As I've looked over the maps of San Francisco on Google, more and more frequently a large green rectangle has been screaming to get my attention. Zeroing in on this area I found a brewery on the west side of it and decided I could begin my conquest from this point. The Beach Chalet as it's known, is located on PCH and can be spotted next to a large windmill. Inside you'll find a lot of activity, a fairly normal menu for San Fran and a selection of Beers brewed on the spot. I tried the Dark Side Foreign Extra Stout and was satisfied with a sweet malty flavor with a bitter finish, which hopefully would give me enough energy to make this journey.
East of the brewery I found a main road to travel along and many trails going out into the wilderness along side. I tried to take as many of these side trails as possible in order to see what this place was all about, however these were pretty limited, walk more than 10 minutes in either direction from this road and you hit civilization again.
After about a mile or so of walking I discovered a fenced off area housing a family of buffalo. There wasn't really much action in this cage, just the occasional sip of water or bite of grass. However I wish I had started my hike at this location and skipped the first mile.
Venturing on from the buffalo cage I passed a lake being used as a race course for remote control watercraft, several grassy open areas surrounded by trees, a small waterfall which probably ran from a sewage line and a native of this area smoking some pot on the sidewalk in plain view of everyone around.
Three miles into my hike I came across a Japanese Tea Garden. Being a non-resident I had to pay 8 dollars to get into this park inside a park, but after walking this long I figured this might be my last chance to get some worth out of this hike. Inside I found a garden cut to match the cartoon look of an early 90s Nintendo game, although anyone can cut up plants to look a certain shape, this artistically carved environment provided some relief from the failed natural look of the area outside.
From here I continued through the last leg of my journey through this artificial landscape, where I witnessed a standoff between a dog visiting the park with its owner and an innocent squirrel trying to live its life here in peace.
