MY EVEREST: TO THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
Different walks are different. Sometimes you want nothing more than to head out for a walk you’ve done so many times, you know every turn and you don’t have to pay any attention to where you’re going. Those are walks to clear your head and unwind. You might mosey along at barely a stroll, if that’s where your mood takes you. It really doesn’t matter, so long as you’re enjoying taking in your surroundings and letting your thoughts roll where they may. Other times you want a walk to feel like an accomplishment. You want it to be challenging enough to be good for conditioning and you want it to feel like an event. Not long after we moved to San Francisco for the 2007 season, back when I was still getting to know the city, I had one of those walks: I walked all the way from AT&T Park to the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge and partway back. That was a walk that was an event! I must have covered ten miles that day, but it felt like twenty, easy.
The notion of walking all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge was one of those ideas that came to me, and then I wanted to see if I could actually do it. Years ago a mountaineer was asked why he wanted to become the first to climb Mount Everest, and he answered, “Because it’s there.” I know what he meant. I guess anyone who is competitive enough to play in the big leagues, even as a backup in my case, has to have a fire inside that pushes you to do things. You don’t tell yourself you might do something. You don’t think maybe you’ll get to your goal or destination. It kind of locks in place, all on its own, and you just know in your bones: I am going to make this happen. There’s no drama about it. Quite the opposite, in fact. You just know and then you go out and live that experience.
That was how it was with my Golden Gate Bridge walk. I started out along the Embarcadero, the same route as Kim and I take on our way to Coit Tower, and that’s where a walk gets to being a little like life: There’s so much to see right in front of you, so much to take in and enjoy, you don’t need to think about what’s coming later on. Sure, maybe by the time you get three-quarters of the way there, your hip’s going to feel like someone put it in a vice grip, or your ankle’s going to make you want to curse Ryan Klesko (“Why couldn’t you have moved that Chief out of the road a little sooner, buddy!?”), or you might wind up with the mother of all blisters on your toe. Those are thoughts for later. Right then you’re on one thing and then another and another. You might stare across the bay at the outline of thirty-six giant white cranes all lined up together side by side at the Port of Oakland. You know what they are: They’re out there to hoist huge shipping containers at one of the busiest ports in the U.S., but even knowing that, they sure do look like something out of Star Wars. You might find yourself transfixed for a minute by the visual of a boat cutting through the bay on its way back to McCovey Cove, making a neat little wake in the calm water that looks so much like a painting you have to shake your head, smile and look away. Or you might look down for a bit, just in front of where your steps are falling on the pavement, and let the rhythm of the walk lull you into something a lot like half-sleep.
Even if I don’t stop for crab, I’m always going to follow the Embarcadero as far as the Pier 23 Café and maybe stop in and say hello to Mac. He’s a good guy and always has something upbeat to say about the team. That’s nice to hear! I won’t lie! From there it all feels like you’re flipping through postcards, the landmarks are so familiar. You pass the James R. Herman Cruise Terminal and see those big cruise ships out there looking like giant bathtubs painted white and as many other colors as they could get their hands on. That always makes me think of Kim: We went on our first cruise together on our honeymoon thirty-seven years ago, and love to sneak off on a cruise whenever we can find the time.
You pick it up a notch or two when you amble past the long lines waiting for the boats out to Alcatraz, and cruise by the Monterey Fish Market. Soon you’re passing by that little park or square with neat green lawns looking out onto Pier 39 coming up on your right and vintage-painted street cars rolling along on your left. I understand people who get a little tired of seeing tourists everywhere, but I kind of like it. Aren’t we all tourists somewhere sometime? They’re usually friendly, and might even nod to me, like I’m some kind of local attraction, right up there with the sea lions barking out in the bay.
Past the boats of the Blue & Gold Fleet it’s not far to Fisherman’s Wharf, which brings back great memories for me, and then down past that row of restaurants along Jefferson Street that always makes me hungry, even if it’s early and they’re not opened up yet: Castagnola’s, Lou’s Fish Shack, Pompei’s Grotto, then Cioppino’s and Capurro’s Restaurant. Then you’re into Aquatic Park, where I’m always amazed to look and see whole groups of people swimming in the ice-cold waters of the bay. That’s where I make my turn, going left to mix it up, and then it’s through the Marina, where Giants fans are everywhere, and on into the Presidio for the last stretch heading out to Fort Point.
Talk about exhilarating! You see those two huge red-orange towers poking up out of the bay, the hallmarks of one of the most famous and recognizable bridges in the world, and you can’t help but feel like one of the luckiest people in the world to be right there right then. I guess I’ve pretty well established myself as a little of a bridge nut. Well, the Roebling Bridge on the Ohio was the longest suspension bridge in the world for a while, and then it was the Golden Gate’s turn. What a feat of engineering! That last stretch of walking, it’s like there are giant magnets up there pulling you along and you don’t think about anything except feeling good. The first time I did that walk, early on in my San Francisco years, I walked back to the Marina and had myself a nice breakfast at a place I liked on Chestnut Street called Bechelli’s. (It’s since closed, but they have Bechelli’s Flower Market Café on Brannan Street not far from AT&T.) By the time I finished off my meal at Bechelli’s and settled up, I was getting to feel a little stiff and didn’t even think about walking any more. I caught a ride back home and looked out the window at all the same places I’d been walking by earlier.
That’s a walk I recommend to everyone. If you need to move along at a pretty deliberate pace and stop often to rest, so what. Take the whole day! Make an adventure out of it. Whether you’re a visitor to our city, or you’ve lived here your whole life, that’s a walk that will make you feel good. It will make you feel alive. It will make you feel more like yourself. After that, every time you see a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge or you see it in a movie or out the window of the flight taking you somewhere else, you can kind of smile and remember what it felt like walking those last steps and being there at the foot of the bridge. I had a feeling I just wanted to walk to the Golden Gate. I thought it would be pretty cool. You know what? It was. It was very, very cool.