Tag Archives: Fisherman’s Wharf

Trail: THE JAWS OF LIFE – Tiburon

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Distance: from San Francisco Ferry Building (see Golden Gateway Trail): 22.21 miles, from Marin Crossroads: 7.78 miles
Difficulty: Enough to give you saddle sores but not enough to break a tourist on a comfort bike.
Download your route sheet here: Directions – The Jaws of Life
FOR A MORE DETAILED LOOK click here for the full Geoped Map provided by g-map-pedometer.com.
From Marin Crossroads: 
There are two routes to Tiburon: Strawberry & The Quick Fix.  This is decision-time, do you have time to go the scenic route?  Or are you cutting it close to the last ferry?  If you have the time, take the Strawberry route! It is worth the time!
SCENIC ROUTE: Strawberry Fields of Heaven
 
If you make the decision to go the scenic route through Strawberry, you will make a right off of the bike path and follow Route 8 over a bridge and onto Hamilton Drive.
All you have to do in this section is stay on Hamilton Drive until it dead ends at Redwood Highway Frontage Rd, a road running parallel to US-101, at the stop sign pictured below. At the stop sign, make a right and head towards the water.
This path will wind you once again under a US-101 bridge and then back in the opposite direction.  Just watch the signs for Route 8 as you go along the road.
 
Emerging from the underpass you will reach a strip of gas stations Keep following the road here until you see the 7-Eleven.
 
Pay attention for the Route 8 sign, this will be at the corner of Seminary Drive.
Make a right on Seminary Drive and you have entered the town of Strawberry!
Though you will keep following Seminary Drive, this gets a bit confusing at the first intersection because instead of going straight, you will make a right.
 
Once you are into Strawberry, you will see marsh lands to your right, and then just up the road, you will see the bay with the US-101 bridge off in the distance.
After passing the Golden Gate Baptist Seminary on the left (yep, there is actually a seminary on Seminary Road, go figure) you will then wind around and find yourself with San Francisco in the distant foreground and Sausalito marina to your right.
This is one of the most beautiful parts of the ride to Tiburon, so take it in and take plenty of pictures!  As you can see, we did!
The Undertow Hill
 

Following the road will lead you to a hill that looks deceptively short and easy. It encourages you to charge right up only to suck you in. Fatigue at this point in the ride only makes this worse. However the lack of traffic make it manageable if you need to take it slow and you have a nice downhill ahead of you.

Once you have crested this hill, there will be a fork in the road, head to the left, this will take you towards tennis courts and Strawberry drive.

After a few more hills you will reach a point where the road becomes one lane in either direction.  Make sure to stay to the right and go in the same direction as the car traffic.

The next decision comes toward the end of Strawberry Drive, right after the road comes back together.  At that point, you will see a very inviting SuperFast downhill!

If you choose to go this way, be warned, you will have to apply your brakes quite soon after you reach the bottom because the path you take around the small peninsula is very narrow and tends to have joggers and dog walkers along it.

f you do choose SuperFast Downhill, just keep following the path until you get to the parking lot, there just head toward the 76 gas station and make a right on Greenwood Cove Drive.

 

If you chose to forego SuperFast downhill and stick with Strawberry Drive, you will go down Strawberry Drive and then intersect Tiburon Boulevard at the stop light.

At Tiburon Boulevard, make a right and enjoy the downhill section of this trip. At the next light, make a right at the 76 gas station onto Greenwood Cove Drive.

I’ll finish the route on the other side of Option 2.

OPTION 2: The Quick Fix 

If you are running a little short on time and you choose to stay on Route 5, then about half a mile from the Route 8 intersection you will come up on East Blithedale Avenue and a stop light.

 

The signs for the bike paths are a bit confusing, but just enter the road in the bike lane and follow East Blithedale Boulevard.

Be careful along this route as there are a few different intersections where cars will either be exiting the road onto a highway ramp, or just exiting the highway onto the road.  Keep following the road as it goes over US-101.  Once you have passed all of the intersections around the US-101 overpass, the rest of the ride is less dicey.

Keep straight on Tiburon Boulevard and you will intersect Strawberry Drive at a light.  At the next light, make a right at the 76 gas station (Greenwood Cove Drive), the bike path sign signals Route 10 to the right, and the rest of the route is the same for everyone (pictured above).

Options Merge:

Following Greenwood Cove Drive you will encounter another uphill area before gliding down to the end of the court.

To the left side of the court is an entryway for a path over to a parking lot.

This lot leads to Route 17 and the Tiburon bike path.  When you first enter the bike path to the right of the parking lot, you’ll see the path fork to the left and to the right.  If you head to the right, you better have a mountain bike! This is a gravel path that leads along the shoreline.

Your better option is to veer to the left and up the next hill.  Once up the hill you will see the bike path and, more than likely, a whole lot of pedestrians! Just take it easy through this section and if you have a bell, use it!

Follow this nice and easy path all along the shoreline.  Take in the beautiful scenery, take some pictures and just enjoy how much fun bike riding in this area can be!

 

The path will cross a road at a stoplight, so you’ll have to watch for cars coming around the bend.  Cross the road and the path continues for a little long, or if you’re confident enough, go ahead and get back onto Tiburon Boulevard, the rest of us will be joining you soon.

If you stayed on the path, just keep going along the path.  Eventually, you’ll make it to another intersection where you’ll have to make sure to stay to the right for the short split and just head down the path.

 

Just a bit down the way the path will end and you’ll have to merge back on to Tiburon Boulevard.  Once you’re back on the road, it’s just a straight shot to the end of this run. No worries, as a bike lane is provided the whole way to the ferry terminal.

 

From the Ferry Terminal at the round-a-bout, you have a great view of Angel Island, San Francisco and the marina.  Once you reach the ferry terminal, park your bike and enjoy one of the local restaurants before the ferry ride back to Pier 41.

Our favorite restaurant is Sam’s Anchor Cafe.  Here, there is both indoor and outdoor seating.  Be warned though, on a nice day in the spring and summer, the wait can be an hour and a half for a table outside, while you may be able to walk right in to one inside.  Just be aware of how much time you have before your ferry arrives.

 

On nice days, you’re likely to run into a long line of tourists and cyclists.  Beware that the Tiburon Ferry stacks bikes one top of one another because there is only one bike rack!! We call this the bike massacre!  It also doesn’t help that the ferries from Tiburon stop in Sausalito as well most of the time.  Even more bikes will be piled up in that mess.  Just put your gears into 1-1 in an attempt to protect your derailers. For more on how to fend for your bike read about “The Hat Trick“.

Make sure you take plenty of pictures from Tiburon.  You’ll pass by Angel Island, Sausalito, the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

 

Fisherman’s Wharf

Once you make it back to Pier 41 at Fisherman’s Warf, you have a lot of restaurants to choose from.  We enjoying going to the outdoor stalls for dungeness crab.  When this becomes our dinner of choice, we go to Nick’s Lighthouse.

These guys have their fresh, live crab out at the steaming stall on the right.

 

It can be prepared either just steamed, or if you ask nicely at the counter, they also can prepare it in garlic butter, or our favorite, the spicy garlic butter!!!

Make sure to try not only the crab, but the crab chowder or lobster bisque as well!! Both are just amazing on a cold day.  You can get them in either a cup or a Boudin Bread Bowl.  They also serve beer and wine outside, you can see my Anchor Steam in the brown bag.  Nick’s is a great place and the service is awesome!

You might ask, “Hey, what did you do with your bikes?”  That’s a good question! The closest bike racks are down the street in front of the Boudin Bakery.  That’s a bit of a hike when you’re hungry! So what we did to ensure that our bikes were not only safe, but visible, is to lock them to the anchoring chains around the parking lot across the street.

Using the U-Lock and cables, just run the sides of the U-Lock through the chain links and your cables after connecting your cables to your rear wheel, frame and front wheel.  This is as secure as the bikes can get.

Just think of dinner as your reward for making it through the jaws of life!

Trail: INAUGURAL RUN – Ferry Building to Fort Point and the Golden Gate (and Back)

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Whether you are just learning to bike, a tourist that want to join all those people you see riding from Fisherman’s Warf or want to experience San Francisco in a new way, the ride to Fort Point and back is a beautiful ride along the San Francisco Bay to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Distance = 11.36 miles

Difficulty = Cake! Full of easy alternatives to on-road riding for the novice or “rusty” rider.

Download the Route Sheet here: Directions – Inagural Run

You can find a detailed map of The Inaugural Run HERE.

OUR INAUGURAL RUN TO THE GOLDEN GATE

Beginning at the Ferry Building means traveling along the Embarcadero, where there is both a narrow bike lane on the street and a wide sidewalk. Drivers along the Embarcadero can be aggressive and unforgiving while pedestrians are absent minded and slow. Both ways are more congested on the weekend but it’s not unusual to alternate between the two to avoid vans or a particularly slow group of Sunday walkers.

The first fork in the road comes at the junction of Kearny and North Point where the Embarcadero ends and the straight through is the bumpy brick path of the trolly tracks.  If you feel safest on the sidewalk and have zen-like frustration tolerance for slow, absent minded tourists . . the best solution is to enter the pavement towards Pier 39 and enjoy this Scenic Route through the marina, Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf.  There will be lots of opportunities to take photos, but TONS of slow pedestrians that have the right of way.

Since we original wrote this article, a bike lane and bike turn signal has been installed at the intersection of Embarcadero and North Point Street that makes taking the route along North Point Street much easier to take.  (See Run Over Route, below.)

Intersection of Embarcadero and North Point, courtesy of Google Maps

 Scenic Route

Expect this area to be extremely tiresome because pedestrians and cyclists coexist about as well as toddlers and teenagers. It’s all about me and nobody’s happy. Take a deep breath because it’s only a short span that will make you reevaluate your own habits of jay walking and walking while talking on the cell.  Just follow the road through Fisherman’s Wharf through Aquatic Park where it meets Van Ness Avenue which is where this route meets back up with the Run Over Route.

Miko with Mt. Tamalpias in the background

Miko at the Entrance to the Aquatic Park Trail

ALTERNATE: The Run Over Route

With the addition of the bike turn signal at the intersection and bike lane along North Point Street, and the thought of commingling with throngs of pedestrians makes your skin crawl, you’d best admire Fisherman’s Wharf from a distance and instead turn left at the bike signal and head up North Point Street. This is called the Run Over Route (click here) for a reason: buses, vans, taxis, even big rigs are out to run you over – for the sheer joy of crushing cyclists!

(UPDATE: Thanks to the San Francisco Bike Coalition, part of North Point is now a dedicated Bike Lane in July 2010)

Patience my friends between stop lights and aggressive drivers, make a right at Columbus (right before the uphill) then head left on Beach. You will pass over most of the detour and come out at the top before heading down towards the hill at Fort Mason (a.k.a. the Celebrity Fit Club).

Looking up Celebrity Fit Club

After passing through the short bike path at the end of Beach Street, near the Maritime Museum, keep mind of your surroundings.  It’s not because we think you’re stupid but because when you hit the downward slope at this part you want to get some speed (barring annoying, loitering tourists and cars parking) before heading up the hill (or as I like to call it the Celebrity Fit Club) towards Fort Mason.

The Celebrity Fit Club hill is the only challenging part of this ride. Some heavier bikes (and loftier fitness levels . . . ahem) may not be UP for it. Getting into a good gear setting and finding the right pace can make all the difference. In the meantime you can “like totally pause” or alternately walk your bike.

Jon taking a pause at the top of Celebrity Fit Club.

For what it’s worth, it’s genuinely joyful to reach the top and enjoy the views of Fort Mason, the Marina district, Crissy Field and the Golden Gate from this vantage point beneath the trees (and perhaps a perfect time for a water break and picture op me thinks).

The path gets more intuitive here with slews of other bikers around to follow. Coming out of the park here we suggest biking through the parking lot at Fort Mason, which runs along the waterfront – for all the reasons we like parking lots and because it’s more scenic.

After rejoining the bike path on Marina Boulevard, at the beginning of Crissy Field there’s the option to continue on the paved bike path or brave it along the dirt path along the waterfront. The views along the water are magnificent and we recommend taking this path at least once towards the bridge.

Crissy Field Bike Path

Alternately the bike path along Crissy Field is clearly marked and sufficiently wide for both joggers and bikers, for a swifter pass through the area. We recommend taking this route back.

 Where you decide to end your ride and turn back is up to you. Miko wanted as close to the Golden Gate Bridge’s underbelly as possible, while Jon wanted confirmation that Fort Point is actually one of the key buildings in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (and now Watchdogs 2).

There are rest spots with bathrooms at the end of the road to take the weight off your saddle sore bottom, along with plenty of great places to pose for your Christmas card photo.

Jon and Miko take a quick “pause” at the sea wall near the Warming Hut

Riding back is just backtracking with two small pieces of advice: (1.) the hill through the park at Fort Mason is less steep if you take the path on the right that winds it’s way back to the hill (which is “WEEE!” fast fun on the way down compared to “HELP!” dying up).

And (2.) when returning on the Embarcadero make a choice between pavement or street based on your first encounter. On the street pay more attention to lights and traffic in this direction as there is a lot more stopping and starting and the bad drivers that will make a right hand turn from the left hand lane, as seen in the video below:

This first ride is a  satisfying run for those learning to get their bearings on a bike and to see and photograph the city’s many tourist destinations in a short amount of time. The route to the bridge will be the springboard to many of our other routes including the delectable ones into Marin . . . good thing is it never gets old.