(click on any image for an enlarged view)  

The path started out quite friendly, with sturdy handholds on one side, and wide steps, but as it progressed, the handholds disappeared, and the steps got steeper and narrower. Yes, that's the farther end of the path snaking along the hillside in the middle of this image. I started to question my wisdom, but forged on. There were other hikers about (though most of them much younger than I). Why worry?

 

Seeing this guy perched on the edge painting made me a little less apprehensive.

 

My reward.

 

Last winter's rains washed out the area north of here, so the path returned to the roadway. And I was just getting into this!

 

I had never seen the Golden Gate Bridge from this perspective before.

 

At the GGB toll plaza, a tunnel runs under the highway.

 

On the eastern side of the tunnel, a shop and cafe.

 

I caught the Crissy Field shuttle back to the transit center.

 

At the Golden Gate Club, before the evening's lecture, I got this shot of the almost full moon.

 

The route of my hike is marked in black on this map. From bottom to top, it took me just over an hour. I wasn't rushing, but I didn't dawdle.

 

There's another reason I did this hike. Two years ago I was thinking about walking the Way of St James in northern Spain. Then some health problems made me put that off. Now I'm feeling like I might be back to the point physically and emotionally where I could do it, so this hike was step one in testing that out. I am pleased with the result.

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