San Francisco: Exploring San Francisco
"Despite the mud, our group embraced the chaos and managed to walk up to a lookout area that had amazing views of the canyon and a nearby stream," wrote Avery Tritz (BBA ’24).
Avery Tritz '24
Major: Finance
I am so excited to say that the Quinlan Ramble to San Francisco is officially in full swing! The past two days were spent in preparation for the Ramble, travelling, and exploring. As a Returning Rambler, this is my second time being participating in the trip but, I will say, I can tell this trip will be so much different than my last. This time around there are different people on the trip but we are also in a completely different city! Today we got a taste of a few different areas of San Francisco through our group bus tour, and I can confidently say I am even more excited to immerse ourselves further throughout the week!
During our group bus tour, we made a few stops at some iconic landmarks within the city and nearby in Muir Woods and Sausalito. In the city, we got to take awesome pictures at Lombard Street and the iconic crowd favorite Golden Gate Bridge in Presidio! I will say, one of my favorite sites of the tour was outside of the city in Muir Woods.
We learned that Muir Woods is this beautiful nature reserve that is filled with wildlife and indigenous pre-historic trees. Although we had just arrived in the bustling San Francisco a day before, it was a nice change of pace to be able to explore this park and experience some nature. This also provided a great opportunity for members of the trip to get to know each other. Some of us were feeling ambitious and decided to go on an unpaved, steep trail, which was a little risky considering it was muddy from previous rainstorms in the area. Despite the mud, our group embraced the chaos and managed to walk up to a lookout area that had amazing views of the canyon and a nearby stream.
On our drive out of the reserve, our tour guide shared with us that John Muir, for whom the park is named after, wanted to preserve wildlife areas like this so humans can always have the opportunity to reconnect with themselves in nature. This anecdote resonated with me because we got to honor this sentiment with our own shared experience of getting to connect with each other while navigating the muddy trails in Muir Woods.
After our awesome tour, we all got to have our own time to get dinner and prepare for the long and exciting week ahead of us. As a California native, I was really excited when people suggested that we get In N Out as our meal! I was extremely happy to join them and end my night with a burger and animal style fries.
If today has any indication of how the week is going to go, I think that the Quinlan Ramble to San Francisco is going to be an amazing experience for all involved, and I cannot be more happy to be here.