Upcoming dates:
June 12th, 14th, 19th, 27th.
July 5th, 10th, 11th, 24th, 25th.
The Meetup page and the Instagram page will have the latest news if there are any changes to the plans.
All weekend roams start at 1:30, lasting around three hours, and Friday ones at 3:00, generally taking two hours. All roams are loops unless otherwise stated; I also flag any longer or especially hilly routes.
The first roam in June will not be until the 12th, when I am back from my travels.
Over the years we have explored the Bernal Cut with a number of different routes; I have long been fascinated by its history, from the early days of the railway in San Francisco to its current incarnation (I will probably bring along some photos so that we can see how it used to look).
Our route this time will take us from Glen Park (meeting in front of the BART station) to Holly Park – one of the oldest open spaces in the city – and back again. This is a relatively flat roam, even if they had to dig down to make it even flatter for the trains!
I didn’t know the south east corner of the city that well until recently, but Heron’s Head has been a draw for me for a long time. In the last few years we have also visited the larger of the city’s two sundials several times. This route will incorporate these attractions, as well as some gardens and parks around Bayview and Hunter’s Point.
There will be a climb to get to the sundial, and one or two other uphill blocks but otherwise this is relatively flat; some stretches of this will be a little drab and industrial as well, but time along the shoreline is always worth it.
This roam is on Sunday 14th, and we will meet in front of the Bayview Library on 3rd at Revere.
It’s always a pleasure to roam in the Presidio. Over the years I have developed a few favourite spots, and this roam on the 19th will visit mostly lesser-visited places: the Ghost Trail, Dragonfly Creek, and the Community Garden.
We will be climbing a certain amount, and there is plenty of off-roading on the way round. We will meet by the Presidio Visitors’ Center, on the side away from the bridge and closer to the bathrooms.
Taking a leaf out of the Crosstown Trail – which I completed once, but haven’t felt that I wanted to repeat, I thought of roaming a cross-Sunset Trail. It remains the only roam that we had to postpone because it was too hot; we did it a couple of weeks later, and I have wanted to repeat it since then.
Starting at the GGP CommUNITY Garden, on the north side of Frederick at Arguello, we will head over Sunset Heights and Grandview Park, around the reservoir and down towards the Zoo, going from 1st (Arguello) to 48th, and from H (Hugo) to Y (Yorba).
This one-way roam will be on Sunday 27th. It is a little longer than most roams, and does include some climbing.
It also occured to me recently to think about a cross-Richmond roam. We have roamed different parts of the district over the years, and discovered some sweet spots, but I thought it would be fun to traverse from the Presidio to the ocean.
The one-way route I came up with is something of a shallow V – starting at the golf club house/restaurant just inside the Arguello Gate, working our way down to Fulton, and then north west to Sutro Heights and Land’s End. There will be some gentle climbing on the way round. We will try out this route on July 5th (though I may have a wedding to officiate that day – stay tuned).
Bring water, snacks, and layers for whatever the weather is doing. Punctuality is always appreciated.
These roams are offered by donation. They are one way I am able to afford to live in San Francisco.
‘Shundo David Haye has probably walked through more parts of San Francisco than you have.’ I’ll take that endorsement – it came from this nice article in the SF Chronicle at the beginning of the pandemic
Camille, who I have known through Zen Center for more than twenty years, had a lovely piece on Roaming Zen published in the Bold Italic.
Corona Heights – the first picture I used to promote Roaming Zen in 2016.
Views to the Farallones from this little-known park.
If you need some prompts as to the benefits of roaming, here are a trio of articles from the Guardian:
Two-hour ‘dose’ of nature significantly boosts health – study
Woodland sounds help relaxation more than meditation apps – study
Blue spaces: why time spent near water is the secret of happiness
All of which is achievable without leaving the city limits!
And this from the New Yorker:
A small but growing collection of studies suggests that spending time in green spaces—gardens, parks, forests—can rejuvenate the mental resources that man-made environments deplete. Psychologists have learned that attention is a limited resource that continually drains throughout the day. A crowded intersection—rife with pedestrians, cars, and billboards—bats our attention around. In contrast, walking past a pond in a park allows our mind to drift casually from one sensory experience to another, from wrinkling water to rustling reeds.
Or, to put a name to it, Attention Restoration Theory.
The genesis for Roaming Zen was perhaps my shuso practice period at Tassajara in 2012, where I noticed that I derived as much energy from being on the trails or up the road, among the trees and by the creek, as I did from the hours in the zendo. It was also crystalised by a visit to Tassajara with a group from Young Urban Zen a year or two later: after the days of work, a group of us set off for a hike along the Horse Pasture trail, and at one stage, hearing all the talk of people’s pre-occupations and mundane affairs, someone in the group asked if we could all hike in silence for a while and properly take in the surroundings. Afterwards, the agreed verdict was that the silence had transformed the hike.
And so, having tried versions of it at City Center, Green Gulch and Tassajara, one of my favourite things to do these days is to gather a small group of people, and lead them around a chosen route, cultivating mindful presence through walking and sitting quietly in the midst of city life.
There are so many little corners of San Francisco that lend themselves to the activity, surrounded by beauty, views, and sometimes quiet. We have visited forests, hills and canyons, creeks and beaches, staircases and alleys, lakes and hidden parks; we have listened to birds and waves, watched butterflies, bees and coyotes, smelled flowers and ocean spray. We have looked over all sides of San Francisco and to the mountains beyond.
I like to give credit to OpenStreetMap, for featuring much more detail in paths and trails than I ever get from Apple Maps or Google Maps – I would not have found some of these routes without it – and FoundSF/OpenSF History for filling me in on what used to be in the places we visit.
Shundo David Haye - Zen Priest 