We Built This City (Trail)

A landmark trail across San Francisco now has a sibling

When it comes to creativity, imitation isn’t just a form of flattery. It’s also this thrilling confirmation that your project is escalating and growing into something much bigger and in all likelihood, beyond your control. In the long run, this can be a good thing or a bad one. Consider the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. When they got cranking in the early 1990s, slathering their faces with “corpse paint” and melting other faces with ghoulishly nihilistic songs such as “Funeral Fog” and “Freezing Moon,” the scene for black metal was young and full of possibility. But as the scene grew, it attracted guys who practiced what they preached, like burning down churches. In fact, one of these men, Varg Vikernes, eventually murdered the lead guitarist of Mayhem. It was a manifestation of what David Bowie sang in Ziggy Stardust—“When the kids had killed the man, I had to break up the band.” (Except that Mayhem never actually broke up.)

But many episodes of artistic imitation and escalation don’t end in a courtroom. One of the happy outcomes was the evolution of Starship’s irresistibly hammy and synthy single, “We Built This City.” The original lyrics were written by Martin Page and Bernie Taupin, and handed off to Starship and their producer, Peter Wolf, who re-fashioned what was originally a moodier, downbeat song about the gentrification of L.A.’s club scene into a power anthem. And in the process, the setting of the song changed too. It became a song about “the city by the bay,” which could only mean San Francisco.

I bring all of this up not just because it’s fun to shoehorn obscure music history into a hiking newsletter, but because the way in which “We Built This City” transformed into an S.F. barn burner mirrors a more contemporary act of creative imitation that’s taking place in the city now—a story that could only happen in our current age of urban trails.

As I reported back in 2022, San Francisco is where America’s growing Instant Urban Trails movement got started, with the creation of the 17-mile Crosstown Trail that runs across the city from the piers of Candlestick Point to the towering cliffs at Lands End. Created and launched by grassroots volunteers, with a nod of approval from the city and a budget of only $600, the Crosstown Trail inspired new trails in other U.S. cities, including the Boston Walking City Trail that I launched just a few months after hiking the Crosstown Trail and loving it. But as Boston has demonstrated, with its historic walking routes like the Emerald Necklace linear parks and the Freedom Trail, a city can host a big network of trails sculpted by different creators. And in 2019, a pair of Crosstown Trail superfans decided that their favorite urban trail could use a sibling.

The Crosstown Trail runs northwest across the S.F. landscape, and in 2019, after a few glasses of wine at a holiday party, Arnie Thompson and Chris Rupright—who live in the community of West Portal—started tossing around a lofty idea. What if there was another trail traversing San Francisco as a northeasterly vector, running perpendicular to the Crosstown route? There were still many parks and neighborhoods waiting to be connected by one trail, and the idea of having two trails forming a giant X across the city was irresistible for Thompson and Rupright. They shared the idea with a friend and avid runner, John Trevithick, and things began germinating. “Since we enjoyed the Crosstown Trail so much, we came up with the idea of doing various hikes around the city starting from our West Portal neighborhood,” Thompson and Rupright wrote in a 2023 blog post. “This worked out really well and we discovered many more hidden staircases, stellar views and interesting architecture. . . Months of poring over maps, pounding the pavement and note-taking ensued. We wanted to incorporate nature, architectural gems, lofty views, lunch options, transit access and of course restrooms.” As their idea grew into a tangible thing, they knew that it needed a name.

So they “cheekily” dubbed their 14-mile baby The Double Cross Trail and then, they mustered the courage to reach out to the Crosstown Trail founders. Those of you who’ve ever tossed back a whiskey shot and emailed an original poem or a short story to an author who inspired the work will know exactly how this feels; to share something that’s both a form of homage and a declaration of intent. And for the Crosstown Trail crew, learning about a new and gestating trail across San Francisco (which they had indirectly catalyzed) added a new dimension to their own project. What started as a singular trail now seemed to hold the possibility of becoming a constellation of city trails. And so, like Janelle Monae and Prince, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, and other creative power couples brought together by a mutual passion, the Crosstown Trail founders and the Double Cross founders joined forces.

Today, when you visit the Crosstown Trail website—where you’ll find the maps and directions you need to navigate either trail—you’re greeted with a pluralized offering. Even the Crosstown logo has been updated to say “Crosstown Trails” and each trail has its own dedicated page with resources and photos. It speaks to the humility of everyone involve and their shared vision that this evolution could happen so quickly and seamlessly. And if you’re thinking, “Okay, that’s pretty cool, but isn’t this a New England hiking newsletter?” here’s the throughline. We’re approaching a time of the year when many northeastern denizens make plans for escaping the unremitting bleakness of our increasingly soggy winters. Those of you planning to abscond to relatively warmer climates will have to pay top dollar if your goal is assuming the starfish formation on a beach, because . . . millions of other people have the same idea. But if you’re game for soaking up the sun in an urban environment that most people overlook as a potential winter destination—and if you’re open to bringing some hiking boots—the Double Cross Trail is calling, and you really should go.

Take it from me: My life-changing ramble on the Crosstown Trail happened back in late February of 2022. I was only out there for 72-ish hours, and I still flew back to Boston rejuvenated and inspired enough to start a similar trail here in The Big Windy Bean. Whether you’re looking to be dazzled, soothed, or nourished, the Double Cross Trail can deliver. Hell, you could hike both of the trails over the course of your visit. And just to offer you a taste of what could be a winter getaway to remember, I’d like to share some memories of my introduction to the Double Cross Trail from last winter.

It was late November, which meant that being outdoors in San Francisco was getting milder and rainier, but nowhere near the extent that we suffer here in New England. I had made plans to meet up with Arnie, John, and also Bob Siegel and Pat Koren from the Crosstown Trail squad. Our goal was to hike the entire Double Cross Trail over the course of the day. We would set off from the southwestern trailhead at Fort Funston, where hang gliders push off from rolling bluffs and soar over the beaches below. The first segment of our walk would be a long, incremental climb to Twin Peaks; one of San Francisco’s highest points. From there, we would descend into the urbanized core of the city, finishing the hike at a maritime-flavored bar located on the Embarcadero.

I had memories of going to Fort Funston as a kid, when my family would come out to the Bay Area to visit relatives. I recalled standing on the observation platform where the Double Cross Trail begins, gazing out at the hang gliders, and feeling awestruck by their daredevilry. I had gotten used to thinking of Fort Funston as a special destination for mythic people who practiced a form of recreation that I would always be looking in on, from the outside. And it gave me a little thrill to realize that by setting off on a double-digit journey from Fort Funston, I had now joined the ranks of those who come here to do something that only a handful of people understand (so far, at least.) As we followed a sandy path through pockets of forest, eventually descending a hill toward the blue rippling expanse of Lake Merced, I felt that unique electric buzz of belonging.

But there was so much left to learn and witness. And just a few hours later—slathered with my third coat of sunblock, feeling my nipples chafe on the sweat-soaked cotton of my t-shirt—I cautiously approached the precipice of a craggy height-of-land, below the summit of Twin Peaks. We had entered a hidden park known as Tank Hill, which boasted an astounding view of not only downtown San Francisco, but also Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the broader East Bay. The name “Tank Hill” is an allusion to the park’s former identity as a water tank site. But in 1957, the tank was removed and the city had the foresight to purchase the rocky hill on which it once loomed over Ashbury Heights. Today, it’s one of the more beloved open secrets of San Francisco.

And yet, even after my first hike on the Crosstown Trail back in 2022, I would not have known a thing about Tank Hill’s tranquility and its panoramic vista had it not been for Arnie Thompson and John Trevithick making the bold decision to create a sibling for the urban trail that put San Francisco on the map as an urban hiking destination. And if the Crosstown Trail crew had felt threatened by what Arnie, Chris, and John were doing, I’m not sure what would have happened with the Double Cross Trail. Maybe they would have launched their own website for the trail. But the project could have easily lost momentum and disintegrated. Instead, all parties involved decided that they—and S.F. residents and visitors—would be better off if they pooled their shared knowledge and adoration from the city; if they distilled it into something you could explore and savor by foot, with minimal resources. As we descended twisting stairs down Telegraph Hill toward the end of our Double Cross traverse, soles aching and faces painted by the orange sunset, I thought about what kind of dark beers would be on tap at Pier 42 (the watering hole that served as our finish line.) But I also thought about the undiscovered trails that might stir to life soon, in the wake of the Double Cross Trail’s birth and growth. I wondered where those new trails may take us one day.
The San Francisco Double Cross Trail
Hike distance: 14.9 miles Point A to Point B
Elevation gain: 1,873 feet
CLICK HERE for a trail map

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So I’m not sure how it took me this long to find out about it, but there’s a new-ish book on the market about a father and son who are hiking up in the White Mountains when some kind of civil conflict breaks out in the U.S. Mindful of the danger awaiting them in the valley and beyond, the two take shelter in a shuttered mountain hut—which is almost certainly supposed to be one of the AMC huts!—and they “settle” into new and austere survivalist existence that’s built on borrowed time. The book is called Above The Fire, it’s the debut novel from Michael O’Donnell, and upon learning about it, I was immediately struck by its coincidental resemblance to another recent book about a pair of guys emerging from the woods of Northern Maine to find that the nation has regressed into a civil war. That book is Burn, the latest novel from Peter Heller, and I practically inhaled it back in September. Now I’ve just borrowed Above The Fire from my local library and I’m looking forward to digging into over the weekend. Again, the narrative and thematic parallels between these two books are seriously uncanny, and I’m not implying foul play. They were written and released at similar times, and I think this affirms that the New England backcountry has become a canvas for authors as they imagine the apocalypse and how it could play out in the very near future. Yay?

Keeping with that theme for a few more beats, I was also very excited to learn that the first official trailer for 28 Years Later dropped this week. It’s the long-awaited sequel to 28 Days Later, which remains the scariest and most effective zombie movie of the last two decades (in my humble opinion.) The original film, which was one of the first hard R-rated films I saw with my dad in a movie theater back in 2002, involves a small band of survivors undertaking a terrifying and sometimes strangely ethereal journey across the U.K. after it’s been decimated by a virus called “rage” that turns people into feral red-eyed killing machines. The sense of place in the first film is tremendous. The photography of the landscapes and the atmosphere are essential to the film’s impact, and one of the reasons why I’m probably letting myself get too excited for the sequel is because it’s not just the director Danny Boyle and the screenwriter Alex Garland who are coming back for more. The original movie’s cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (who also did Antichrist and 127 Hours) is returning for this too. Take my money now!