The Second Annual Party A-Cross Town

My friend Liang and I showed up at the Candlestick Point parking lot at 5:30 a.m. on June 21st. It was dark, chilly, and overcast. People started joining us one at a time, arriving by car, bus, and even one Lyft bike from the Mission, until we were seventeen strong. Then I unrolled the flag from its pole. It was blue, with green blocks representing SF neighborhoods. Two big white arrows stretched across the city, and one read: Party A-Cross Town. This was the beginning of our sunrise-to-sunset, 32-mile urban hike.

The Crosstown Trail is my favorite thing to do in SF. It cuts across the seven-by-seven-mile city, connecting neighborhoods, parks, stairways, and local trails from one corner to another. Party A-Cross Town combines the Crosstown Trail with the Double Cross Trail, turning an 18-mile route and a 14-mile route into one sunrise-to-sunset urban hike.

Over a year ago, I met Liang on a bike ride up Mount Diablo. We pulled ahead of the pack together and realized we both enjoy adventure-maxxing. After a few long hikes, we did the math: on the longest days of the year, 32 miles works if you average 2.88 mph with about three hours of breaks. Party A-Cross Town was born.

Last year, we scheduled it for May 31st and saw an epic sunrise at Candlestick Point. Around 40 friends joined for sections throughout the day, and when we reached Fort Funston at sunset with a crowd of ten, four of us had walked the whole route. The timing was perfect for a beautiful cliffside sunset. This year, for the event’s second year and the Crosstown Trail’s seventh anniversary, we aimed bigger.

The flag quickly became the mascot of the day. It led the group from start to finish, and walkers loved taking turns as flag bearers. It also made keeping the group together easy through the crowded 70th annual North Beach Festival (on the bingo card) and Chinatown.

The highlight picture of the day came while we were walking along Van Ness, with a huge group of us crossing O’Farrell Street behind the flag.

Some of my favorite moments came from passing through my own neighborhood, Lower Haight, and running into friends. The Double Cross Trail takes Pierce Street from Alamo Square to Duboce Park, passing Haight Street, where I ran into a Lower Haight friend (on the bingo card) who later joined us for the last segment. In Duboce Park, I ran into another friend who was journaling. I spontaneously asked her to join (should have been on the bingo card), and to my surprise, miles later, I saw that she had joined our trek up Twin Peaks and all the way to the finish. Lower Haight feels special because the neighborhood lives outside its homes: on stoops, sidewalks, parks, bikes, benches, and sunny corners where you actually run into people.

The best parts were the unplanned moments. In the morning, we ran into a coyote in McLaren Park (on the bingo card). On the climb up the Greenwich Steps to Coit Tower, we saw a huge swarm of dragonflies (should have been on the bingo card) and many fluttering butterflies (was on the bingo card). The Instagram moment came on the secret stairway to Mount Olympus, where a greenery tunnel surrounded us with colorful lanterns. The best planned moment came after West Portal, when I stopped the group, announced that it was time to call our dads for Father’s Day, and then called my own dad as we kept walking through the neighborhood.

Amazingly, thirteen souls walked all 32 miles across the city, twice, the diagonal way. More than 60 people joined for at least part of it, with the majority doing half. By the end, everyone was hungry, tired, and awed. We did not get a sunset through the overcast evening, but we did make many new friends along the way. My favorite part is always seeing the relief and pride on people’s faces when they realize it is done, followed by the joy of the pizza waiting for them at the end. An earned slice tastes better than anything.