San Francisco and the Bay Area is already known as one of the most outdoorsy regions in the country. Head down to
the bay and you can windsurf and frolic in the frigid water (but don’t swim too far lest the bay’s tide drag you out to
sea), take a run through magnificent Golden Gate Park, take your mountain bike into the
Marin Headlands. And of course there are surfing beaches all over the
place.
Now here’s another idea, one that could make for an excellent goal, if goal-setting is your thing.
The San Francisco Trail is a 270-mile
omniumgatherum of hiking trails and bike paths that wends and weaves its way through 47 cities and towns and nine
counties (and passes innumerable strip malls along the way, so you can almost always satisfy a
Yoshinoya jones).
The trail is always growing, adding bits here, pieces there, and it creates a jagged ring around the bay, with ends
stretching from San Jose to Napa…meaning, of course, that you can savor the dismal sprawl of the south bay and the
verdant loveliness of wine country without ever leaving the trail.