Before the first ferry
Started: 2025-06-19 20:34:37
Submitted: 2025-06-19 21:48:45
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Wrapping up a camping trip to Angel Island
Sunday morning, the 8th of June 2025 began in a tent on Angel Island, nestled on the golden grassy hillside under a towering oak tree.
Like the previous night the camp stove's pump didn't work so I couldn't light it in the normal manner. I succeeded, barely, in lighting it by pouring fuel over the top and lighting that, which was barely enough to get warm water for oatmeal. I didn't really get the water hot enough for coffee; the tea bag of coffee I brought didn't really brew properly so I ended up with lukewarm watery coffee. The camp stove ended up a bit singed after my efforts to light it.
We packed up the tent, put everything in our backpacks (which were even less full than yesterday, after we ate two meals at the campsite and got to discard our trash in the trash can at the camp site), and started the short walk back to the ferry dock. Despite the calendar indicating that it was June, so it ought to be summer (or what passes for "summer" in foggy San Francisco Bay), there are only three weekend ferries to San Francisco. We targeted the first ferry, leaving at 10:55, which meant we took the shortest walk to the ferry and didn't stop to see any of the other historic sites on the island.
On our way out of our campsite we saw a coyote walking on the road ahead of us. It saw us, and kept sauntering along, seemingly comfortable sharing the road with humans, until it disappeared into the underbrush on the hillside above the trail. I had just visited my not-quite-two-year-old niece, and her word for dog is "fofo" (probably a representation of "woof woof"), so she would have enthusiastically shouted "fofo!" when she saw the coyote.
It was a cool morning in the middle of the bay, calm with high partial clouds. Like the previous evening we just about had the island to ourselves, aside from a group of trail runners on the fire road. As we approached Ayala Cove we decided to take the longer way around on the road to bypass the steep stairs on the shortcut trail. (The stairs were hard to ascend carrying packs, and wouldn't have been much easier to descend.) But the paved road descending to the docks was closed due to hazardous eucalyptus trees towering over the road (and the group picnic sites along the road), so we detoured along an unpaved road that took a more gentle descent to the visitor's center and the docks beyond.
The park staff and concessions were just opening up to prepare for the day's onslaught of tourists from the mainland. It felt a bit like we were sneaking a peak backstage before a show, as if the staff were performers doing warm-up exercises, or Disneyland cast members before the park opened. We had spent the night on the island and as a final bonus we had a secret look behind the scenes.
We arrived at the ferry dock with plenty of time to wait before the first ferry from San Francisco arrived. While we waited a smaller Tiburon ferry arrived and departed. Presently the larger San Francisco ferry arrived, disgorged its passengers, and boarded the small number of people who, like us, had spent the night camping on the island and were catching the first ferry back. There were more people on the ferry than I expected, who were continuing on to Sausalito.
I grabbed a cup of coffee at the on-board snack bar and enjoyed the ferry ride across the bay. The clouds cleared, slowly, as we cruised across the bay, but the Golden Gate bridge remained shrouded in fog. We pulled into the Ferry Building just before noon and I managed to grab a shot of Calvin and Kiesa waiting at the front of the passenger cabin on the main deck of the ferry. (This candid shot looked like it belongs on the liner notes behind the rock album cover photo I took the day before.)
We stepped out of the ferry onto the dock as the bells on the Ferry Building's clocktower were striking noon. There was some drama around the docking procedures where the crew kept Kiesa, right behind me, from crossing the gangplank until an indicator on the dock showed whatever they were expecting; then they let her follow me up the dock to the pier. We got empanadas to eat for lunch in the Ferry Building, then caught BART to Daly City and drove the rest of the way home, after a singular experience camping on Angel Island.
