San Francisco's Presidio and Marina Green From Richard Katz's
Skating Unrinked book, published in paperback by HarperCollinsWest in 1994. Or was it '95? If you are not reading this on a screen, stop reading and head to www.Amazon.com. Thanx. Richard Katz = katz@frogojt.com. email
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Chapter marinasf
San Francisco's Presidio and Marina Green: Swords into Ploughshares
You might experience an uneasy feeling along this trail that it is simply too good to be true that the US Army just checked out and left this place to you. There's got to be a catch. Maybe they're going to use you for training -- some crew cut gents in cammies are going to jump out and ambush your party of skaters, just for drill. But look around a little bit. The base is closed. More of it is closing all the time. The western end of this trail still looks very military, but gradually, the Presidio will become like Fort Mason and complete it's metamorphosis from a sword to a ploughshare.
If you are particular about grains of sand getting into the running gear of your skates, you should skip this whole trail. The prevailing winds coming through the Golden Gate leave sand everywhere, even near the Marina itself.
If you do decide to go for it, you will find two and a quarter miles of flat, easy shoreline skating.
How to Get To Crissy Field by Car from Highway 101:
Go southbound on Highway 101 over the Golden Gate Bridge, and follow the signs "101 South -- Downtown" and "Doyle Drive". Stay in the right lane, and follow the signs "Downtown -- Lombard Street". After a short hop on Richardson Avenue, there is a smaller sign "Crissy Field"; make a quick 180 degree right turn into the Presidio. You will be on newer pavement; you will see one of the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge ahead of you; you are heading back under the freeway on Gorgas Street to Mason Street. Go left on Mason about a mile to McDonald. Go right on McDonald, then take a left on Marine Drive to Hamilton Street. Stop. Park anywhere.
How to Get There by Car from Interstate 80:
Going westbound on Interstate 80 across the Bay Bridge, stay in the right hand lanes and exit at "Highway 101 -- Golden Gate Bridge." Exit at South Van Ness Avenue. After the excruciating stop and go trip north on 101/Van Ness Avenue, make a left turn on Lombard, a right on Fillmore (to the end), and a left on Marina Boulevard. From here on you will get a preview of where you'll be skating. Where Marina meets Lyon Street, go straight, with a slight jog to the left. Don't jog too far to the left, you will be transported against your will to the Golden Gate Bridge and perhaps beyond. The street you should jogged onto is Mason Street. Follow Mason Street a mile or so to McDonald, go left on Marine Drive, to Hamilton, and park.
What It's Like:
The western end of this trail is just to your left at the end of Hamilton Street. From Hamilton or McDonald Street, start skating east on the asphalt trail. The trail runs between the parking lots and shuttered military facilities of the Presidio's Crissy Field, and the strip of dunes that belong to Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
After a little over a mile, jog left through "West Pipe Gate". The seaside jogging trail turns to dirt and sand here, so go right on a little paved path to a runway -- an aircraft runway! Taxi to the left down the runway to a large paved parking lot. Go right at the parking lot, and you will see a new asphalt trail that you can take going off to your left. Follow this trail through the gate at Lyon Street to the Marina Green.
All of the red-tinted fivestar conrete surrounding the Marina Green is off limits to skaters. It is also off limits to bicyclists and skateboarders. Drivers do, however, park right under the "No Rollerskating" signs, put on their skates, and roll right along, next to all the bicyclists and a few skateboarders. (Jogging, by the way, is allowed.) Law abiding folks are consigned to the alternate path, turning left on Marina Green Drive at Scott Street, and staying close to the water all the way around the bend to the entrance to Fort Mason. Keep to the left as you approach Fort Mason, and skate right through the gate at the end of Laguna Street.
You can skate all around the piers here, except the last one, which is called the Festival Pavilion. This is the pier where the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, the last operational Liberty ship in the world, normally resides. The management of Fort Mason has filled in all the old hazards such as the railroad tracks, so it is nearly impossible to trip over them. It is especially nice to skate around the pier building labelled the Herbst Pavilion. Inside this pier, which is truly immense and could accommodate the cargo of the most massive of oceangoing vessels, there is a spiffy new theater of four hundred or so seats right on the concrete ground floor. You can see the lobby when you skate around on the port side of the pier. Besides the large theater in Herbst Pavilion, called the Cowell Theater, Fort Mason has two theaters in Building D run by the Magic Theater; and also the Bayfront Theater. Fort Mason has almost as many theaters as the Theater District near Union Square; and you are much more likely to see a world premiere over here than you are downtown.
So far, this trail has been level. After you have checked out Fort Mason, if you want to do a little uphill skating, head back out the main gate and left up Laguna Street. Go about half a block, and skate into the park on a fivestar red-tinted concrete path. This park has a Bufano at the east end that you can skate right up to, and also a "sculpture" of the late Congressman Phil Burton.
The trail past the Bufano will take you down to the Hyde Street Pier, but it's too steep for skating.
From beginning to end, this trail is about two and a quarter miles.
Places to Eat:
Green's Restaurant (415 771 6222) is at the far western end of the Fort Mason complex, in Building A, near the Museum of Modern Art Rental Gallery. The restaurant is world renowned, but what's really a resource for skaters is the takeout department (which they call the "bakery counter".) They open at 8 A.M. The coffee is excellent, the juice is fresh, and so are the baked goods and sandwiches and other prepared foods. There is a convenient pay phone. There are a few steps to negotiate inside the restaurant, but they're carpeted. You can take your food down to the piers and take a seat on the park benches, or over to the south end of Building B to the picnic tables.
Places to Rent Skates:
There are a few places to rent skates in the Marina District. Nuvo Colours (415 771 6886) is within skating distance on Fillmore. Achilles Wheels is on Chestnut near Scott (415 567 8400).
Public Transportation:
You can take the Muni 29-Sunset bus to Crissy Field. Or you can take the Muni 22, 28,30, 42, 47 or 49 lines to the vicinity of Fort Mason National Park Headquarters.
Ratings:
Path Surface = *** (some *****)
Public Transit Access = ****
Surroundings = **
Level of Difficulty = EASY
Overall Rating = ***
Length = Two and a quarter miles one way
Other trails to check out in the neighborhood:
Golden Gate Park on Sunday
The Embarcadero
The Great Highway
10/10/96
Note from the Author: Haven't put in links to the other chapters yet.
From Richard Katz's Skating Unrinked book, published in paperback by HarperCollinsWest in 1994. Or was it '95? If you are not reading this on a screen, stop reading and head to www.Amazon.com. Thanx. Richard Katz = katz@frogojt.com. email
Back to Richard Katz's Homepage
If you want to go back to the Table of Contents of Skating Unrinked, Back to TOC