The last walk in the SpellWalk SF program was delayed due to the wildfire smoke that began pouring into the Bay Area two days after the Mission walk, deteriorating air quality to the point that it was harmful to conduct physical activity outdoors. But, on the first day that the air quality index was below…
This was the last walk taken before wildfire season kicked into high gear. It was the night before the siege of lightning strikes that triggered hundreds of fires, some of which are still burning. In all honesty, there wasn’t much noteworthy about this walk. I somehow knew that in advance, which is perhaps why I…
I held off on doing this one until near the end of the SpellWalk SF program because it’s way out in the boonies of San Francisco. In fact, I was even considering skipping Parkside altogether, since it’s kind of a subset of the Sunset. However, the intersection of 34th Avenue, Wawona Street, and Crestlake Drive…
The problem with trying to SpellWalk “Civic Center” is that it’s too small of a neighborhood. As a result, I had to abbreviate it to “Civic Ctr”–as of the time of this post, the only SpellWalk that has included an abbreviation–and shrink the scale down. The clashing SoMa and north-of-Market grids also constrained the walk…
This portion of San Francisco has myriad streets named for foreign cities or countries (mostly European). Generally, the northeast/southwest-oriented streets are named for cities and have the suffix “Street”; and generally, the northwest/southeast-oriented streets are named for countries and have the suffix “Avenue”. On this walk, I passed through Paris, France and Moscow, Russia. Of…
Yeah, technically this walk goes through North Beach and Telegraph Hill, but “Russian” is a comparatively long word to spell out. Sue me. Not much else to say about this walk, other than it was my second-fastest in terms of average speed walked (behind the Marina). That is notable given how brutal it is to…
I took this walk the day after Independence Day. Therefore, its highlight was the unbelievable amounts of fireworks debris all over the streets and sidewalks. Exploded and burned canisters, boxes, sparklers all left a faint scent of gunpowder lingering in the air. I discovered an error on Google Maps as I returned to my car…
Happy fourth! Or, happy four miles. According to Google Maps, a walking path cuts through the lower half of Jefferson Square Park as Octavia Street, linking Golden Gate Avenue with Turk Street. However, at the time of the walk, this segment was closed, fenced off, and undergoing construction. Ergo, I had to spontaneously course-correct, which…
Because what else is there to do on the observed Independence Day during a pandemic? This walk took me up the stairway bordering the famously winding part of Lombard Street. Just like in normal times, there were a fair amount of tourists there. It seems tourists are still choosing to travel to San Francisco despite…
The Sunset is a large and sprawling neighborhood consisting almost exclusively of single-family homes. That characteristic made this a quiet walk. I suppose it also helped that it was a Monday evening and, appropriately, the sun was setting. Shockingly, Karl the Fog did not even make an appearance!
Spell Walking 