Upcoming dates:
August 15th, 28th, 29th.
I might not be able to schedule any roams in September, but rest assured we will come roaring back in October – with a special event as well.
October 2nd, 4th, 11th, 23rd, 24th, 31st.
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.
On the 15th we will cross city limits and head up to the saddle of San Bruno Mountain again. On the way we will visit one of the less fashionable neighbourhoods, Crocker Amazon. I have been wanting to do this roam again for a while, but waited until the bathroom rebuild at the San Bruno Mountain picnic area was finished – which it now is.
As you can imagine, there is some climbing involved to get onto the mountain, though perhaps not as much as you might think. There is also a short scramble on dirt to get off it. We will take a few off-road trails on the mountain itself.
We will meet at the Crocker Amazon playground, at the corner of Geneva and Moscow.
Glen Canyon is a unique feature in the city – a peaceful oasis – and we haven’t spent much time there recently, even though we often start roams from Glen Park. This Friday roam, on the 28th, will take us from the south of the canyon to the north alongside Islais Creek, and back along the side of the hill. If we get lucky we might see a pair of coyotes as we did last time we were up on the slopes. In any case, we will sit on the rocks overlooking the creek valley. We will also have time to visit a couple of the famous dirt roads in the village.
There will be a couple of climbs and plenty of dirt on the way round. We will sit at the rocks overlooking the watershed.We will start and end at the plaza in front of Glen Park BART station.
Last up for the month, on the 29th, is another roam that I have been thinking about for a while, but have been postponing, around SOMA – South of the Slot as it used to be known. This month the Gene Friend Rec Center has re-opened, so we will certainly stop by there.
The germ for this one was actually a real estate listing that mentioned a street I had never heard of. We may or may not make it to that particular block, but there are any number of alleys and half-block streets in this area, which wears several layers of history on its sleeve.
These days it is fairly well-known for those who live precariously, inside or out, and we may encounter folks like this on the way round; best not to come if this makes you nervous or uncomfortable, and of course I will do my best to navigate around potential hazards.
This urban roam is as flat as they come in the city. We will meet in front of St Patrick’s Church on Mission between 3rd and 4th, across from Yerba Buena Gardens.
We will resume our regular roaming schedule on October 2nd, with Strawberry and Grand View. I have had this route in mind for a while. If you are looking south from the Richmond, just west of Park Presidio, there are only really two hills you see: one is Strawberry Hill in the park, the other Grand View at the northern end of Golden Gate Heights.
We will tackle both hills (roughly numbers 10 and 20 in the list of San Francisco summits) on our way round; admire the tiled staircases; enjoy Blue Heron lake and the park; and explore a couple of alleys in the neighbourhood – which are very rare in the Sunset.
Naturally there will be some climbing on this roam! We meet at the Sunset branch of the library, on 18th Ave at Irving.
Sarah Koh at Alchemy has been wanting to collaborate on a roaming adventure for some time now, and we hit upon the idea of a day out at Angel Island, where we will combine roaming, some yoga, and a picnic. This will be on October 11th (a change from the originally posted date); you can find details and book a space here.
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 