San Bruno Mountain - Brought to you by the letter "F"*

26 February 2017

Through a series of unexpected/unfortunate events, I found myself loose on a Sunday morning in sunny California.  Lacking a car or the convenience of a bicycle rental, I pulled up AllTrails and got to hunting for a reasonable distance, Uber-able trail head I could crank some miles on in lieu of the treadmill.  I've been staring at a mountain for 3 years that was covered in trails.  Once I knew their were trails, it had to happen.  Who is their right mind would treadmill when they could go get some dirt on their super squeaky clean trail running shoes?

In short:

“Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.” - Jack Kerouac

This was the rallying cry for the morning.  I got up and ate as if the apocalypse was coming upon us and called for an Uber to take me to the trail head.  The "trail head" was a cul-de-sac in a high end, hillside neighborhood.  Ok, so maybe trail head wasn't the right term, but rather trail terminus.  With my driver having a cocked eyebrow (I'm used to this from Uber drivers dropping me in weird wilderness places) I scrambled up the scree pile at the end of the street and hoped like heck there would be some semblance of a trail.  There was some semblance, not much, but some.  As I began what turned out to be 0.6 miles of straight up (no switchbacks...), I found it was to be a day of joy in the little things.  From coyote scat, to views of the Bay and eventually the Pacific, to every bee, beetle and fly and finally to the deep color palette of flowers quietly expressing the most quiet, infinite beauty, I was stopping frequently.  Sure, part of that was an inability to breath due to a recently lackluster cardio routine, but it was also the constant redirection of nature.  To give you context, San Bruno Mountain is seated between Silicon Valley, San Bruno and San Francisco.  Read as: dense, urban, surrounded by freeways, concrete chaos.  

Check out this image from Google:

The large dark brown and green mountain, surrounded by grey urbanization, is the whole of San Bruno Mountain State and County Park.  It's worth taking a moment to read the history of not only the development, but ongoing protection efforts of the park.  It is really a dramatic gem in the middle of a heavily inhabited stretch of land.  

Once I made it to the ridge, I could breath again and took the short ups and downs with joy.  I stumbled across a family picnicking with a new-to-me view of San Francisco in the distance.  There were lone hikers, slow mountain bikers and a large, stately group decked out in the latest outdoor gear and floppy hats.  Taking at turn at the radio tower cluster at the summit, I wound around and eventually down the mountain into groves of Eucalyptus.  I have never smelled that small and immediately deemed it alluring, fresh and exotic.  I found my pace slowing and my heart rate with it. 

San Francisco in the Distance

A View Back at the Ridgeline

These ants were captivating to watch.  The constant motion was exhausting and enthralling.

The hike started a bit hard, but the colors, scents, textures, and even the sound of the wind coming over the mountain were worth it.  To add to it, the immense joy of driving by it a dozen times and knowing I climbed it when I could have slept in, hit the treadmill or laid around with Netflix, that is the real joy.  I climbed that goddamn mountain and nothing can take that away.

*The title is a reference to the constant thought in my head on the first 0.6 mile of straight up climbing.  Even when I'm frustrated and huffy, I find that the jokes keep coming in my head.  Positive mental attitude isn't for everyone.  Sometime you have to be a cynical realist and keep marching on!