to visit the cable car for the Mayrhofen Panaromic walk, which Arturo had identified and confirmed with Stephan was a good one. Stephan had spent time in Mayrhofen before, so he decided to take the day off and work remotely instead. I asked him to ponder on whether he wanted to do the Stelvio or Silvretta instead. Boen got Otto to start pushing for Silvretta, since he thought that Silvretta + Klausen was much prettier than the Stelvio. Xiaoqin speculated that Stelvio would end up being their preference because it was just much more famous than Silvretta.

We walked over to the Penkenbahn cable car station and bought tickets (I bought the wrong ticket which cost a bit more) and then took the cable car up. It is a measure of the spectacular nature of the places we were going that our initial impressions were of being underwhelmed. The place was pretty, no doubt about it. It just didn't stand up to Secada or Tre Cime. I was glad we chose to stay for only 2 nights instead of doing more hiking in the area --- the location wasn't high enough anyway to stay cool, though the apartment we stayed at was cool enough even without AC.

The hike did grant us views all the way into the Italian Border, on the other side of the St Jakob/San Giacomo pass laid Sterzing, the town where we had started so many days ago. We walked past several artificial lakes and visited a mountain top church before doubling back and hiking down to the lower cable car station and riding it back to town, where we bought quick snack lunches at the supermarket before going back to the apartment to relax, get hydrated, do laundry, change into swimming trunks and then walk to the swimming pool.

The Mayrhofen swimming pool offered special rates after 3:30pm, so we bought passes and then proceeded to talk our way into the indoor area where the water slides were. There were two water slides which were on a timed schedule. One would open, then there'd be a 10 minute pause, then there would be another that would open. It was because there was insufficient staff to keep both slides open at the same time.

One of them, dubbed crazy river was the oddest water slide I'd ever seen. It had a couple of intermediate stops almost designed to stop you so you have to stand up and get onto the next stage of the slide. This looked like it was guaranteed to cause one slide user to crash into another if the previous one was slow. This was probably of no consequence if you were a kid and light, but I didn't want to be the adult responsible for slamming into a kid at high speed in a water slide like this one so after trying it once I stopped using it.

The other slide was much better designed, a fully enclosed tube that sloshed you around from side to side at high speed. If you weren't careful water would get up your nose. We all enjoyed that one thoroughly and couldn't get enough.

Arturo noticed that the supermarket closed at 6:00pm, so we had to leave earlier than expected to buy dinner and breakfast. We bought Weisswurst, for breakfast, and prepared to make Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner. We also got word that Otto Senior was excited about driving the Stelvio on the RV, so we started looking at train schedules and forecasts.

The forecast for the next day was for pleasant morning and a thunderstorm in the afternoon. We could take the train to Jenbach and then to Landeck where the climb to Reschen pass started, but that would forfeit riding in good weather. I decided to split the difference and proposed riding to Jenbach first thing in the morning, and then taking the train to Landeck and then riding up towards Reschenpass as high as possible. My preferred goal was to make Nauders, but Pfunds was also plausible. Nobody disagreed, but Stephan had a complication which was that Otto Jr really wanted to ride the train while he and his dad would do the drive to Landeck. He would have to meet us at the train station on our unpredictable schedule and then entrust his 7-year-old to the bad influence of our 13 and 10 year olds.

While dinner was being made, I checked the flat tire on the front. 

June 24: Krimml to Mayrhofen

The hotel didn't come with breakfast, but was fortunately right across the street from a Spar that opened early, so Arturo and I went to the Spar and bought breakfast, and we all gathered in Arturo and Mark's room to eat. Having a kitchen meant we could fry eggs, make coffee, and have a filling breakfast after yesterday's efforts.

In the past, I'd always ridden from Wald im Pinzgau up Old Gerlos road rather than visit the Krimml waterfall. But given that the Krimml waterfall was a centerpiece of the Tauern National Park, I decided that we should place it on the visit list, and Arturo agreed. The "new" Gerlos pass road was also a toll road, and my experience with toll roads is that meant that traffic would be manageable even if it wasn't light. Our target for the day was set for Mayrhofen, where we wanted to do more hiking. Stephan said he was feeling the strain of so many riding days in a row, and we clearly needed a rest day to dry out our clothing as well, as nothing had dried fully overnight.

We rode down to the campground to dropped our bags at the RV. Then we rode down to the Krimml waterfall. Crossing a bridge, I found what looked like a gorgeous place, but it turned out to be the waterfall therapy location, and closed to visitors from 10:00am onwards. A placard at the location told us that the therapy sessions would go on for weeks.

Turning back, we found the actual location, where we bought tickets and did the hike up to various viewpoints along the waterfall as well as down below where we could enjoy our shower. The waterfalls themselves weren't very impressive, but it was definitely worth a visit. I can see why Jobst wouldn't bother with the waterfalls on subsequent visits though!

By the time we were done with the hiking it was lunch time, so we ate lunch at the waterfall cafe. It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't outrageous either. After that, it was time to bike!  We rode back out to the main road and started climbing the Gerlos road. The road is a far cry from the Old Gerlos road with its 14-18% grades, but instead granted a steady 6-8% grade, working its way around the hill, granting us better and better views of the waterfalls as we rode. My front tire felt soft, so I had to stop to put air in the tires.

It being the afternoon, once we got out of the tree cover it got warm rapidly and Boen and I just poured power into the pedals and just got the climb over with. At the summit, there was a huge toll terminal, but bikes were free and so were the bathrooms! So we made use of the bathrooms, filled up our water bottles, and then walked over to the viewing platform to wait for the others to show up. Apparently we were not the only ones to have felt the impact of the afternoon heat, as the others slowly made their way to where we were, with Bowen bringing up the rear.

When we had all eaten our snacks, we started riding down. Not having ridden this road before, I had no intel to provide the others. The road quickly intersected with the old Gerlos road intersection with a descent, and then we were at the familiar Gerlos Stauseewhere we stopped for an ice cream. There were views of the reservoir (Speicher Durlassboden) as well as goats for the kids to feed and play with. We probably spent too much time there, but it was a short day. And then there was a short climb followed by a descent to the town of Gerlos itself.  We saw cable cars and what looked like a very wealthy town, and in the future it might be a better place to stop than Mayrhofen..There was a strong headwind through town, so we had to pedal.

Past Gerlos the road once again took a big dive and the headwind was no longer an issue. The descent finally terminated in a series of hairpin turns which dropped us into Zell am Ziller. Stephan was particularly impressed. "I'd driven this in the past, but had no idea that the road felt this good on the bike! And it's not even 3 hours from Munich!" He was moving to Munich in August and this trip had affirmed that the decision was going to be a good one for cycling.  In times past, we'd just ridden down towards Jenbach from there, but this time we went up the river towards Mayrhofen. Stephan's dad had found a campground in Laubichi, and I'd identified the Black Eagle Luxury Apartments as being reasonably priced and reasonably close to town.

The river bike path wasn't hard to find, and once we got on it, it switched between gravel and pavement. Since it was just a 6km ride we didn't bother looking for alternatives and just rode along until we found the campground. The campground entrance was surprisingly hard to find, and eventually we just got bags handed over to us over the fence while I struggled to do electronic registration for the apartments on a tiny smartphone screen. The apartments turned out to be one of those zero-contact places, and we would only get entry codes after registering all the guests AND paying the guest tax.

Arriving in Mayrhofen, we found to our dismay that the apartments were right next to the main road. Fortunately, there was a well rated Smashburger place next door, so after parking our bikes and moving into the entirely adequate hotel (no AC though!) we could just walk next door and have dinner. Over dinner, I looked at our schedule and realized that we were ahead of schedule. I had originally intended to arrive in Mayrhofen on June 26th, but we'd somehow made it here on June 24th. That gave us another 6 days!

Arturo had found a panoramic hike using the cable car for the next day, and we were exhausted so after dinner we did laundry, hung up all the clothing, and went to bed, leaving tomorrow's choices till tomorrow.

Review: 4monster Day Hiking stowable backpack

 I've had good luck with the Sea-to-Summit waterproof backpack in the past, but this year, we were planning to have several big hiking days, so I wanted backpacks with waterbottle pockets for 4 people. We ended up with a pair of 4monster Day Hiking backpacks.

These are backpacks with no structure whatosever so they can stow into a thethered stuff sack that you can't lose. Because they have no structure, if they're empty they will flop and your water bottles will fall out. Fortunately, when hiking in the alps or dolomites you're almost always stuffing the backpacks with raingear, snacks, and other items.

These packs also served as auxiliary stuff sacks for clothing when transfering equipment to and from the RV. I also used them several times when shopping for breakfast at 7 in the morning. To my surprise, these packs held up. They're not waterproof, but I used them in sprinkles a few times and they worked fine.

The packability is great, and I never had trouble stuffing these back into their stuff sacks at the end of the day (or start of the morning when packing). The price is right also. Recommended.

June 16: Selva di Cadore to Barcis

The storm had blown over by the morning, and the breakfast at Orsos Grigios was an order of magnitude better than Miralago’s. “They have donuts for breakfast!” endorsed Boen. We ate well and packed up and started the climb up Staulanza pass, a minor pass from Giau with easy grades and a relatively short 300m ascent. At the top, we looked into the Zoldo valley and when everyone was there, started the descent. Nothing prepared me for how smooth the descent was. Flowing, with well banked corners that let you carry speed without braking. Stephan was an excellent bike handler and that transferred easily to the tandem as he and Otto were the only ones who could keep Boen and I within conversational distance, whopping and cheering as we took corner after coner in a never-ending thrill ride. “I don’t know whether it’s the long wheelbase or the steel frame, but I’ve never felt so comfortable at speed as on the tandem.” “It’s both! So glad you’re enjoying this!” Stephan and Otto were having the time of their life, and it showed.

With minor climbs interrupting the descent both our kids were determined not to let the other bike disappear into the distance and egged each other on. We stopped to regroup at an open field and wait for thers to catch up. When we were all together again, We were delighted to discover that the descent was not over until we got to Langarone, where we had promised a lunch stop. There, we found a big supermarket where we bought a variety of foods for eating. The forecast threatened rain in the afternoon, and to complicate matters, Stephan had discovered that the sole of his cycling shoes had peeled off. “I guess 20 years is a good run for a pair of cycling shoes,” he declared. On a conventional independent tour he would have had to end his day --- it was a Monday and most bike shops were closed but fortunately Otto Sr was driving his RV, and with his phone Stephan located a Decathalon super sports store that would carry shoes his size. I took the moment to ask him to shop for an insulated water bottle while he was at it.

Clouds had gathered but we were determined to climb to Erto. After a false start due to a misconfigured GPS, we made it onto P251. We felt ominous raindrops on the climb, causing us to stop to put on rain gear. At one point, Arturo and Mark even scouted out a shelter, but we pressed on and the clouds, while threatening never opened up to us.

Once past the Erto pass, I discovered that I had a front tire flat. Rather than replace the tube right away, I determined that it was a slow flat and chose to pump up the tire instead Before the descent began. We were in a hurry and pressed the speed as quick as we could. The winding road took us through a desolate landscape, made much more stark by the impending rain and my awareness of the slowly leaking tire. The road swept us through enormous stone-strewn river beds, bridged by smooth roads of recent construction and rennovation. While they were moments of rain, I realized that it only felt as hard as it did because of the speed we were moving. Indeed, whenever we slowed down or stopped the amount of water I felt on my face diminished to nothing.

Reaching the town entrance of Barcis, we booked an apartment highly rated but high up in town. We called the owner but she declared that she was out of town and wouldn’t be back until 5pm. “But my husband will give you the keys.”

I pumped up my tires one more time and then Boen and I charged up the noticeably steep hill to the house. There, we sheltered the bike under the roof of the house, then picked up the house from the Italian-speaking husband. We couldn’t change or shower as the RV still had our gear. But we could replace the inner tube!

Try as I might, I could not find the foreign matter which had intruded into my front tire, so I just replaced the tube and patched the older, Butyl inner tube on the bike. Stephan texted us to notify that he had accomplished his mission of acquiring new cycling shoes, had a new bottle for me, and had found a campground at the bottom of town. I did not relish the idea of having to ride down and carry a full load back up the hill. Xiaoqin decided to walk ahead. I had the brilliant idea of calling the owner to see if she could help since she was obviously still out of town and was driving.

Grabbing the phone from the kids (which I had outfitted with local SIM cards purchased from Amazon), I called her and she quickly agreed! We had a few coordinating issues, but she eventually found he RV, grabbed the bags and Xiaoqin to boot and delivered them to us. She graciously made the sofa bed so the kids had a place to sleep, and gave me the keys to her washing machine basement so I didn’t have to do laundry by hand that night!

It was getting late for dinner and we didn’ know what rains would bring so decided quickly to walk down to town for dinner. On the way to town, we stopped at a still open bakery to pick up breakfast. Our hostess had gracefully provisioned the apartment with coffee and moka pot. Dinner was a serviceable affair, not impressive, but we were hungry and made quick work of it. After dinner, we observed that the weather was still holding, so decided to pay Stephan, Otto, and Otto Sr a visit at their RV Park before hiking back to the hotel. The lake (really a hydroelectric dam reservoir)Was beautiful but obviously cold and we didn’t have our swim suits anyway.

We visited Stephan and Otto to see his new shoes. We planned the next morning to drop or bags off and then ride off. Jobst’s ride report spoke of a 4.5km tunnel and Stephan determined that he would like to bypass that with the RV. We agreed to that before hiking back up the hill to our beautiful view, showers, laundry, and sleep.